The Wall Street Journal's review of Daniel Mark Epstein's new work called it "the best Lincoln book in a generation," and the reviewer was a Lincoln author himself, Andrew Ferguson. What I like most about Epstein's book, The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, is that it deals in the main with the couple's early life in Illinois, courtship and marriage, before the move to the White House. The crazy Mary Todd, rife with depression from her husband's death, does not haunt the pages. In fact, the book smartly stops at the president's last breath -- "until death do us part" -- and it's as if Epstein managed to block the post-assassination Mary Todd out completely. Epstein is our 1 pm guest on Midday today, 88.1, WYPR-FM.