32. The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn

#1 Singularity

listened on Chirp

narrated by Nick Podehl

Unabridged audio (10:05)
2014
413 pgs.
YA Fantasy
Finished 4/6/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.93 - 1247 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Future/Fantasy America

First line/s:  "I want to ascend so badly, I can taste it.:

My comments: Eli/Elijah is a painter.  He's 17.  He's not even a great painter, except when he mysteriously disappears into what he calls a fugue state, where he crazily paints masterpieces although he can't remember any of it. He is a human, the extreme lower class of current world society.  He very badly want so become an ascender, and the only way that can happen is he he wins the artistic Olympics.  Most of the book is what takes place once he gets to Los Angeles and the current Olympics, the dancer he meets there, his best friend, Cyrus, and his devious sponsor Marcus.  The story ends abruptly as Eli is helping transport his very ill mother to a place that can perhaps cure her.  Oh yes, I'd like to read the sequel asap!  Note:  The Duality Bridge, book 2 in the series, is available in Chirp of $12.99.

Goodreads synopsis:  What would you give to live forever? Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

Poem - The Secret of My Art by Chris Harris

The Secret of My Art

"It's a beautiful whale," my teacher declared.

"This drawing will get a gold star!'

"It's a beautiful whale," my father declared,

"Your talents will carry you far!"

It's a beautiful whale," my mother declared,

"What a wonderful artist you are!"

Well, maybe it is a beautiful whale . . .

But I was trying to draw a guitar,

Chris Harris

from the book I'm Just No Good At Rhyming

Talk about "you can't judge a book by its cover! : 

Picture Book - Pencils, Pens & Brushes: A Great Girls' Guide to Disney Animation by Mindy Johnson

Illustrated by Lorelay Rove

2019 Disney Enterprises

HC $18.99

78 pgs.
J 791.4334 Johnson

Goodreads rating:  4.150 - 106 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers: solid pink

My comments:  I totally enjoyed reading through this book, and learned so much!  I'm not a huge Disney fan, but all the information about the women associated through the years of Disney history is just wonderful. 
     I particularly enjoyed learning about Kae Sumner, who was 6' 3" tall, and because she drew for the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was written up in Life magazine.  She became popular, with many people of height contacting her, and she began a club for tall people called the Tip Toppers.  So cool!
     I was looking at this book because I wanted more information about Mary Blair, who I was researching.  So glad I found this book, since Bosler doesn't have it and I had to borrow it from Coy/Shippensburg.

Included:
Lillian & Edna, the two Mrs. Disneys (Walt and his brother Roy
Dorothy Ann Blank - founder of the Story Development Department, starting with Snow White
Nelbert Chouinard - Chouinard Institute teachers taught original animators at Disney
Marge Champion -

Goodreads:  Based on the critically acclaimed Disney Editions title, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation, this nonfiction picture book is a fun and inspiring look at a few of the amazing women who have worked at Disney Animation over the years—from sculptors to inkers to painters to story artists, all with unique personalities and accomplishments, such as becoming a world record-holding pilot or creating an international club for tall people!

Learning More About Art and Artists

Blair, Mary
Disney artist

Kahlo, Frida

Sumner, Kae
Disney Artist (6' 3")

The Art of Mary Blair

Born in 1911, Mary Blair was first and foremost an artist for Walt Disney. She began working for Walt Disney Studios in 1940. Her designs and artwork for Peter Pan, Cinderella, and  Alice in Wonderland are unforgettable. She illustrated several Little Golden Books and many advertisements. She also designed the Small World exhibit in the mid-1960s!  She died in 1978.

Website:  Magic of Mary Blair

Books by and about Mary Blair, plan to find and read:

25. Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

listened to the eAudio borrowed from Bosler
narrated by Susan Bennett
Unabridged audio (13:19)
2020 St. Martin's Press
400 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction/Present time Back & Forth
Finished 2/6/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 4671 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1940 & 2019 Rural North Carolina

First line/s:  "The children knew it was finally spring, so although the air still held the nip of winter and the grass and weeds crunched beneath their feet, they ran through the field  and woods, yipping with the anticipation of warmer weather."

