A House Reunited, by Professor Jay Winik (on CD)

Interesting information here, all of the events that occurred in the month of April 1865. I learned a great deal, for instance putting together the timing of Lee's surrender and the remainder of the Confederate Army's (or rather Armies') surrenders. And Lincoln's assassination, which happened less than a week after Appomattox.

The downside of this recording is that Winik has some of Tom Brokaw's more annoying speech difficulties, and talks too fast, misspeaks regularly, and repeats himself word-for-word over and over. Ugh.

Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley (on CD)

So, this is a lighthearted, almost airheaded, tour of the major sites around D.C. Lots of fun details about different eras in history, nothing terribly heavy, told with a heavy dose of humor and obvious adoration.

I would recommend this to listen to only for people who have been to the capital or at least have a general map in their heads. Otherwise, it would be far better to have the printed version in order to flip through while wandering the sights.

One fact I hadn't heard before that struck me as very interesting: the man who designed the statue of Lincoln in the Memorial was interested in education of the deaf. If you look at Lincoln's hands in the statue, his hands are arranged (generally) in the initials of his name: his left is A, his right is L.

The real question I have is why this sort of thing sticks to my brain....