Time // 11:30 a.m.

Place // At my desk in my (slightly more tidy) office

Eating // Cheez-Its

Drinking // Green tea with lemon

Reading // I managed to finish two books this week, although it feels like I did most of my reading yesterday and this morning rather than making any time during the week. Yesterday I finished Sister by Jody LePage and Sylvia Bell White, an oral history of a woman raised in the segregated South and her life after moving North to Wisconsin. I also did an interview with the author for a paid review — I’ll link to that when it eventually goes online. This morning I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the readalong with my sister — ahead of our deadline! Now, I’m not really sure what I’ll pick up next.

Watching // I finished Ugly Betty this week, which is good. Sometimes when I get on a binge with a show like that it’s hard for me to do other things. I started re-watching New Girl, just to have something on while I’m eating breakfast, and I’m enjoying that. I think I am going to see The Heat with some friends this afternoon — we’ll see on that one.

Listening // I am still in love with Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. I was listening in the car last night and practically yelling at the characters, which is a sign of how much I love them and this story.

Cooking // I didn’t spend quite as much time in the kitchen this week — evening meetings that I have to cover suck up a lot of cooking time — but I did make another quiche (not pictured). This time, a straight up bacon and kale quiche with a hashbrown crust (so good).

Promoting // Jenn of Jenn’s Bookshelves started a Tumblr to rant about all of the horrible book pitches she gets. The ones she’s posted so far are glorious. Make sure you check out Idiots in My Inbox.

I also had a post up on Book Riot earlier this month that I forgot to mention — 5 Books J.K. Rowling Should Write.

Organizing // I’m still on my de-cluttering kick, which is good. Sometimes these things come and go and I never make much progress. Over the week I did a purge of a couple of my bookshelves and did a little straightening in our kitchen. This afternoon I’m going to sort out a couple of cupboards/closets upstairs that have a lot of miscellaneous bathroom supplies (while listening to Siege and Storm, of course).

Loving // My new tablet! I decided to splurge a bit on this one and ended up getting the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. I haven’t come close to exploring all the features yet, but so far I love using it as a note-taking device and an ereader. I didn’t think I’d like reading on a backlit screen, but so far it’s great. I’ll try to write some more about it after I’ve had it a bit longer.

Loving/Hating // The weather took a turn late in the week, going from the 90s and humid to the 60s and 70s with a lovely breeze. While I’m glad it’s not unbearably hot anymore, I’m not ready for the summer to be over yet either. I hope I can at least got outside to enjoy the weather for awhile this afternoon.

Anticipating // I’m excited to get some more decluttering done this afternoon, write a couple of reviews for the week, catch up on comments and head out for a movie. It should be a nice Sunday.

A few months ago I started a new feature that I am (temporarily) calling the Sophisticated Dorkiness Nonfiction Recommendation. Readers fill out a short list of questions and I’ll use those answers to make some personalized recommendations. My real hope is that other blog readers will jump in and help out too, making each post a big list of great nonfiction for people to consider.

Here’s today’s first request from Rachel: 

I am interested in books about women in history, whether they are famous in their own right or were the wife of a man who was important in history. I also am interested in books that deal with the role of religion in peoples’ lives, especially when they are “extreme” religions, or just extremely involved in their religion.

I haven’t read much about the women in history thing, so I probably need a little more help in that area. The letters of John and Abigail Adams have been sitting on my TBR list for years. As far as religion, right now I am reading a memoir about a woman who used to be a nun (The Red Skirt: Memoirs of an Ex Nun by Patricia O’Donnell-Gibson) and really enjoying it. I just read The Lonely Polygamist, which is fiction and deals with a polygamist family. I also have watched multiple documentaries, but the only title I can remember right now is Jesus Camp, which was about children raised in fanatical evangelist homes.

I like them as personal as possible, hence why the only nonfiction reading I’ve ever done has been memoir. I also don’t want anything academic, because as a college student I have to do enough academic reading already.

This is such a good question. Who doesn’t love a good religion memoir? Because I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, my first suggestion is to check out this post by my friend Rebecca over at Book Riot on “losing my religion” memoirs. Rebecca has collected quite a few good ones worth checking out including one that was on my TBR list already, Unodthodox by Deborah Feldman.

The best book on religion I’ve read lately is Does Jesus Really Love Me? by Jeff Chu. In the book, Chu, a gay Christian, sets out on a year-long pilgrimage to ask tough questions about why so many people who read the same scriptures can come to such radically different ideas conclusions about issues of faith, the church and homosexuality. It was a generous, smart, intriguing book that I think everyone should read.

For women in history, I want to suggest Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie. I listened to this one on audio book and enjoyed it a lot. Massie keeps the biography focused on the people around Catherine, a smart move that kept this one new and interesting for me.

My final suggestion is Just Send Me Word by Orlando Figes, a book that just caught my eye a few weeks ago. It’s a book of letters between a 29-year-old man stuck in a gulag in Russia and his missing sweetheart. I know it’s a different time period entirely than the letters of John and Abigail Adams, but it seems in the same family of stories.