My comments:  I very much enjoyed this enthralling narrative, weaving the dialogue of two women almost 80 years apart in the same small town of Edenton, NC.  short chapters switched back and forth effortlessly, spending just enough time in each time period.  Art, mystery, racism, prison life, alcoholism, prejudice, and long-kept secrets wind together to  create a believable story that I couldn't put down and didn't want to end.

Goodreads synopsis:  North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women's Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.
          North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.
          What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

Picture Book Biography - Yayoi Kusama From Here to Infinity by Sarah Suzuki

Illustrated by Ellen Weinstein
with reproductions of works by Yayoi Kusama

2017, Museum of Modern Art, NY

HC $19.95
Not in Cumberland County Library system, Interlibrary Loan from Dauphin County

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.82 - 182 ratings

My rating:  4
Endpapers:  The title page is the opening endpaper and the copyright information and list of MOMA trustees is the ending endpaper.

1^st line/s:  "Yayoi Kusama was born in the country of Japan, on the island of Honshu, in a town called Matsumoto City."

My comments: Although the author says "She is widely considered to be the most popular artist in the world,"  I was completely unaware of Yayoi Kusama and her work!  I feel like a have a pretty decent grip on art and artists, but this has shown me that I have to check out more contemporary artists.  This is the story of her artistic life -born in 1929 in Japan, moved to NYC in the 1950's, and still going strong today, She is famous for her dots and squiggles, installations, and even fabric.  The text of the book was pretty basic, and I didn't get any sense of time, and none was mentioned.  When I read, "It was her first airplane trip.  There were only four other passengers, and the weather was stormy, with rain and lightning.  The airplane wobbled and dipped as it flew to America." I was like....what? ..... until reading the added bibliographic information at the end I realized this would have been in the 1950s.  No sense of that from the text, or even illustrations.The illustrations are pretty cool, and the reproductions of actual work are a great addition to the story.

Goodreads:  Growing up in the mountains of Japan, Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) dreamed of becoming an artist. One day, she had a vision in which the world and everything in it—the plants, the people, the sky—were covered in polka dots. She began to cover her paintings, drawings, sculptures, and even her body with dots. As she grew up, she traveled all around the world, from Tokyo to Seattle, New York to Venice, and brought her dots with her. Different people saw these dots in different ways—some thought they were tiny, like cells, and others imagined them enormous, like planets. Every year, Kusama sees more of the world, covering it with dots and offering people a way to experience it the way she does.
           Written by Sarah Suzuki, a curator at The Museum of Modern Art, and featuring reproductions of Kusama’s instantly recognizable artworks, this colorful book tells the story of an artist whose work will not be complete until her dots cover the world, from here to infinity

85. All the Greys on Greene Street by Laura Tucker

listened to audio - borrowed from the library
read by Taylor Miskimen beautifully
Unabridged audio (8:28)
2019 Viking Books for Young Readers
320 pgs.
HF (sort of...) MidGrades
Finished 9/5/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.91 - 2646 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting: 1981 Soho, NYC - artist community, in an artist's loft....

First line/s:   "May Day is the first day of May.  'Mayday' is a radio signal used by ships and aircraft in distress.  This spring, May Day was the first day that my mom didn't get out of bed."

My comments:  This is a book about color and art and being part of an artist community in Soho, NYC, in 1981.  There is both innocence and maturity in Ollie that makes her a really interesting protagonist.  Character development, setting, and plot were all very strong in the wonderful book.  Exceptionally well narrated.  There's an afterward talking about depression in parents and helping to explain a bit about it to a middle grade reader, telling where they could get help for themselves and the parent who may suffer from it.

