aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)

It's really weird reading a book set in your hometown and referencing so much you know. It's even stranger when the book is "written for" the exact office you work for...

Aziz Ansari, please teach all of my psychology classes.

Wow the last ten pages of this book were quite the emotional roller coaster.

I saw Sarah Vowell on the Daily Show and was so entertained I knew I wanted to pick up her books. Given my recent Hamilton obsession, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States was a great place to start. Vowell interweaves the story of Lafayette's involvement in the revolution with a lot of anecdotes about herself writing this book and modern politics, which I loved. Vowell has an excellent wit and unique voice (literally) and I'm so glad I got the audio book. (It featured Nick Offerman aka Ron Swanson as George Washington which was phenomenal casting). I'm excited to read the rest of Vowell's books and to dive into Ron Chernow's Hamilton.

I don't know what it was that I expected from this book, but I didn't receive it. I felt like this book tried so hard and it was only adequate. I'm definitely not motivated to read the next book in this series. Jacob was just so boring and could not pick up on any details that were very obvious from the beginning. His and Emma's relationship was very contrived. I wish there had been more focus and growth on Emma and her relationship with Abe. Whatever.