Nonfiction...Tuesday

Fritz, Jean. Alexander Hamilton: The Outsider
Wow. Ms. Fritz is about 95 years old. As with Milton Meltzer's Tough Times, I could not say anything bad about this new book even if there was cause, which there was not. This 132 page treatment of Hamilton's life is fast paced and very readable, with plentiful and appropriate illustrations. It follows his life from birth and childhood in the West Indies (under less than ideal conditions) to his foolish death at the age of 49 in the duel with Aaron Burr. You'd have thought that after his 19-year-old son died in a duel, he would have sworn off them! The most interesting aspect of this book was that we see pivotal American history unfolding from the perspective of how it affected just one person. Even though I have a good biography collection, this is worth adding, because it was the sort of book that I kept shouting sentences from it to my children. ("Did you know...?")

Jones, Carrie. Entice.
ARC received from the very kind Charlotte at Charlotte's Library.
Zara is still upset that her boyfriend, Nick, has been killed, even though he is apparently in Valhalla. She's also upset that she's been turned into a pixie by Astley, who wants her to be his queen, and the fact that local teens are under constant attack by evil blue pixies, and she can't be everywhere to fight them off. 'Cause she has GOT to find Nick. 'Cause she looooooves him.

Okay, this is where my 17-year-old daughter asks me when my soul died. This is a fine addition to the series (Need and Captivate). There's a lot of pixie fighting, traveling to Iceland, community pulling together to fight off pixies and keep Zara from hurting herself even more than she does. There's even a frisson of attraction between Zara and Astley. However, I am too old. I know that if Zara gets Nick back from Valhalla, he will probably dump her after three months for some cute were, probably right before prom. After she's bought her dress. Also, I find the cover vaguely disturbing.