Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea's Family, Friends and Other Victims

Note from me:  Please excuse how brief this review is.  My grandmother passed away today and I just can't see myself being able to write a thorough review, but at the same time I don't want to put this off.

Synopsis

It's no lie: Chelsea Handler likes to smoke out "dumbasses," the condition people suffer from that allows them to fall prey to her brand of complete and utter nonsense.  Family, friends, and coworkers have all been tricked by Chelsea into believing stories of total foolishness and into behaving like total fools.  Luckily, they've lived to tell the tales and, for the very first time, write about their humiliating experiences.

It doesn't matter if you're minding your own business, busily working, or honeymooning thousands of miles away.  No one is ever safe from Chelsea's fake e-mail and phony pregnancies, bogus smuggling schemes and made-up sports bets.  Because whether it's premeditated or spur-of-the-moment, Chelsea will do anything for a laugh.  And that's the truth.

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1. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang
2. Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me
3. My Horizontal Life
4. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

That is the order in which I like Chelsea Handler's book.

This book was very funny.  I found myself laughing out loud, quite frequently.  Granted...99% of this book wasn't actually written by Chelsea, but you can still appreciate it as a "Chelsea Handler" book.

As abusive as Chelsea comes off in her many pranks, I found myself actually wanting to be her friend.  She abuses cause she cares.

Bottom line, read it.  I really enjoyed it.

~Missy

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

Plot

A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

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So I liked this book.  I really did.  For anyone that's a fan of the show Castle, it's definitely am emjoyable read.  If you follow the show closely like I do, you'll know that "Richard Castle" drew inspiration for the Nikki Heat books from his own experiences tailing detectives of the NYPD and each of his police characters are inspired by a "real" NYPD detective.  Rook's relationship with Heat almost mirrors Castle's relationship with Beckett.  Almost.  It was well-written, considering it's supposed to come from an author that doesn't technically exist.

That being said, this book was pretty much an episode of Castle in book-form.  That's not exactly a bad thing, but if you're going to essentially turn your show into a book, you might as well just write a Castle tie-in novel and market it as such.  Don't try to sell it as a seperate entity.

Bottom line, if you like Castle, you'll like this book.  If you've never seen Castle, you'll probably still enjoy and, as an added bonus, you might feel compelled to watch the show, which is a must-see.

~Missy

Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Plot

When a vampire asks cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse for a favor, she complies.  And soon she's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire.  She agrees to interview the humans involved as long as the bloodsuckers promise to let them go unharmed.  Easier said than done.  All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly.

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Another great Sookie Stackhouse book.  Another example of why the books and True Blood are separate entities.

I really enjoyed this book, for pretty much the same reasons as Dead Until Dark.  There really isn't much else to add.  I like Charlaine Harris' writing style.  I like her characters.  There's honestly nothing I'd really change.  Like I said last time though, having seen the show and already being familiar with the characters and the story, there is a good deal of bias.  I can't say for certain that my opinion would be the same, had I gone into this series completely unfamiliar, but to the best of my abilities, I tried to find faults and there were none.

I am starting to see why some fans of the book don't like the show too much, though.  For what was changed in Season 1, they really veered off from the book for Season 2.  Like...really veered off.  To the point that I wonder if they could even continue to follow, the books on the show.  But, I'm getting off point.  This is about Living Dead in Dallas...not True Blood.

This is definitely a book to read, assuming you enjoyed Dead Until Dark (which you should have), but do not go into it expecting it to be the book version of True Blood.

~Missy

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Plot

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana--except for her "disability."  She can read minds.  But when Bill Compton walks into her life, she can't hear a word he's thinking--and then then one of her co-workers is killed.


Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea...

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Right upfront, let me explain to you that this review will be ever so slightly biased.  For those of you that (somehow) don't know, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are the basis for HBO's show True Blood.  That being said, I started reading this book having already seen the first season of True Blood (which is an adaptation of this book).  Actually I'd seen it twice, so...I pretty much knew the major plot points and twists.

On top of going into this already knowing the end, I also went in having read some of the disapproval Sookie Stackhouse fans had toward the way the first book had been adapted.  That being said, I'll get started on my review.

To begin with, the book's a really good read.  Usually, when I've seen the movie/TV show before reading the book, the book tends to drag for me, because I go in expecting a certain pace.  That was not the case here.  In fact, if it was dragging because of me seeing True Blood, then I can only imagine how much faster I could have read this book.  I flew through this book like it was nothing (my copy clocks in at 312 pages).  It was a phenomenal read.  Better than some other vampire books that I've read recently (*cough*Twilight*cough*).

As for a book/True Blood comparison, I definitely view the book as being a whole other entity.  The show strayed from the book enough that I'm curious to see how things pan out in the books.  A certain character, who shall remain nameless, survives the book.  They do not survive the show.  I'm very curious to see whether or not he/she reappear in subsequent books (don't say anything, for those that have read the books and know which character I'm talking about).

At this point, I would usually start listing off what didn't work for me in the book.  I'm surprised to say that I've got nothing.  I seriously liked everything about this book.  The entire time I was reading, there wasn't a single instance where I wished something had been written differently.  It was perfect.  I loved the writing.  I loved the characters.  I wouldn't change a single thing.  I loved it.

I think you can figure out my botton line, but I'll say it anyway.  I definitely...DEFINITELY...recommend this book.

~Missy