What would be the best presidential biographies collectively of all the US presidents and each indvidual president?
• George Washington, by Douglas Southall Freeman (vol. 1–6), John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth (vol. 7)
• John Adams, by David McCullough
• John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, by Samuel Flagg Bemis
• Andrew Jackson, by Marquis James
• American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham
• Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
• Abraham Lincoln: A Life, by Michael Burlingame
• Grant: A Biography, by William S. McFeely
• Grover Cleveland, by Allan Nevins
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris
• Theodore Rex, by Edmund Morris
• The Taft Story, by William S. White
• Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet, by Arthur Walworth
• Eleanor and Franklin, by Joseph P. Lash
• Truman, by David McCullough
• A Thousand Days (JFK), by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson, by Robert Caro
You can’t beat The American Presidents Series for light reading. You can read each president in a night or two, and they are generally high quality.
Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President** by Ari Hoogenboom is one of my favorites for a comprehensive look and a very overlooked president.
You’ll always get people recommending the McCullough books, and rightly so. John Adams in particular is fantastic, but I’m sure you’ve already read that one if you are interested in presidential bios.