I’m not sure I would have gotten to reading Sarah Vowell’s newest book, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, if I haven’t started listening to the soundtrack for Hamilton just a couple weeks ago.

For those who don’t know, Hamilton is a Broadway musical about the life and times of Alexander Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It sounds rather crazy, I know, but it’s totally excellent (and you can listen to it several places online). The Marquis de Lafayette, a teenage Frenchman who became a well-loved general in the Revolutionary War, is introduced in the second song of the show with this verse:

Oui oui, mon ami, je m’appelle Lafayette!
The Lancelot of the revolutionary set!
I came from afar just to say “Bonsoir!”
Tell the King “Casse toi!” Who’s the best?
C’est moi!

That just struck me as so hilarious that I decided I wanted to learn more about this guy immediately. Although Lafayette in the Somewhat United States is about Lafayette, it’s really a broader look at how the ideals of the American Revolution mesh (or, in lots of cases, are in contrast) with the reality of fighting in the Revolutionary War. It’s more ambitious than a simple biography, but I think that makes it an even better match with Hamilton‘s critique and revisiting of the Founding Fathers.

There are two things I love about Sarah Vowell as a writer and historian. First, she’s clearly fond of our Founding Fathers and other major historical figures, but she’s not afraid to point out where they messed up or areas in their lives where they demonstrated hypocrisy. It’s disingenuous to talk about, say, Thomas Jefferson, the writer of one of our favorite phrases — “all men are created equal” — and not also acknowledge that he owned slaves. The founders of our country had big ideas, but ultimately they were people and can be talked about as such without diminishing their legacy.

Vowell is so great at this. In the book, she calls the colonists “self-respecting, financially strapped terrorists” and “anti-monarchist punks,” among other affectionate names. I think that’s so funny! In another section, she makes this really apt observation about the problems at Valley Forge: 

I would like to see the calamity at Valley Forge as just the growing pains of a new nation. It has been a long time since the men and women serving in the armed forces of the world’s only superpower went naked because some crooked townies in upstate New York filched their uniforms. But there’s still this combination of government ineptitude, shortsightedness, stinginess, corruption and neglect that affected the Continentals before, during and after Valley Forge that twenty-first century Americans are not entirely unfamiliar with.

That also leads me into the second thing I love about Vowell: she’s wonderful at showing the way history can be a conversation between the past and present. Most of her books pull together historical events with our present day memory of those events through things like museums, monuments and historical reenactments. It’s a really interesting way to both learn about particular moments and look at how our popular conception of them has changed.

Lafayette is actually a great example of this — he helped forge an alliance with France that enabled the United States to win the Revolutionary War. But not so long ago, the United States Congress renamed “French Fries” to “Freedom Fries” and, at least as I recall my history classes, works to overlook that significant contribution. Vowell spends a bit of time on this in the book, which I thought was really interesting.

These features of Vowell’s writing are also some of what I love best about Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda clearly admires and respects Alexander Hamilton and many of the other Founding Fathers — why else make an entire musical about the American Revolution? But the musical points out their mistakes and flaws, often in really pointed ways. And the specific casting of performers of color in the roles of our white Founding Fathers makes really fascinating echoes between America of the past and America of the present. It’s remarkable.

So there you have it, I have Hamilton to thanks for picking up Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, and the book to thank for helping me articulate some of what I love about the musical. Get your hands on both, they’re great.

Woo hoo! Welcome to the second week of Nonfiction November. Our host this week is Leslie (Regular Rumination) and our topic is book pairings:

Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be an “if you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.

As I mentioned in my Currently post on Sunday, my friend Chrissy Kolaya’s first novel, Charmed Particles, comes out this week from Dzanc Books. The book is set in a small town in rural Illinois that is home to both a living history museum and laboratory studying high-energy particle physics. When the town becomes a finalist to host a new superconducting supercollider, tensions between long-time community members and scientists at the lab threaten to split the town.

The conflict between science and community isn’t a new one. Communities often feel threatened when new facilities or experiments are set to happen in their backyard, and scientists are often terrible at explaining the benefits of their experimental research. With that in mind, here are three great true stories about the conflict between science and community.

Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen

Kristen Iversen grew up in a small subdivision outside of Denver, downwind from a nuclear weapons facility that produced plutonium bomb components, Rocky Flats. No one in the community knew what happened at the factory and, frankly, no one thought about it much because they had more pressing concerns. As Iversen grew older, her perspective on the plant changed, shifting from blissful ignorance to skepticism to frustration to anger. Full Body Burden is her account of life outside Rocky Flats that shows the true cost of government neglect and corporate corruption. I highly recommend this one.

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

By the time World War II ended, more than 75,000 people lived and worked at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a hastily built town with the sole purpose of supporting the country’s atomic bomb program. Like many World War II industries, the factory and supporting businesses were staffed primarily by women. In The Girls of Atomic City, Kiernan gives a full account of what a strange experience it was to live in this particular place. She is particularly great at bringing out the personalities of the nine women she focused on for the story, showing how they joined “The Project” and what their involvement with such a secretive program actually meant.

Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean

Margaret Lazarus Dean is a bit of a space fangirl, someone fascinated by space flight and what it takes to make each launch happen. Leaving Orbit is a chronicle of the last three flight in the American shuttle program and a history of American spaceflight. The conflict in Leaving Orbit isn’t quite as obvious as it is in the other two books I’ve mentioned. Instead, the book is more about how to justify the enormous costs of space exploration – discovery for the sake of discovery – in a time when there is pressure to cut costs and focus on problems closer to home. The book is a really great elegy and celebration of the American shuttle program that asks good questions about where we go next.

Programming Notes

• This week’s host is Leslie (Regular Rumination), so make sure to visit her blog to link up your post for the week.
• If you’re talking about Nonfiction November on Twitter, please use the hashtag #nonficnov for your posts so we can find them. The hashtag seems a little crowded this year, but we’ll just make it work.
• Our topic next week is Nontraditional Nonfiction hosted by Rebecca (I’m Lost in Books).

Time and Place | Just before 8 a.m., on my favorite chair in our living room. I woke up pretty early this morning, and while I’m sad to not be curled up in bed I do love a long, quite morning.

Reading | It’s been a good week on the reading front — Nonfiction November has really energized me. I finished Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell and Relish by Lucy Knisley, and started in on Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. I also finally got to start Re Jane by Patricia Park, which arrived from the library after a very, very long wait.

Watching | We caved and bought the second season of Fargo on Amazon Prime. So far, it might be even better than season one, although I do miss grown up Molly Solverson.

Listening | The Hamilton soundtrack is on repeat around here, and I spent a lot of time reading through the annotated lyrics on Genius. Fully obsessed.

Cooking | November continues to be surprisingly mild, so we’re using the grill as long as possible. We had burgers last night and might splurge on steak for tonight.

Blogging | This week was all about Nonfiction November. I posted our first topic — Your Year in Nonfiction — on Monday, and tried to wrap up the week’s posts on Friday. This week will be hosted by Leslie (Regular Rumination), and the topic is Book Pairings:

This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story.

Promoting | My friend Chrissy Kolaya’s first novel, Charmed Particles, is out this week from Dzanc Books. It’s really great — I wrote about it at Book Riot and, in a sweet benefit of my job, got to write about the book in the local newspaper. I’m excited for it to be out in the world. 

Hating | I am SUPER BUMMED not to be at Book Riot Live this weekend. But going on another trip just wasn’t in the cards (i.e. the budget) for this year, so I’ll just be stalking the #brlive hashtag in jealousy.

Loving | Hannah finally discovered that the basket we store extra pillows and blankets it makes a good place to sleep. It is the most adorable thing ever.

Anticipating | My plan is to really focus this morning and get some writing done. I’ve got Nonfiction November posts to write, some pieces for Book Riot that I want to finish, and some books begging for reviews. If I can put my head down, I think I can get most of that done before football starts at noon.

Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?

Well, it has been a week! Work and some personal commitments ate up three of my evenings, so I had to squeeze in time to get through all of the great posts linked up these week.

One thing I was really excited to see is that many people reported reading more nonfiction this year than in the past. This is so great! While I don’t think any reading diet benefits from too much of a single genre, it’s wonderful to see more variety and less intimidation when it comes to picking up nonfiction.

