There's a lot of celebrating going on over at the McKinney household these days -- and one of the ways I celebrate is to make the occasional foolish (jubilant) purchase... so I got myself the Hamilton vinyl [points to you if you heard that in the voice of Hamilton saying, "he handles the financials...]
It isn't here yet, no doubt to the delight of my landlord who can you in no uncertain terms just why my Broadway career never took off, but some Hamilton-inspired books are!
I know Shaara from his Civil War writing and had somehow missed this one. It popped up on my radar on pinterest or some other such site and I decided to see how the Revolution (fictionalized) compares to the (fictionalized) counterpart that it did so much to sew.
I must confess one of my book prejudices: like Sir Mix-a-Lot with booties, I like BIG books. When I see a digital book with a $12-15 price tag but a low page count, I tend to find myself backing away from the purchase, even if I'm genuinely interested in the content (this is why I don't currently own Barry's Days Without End, for instance). This title clocks in at 600-some pages, so I have decided to overlook its cover art and decision to capitalize on my obsession with the Broadway Musical and give it a shot. Let's hope I'm not throwing it away... ;) 
As you may know from other posts, I maintain the belief that books come for you when they're meant to. You can pass up a title hundreds of time in the bookstore or the library or scrolling through webpages, but one day someone will put in your hand -- when it's right that you should read it. Shogun (and the book I now cannot separate from it because I originally read them together, Lonesome Dove) came to me from a high school instructor I didn't much care for. She knew I was an avid reader and pressed both books on me, even though I mostly read fantasy at that time. Years later, I'm glad she was moved to make the suggestion, because I re-read both titles every year or so! This year, I even found myself searching for "books-like-Shogun" and these are the recommendations I got from other readers.
This title is interesting on two fronts: (1) it's over 800 pages long, so it has literally met the requirements for epic (I'll let you know if the prose keeps that promise) and (2) it seems to have caused a fair amount of controversy. Fans argue that its attempt to draw attention to the culture of the Plains Indians is a positive move. Critics argue that Hill's attempts to represent another culture falter and fetishize. I haven't read far enough yet to take up a position, but I look forward to putting this title in conversation with The Dying Grass.
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