Surprise surprise, I read this because of the musical. Would I have picked it up otherwise? No. Would I have enjoyed it otherwise? Probably not, but only because the American Revolution was something I knew so little about that I would have been lost at anything less famous than George Washington.

It's a long book, but it's worth every page. Much like Hamilton's life, it's never dull, giving a thorough and well-researched account of everything we do and don't know. As Chernow is seeing the Revolution from Hamilton's point of view, certain key figures - particularly Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr - don't come off well, but I never felt he was unduly biased towards Hamilton, giving a very vivid image of what he might have been like in life.

I would highly recommend this to anyone, even if they're not familiar with the musical or with that period of history. Apart from anything, this is a true rag-to-riches story, proving what you can accomplish if you're willing to work hard and, frankly, annoy people into doing what you want them to. It's also a fascinating insight for any non-American into the mindset of the American people, the American revolution, and how the country came about, because a huge amount of what was decided at the end of the 18th Century is still in place today. Perhaps most interesting in the current climate is the political set-up of America, and how the biases in the original system are still there and prevalent today.

This is the only one star rating I've ever given on this site. That should tell you a lot.

Going into this book, I expected (and wanted) a moving story about two people falling in love, about the emotional struggle of living with disabilities and then a marriage collapsing. It's the kind of real life story that should fill me with empathy all the way through, and should actually make me feel something, but it was like reading someone's shopping list. In fact, a shopping list would have perhaps been more entertaining. I stuck with it for a bit, hoping that, maybe, she might actually talk about her feelings (writing about your feelings? In your autobiography? Even the notion!) but when she started talking on about page 100 about how they decided to buy a dishwasher, I gave up. I still don't know why they got married; it went something along the lines of, "We knew each other from childhood. I fell in love, even though he was pretty awful most of the time. We got married. We bought a dishwasher.", except with added detail about the colour of the wallpaper. I've read children's short stories which have held more emotion than this.

So, yeah. A let-down.

Rather than being a biography of Joan of Arc, this was more a history of France in the first half of the 15th Century, and what role Joan of Arc played in it. This slightly different approach was very enjoyable, if quite difficult to follow and read, as it put the (very famous) story in historical context. For example, Helen Castor explains that, from a historical standpoint, it does not matter whether or not Joan's visions were really divine, a figment of her imagination, or otherwise; what mattered was that she, and those who followed and supported her, knew that they were divine. Castor also adds a wonderful humanity to the famous figure, especially in the last few months of her life.