Your Year in Nonfiction

Because of the number of posts, I decided to just share the books participants shared as those they’ve recommended most (or listed as a favorite — sorry if I missed anyone!). Prepare for a TBR pile explosion:

• The Winter of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart — Bex at An Armchair By the Sea
• The Wright Brothers by David McCullough — Heather at Based on a True Story
• Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson — Julie at JulzReads
• NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman — Shannon at River City Reading
• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown — Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves
• Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer — Lu at Regular Rumination
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — Becca at I’m Lost in Books
• Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell — Sarah at The Country Bookworm
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson — Savvy at Savvy Working Girl
• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo — Trish and Love, Laughter, Insanity
• The Vanishing by Anu Silfverberg– Riverhorse at Tungsten Hippo
• H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald– Care at Care’s Online Book Club
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee — Florinda at The 3Rs Blog
• Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast — Marisa at The Daily Dosage
• Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling — Brona at Brona’s Books
• Severed by Frances Larson — Rachel at Hibernator’s Library
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot — Iliana at Bookgirl’s Nightstand
•  Stiff by Mary Roach — Katie at Doing Dewey
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates — Katie in MA
• Being Mortal by Atul Gawande — JoAnn at Lakeside Musing
• The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston — Chris at Wildmoo Books
• Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott — Amanda at Gun in Act One
• The Writer’s Guide to Weapons by Ben Sobieck — Laura at The Button Tapper
• Missoula by Jon Krakauer — Athira at Reading on a Rainy Day
• Grain of Truth by Stephen Yafa — Kelly at The Well-Read Redhead
• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown — Kristen at BookNARound
• Steve Jobs: Insanely Great by Jessie Hartland — Anne at Head Full of Books
• You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day — Jancee at Jancee’s Reading Journal
• Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr. — Tara at Running ‘n’ Reading
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote — Carrie at Other Women’s Stories
• Deep Down Dark by Hector Tobar — Jay at Bibliophilopolis
• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson — Heather at Capricious Reader
• Bossypants by Tina Fey — Sophie at Paper Breathers
• Rising Strong by Brené Brown — Stacy at The Novel Life
• Walk the Lines: The London Underground, Overground by Mark Mason — Julie at Smiling Shelves
• The Fictional 100 by Lucy Pollard-Gott — Emma at Words and Peace
• Garlic: An Edible Biography by by Robin Cherry — Amanda at Opinions of a Wolf
• Yes Please by Amy Poehler– Debbie at The Friday Friends
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand — Kim at Time2Read
• Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness by Susan Cahalan — Lisa at Lit and Life
• Quiet by Susan Cain — Literary Lindsey

And a few more additions made after I finished up this post late Thursday night:

• Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer — Maphead’s Book Blog
• Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World by Leigh Ann Henion — Carin at Caroline Bookbinder
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates — Jennifer at Bookish Lawyer
• Lingo by Gaston Dorren — Caroline at More Thoughts, Vicar?
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard — Amy Brandon at Sadie Bell Reads
• The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander — Ann at Books on the Table
• Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen — Sharon at Faith, Hope and Cherry Tea
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk– Elisabeth at The Dirigible Plum
• How I Killed Pluto and Why it had it Coming by Mike Brown — raidergirl3 at An Adventure in Reading
• Displacement by Lucy Knisley — Andi at Estella’s Revenge
• Rats by Robert Sullivan — Guiltless Reading

Whew. I can feel my virtual book wishlist toppling over as we speak. I love it!

Programming Notes

• If you’re talking about Nonfiction November on Twitter, please use the hashtag #NonficNov for your posts so we can find them. The hashtag seems a little crowded this year, but we’ll just make it work.
• Next week’s host is Leslie (Regular Rumination), where we’ll be talking about nonfiction book pairings. I am pretty psyched about this one.
• Bex (An Armchair By the Sea) is hosting a Nonfiction Book Swap to go along with Nonfiction November. The book swap is open internationally and participants should make a nonfiction only wish list. Sign ups are open until November 8, but head over to her blog for all the details.

That’s all I’ve got! Thanks to everyone who participated, it’s been a fun way to start the month.