Next, we have my most challenging request to date from Jenny:

I want a book about SPIES. I have not read any other books on this topic. I read Code Name Verity but that is pretty much it. I want to read about spies in like, 1880 to 1940. That period. Ideally.

I spent a long time thinking about this one and, to be honest, couldn’t think of a single book on spies. But then I came across a wonderful post at The Literary Ominvore about a book called Spy Princess by Shrabani Basu. Spy Princess is the story of Noor Inayat Khan, “the first woman wireless transmitter in occupied France during WWII” who was trained to be a British spy. It sounds awesome, so I hope you read it and tell me what you think!

Interested in getting a personalized nonfiction recommendation? Please fill out this form to get on the list. I hoping to do these posts a little more frequently, if there’s more interest!

I was trying to get another edition of the Sophisticated Dorkiness Nonfiction Recommendation Engine (or whatever I’m calling it) done for today, but my Tuesday evening got away from me pretty significantly (for good reasons) and I just couldn’t quite polish it up to my liking.

Rather than publish something I didn’t love, I decided to hold onto that post for Friday and use today to ask a question that’s been on my mind lately: How do you keep track of your book wish list?

Right now, I’ve got at least six or seven lists of books I want to read. I have a “Want to Read” list on Goodreads, two lists on Amazon (one for books I want to buy in paperback, one for general books I want to remember), a similar list on Barnes and Noble, a wishlist at the library for books I want to check out at some point, a “shopping list” in Todoist (my task management/reminder app of choice) for books I’m burning to buy next time I’m in a bookstore, plus several themed lists of books saved in various Google docs. It’s totally insane and, more importantly, unmanageable.

The thing I hate most about the lists is that, often, I can’t remember what made me put the book on the list in the first place. Some of the books are obvious — favorite author, next in a favorite series, a book I love that I want in my collection — but often I add books based on reviews or recommendations from friends, but have no way to note it on the list. Then when it comes time to get a new book, I get overwhelmed by lists I can’t remember anything about.

What I’d really like is to find a way to corral all of these lists in a single place. I’d love the list to be as easily available on my computer as it is on my smartphone/tablet (I have Android). I’d like the list to have a space where I can include a link or note about why I want to read the book. It’d be cool of the list were sharable in some way, but that’s not a requirement.

I probably won’t get rid of my “To Borrow” list for the library, but I think there must be a way to corral the rest of these lists into a single, accessible place? I’m hoping that you guys can help me out. How do you keep track of your book wish list?

Title: Duel With the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery
Author: Paul Collins
Genre: Narrative nonfiction
Year: 2013
Publisher: Crown
Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration
Rating:

Review: I’m not ashamed to admit that I picked up Duel With the Devil because I loved the subtitle. What is not to love about “The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery”? That makes me imagine Hamilton and Burr dressing up like Batman and Robin and giving each other high fives all day.

In 1800, the United States was still a young country. In New York, one of the republic’s most politically charged cities, lawyers Hamilton and Burr often found themselves on opposite sides in the courtroom and in politics. The two were forced to work together, however, when the body of a Quaker woman, Elma Sands, was fished out of the Manhattan Well — a venture Burr was politically and financially invested in. The suspected murder, Levi Weeks, had a wealthy brother who could afford to hire both attorneys, creating a legal dream team.

In Duel With the Devil Collins recounts the months leading up to Elma’s murder, followed by the investigation and trial. Along the way, he peppers the book with a wealth of historical detail, putting this particular crime in context and fully using the wealth of sources available from what the book says was the first fully recorded murder trial in the country. The best part about this book for me wasn’t even the sensational murder mystery, it was the level of historical detail that Collins went into

As much as I love a good historical true crime story, the best part of this book was the level of historical detail that Collins included. He paints a rich portrait of life in New York City at this time that kept me interested even when the build to the crime and trial moved slowly.

I only have two small critiques of the book that kept me from flat-out loving it. The first was the structure. In order to build some suspense into the trial, Collins leaves out some key details when chronicling the investigation. By holding them back, he gets to offer them as “bombshells” during the trial portion of the story. I think that made figuring out what exactly happened a little bit confusing.

The cover copy also suggests that “the Case of Elma Sands will surely come to a close with this book, which delivers shocking new information about the real killer.” The evidence that Collins presents near the conclusion of the book does offer some ideas about who the killer might be, but “shocking new information” really is an oversell that was a little disappointing, especially given that the book is good enough on it’s own without marketing folks trying to jazz it up even further.

That said, Duel With the Devil was a fun read, especially if you enjoy historical crime stories. The level of detail is great, and despite a little sensationalizing, Collins does tell a great story. Reading this book made me even more excited to read another Collins’ book about the golden age of the tabloid wars — The Murder of the Century.

Other Reviews: Shelf Love | Booking Mama |

If you have reviewed this book, please leave a link to the review in the comments and I will add your review to the main post. All I ask is for you to do the same to mine — thanks!