Let Them Eat Cake

Fiancé and I just returned from a 5-day trip to Puerto Vallarta, where we quickly realized our hotel had 1) a swim-up bar; 2) bar service 24 hours a day, and; 3) a deck from our hotel room.

Upon realizing this and that fact that we didn’t particularly want to check out the Starbucks, the Outback Steakhouse and the two, count ‘em, TWO Hooters in downtown PV, I settled in with Marie Antoinette: The Journey, by Antonia Fraser.

About 5 days, countless banana daiquiris, a few plates of guacamole and chips later, I made my through all 544 pages.

Fraser provides a very sympathetic account of Antoinette, the French (Austrian) princess who married the Dauphin when she was just 14 years old. Her marriage to the Dauphin was not consummated for seven years, to great consternation of her meddling mother, the Empress of Austria. It was during these years that Marie Antoinette, a child raised to be a queen who had no idea about the value of money, became known for her extravagant expenditures on clothing and gambling.

The author DOES the myth (along with many other historians) that Antoinette could not have uttered the famous words “Let them eat cake” in reference to the bread shortage among the French lower classes. Antoinette was actually known among her family and friends as being over-generous to her staff and concerned about the many unnecessary positions at the Versailles court.

When Marie Antoinette and Louis XV1became King and Queen at in their late teens, they inherited a country in poverty due to wars that Louis XVI father and grandfather fought in. In addition, Louis XVI, not a great political thinker, was influenced by his advisors to help fund the Revolutionary War. The French citizens of course blamed the royalty for the nation’s ills, and most of their hatred was directed at Marie Antoinette, who was a foreigner in their minds.

A VERY confusing series of events known as the Affair of the Necklace, which I’m not even going to attempt to explain here (and believe me, do NOT rent the movie with Hilary Swank) was the final nail in the coffin for the French queen. I'll let you read about it here on Wikipedia.

Shortly after The Affair of the Necklace, a mob of angry French citizens stormed Versailles and demanded that the King and Queen (and their children) abandon the castle and move into the Tuilleries where they were held prisoner for several years before trying to escape the country. The escape plan was foiled and they were both charged with treason.

I think the rest is history….both King and Queen were beheaded. The Queen was treated particularly cruelly prior to her death; her best friend was attacked and literally torn to pieces by an angry mob and her dismembered head was paraded in front of the Queen.

That is an EXTREMELY condensed version of a 544-page book. I highly recommend this book for an excellent history lesson in French politics, as well as a fascinating account of life at Versailles, which was just completely over the top.

Me in a nutshell

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The right to bear arms?

When our constitution allows a 23-year-old boy to buy a Glock and kill 32 college kids and their professors ... it is clear that our constitution is outdated, inaccurate and failing us. Plain and simple.

I know that is a completely simplistic, uninformed and bleeding heart liberal's response to yesterday’s tragedy, but COME ON! Is being rational and fair and logical about the second amendment really working for us?

Stop FUCKING selling semi-automatic weapons. Jesus! How hard is it to understand?

My heart goes out to the families and friends of those who were killed yesterday.

Review: Cold Mountain

In a previous post, I mentioned that there are certain books that I’ve only seen in movie format, and Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, falls in that category.

I really really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was beautifully shot and Renee Zellwegger was fantastic. I even liked Jude Law, who normally isn’t my favorite actor. I thought some of the dialogue was very moving, and I LOVED Nicole Kidman’s hair.

So, I really didn’t see any use in reading the book, because I always have about 10 books on my TBR list. However, when some of my friends heard that I had not yet read the book, I was very soon given a copy to immediately read.

Folks, this book is FANtastic. I’m so glad I gave it a chance. I think most of us have seen the movie, so I’ll recap briefly.

It’s four years into the Civil War and Ada and Inman are still pining after each other after a brief series of awkward encounters (and one amazing kiss) before the war broke out and Inman left for battle. Somehow, those brief encounters and one amazing kiss were meaningful and touching enough have turned into feelings of love. After Inman takes a serious neck wound and spends a few months recovering at a military hospital, he deserts the army and starts a long walk back to Ada on Cold Mountain, South Carolina.

Ada, waiting for Inman and clinging to the few letters she has received from him, has lost her father, the town minister. With no skills other than painting and playing the piano, Ada has let the farm she lives on run amuck. Close to starvation, she accepts an offer of help from Ruby Thewes, a spunky young woman who has big plans to restore Ada's land into a working farm again.

Anything else I told you would be a spoiler, so I won’t go on.

So much about this book was beautiful: the sweeping descriptions of Cold Mountain, Inman’s encounters with strangers willing to give house war deserters, Ada and Ruby’s friendship, Ruby’s spirit to overcome adversity, and lastly, Inman’s and Ada’s love that sustained them both through four year’s of struggle.

Pretty much every review of this book has stated that it’s “astonishing” or “true literature” or “spellbinding”. I, in my humble opinion, would have to agree.

Chick Lit Quiz

I am not the biggest fan of Chick Lit, but I admit that I have read my fair share, which is why I was a bit surprised that I only scored a 53 percent on the Chick Lit Quiz.

