My sixth book finished in July was Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton by Tilar J. Mazzeo. This is a nonfiction biography of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton from birth to death and I absolutely loved it. 
So this book was a nonfiction biography written in a more novelized form than most nonfiction I've read and I really enjoyed it. I am absolute trash for anything Hamilton related and although there's so much out there about him, there's so much less about her and she seems to be such a fascinating character. I was right about that. She was such a powerhouse in her own right. She was a woman who wanted a normal life, a quiet, unassuming home life but she stepped up to support her husband's legal career and then his political aspirations. She raised her children, including orphans from her friend/family circle when she needed to. Instead of falling apart when Alexander died she continued to step up to raise her children and then to support widows and orphans, establishing both the first orphanage in New York City but also a public school to ensure all children got an adequate education even if their parents couldn't afford private schools. In her 80s she went East to Illinois to visit one of her sons. In her 90s she lived in Washington DC, helping raise funds for the Washington monument and dining with presidents. She was a quiet powerful force in the background of American politics and it's amazing that a woman who was so enmeshed in the American Revolution lived up until just a few years before the Civil War. I left this story completely fascinated by her and her story and wishing there was just more about her out in the public sphere.
So that's my very short review of the Eliza Hamilton review. I read this book from July 18th to July 26th and gave it a very solid 5/5 stars. This is tied for the best book I read in the month of July and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history.
Happy Reading!
Richelle and Emma
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