Jason Kehe at Los Angeles Magazine has chosen his four Critic’s Picks for January, and Hannibal and Me is “Best of the West”.
He’s also captured the same issue with “genre bending” that Andres Martinez noted the other day. Kehe calls it a “shelving” challenge. How true. I plan to reflect on this in due course.
Here is Kehe:
[…] Kluth, the West Coast correspondent for The Economist, mines a veritable who’s who of history’s winners and losers for life lessons, from Einstein to Steve Jobs, Cleopatra to Eleanor Roosevelt. Booksellers will have an interesting time shelving this one. What is it? Memoir? Bio? Self-help? Pop psych? Here’s a better question: Who cares? It’s fascinating.
Thank you, Jason Kehe!
Hannibal and Me: life lessons from history 
This is brilliant stuff. Well done again Andreas. Your regular commenters who have already read the book would agree to this review. As for me, I am waiting for my copy and might take a day or two off from work to read it! Should be fun.
Thank you Abhishek. But please don’t take a day off to read it: that would be too much responsibility and pressure for me. You might afterwards accuse me of squandering your hard-earned vacation. 😉
The thing about Hannibal & Me is it strikes an excellent balance. There’s something in it for everybody, while having nothing that’s too much for anybody.
Wonderful praise, Jim M. Thank you.
Congrats on the good reviews. I ordered my copy today. I had been planning to do that for some time but my daughter Jennifer, high school valedictorian just like her mother, told me it would just my kind of book. In the far distant past I taught (mangled?) “Western Civ” and was always intrigued by your man Hannibal. Let’s pray for great sales
Thank you so much, Mr Clayton.
Like your daughter, you are the most intimidating kind of reader — sophisticated, demanding, witty, well read. Now that the copy is in the mail to you, I will instruct your daughter to lower expectations. 😉
Congratulations! I think you’re on a roll.
Thanks, Thomas. Fingers crossed.