Review: Charlotte Gray

One of my biggest pet peeves is male writers who POORLY write female characters. Charlotte Gray, by Sebastian Faulks, is a perfect example of this unfortunate trend.

Before I explain why I didn’t not enjoy this book, let me give you a rundown about the plot, because it actually sounds pretty good and some of you out there who aren’t as overly-critical as me might really enjoy it.

During WWII, Charlotte travels from her home in Scotland to London to help with the war effort and very soon after falls in love with a British pilot, Gregory. Gregory gets shot down over France and Charlotte decides to head to France to find him. She joins an underground network supporting the French Resistance. Her first assignment takes her to Lauvarette, a small village that is occupied by the German army. Charlotte develops a friendship with a Jewish resistance fighter, Julien, as well as becoming involved in an attempt to hide two young Jewish children whose parents were deported to a concentration camp.

I can’t tell you much more that wouldn’t be considered a spoiler at this point.

Ok, so sounds interesting, right? Well, I had a MAJOR problem with the way Faulks wrote this character. First, Charlotte and Gregory have little to no meaningful interaction (besides apparently good sex) prior to his disappearance, and yet we were supposed to believe that Charlotte was SO in love with Gregory that she would risk her life to find him? They knew nothing about each other and never told each other how they felt about each other….and yet she jumped out of an airplane and lives in disguise for 6 months to find him and bring him back home?

No, I don’t believe that.

I also don’t believe that she would spend six months in Lauvarette, develop a deep friendship with Julien with whom she has EVERYTHING in common, have sex with him, and share more experiences with him than with Gregory and STILL claim that she is in love with the missing pilot.

There were some other major distractions that really got on my nerves. The biggest one was Charlotte’s repeated recollection to some sort of abuse from her father, contributing to the depression that has plagued her for many years. First of all, clearly, the author doesn’t understand clinical depression because Charlotte exhibited NO symptoms of depression or lethargy or hopelessness during the course of the novel. Second, the explanation, when it is revealed, of why her father “abused” her was nothing short of a cop out.

One thing that I thought was great about the book was the education on the relationship between the duplicity between the Germans and the French during the early years of WWII. As I have mentioned before, my high school and college history classes did not adequately prepare me to write eloquently about world history, so I won't attempt to do it here. But my interest is piqued and I will probably be writing more reviews of WWII history in the next few months.

Boys, if you don't know how to write about women, write about men. That's my advice to you.

Listening to: The Last Kiss Sountrack

Usually, I try to refrain from reviewing movies or music because there are people out there in the Bloggersphere who are far more eloquent than I am, but every now and again, an album catches my fancy and I listen to it obsessively.

Some obsessively-listened to albums from my past include: Live’s “Throwing Copper”, Edie Brickell’s “Shooting Rubberbands at the Moon” and Damien Rice’ “O”.

Right now, I can’t bring myself to stop listening to “The Last Kiss” soundtrack.

I won’t waste time here reviewing the movie, although I really liked it. Nutshell: Zach Braff and his friends are all 30-somethings feeling trapped by their relationships or marriages. Just rent it. You’ll like it.

But the soundtrack……holy god, I love it. I’m listening to it right now for about the 28th time this week. It’s mellow, heavily showcases singer/songwriters rather than bands, and most importantly, they are all easy to sing (which I have been doing for days now).

Some highlights: 1) Snow Patrol’s “Chocolate” is a brutally honest song about a guy who seriously fucks up his relationship and wants to make amends; 2) “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainright is so upbeat and quirky I feel like I’m on a ride at Disneyland; 3) the perfectly synthesized “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap is totally hypnotic and makes me want to lay on my bed and stare at the ceiling; and 4) “Paperweight” by Joshua Radin is one of the sweetest love songs I have heard in a long time.

These are just some of my favorites, but all 15 songs are completely listen-worthy. Enjoy!

Books and Booze

Two of my favorite things in this life are a good book and a good, stiff drink. And thank god my friends and family seem to understand me so well, because my extraordinary bridal shower planners threw a “Books and Booze”-themed shower for me last weekend. The also hosted an 80s-themed bachelorette party during which I scored the most awesome “I Love Jake Ryan” t-shirt (thanks sis!).

In, addition to numerous bottles of wine, I now have on my BTR (Books to Read) shelf: Freddy and Frederica (thanks Ali) The Prophet (thanks mom), The Celestine Prophesy (thanks mom), Marie Antoinette (thanks mom), the Kama Sutra (thanks Namita), Site Hound (thanks Chrissy and Becky), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (thanks Christina), a couple awesome cookbooks (thanks Frauli and Danielle) and numerous books on bartending and wine-pairing (thanks Ronda and Karen).

This is all good news because Fiance and I are planning a 3-week honeymoon in Italy and I will need something to keep me occupied on our 13-hour flight to Naples. I’ve already started Freddy and Fredericka, which is very different from the type of book I usually read (historical fiction) so it’s taking me a while to get into it, but so far, I’m really liking it.

More reviews to come next week. I plan to devote a couple hours this week to reading and reviewing.