4 Stars. I have loved and laughed out loud at Christopher Moore’s earlier work but Fool, Sacre Bleu, and Secondhand Souls did not do much for me. I had pretty much decided that I would stop reading his books. Then I was scrolling through my husband’s TBR looking for a book we could both listen to on [...]
I finished this back on July 27 but I've already forgotten everything about it. Ugh. But that's typically what happens with my three-star books so at least I know I rated it accurately. Christopher Moore's brand of humor is not for everyone. I think it varies wildly from book to book so it's not even reliably to my taste. This [...]
2.5 Stars. What this feels like is a contractual obligation. My guess is that Christopher Moore signed a deal for a follow-up to A Dirty Job, time was up, so he knocked this out. I wasn't impressed. I laughed/cried/snorted my way through A Dirty Job. Seriously. I may have chuckled once or twice this go 'round. Charlie's new body [...]
I have mostly been able to follow Christopher Moore into his craziness with success. He makes a joke and I laugh. It might be the weirdest thing ever (Humpback whales with "Bite Me" on their tails?), but I get it. But then there was Fool. And now there is Sacre Bleu. I got so tired of having absolutely no freaking idea what on earth was going on. I mean, zero idea. You probably have a better idea what's going on than I did. Notice that I didn't write a synopsis? There's a reason. Individual elements worked well for me. I liked coming across all these painters and seeing them...misbehave. Especially Monet. I read a book about him once. I liked Lucien and Henri a lot. They had been left a little broken by the women in their lives, but they were still young painters (Or bakers. Or counts.) out on the town having a little fun. And sex. And alcohol. Paris is always a good location to read about. I'm not sure how much I really want to go, but reading a book set in the city always has me ready to pack my bags. And then I think that I would stand out like a sore thumb in chic Paris. And I mentally unpack them again. I loved that the ink of the book is blue and that so many prints of paintings were included. In color no less! I hate reading a book that talks about a real work of art and there's no print in the book. Call it laziness. It just seems like it should always be included. I really appreciated that there is a section at the end explaining what is fact and what is fiction. I was a little surprised by what bits fell…
A re-telling of King Lear as only Christopher Moore could write it, as told by the fool, Pocket. I don't know if I actually needed to know something about King Lear to really get this, but somehow it fell flat. Maybe it's due to my ignorance of the original. I don't know. But I never had a very good idea of what was going on, what the devious plots involved, and who was trying to take over the kingdom and how. I was just confused. So maybe my confusion dampened my sense of humor, but I really didn't even find it all that funny. It definitely had its moments, but they were pretty few and far between. I hate footnotes. There weren't a lot of them, and some of them were actually pretty funny, but most of them were just straight up definitions of medieval terms. Maybe I've read too much historical fiction, but a footnote definition of portcullis just irritated me to no end. Why break the flow of the story for that? My favorite parts involved the servants behind the scenes in the castles. They were light-hearted, normal people, who added most of the humor to the book. That was a nice change from how they're normally portrayed as boring, scared mice that hide in the background. I enjoyed A Dirty Job much more, but die-hard Moore fans will like this one. Definitely stay away if you're easily offended. By anything. He skewers pretty much everything in this book. Reviewed May 10, 2009 Read an excerpt. Find author Christopher Moore on his website, his blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Buy Fool at Malaprop’s | Better World Books Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to…
Nate Quinn has spent his entire professional career following humpback whales around the ocean, trying to find out exactly why the males sing. He's currently in Hawaii, where the whales spend the winter, still researching. His world is rocked on the day that he is taking pictures of one singer and sees BITE ME clearly written across the whale's tail. Did he imagine it? Was it there? Surely he got a picture of it. He heads back in to get his film developed, only to find that someone has completely trashed his lab. So begins a lot of inexplicable events. Oh my gosh. I'm pretty sure Fluke just replaced A Dirty Job as my favorite Moore novel, and I can't help but wonder if it's because I listened to Fluke. I have never been interested in audio books. I don't take things in all that well just by listening. I've tried them a time or two, and while I found them interesting at the time, I never had any desire to turn the book back on and finish it. Then, about 6 months ago, I realized how much my new job was eating into my reading time. Out of desperation, I tried an audio book during my commute, and I haven't looked back. I'm now one of those people who sits in my driveway listening to my book, because I have to know what happens next. Still, the printed word is my first love. I wasn't too sure about this narrator, Bill Irwin, at first. His voice was a little dry. It didn't seem to fit Moore's laugh-out-loud, over-the-top, usually raunchy humor. Oh, but I was wrong. Somehow it was even funnier. I would be driving along, something outrageous would come out of this guy's mouth, and I'm looking around,…
