Now that the Trump administration has come to an unpleasant and ignominious close, a looming question remains: What will happen to the enmities incurred in what was a famously contentious administration? Many, if not most, former government officials stay in Washington, and they have long memories. Kennedy aide Chuck Daly recently wrote a memoir, Make Peace or Die, nearly 60 years after the end of the Kennedy administration. With post-administration tenures potentially continuing for as many as six decades, outgoing officials need to think about the enemies they made while in office, and what to do about them after the administration ends.

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Well, dear reader, it's been a miserable year in lockdown, but at least there has been time for reading. I have read 80 books — and counting — during this COVID period, so I wanted to take this holiday opportunity to share some of my reading highlights with you.

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Conservatives got an inkling of how bad 2020 would be before the year even started. On Dec. 30, 2019, Gertrude Himmelfarb died. She was just the first of many conservative luminaries to die over the next 12 months — and it is worth remembering each one and what they contributed to conservatism and our country. As conservatism enters its next chapter, without a slew of great ideas or clarity regarding its future direction, learning lessons from these heroes of the past can potentially be a first step in discerning the way forward into the future.

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In filling out his administration, Joe Biden has put not just one but two high-profile, high-powered individuals at the top of his State Department. For secretary of State, he has selected longtime aide and confidant Antony Blinken. He has also created a new Cabinet-level position, climate czar, and given the job to John Kerry, a former senator, presidential candidate and secretary of State (in which position Kerry was Blinken's boss). The climate czar job, with offices in the State Department and the White House, will apparently have a huge mandate, and Biden advisers are reportedly already concerned about how these two positions will work together—and whether the arrangement could bring confusion or conflict to the new administration.

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When President Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner, Obama's proclivity to lecture Boehner was so predictable that the Speaker would often put down the phone, light a cigarette, and take a long draft as he waited for Obama to finish. For most readers of Obama's new memoir, A Promised Land, the former president's passages on policy will make you sympathize with Boehner.

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