This is my list. The list was, of course, heavily guided by Steven Floyd's incredible presidential biographies list linked at the bottom.

Here is my list and ratings.

George Washington. Washington: A Life. Ron Chernow. 2010. 6 stars. One of the great biographies of our era.

John Adams. John Adams. David McCullough. 2001. 6 stars. Reread it. Still one of my favorite biographies of all time.

Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. Jon Meacham. 2012. 3 stars. I'm generally not a huge Meacham fan and while the book is an enjoyable read, it lacks a lot more detail. I am reading Dumas Malone's 6-volume series to get more depth.

James Madison. The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President. Noah Feldman. 2017. 5 stars. Feldman is a very good writer. His approach and abilities are well suited to the mind of James Madison, as heavy emphasis is placed on the development and nuances of Madison's theories, ideas, and reasoning.

James Monroe. James Monroe: A Life. Tim McGrath. 2020. 5 stars. Monroe is one of the most underrated and impressive presidents.

John Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams. Harlow Giles Unger. 2012. 4 stars. This was a quick, free read. Adams was really impressive before and after his presidency, but the Jacksonians really kept him from doing anything during his presidency.

John Quincy Adams (2nd). Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: The Extraordinary Post-presidential Life of John Quincy Adams. 2008. 5 stars. Nobody had as strong a post-presidential body of work as JQA.

Andrew Jackson. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. Jon Meacham/Richard McGonagle. 2008. 4 stars. Jackson is another one who could benefit from a multi-volume book, because Jacksonian America was such a pivotal turning point.

Martin Van Buren. Martin Van Buren and the American Political System. Donald B. Cole. 1984. 3 stars. Quite possibly the most boring book a human being could be forced to read unless New York party spoils systems are your thing.

William H. Harrison. Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy. Robert M. Owens. 2007. 3 stars. It's hard to find books on Harrison, but this book focused on his early Indian policy, which was actually kind of interesting.

John Tyler. President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler. Christopher J. Leahy. 2020. Surprisingly, 5 stars. John Tyler was terrible and a traitor to his country (CSA) and kicked out of his own party, but this book is an impressive work of scholarship. Really well done.

James K. Polk. Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America. Walter R. Borneman. 2008. 5 stars. Easy and fun read about a very pivotal 4 year presidency.

Zachary Taylor. Zachary Taylor. John S.D. Eisenhower. 2008. 3.5 stars. It's hard to find a Zachary Taylor book. This is from the Schlesinger presidential series, which is kind of a cop-out, but it is the best I could find electronically. Taylor was one of the most unqualified presidents ever.

Millard Fillmore. Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President. Robert J. Rayback. 1959. 3.5 stars. Do you know how hard it is to find a good book on Millard Fillmore? This book was the best attempt. It tries to paint Fillmore in the best light possible. This is almost as dull as Van Buren.

Franklin Pierce. Franklin Pierce. Michael F. Holt. 2010. 3.5 stars. It's even hard to find a Pierce book. This is from the Schlesinger presidential series, which is kind of a cop-out, but it is the best I could find electronically. Pierce was even worse than Taylor and the fact he got elected shows that American political parties have a history of bad nomination choices.

James Buchanan. The Worst President--The Story of James Buchanan. Garry Boulard. 2015. 3 stars. False title. Johnson was the worst.

Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume One. Michael Burlingame. 2012. 6 stars.

Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume Two. Michael Burlingame. 2012. 6 stars. I cannot recommend these two volumes enough. These combined are several thousand pages, but it breezed through. Burlingame found everyone who ever wrote anything about Lincoln. Incredibly comprehensive. I came away from this thinking more highly of Lincoln than ever.

Andrew Johnson. Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy. David O. Stewart. 2009. 4 stars. He was just the worst.

Ulysses S. Grant. Grant. Ron Chernow. 2017. 6 stars. Chernow is the best biographer. This is an incredible book.

Rutherford B. Hayes. Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876. Roy Morris Jr. 2003. 2.5 stars. Hated this book. The author kept trying to shoehorn comparisons to the 2000 election. The 1876 election was really interesting, however.

James A. Garfield. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. 2011. Candice Millard. 5 stars. This is a really interesting read! Focuses on (very counterproductive) attempts to save Garfield after he was shot. Garfield was a potentially great president.

Chester A. Arthur. Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur. Thomas C. Reeves. 1975. 4 stars. Page turner this is not. I am impressed by the level of detail and the quality of the research of this book. A pretty good tutorial on the spoils politics of the Gilded age. And Arthur is an interesting guy who was incredibly corrupt, but was actually a pretty ethical president.

Grover Cleveland. An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland. H. Paul Jeffers. 2000. 4 stars. Pretty quick and easy read. Hoped for more detail on Cleveland's response to bad economic conditions during his presidency.