Charlie Asher is your average Beta Male. He owns a second-hand shop in San Francisco and rents out the apartments in the rest of the building to some kooky tenants. He has somehow managed to win the heart of beautiful Rachel and she has just given birth to their daughter Sophie when the book begins. Charlie can't believe his luck, and, with typical Beta Male imagination, believes that Sophie has eleven toes or a tail or something--good things just don't happen for Beta Males. After Sophie's birth, weird things start to happen to Charlie. People drop dead in front of him, objects glow with an eerie red light, and he hears evil voices coming from the sewer drains. Enter Mr. Minty Fresh. He explains what is going on to Charlie. Basically, they are Death Merchants. They collect objects from the dead and dying that are imbued with the dead person's soul. Then they hold onto the object until the soul's next owner comes along and buys it. If they screw up, or if they have contact with other Death Merchants, the Forces of Darkness will rise and the World As We Know It will end. No pressure. I think I had laughed out loud four times in the first four pages of this book. Moore's sense of humor is a perfect match for mine. I've been trying to think of the word to describe it. Not exactly crass or crude, it's more like the not-exactly-for-polite-company jokes that you make with your best friends and maybe even your family, but you probably wouldn't say in front of your in-laws or your boss. I had a few "I can't believe he had the nerve to write that!" moments in some of the funnier parts. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:…
I don't think I can even begin to explain the appeal of these books. A synopsis is going to make it sound ridiculous. A giant shaved vampire cat named Chet is stalking the San Francisco night? Puh-leeze. Except that leaves out Abby Normal, Emergency Backup Mistress of the Greater Bay Area Night. I. ♥ This. Chick. Abby is hilarious! I loved her in You Suck: A Love Story and I was thrilled when I found out that she tells most of this newest story. She makes grown men cry. She intimidates the hell out of Foo-Dog, her manga-haired love monkey. I mean, she wears Skankenstein boots. What more do you need to know? There are vampire cats, rats, and birds; a Samurai-sword-wielding old guy; UV-light jackets and dusters; UV, um, bazookas? that rack up serious points in the vampire elimination game; vampires climbing face first down walls a la Dracula; a fortune-teller who actually gets it right but doesn't understand any of it; a sea captain named Kona who speaks like a Rasta; truly crazy vampires; and overseeing it all is The Emperor of San Francisco, protector of Alcatraz, Sausalito, and Treasure Island and his two loyal men, Bummer and Lazarus. Sound over the top? It is. But it's so much fun. So take note beyotches. There will be a test. Yes, that's pretty much a quote. If it offended you, steer clear because this won't be the book for you. The f-bomb abounds.
There are roughly 30 years of Jesus's life that are unaccounted for. Oh, there's the one story about him teaching in the temple when he was 12, but other than that, he was born and then he started his ministry around the age of 30. Christopher Moore has fun imagining what exactly Jesus--or Joshua, as Moore chooses to use the Hebrew name--might have gotten up to in the in-between years. I know what I'm thinking but I'm having trouble finding the right words. I think if you're going to be offended by this book, the title will turn you off right away. And that's obviously okay. But there might be a few people out there like me, who are thinking, "I'm pretty open-minded. I think I can handle it. But I do have lines that I don't want to have crossed, and Moore could cross them easily." I was okay with what he wrote here. Joshua is still absolutely the Son of God, without sin, sent to save mankind from our sins. That is never questioned. If it had been, I would have had to put the book down. But he does have fun, love, and learn from people from many countries and religions. That's the best I can do as far as the is-it-offensive-to-Christians thing. On to the good parts! I loved Biff! I wanted to reach into the pages and smack him upside the head a few times, but usually when that happened another character stepped in and smacked him for me. He was a horny, cheerful smartass who could teach dogs a thing or two about loyalty. He spends his entire life following Joshua around and trying to make sure that he stays out of trouble. He can always get Joshua laughing when he falls into a…
I can't even really say what this is about without giving anything away. Let's just say that the stupidest angel's mission to create a Christmas miracle goes horribly, hilariously awry in ways that only Christopher Moore could write about. This wasn't quite as funny as I expected it to be, but I think since reading A Dirty Job as my first Moore novel, my expectations for the rest have been unrealistically high. I still laughed all through the book though, and drove my husband crazy reading him funny quotes from the book that probably in all honesty made no sense out of context. The hubby's a good sport though, and laughed along with me. Here's a sampling that will hopefully make sense without giving anything away. "Dressed in their red suits and fake beards, [the Salvation Army Santas] rang their bells like they were going for dog-spit gold at the Pavlov Olympics." "[A black lab] was crowding Gabe in the doorway, his beefy tail beating against the open door like a Snausage war drum." "'Merry Christmas, you doomed sons a' bitches!' said Santa." I wouldn't be surprised if Moore has spent his entire life waiting to write the book that goes with that last quote. It's just too funny! If you're feeling a little overly-sugar-and-spiced, pick this book up for a nice change of pace. Just don't buy it for your grandmother. Christopher Moore warns you against that himself. Have you read any of Moore's work? What did you think?