Not Your Usual Summer Reading

'The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton' by John Trumbull is featured on the cover of 1776. Simon & Schuster hide caption

Detail from 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' painted by Emmanuel Leutze in 1851. Credit: Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897 (97.34) Copyright: 1992 Provided By: The Metropolitan Museum of Art hide caption
Detail from 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' painted by Emmanuel Leutze in 1851.
Credit: Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897 (97.34) Copyright: 1992 Provided By: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtWeb Extras
For some, the summer is a time to indulge in frothy beach reading: the latest chick lit or globetrotting, highly unbelievable thriller.
But book critic Maureen Corrigan has taken a different tack this year: She's catching up on more substantial reading that she hasn't had time for yet.
Corrigan found that David McCullough's 1776 piqued her curiosity about that era of American history. Now, she wants to tackle other books to learn more.
Corrigan discusses her catch-up reading list -- and other books to which it has led her.
Maureen Corrigan's Summer Catch-Up Reading List
1776 by David McCullough
Making an Exit by Elinor Fuchs
Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller
Books to Read after 1776
George Washington: Man and Monument by Marcus Cunliffe
The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
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