Summer Reading Exchange

You may have noticed that I have been taking a break from reviewing books.  It doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading – certainly not, but just not writing about it.  I was traveling a lot in August so I found it hard to sit down and get the mental space to write.  In addition, some of the books I read didn’t really warrant a review.  Not that they were bad, some were very good, they were just not that compelling or rich in texture.  They were summer books – ones that could be read poolside or on an airplane or with your toes in the sand.  

I started thinking about summer reading.  What makes a book summer reading material for you?  In the summer, I like a book that transports me to a new place.  Something with a straightforward plot line that doesn’t make me think too much.  I often read funny books in the summer.  I catch up on my Carl Hiassen or Christopher Moore.  I also like to read mysteries in the summer.  They are simple and, if written well, easy to lose yourself in.  Many a summer night is spent reading just that last few pages before the end of the chapter. 

My husband likes to read on vacation.  He doesn’t read all the time like I do, but if he’s on vacation, he will slam through a book faster than anyone.  He looses lots of sleep when he reads and will sit up until the wee hours to finish a good one.  He is truly on vacation if he’s reading. 

So my question is, what is summer reading like for you?  What did you read this summer?  Why?  Where is your favorite place to read?  I thought we could have a quick exchange of book ideas that we all read the past few months.  Just leave your suggestions in the comments section so we can all see them.  Title, author and a sentence or two about the book.  Let’s see what we get?

In the mean time…

Sacre Bleu: a Comedy d’Art

By Christopher Moore

If you have never read Christopher Moore, you really should give him a try.  His books are usually really irreverent and silly.  I love them.  My husband and I have read almost all of them and are never disappointed. 

This one is about the Impressionists in 19^th century Paris.  We follow a fictional painter/baker named Lucent who is friends with the likes of Toulouse Lautrec, Monet, Pissaro, Van Gogh and others.  All of these painters have been dogged by a shape shifter “muse” who is able to turn herself into models who are the romantic ideal of each of these men and who inspire them to do their best work using blue paint.  The paintings are then stolen and the paint is recovered and made new by her cohort “The Color Man”  who then sells it back to the painters, thus keeping them under a spell that drives them insane or kills them.  The book begins just after Van Gogh died and his friends think that he didn’t actually kill himself, but was murdered.  Lucent and Toulouse Lautrec go on the hunt for the killer. 

The book is illustrated by famous impressionist paintings to which Moore has given humorous alternative captions that support his story.  He uses them to augment the plot and is extremely creative with the results.  Using historical stories and personalities as a jumping off point for his books is not a new trick for Moore.  In “Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Moore takes on Jesus and imagines what it was like to be the Son of God’s best buddy.  They are all hilarious. What keeps you from slamming the book shut for its over-the-top plot is that it’s obvious that Moore has done a ton of really detailed research in order to make his characters be able to stand in history without wavering.   Sacre Bleu flags a little in the middle, nothing that some humane editing couldn’t have helped, but it is a great beach book. 

Here’s one of my summer reads…What about yours?