Benjamin Harrison. Benjamin Harrison. Charles W. Calhoun. 2005. 3 stars. Another cop-out Schlesinger series book. I didn't have the stomach to by a 3-volume paperback Harrison series.

William McKinley. President McKinley: Architect of the American Century. Robert W. Merry. 2017. 5 stars. Surprisingly good biography about an important transitional period in U.S. history. Great detail on the issues relevant during McKinley’s tenure.

Theodore Roosevelt & William H. Taft. The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. Doris Kearns Goodwin. 2013. 6 stars. This is one of my top five biographies of all time. DKG is so good. This is Team of Rivals level good. And TR may be the most effective president of all time.

Woodrow Wilson. Wilson. A. Scott Berg. 2013. 3.5 stars. This guy really tries to gloss over how badly Wilson sucked.

Warren G. Harding. Warren G. Harding. John W. Dean. 2004. 2.5 stars. Crappy Harding book written by a Nixon guy. Tries to make Harding out to be a good president. He wasn't.

Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge. Amity Shlaes. 2015. 5 stars. Shlaes, who leans conservative, is the right author to take on Coolidge. Good book.

Herbert Hoover. Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. Kenneth Whyte. 2017. 5 stars. This book was fascinating. Hoover is fascinating! Probably easily one of the most interesting pre-presidential backgrounds. I was surprised how engrossed I was in this book.

Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR. Jean Edward Smith. 2007. 4 stars. I'm not a huge Smith fan. The book was fine.

Harry S. Truman. Truman. David McCullough. 1992. 6 stars. McCullough was so awesome. RIP. This is a great book about one of the most unlikely presidents.

Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower in War and Peace. Jean Edward Smith. 4 stars. 2012. Early in the book, I hated it. But the discussion of his presidency was pretty good and very interesting. Ambrose is better for his military career.

John F. Kennedy. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Robert Dallek. 2011. 3.5 stars. Short, but interesting enough.

Lyndon B. Johnson. The Path to Power. Robert A. Caro. 1982. 6 stars.

Lyndon B. Johnson. Means of Ascent. Robert A. Caro. 1990. 6 stars.

Lyndon B. Johnson. Master of the Senate. Robert A. Caro. 2002. 6 stars.

Lyndon B. Johnson. The Passage of Power. Robert A. Caro. 2012. 6 stars. I've said it before on Cougarboard, but this series is some of the best biographical writing ever committed to type. These books are incredible. I didn't understand when I started these how I was going to slug through four volumes about an unambiguously terrible guy. But I got such good recommendations from other Cougarboarders that I gave it a shot. And they were right. This is incredible literature. And he's worse than you can imagine.

Richard M. Nixon. Richard Nixon: The Life. John A. Farrell. 2017. 4 stars. Hard for this book following two months of Caro, but this is an interesting, well detailed, and for the most part a very fair and objective work on Nixon, one of the most interesting and tragic presidential figures. As said in the book, when he was good, he could be very good, but when he was bad, he could be horrid.

Gerald R. Ford. Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford. Scott Kaufman. 2017. 4 stars. I respect that the guy chose to take on Ford. It's interesting given how many of Ford's administration went on to be Republican decisionmakers for the following three decades.

Jimmy Carter. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life. Jonathan Alter. 2020. 5 stars. Really well written book. There was a ton that happened during the Carter situation. Carter was a unique president. The book captures his weirdness. It's a pretty new book. The author is pretty left-wing, and he can't help but take shots at Trump and other Republicans throughout the book, which is distracting and an irritant. But it's interesting and well-written.

Ronald Reagan. Reagan: An American Journey. Bob Spitz. 2018. 3 stars. I didn't like it. This book does a great job capturing Reagan's pre-presidency (though he has some pretty salacious pot shots), but he is totally out of his depth on Reagan's politics and his write-up on the presidency is pretty facile.

George H. W. Bush. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. Jon Meacham. 2015. 6 stars. I generally don't like Meacham, but this book is the exception. I thought this was an excellent book. And it reinforced that Bush was one of the most competent, underrated presidents we've had.

Bill Clinton. My Life. Bill Clinton. 2004. 3.5 stars. Obama’s memoir was a lot better. The book was really interesting because I remember so much about the events of the Clinton era.

George W. Bush. Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House. Peter Baker. 2013. 5 stars. Fascinating book and an interesting read. I thought it was pretty fair and balances given how bipolar the public's opinions are on Bush and Cheney.

Barack H. Obama. A Promised Land. Barack Obama. 2020. 5 stars. Love him or hate him, this is a really good memoir. This is far better than Clinton's.

Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden. Peril. Bob Woodward/Robert Costa. 2021. 2.5 stars. I just needed something about these two presidents to finish off my series. Not a good book. Wouldn't recommend.

Check out Steven Floyd's incredible list of presidential biographies: