9/10 would recommend Chernow's biography of Grant if you have 5 months to spare or find yourself with an absurd (and quite envy inducing) amount of free time. I started reading as my Summer beach book in July and finished December of that same year. Still, it is a fantastic and encouraging story. There are too many deaths of people you come to know and love to avoid crying in his life story, if you are especially volatile to history-related emotions.