Tips for Tuesday - Books: Life at Hamilton & The Midnight House

We may have been given complimentary copies for review purposes of any books and/or other products mentioned below. Any and all opinions expressed here are own.

Books: Life at Hamilton and The Midnight House 

Today we are recommending Life at Hamilton by Mike Anthony. An aspiring actor, Mike Anthony instead found his calling as a bartender. This book is an account of his life working at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City currently home to the smash-hit Broadway musical, Hamilton. When Mike Pence attended the show, Anthony shared a post on social media regarding how long and loud the applause was after the line "immigrants we get the job done"  at the show that night and how he had never been more proud of New York City. 

After that post was liked and shared thousands of times, Anthony regularly began sharing his experiences and observations working at Hamilton. Now, those experiences and observations have been collected in this book. While the book does go a little bit into Mike's own background, it is more about the people he has encountered in his work and the moments he has shared sometimes as an active participant; sometimes as more of an observer.

While Anthony has been fortunate enough to have numerous encounters with celebrities in his work and reading about them is interesting, that is not what gives this book its heart. It is his encounters with average everyday people that truly touch the soul.  There were the two little girls who both wanted different sodas but only had enough money for one. Instead of arguing because each wanted to get her own way, they argued because each wanted to get the soda the other wanted (Mike paid for sodas for each of them so they each could get what they wanted). There was the woman who was given only a few months to live but could only get tickets to Hamilton for a date longer away than she was expected to survive. Optimistically, she bought the tickets, and she lived to see the show. These are just a couple of samples of the beautiful touching stories in this book. 

Even some of the celebrity stories are equally as touching. Jimmy Kimmel attended the show and stayed extra late to meet a woman whose mother, who had died exactly a year earlier, had been a huge fan of his. If you didn't know much about Lin Manuel Miranda before excepted that he wrote the musical Hamilton, you will grow to love him after the stories you read about him in this book. If you were a fan of his, you will love him even more if that is even possible.

Of course, not all the stories in this book are as inspiring. Some of Mike's encounters particularly those with well-known people especially politician's but not all politicians have not been as uplifting. However, the majority of them are. If you need to restore your faith in the good of humanity, and you want the opportunity to read about the best in people instead of the worst for a change you are definitely going to want to read this book.

Today we are recommending Midnight House by Ian Dawson. This book is a sequel to Dawson's earlier book, The Field,  in which a teenaged boy named Daniel was kidnapped and tortured by a couple of older boys. Although what happens in this book does relate to what occurred in that book, everything you need to know with regard to what occurred in that book will be sufficiently recounted here. Accordingly, you don't have to have read that book in order to read or enjoy this book.

In this book, Daniel's best friend Kyle who is the captain of the JV basketball team has been invited by the captain of the varsity team to participate in a mysterious ritual known as Midnight House. Daniel and his girlfriend, Amber think that something sinister is going on, and they don't want Kyle to go. It turns out that things are even worse than they thought, and it's all related to Daniel's earlier kidnapping. 

Although this exciting fast-paced book is geared to young adult readers, it can be enjoyed by anyone. Even though it is somewhat long, its short quick action-packed chapters make it easily digestible for even the most reluctant of readers It is like an action movie in book form especially in the later chapters.

And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Where-To-Go-Wednesday.