CBR IV: Book 24: Sacre Bleu - Christopher Moore

At this point, I have lost track of how many Christopher Moore novels I have read.  Either you love his novels, or he just isn't your cup of tea. I happen to love his sense of humor. I listened to Fool a couple of months ago and loved it as well.  You can read that review here: http://commanderstrikeher.blogspot.com/2012/04/cbr-iv-book-10-fool-christopher-moore.html

The novel starts out with the death of van Gogh.  Did he really shoot himself in a field in Auvers, or was he murdered?  Sacre Bleu is the story of Lucian Lusard, a baker/painter in the Montmartre district of Paris in 1890.  He was raised around some of the most well-known artists of the Impressionist era.  His best friend is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and he was also a friend of Vincent van Gogh.  Lucian and Henri have noticed that a lot of their contemporaries seem to have long gaps in their memories, and an awful lot of them are dying of syphilis.  This novel is historical fiction with mystery, romance, and plenty of Christopher Moore bawdiness and humor.  The beginning is very slow, but I got hooked near the middle.  I highly recommend it to anyone who has a love of Paris or the Impressionist period.


I definitely recommend reading the print version of this book.  There are several color pictures of Impressionist paintings, and the book is printed in blue ink.  It's so pretty!


5/5 Stars

CBR IV: Book 23: Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir - Jenny Lawson

*Audiobook Review*

Apparently I have been living under a rock, because I had never heard of The Bloggess until I saw this book on a table at Barnes & Noble.  I kept seeing reviews of this book on the Cannonball Blog, and I was looking for something funny for my next Audible credit.  I listened to a sample of this book and fell in the floor laughing.  As a child, Jenny Lawson was playing chase with her sister.  She wasn't looking where she was going, and she accidentally ran inside of a deer that her dad was "cleaning" AKA gutting.  She said it was like being inside a deer sweater.  Then she vomited inside of it.  Then her dad hosed it off and served it for dinner.  You know, just your typical evening at home.  I knew this would be perfect for my next listen.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened is Jenny Lawson's mostly true memoir of growing up in rural West Texas.  Her family was poor.  Her mother was the school lunch lady and her dad was a taxidermist who routinely brought home litters of baby raccoon and kept a flock of asshole turkeys for pets. Wackiness ensues.

Holy shit this book was funny!  I almost drove the car off the road a couple of times.  I made the mistake of listening to this while I was eating, and nearly choked to death.  There are also a couple of serious moments, but they are few and far between.  I have recommended this book to nearly every person I have met.  The only book I can remember being funnier than this was George Carlin's Brain Droppings.

*Audio-specific portion of review*

I feel that this may be a book that is made better by audiobook.  Jenny Lawson is probably the only person who could ever understand Jenny Lawson, so it makes sense that she narrates her memoir.  At first, her voice can be a little annoying, but as the book went on, I began to enjoy it.  I am glad that I purchased this one, because I will be subjecting it to anyone who takes a road trip with me.

5/5 Stars.

CBR IV: Book 22: Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution - Michelle Moran

*Audiobook Review*

I had always heard of the famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London.  Every once in a while the news does a fluff piece about some new celebrity wax figure. I guess it is similar to getting your star on the Hollywood walk of fame.  I had no idea of the history behind the museum, or who the Hell Madame Tussaud was.  But, when I saw this book, and read the subtitle, "A Novel of the French Revolution", I knew I had to read it.  I am fascinated with the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.  I read "A Tale of Two Cities" both my Sophomore and Senior years of High School (the one advantage of moving) and was hooked.  I have read several biographies of Marie Antoinette, and in 2005 finally achieved my dream and took a vacation to Paris.  One of the highlights of my trip was standing in the Place de la Concorde and looking at the plaque where the guillotine ended the French monarchy.

Madame Tussaud was born Marie Grosholtz, and at the start of the story is living with her Mother and her mother's boyfriend, Curtius,  in Paris.  Curtius owned the Salon de Cire, a well-known wax museum, and Marie has learned the art of wax molding from him.  Commoners and the nobility came to their Salon to see wax figures of current political figures, royalty, and miscreants like the Marquis de Sade.  They continuously updated the figures to reflect the times. They were almost the TMZ of pre-revolutionary Paris.  Marie is the business head of the family and she has been begging Rose Bertand, the Queen's dressmaker, to get Queen Marie Antoinette to visit the exhibition.  Marie Grosholtz is hoping that if the Queen approves of her own likeness, then the commoners will be beating down the door to visit the Salon de Cire.  Apparently she didn't notice that the Queen wasn't really very popular anymore.  Also, she must not have been paying attention to the revolutionary talk of men like Robespierre and Marat, even though her family regularly dined with them.

Eventually, Marie receives an invitation from Princess Elisabeth, the King's sister, to come to the Royal Palace of Versailles and tutor the Princess in the art of wax sculpting.  This put Marie in an awkward situation. Some evenings she would dine with the revolutionaries and some evenings she would spend at masqued balls at Versailles.

French Revolution ensues.  Lots of people lose their heads.

