Through a fluke of the universe I kind of ended up with too many things to read at one time but I ended up with the new Meacham Lincoln biography, And There Was Light. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it and am going to have to put it down for a few weeks to catch up on some of my other reading responsibilities.

I will say that so far as a biography goes it seems like it would be a good first or 2nd Lincoln biography. I'm only a quarter of the way through like I said, but so far it's pretty similar to the the outline laid down by the Herndon biography and hits a lot of the same points about Lincoln seeing the slave market in New Orleans, his dislike of working for his dad, his mom's early loss. It doesn't make as big a point about his father's neglect when he was young as some other books do.

If you wanted a Lincoln biography to kind of get a start on the topic I think it would be a good one. If you needed a gift for a "history dad" or uncle it'd be a good choice. There are better ones out there, but you don't need much knowledge of Lincoln's life or the political situation of the times to read this one.