Dirty

author: Kylie Scott

When the opening to a book is the hero finding the heroine, in her wedding dress, hiding out in his bathtub, you have to read it. Have to.

On her wedding day, Lydia Green receives an anonymously-sent video of her soon-to-be husband getting it on with his best man. Cue panic attack. She bails from her McMansion, where the wedding is being held, and does her best to scale a fence. After a little breaking and entering (but really, the window was open), she gets into the house behind hers and takes refuge in the bathtub. Rockstar-turned-bartender Vaughn Hewson is certainly not expecting a crying bride in his bath when he turns on the shower.

I have to admit, it was a pretty awesome meet cute. And from then on, the two form an unlikely friendship. Helping Lydia through her problems gives Vaughn a chance to ignore his own and, as Lydia is a relative newcomer and stranger to the town, she’s really in need of a friend. So if friends-to-lovers is your catnip, this might be your bag. Lydia is also a plus-sized heroine, which I loved.

This is my first book by Kylie Scott, though I know Elyse has enjoyed her Stage Dive series in the past. The dialogue was fun and Lydia is a girl who certainly isn’t afraid of hard work, as she quickly pulls herself together with the help of Vaughn and his sister. It’s also pretty damn funny and decently low on melodrama.

Regarding Lydia’s fiance, his sexuality seemed to be a thing everyone knew about except Lydia. It was rumored that he had a romance with one of the football players in high school (the best man) – a romance that apparently continued while he was dating Lydia. His family wasn’t very accepting of the idea that their son could be gay, and they thought Lydia was just making up the video. Since Lydia was new to the small town, it was rather cruel to me that everyone seem to be “in” on this sort of thing. But Lydia’s fiance had his own happy ending as well – he and the best man used the honeymoon to go to Hawaii.

I will warn that the grovel is insufficient, and the main conflict keeping Lydia and Vaughn from being together is wrapped up in the last fifteen pages by some unrealistic romcom type resolution. And the family of Lydia’s fiancé seem too much like caricatures with their villainy. However, I spent most of my RT line waiting with my nose buried in this book if that’s any indication of how much I enjoyed it.

– Amanda

Contemporary Romance, Romance

Hamilton: The Revolution

author: Lin-Manuel Miranda

This was waiting for me when I got home from RT, and I am not ashamed to say that some of my loot from RT went on the back burner while I tore through this book.

This book (known as The Hamiltome) (they are not kidding) covers the development and process of bringing the idea of Hamilton, the musical, from the first mention in a G-chat to a performance at the White House with an impossibly young Lin-Manuel, to the run at the Public Theater off-Broadway, to the Rogers Theater where it’s sold out until the end of time. There’s essays that discuss the staging, the set, how the principals came to be involved in the show, and SO MUCH MORE.

In addition, it has all the lyrics, with annotations from Lin-Manuel covering things like “what inspired how this song came to be” or “here’s the story of how we adopted our dog right around the time I wrote “Dear Theodosia.” The annotations are insightful, funny, and a good insight into how the mind of a MacArthur Genius Grant winner works (well, THIS MacArthur Genius Grant winner; it’s probably not universal). He talks about how the muse decided that the A Train was the right venue for him to break “Wait For It” and what bits where originally improvisations by Daveed Digs. I love annotations, and he worked HARD on these.

As a piece of Broadway history, this is an excellent book. The pictures are worth the Amazon discount price alone. If you’re in New York City, I (and Lin-Manuel) would suggested that you go to the Drama Book Shop and pick it up there.  You will not regret it.

Also as a note: reviews on Amazon say that the Kindle edition isn’t great. They seem to have just taken a snapshot of each page which makes reading the annotations difficult, and the pictures lose a lot of resolution. For $17, I’d hope for a better Kindle edition, and strongly suggest getting the hardcopy. It’s beautiful!

NB: Hamilton: The Revolution is expected to be back in stock on Amazon on May 16th.

– Redheadedgirl

Nonfiction

Knitting Ephemera

author: Carol Sulcoski

Knitting Ephemera: A Compendium of Articles, Useful and Otherwise, for the Edification and Amusement of the Handknitter by Carol J. Sulcoski is a delightful little gift book that’s perfect for knitters, crocheters, and fiber enthusiasts. It’s basically what I refer to as a “bathroom book,” a book made up of small tidbits of information that I’m more inclined to peruse for a few minutes at a time and then put down, rather than reading straight through.

Sulcoski offers factoids about the history of knitting and spinning yarns, the science behind wool-related animal husbandry, knitting in popular culture and literature, and all kinds of other tidbits. There’s a copy of a letter Sarah Phelps of Groton, NH, sent to President Lincoln along with a pair of hand-knit socks and her deepest wishes to see slavery abolished. There are also helpful explanations of knitting acronyms and terms. There’s even a list of murder mysteries featuring knitting.

Some fun little facts I pulled out of this book:

• Knitting burns 102 calories per hour.
• The most expensive yarn is vicuña at $299.95 for a one ounce ball. Vicuñas are related to llamas, but can only be shorn once every 3 years.
• The oldest surviving knitted garment are socks found in Egypt and dating back to around 1000 AD.
• The term spinster (meaning a single woman past typical marriageable age) comes from the 14th century and refers to women who preferred not to marry and made a living spinning yarn. It wasn’t always a derogatory term.
• Based on a 2013 survey, the average knitter spent $801 a year on knitting supplies.

It didn’t take me long to read so I didn’t get a lot of bang for my buck (a male rabbit is a buck–more trivia from this book), but I loved Knitting Ephemera and will be buying more copies for gifts in the future.

– Elyse

Crafting, Nonfiction