Book Recommendation 

Let me preface this recommendation with disclosing the fact that I am generally obsessed with the French Revolution and all things Napoleonic Wars, and Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo is among my top five favorite books. Naturally it would follow that I would love the biography written about Dumas’s father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who inspired the character of Edmond Dantes and served in Napoleon’s army. 

Though a biography, this book reads like fiction. Scenes are vividly imagined, the language is engaging. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas just might be the coolest dude in all of fracking French history–the highest ranking person of African descent in any European army ever. Also completely unafraid to write a direct letter to Napoleon as follows:

“I have learned that the jack ass whose business it is to report to you upon the battle of the 27th [the 27 Nivôse, i.e., January 16] stated that I was only in observation throughout the battle. I don’t wish any such observation on him, for he would have shit in his pants.”

If that’s not the kind of guy you want to read a well-written book about, well then you can get out of my office, you hooligan.