My quest to read every Pulitzer Prize Book in Biography and History category

I was 25 years old, working a great job where I had to travel 2-3 weeks of every month around the globe to speak at conferences or meet with customers. As you can imagine finding adequate reading material was always top of mine for those long flights. For most of my life through school and after I thoroughly enjoyed fiction books, those of Ken Follett, Dick Francis, John Grisham just to name a few. But on a whim I picked up a non-fiction mammoth of a book on Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of this country and arguable chief architect of much of what we know as our government organization in the US. This 900+ page book seemed daunting especially for one who never read non-fiction, but I was surprised. This book read like an amazing story that had the added benefit of being true! It was filled with duals, wars, and unbreakable love stories. I was gaining education while being entertained in what you would see in any great movie. During long flights, neighbors would see this colossal book and ask a question or two. Soon we were having an entire conversation around topics of the beginnings of a country to politics. The book itself became an icebreaker to better know co-workers and even strangers.

I was hooked. I quickly modified my book shopping to the other side of the store where these hidden jewels were hiding. Stories of some of the most fascinating people and times in history were just begging to be read. Stories of terrible wars, and wonderful struggles for freedom; stories of explorers and humanitarian all waiting to be explored. But where to start? That is when I fell back to a trusted source, award winners. I admit I many times pick movies by which one won the Oscar, why would I not do the same with books. And that is when the quest took shape, to read every Pulitzer Prize book in History and Biography since the awards were started. How many would that be? Awards started in 1917, so we are looking at almost 200 books. And don't forget they keep adding more each year.

The gauntlet was laid out and I was exciting to get it started. Shopping lists were created and the quest began. But then I would go to the book store and while picking out winning books, I would find a tucked away story that seemed to have forgotten that was begging to be read. The story of the Candy Bombers during the Berlin Blockade after WWII was one of those books. Neither an award winner nor one with much publicity it quickly became one of my favorite books. Even more distracting would be strong recommendations from family or friends, even some (gasp) fiction stories that equally begged to be read.

I am whittling down the list having read approximately 50 prize-winning books and more each year. When do I expect to finish? With more being added each year, hopefully never but thankfully an incredibly fun journey. I hope to share with all of you some of my favorite stories that I read which are designed to entertain and perhaps also educate.