Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow

Wow. Staggering. This book is a staggering feat of research in both depth and breadth. An exhaustive study into the mind and life of the first Treasury Secretary of the United States, the ten-dollar founding father. 

I'm fairly Hamilton obsessed and will be seeing the musical by the same name on Friday at the Richard Rogers Theater in the "greatest city in the world" New York City. To say I could not be more excited is a literal statement - by the time Friday comes I will likely be visibly vibrating with excitement. In my usual fashion, once I'm hooked, I basically have to ride the obsession train until its reached its final destination, or I'm distracted and wander off to a different connection. Lucky for me, this particular obsession involves lots of singing to myself in my car and watching videos on YouTube.



Did I mention that I'm seeing the show on Friday?! This will probably be the last time my husband grants me Valentine's Day carte blanche to purchase tickets to something.

Lately, my Hamilton game has been tight. I recently annotated a lyric on genius.com (you can find that here and also upvote it because that Little Mermaid reference is on point) and I've been to the end of YouTube watching SadSadConversation videos of Lin Manuel Miranda (click here). I also became the recent recipient of a gift of Dueling Shots (only take the Burr one if you want to shoot first). 

Anyway, in my desire to spread my obsession beyond the arts and into actual real academic territory, I started reading the book that inspired it all. It's not really casual summertime fair, and the fact that LMM read it on his honeymoon is puzzling and amusing all at the same time. But that said, this was no hard history slog. Chernow seemed to know just the right amount of minutiae to get into in his storytelling. He drew on sources contemporary or near-contemporary to the events so there wasn't any guesswork or editorializing. Where inferences could be made, they were made. But each fact, each segment of Hamilton's life described in the book was in furtherance of the portrait of the character Chernow was painting of Hamilton. 

There were no excess facts that meant nothing or were zero value-added. Chernow could easily have included details upon details of the massive documents Hamilton produced creating the first National Bank but that wasn't necessary for the story and really would have bogged the biography down to the point where the facts would have exceeded my curiosity. 

A. Ham. Damn!

I'm so thrilled that the success of the musical is shedding light on this eminently fascinating founding father. A boy who grew up from illegitimate parentage in the Caribbean, arrived as a teenager in America and, largely self-educated, relied on his bravery in battle and his prowess in writing to rise to the most inner circles of government. 

At times tragic and sad (especially towards the end), Hamilton is a study in hard work, brilliance, excess, bravado... so many things. If you weren't aware that Hamilton was killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr (spoiler alert - you clearly have never seen the famous Got Milk? commercial), you are probably also likely unaware that his son died two years prior in a duel on the same dueling grounds. Again, tragic.

Phillip Hamilton. Okay, I get it Phillip, I see you. "God, you're a fox." 

Painfully flawed, and utterly human, Hamilton fought both his parentage and politics to put forth his vision of what he believed was best for the country. It goes without saying that Aaron Burr does not come out so well in this telling, but more surprising was the really detailed ways in which Thomas Jefferson was a total A-hole (despite my ardent love for Daveed Diggs who plays the character in the show). 

Image credit here.

I really enjoyed reading what otherwise could have been a stale bloated story of a financial genius. I will certainly read Chernow's earlier, and I'm sure just as masterfully pieced, biography of Washington.

5/5 Stars. 

The Martian - Andy Weir

I loved, loved, loved this book! I'm recommending it to everyone I know. I think it's the best book I've read in 2015. It's smart. It made me WANT to read about growing potatoes for 30 pages. It made me WANT to hear about velocity, atmospheric pressure, etc.

I can see why the actual NASA astronauts have all read it. It's funny and well researched. I can't think of anything Weir did not include in his piece by piece structure of the novel.

If you've never heard of the book, that is probably about to end, as it is being released on October 2, 2015 in the theaters in movie form starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott (Gladiator) (you can watch the trailer here). And oh, I'm so deliriously excited to see this movie.

The story follows Mark Watney, an astronaut on a mission to Mars. Watney is lost during a massive storm on Mars and believed dead. But, he's not. Because, as you'll see when you read it (seriously go read it), Watney is AWESOME! This is a guy you can go have a beer with, watch a ball game with, talk about plants with. He's a mechanical engineer/botanist and he's hilarious. Following him around Mars is some of the best moments I've spent in a fictional world.

Most importantly, the book captures some of the magic of space exploration that I felt as a kid watching shuttle launches on TV. I'm not sure how Weir does it, but he does. And I followed along like a person reading news accounts of the effort to bring Watney home. I so hope the movie lives up to the book, because I want to like it and I want to spend more time with Watney, even if it is on screen as Matt Damon (don't screw this up for me Matt!).

Love, love, love this book.

5/5 Stars.