Jonesey's Picks

Really, the only thing that I needed to hear was "Christopher Moore's new book." The setting is Paris (mostly), the genre is Impressionism (maybe), the friends include Toulouse-Lautrec (sort of) and there is lots of bread. Moore's ability to create a protagonist out of the guy who is not an Everyman and not a classical hero and also kind of an adorable schmoe surpassing all reality and expectations in situations that could only be dreamed up by Christopher Moore is enviable and triumphant.

There is art, there are artists who go mad and paintings that go missing and the ever present beautiful woman who may not (or may) connect them.

Well-researched, funny, irreverent and also: Monet.

I had never loved Montaigne. I had wanted to, but there was something just so ... pointlessly talkative ... about him. I enjoyed the words, but there never seemed to be anything he had to say to me. To my life.

And then I read this book.

Sarah Bakewell is fully in control of this story of a man; his life; his world in society and history and the many ways his words have wandered around and across subjects, each other and the lives and thoughts of countless readers since the sixteenth century.

Four hundred years of readers can't all be wrong. 

Peer pressure aside, what I found in these pages is a story that allowed me, its reader, to happily ponder the biggest question that I have ever known to ask: how do I live a life worth living, anyway? And the answer?

Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.