Review: Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Gmorning, Gnight: Little Pep talks for You and Me
by Lin-Manuel Miranda [811 Mir] 

I’m a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda! I’ve loved his music for the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights, and am impressed enough by his creativity and general positivity, that I follow him on Twitter, where he regularly contributes short (under 240 characters) poetic “inspirational” tidbits at the start and end of most days of the week.

This book is a compilation of some of the most memorable of his inspirational Tweets — it is classified in the poetry section here at the libraries, but could just as easily be placed in the Self-Help Psychology section as well.

Miranda is a master with words, both in the classic sense of writing structure, but also in the category of applying a modern, hip-hop sensibility to how to say things. His Tweets are no exception — they range from very traditional poetic statements to highly experimental wordplay. Often, the two tweets from the start and end of the same day are mere variations on each other, or are at least thematically linked.

Taken individually, Miranda’s inspirational statements are just the kind of uplifting “you can do it” encouragements a lot of people might need on any given day. And I did (and do) enjoy them in that context. Reading an entire book of such missives, however, was a bit much for me, and they all started to sound alike. This collection would probably be better enjoyed if the reading of it could be spread out over time — put it on a shelf and pull it down to read a few affirmations at a time.

So…in the end, I’m only giving the book a “6” rating, but if you enjoy Miranda’s style, I encourage you to subscribe to his Twitter feed.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten: The Tweets of Steve Martin, by Steve Martin.]

[ publisher’s official Gmorning Gnight page ] | [ official Lin-Manuel Miranda web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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