This book was obviously well researched.  The mark of a good audiobook is when I find myself going out of my way to listen to it.  I couldn't stop listening to this one.  I also learned quite a bit about the French Revolution.  I didn't know that every evening all of the candles in Versailles were given to certain members of the nobility who got to sell them on the black market and keep the enormous profits.  Also, Marie Antoinette was required to wear completely new clothes every day, and the old ones were given to certain members of the nobility.  I read that Paris Hilton only wears an outfit once as well.

This was great historical fiction, and I am looking forward to reading some of Michelle Moran's other novels, especially her upcoming novel about Napoleon.

5/5 Stars.

CBR IV: Book 21: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahame-Smith

*Audiobook Review*

With this review I am caught up to the books I am currently reading.  I am determined not to get behind ever again!

I told my mother the title for this book and she literally laughed until she cried.  For a solid five minutes.  I have never seen her laugh that hard in my life. I couldn't describe the book to her because I was worried that I was going to kill her.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it.  I thought the premise was interesting.  It is a detailed biography of Abraham Lincoln, and from time to time, he goes to hunt vampires.  This is from the author of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, a similarly silly concept.  Silly as the concept sounds, this was a pretty serious book.  When Abraham Lincoln was a boy, his father owed money to a vampire.  The vampire collected by killing Abe's mother.  Young Abraham then dedicated his life to the destruction of the bloodsucking menace.  He discovers that slavery is basically a cover for feeding vampires.  Yep, the confederacy is backed by vampires.  Explains a lot, doesn't it?

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes alternative history, civil war history, or vampire fiction.  However, with the movie coming out next month, I am curious to see if this will be one of the rare cases where i like the movie better than the novel.

3/5 Stars

CBR IV: Book 20: The Magician King - Lev Grossman

Back to Fillory, and boy is it dark.  Like a lot of other reviewers, I liked this better than the first book, The Magicians, and I really liked The Magicians.  I heard that Grossman is writing a third and final book, and I can't wait for more.

The Magician King continues the adventures of Quentin Coldwater, the douchiest douchebag to ever enter the multi-verse.  He's slightly less whiny in this installment, and half of the book is focused on Julia, so that already makes it better than the first book.  Quentin, Julia, and the two other characters whose names I can't remember are the Kings and Queens of Fillory.  Hey, just like Narnia!  Adventures ensue.  Seriously, I don't like recapping an entire book.  I always feel like I'm either giving too much away or not doing it proper justice.

If you like epic fantasy turned on it's side and made disturbingly dark, then this is the book for you.  I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

4/5 Stars

CBR IV: Book 19: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business - Charles Duhigg

I'm three books behind on my reviews, and I'm determined to catch up before the end of today.  These will be rushed, and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

Nearly everything we do in our day-to-day life is based on habits we have formed.  Our habits help us brush our teeth, make our coffee, and drive to work when our brain goes on autopilot.  If our brain didn't form habits, we would probably go insane from the million decisions we have to make in a day.  Charles Duhigg describes a three-step loop called "The Habit Loop".  In "The Habit Loop" there is first a cue, which triggers your brain to go to automatic mode and which habit to use.  Then there is the routine which is the activity, thought, or emotion.  Lastly, there is the reward which helps reinforce the habit if it is necessary.

Marketers have used this for decades.  The earliest example in the book was getting Americans to make brushing their teeth a daily habit.  Target now uses your purchase history to determine if you are pregnant so they can be the first to get that target demographic.

I'm a sucker for pop-psychology or quirky science books.  I have read much more non-fiction this year than I ever have before.  This book was pretty interesting, but the last twenty percent of it was footnotes.  While that does show the author's dedication to research, I felt like it was just excessive.  However, this was a quick, entertaining read, and it has helped me to create a couple of good habits and ditch a couple of bad ones.

4/5 Stars.

CBR IV: Book 18: Replay - Ken Grimwood

*Audiobook Review*

This book is better than I can ever hope to describe. This book was published in 1988, and I had never heard of it before last month!  Thank you toepic for mentioning it in your review of 11/22/63, another book I can't wait to read.  http://cannonballread4.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/toepics-cbr4-review-7-112263-by-stephen-king/#comment-2920

Jeff Winston dies of a heart attack in 1988.  He then wakes up in his college dorm at Emory University in 1963, in his eighteen-year-old body with all of the memories of his previous life intact.  He bets some money on the Kentucky Derby and wins.  He then uses his knowledge of the future to invest in the stock market, and before long, he is one of the richest men in the world.  Then, in 1988, after marrying and having a daughter, he dies of a heart attack.  Again.  Same day and time.  I don't want to give anymore of the plot away, but there were definitely some unexpected twists and turns.

This should be required reading for the entire human race.  I became addicted to this book.  I literally could not stop listening to it.  I listened to it while I folded laundry.  I listened to it at Target while I was buying groceries (yeah, I was that asshole).  This book is a Sci-Fi semi-time-traveling romance which I will always remember reading.

I just looked Ken Grimwood up on Wikipedia and found out that he was born in rural Alabama, about 4 hours from me.  Unfortunately, he died in 2003.  Several people have also stated that Replay is the basis for the film, Groundhog Day.  As much as I love Groundhog Day, Replay is better.

5/5 Stars