Goodreads synopsis:  SoHo, 1981. Twelve-year-old Olympia is an artist—and in her neighborhood, that's normal. Her dad and his business partner Apollo bring antique paintings back to life, while her mother makes intricate sculptures in a corner of their loft, leaving Ollie to roam the streets of New York with her best friends Richard and Alex, drawing everything that catches her eye.
          Then everything falls apart. Ollie's dad disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her only a cryptic note and instructions to destroy it. Her mom has gone to bed, and she's not getting up. Apollo is hiding something, Alex is acting strange, and Richard has questions about the mysterious stranger he saw outside. And someone keeps calling, looking for a missing piece of art. . . .
          Olympia knows her dad is the key--but first, she has to find him, and time is running out.

67. The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

read on my iPhone (eBook)
2015, Feiwel & Friends
304 pgs.
YA Romance
Finished 7/21/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.93 - 13,480 ratings
My rating:5
Setting:  Contemporary San Francisco

First line/s:  "The last train wasn't coming."

My comments:  Ignore the reviews that put this book in the "so-so" category.  Those reviewers have read huge amount of ya literature and are probably quite a distance away from being young adults themselves.  This is a modern romance that includes a little bit of everything and treats teenage sex with healthy respect.  I've gotten to know San Francisco a bit in the last ten years, and it was really fun to follow Bex and Jack around the city.  Both are artists who come from very different families and income brackets, and both are suffering from a backload of family "stuff."  Who isn't, so almost any ya can relate!  The two themes that I truly appreciated in this book were those of honesty and schizophrenia.  Both were handled really well, though so were single parenting, being gay, and sexuality.  Really good book.

Goodreads synopsis: Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.
           Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?

Picture Book: Emily's Blue Period by Cathleen Daly

Illustrated by Lisa Brown

2014.  A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press

HC $17.99

56 pgs. (5 tiny short chapters, still reads as a picture book)

Goodreads rating:  405 - 1204 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  pale slate

Illustrations:  Lots of white, very much like

1^st line/s:  "Emily wants to be an artist."

My comments: An excellent picture book for kids who live in a divorced-family situation as well as a nice introduction to the artwork of Pablo Picasso.  Written in five teeny, tiny short chapters and although there are 56 pages, it still reads as a picture book in one easy sitting. Lots of discussion and art projects (including collage-making) can be created after reading this....

Goodreads: Emily wants to be an artist. She likes painting and loves the way artists like Pablo Picasso mixed things up.Emily's life is a little mixed up right now. Her dad doesn't live at home anymore, and it feels like everything around her is changing.
          “When Picasso was sad for a while,” says Emily, “he only painted in blue. And now I am in my blue period.”
          It might last quite some time.

PICTURE BOOK - Math at the Art Museum by Group Majoongmul

From the copyright page:  "Majoongmul is a Korean word that refers to "priming water" poured into a pump to start the flow before pumping water from a well.  Group Majoongmul is the name of the authors' group that creates books that serve as the priming water within children's hearts.
Illustrated by Yun-ju Kim

2015 TanTan Publishing - originally published in Korea

HC $16.95

32 nice, thick pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.92 - 24 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: Mottled cream

1^st line/s: "My sister and I are going to the art museum with our parents!  'It's interesting that math can be found in art," Dad says.'"

My comments:  Many famous artists' work is represented in this art appreciation book for kids, each named and identified well.  At first I was a bit reluctant to see particular paintings included until I realized that point-of-view/perspective is, indeed, math.  Included are famous paintings by Jasper Johns, Seurat, Kandinsky, Leger, Picasso, Degas, Magritte, Matisse, and Dali, as well as two that I must learn more about: Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Kim Jae-hong.   The last five pages are informational and include activities for kids that combine art and math.

Goodreads:  This charming and colorful book incorporates mathematical concepts by introducing children to a fresh perspective on math through art
          When his father tells him there’s math in art, a young boy is suspicious of the idea. But when the boy explores paintings and other masterpieces with his sister and their parents, he begins to understand there is math in art, both hidden and visible. He sees, too, that math in art is brilliant—and beautiful! Hands-on activities and elementary mathematical concepts that relate to perspective, composition, symmetry, patterns, and other elements in artwork turn exploring art into an eye-opening adventure.

62. The Painting That Wasn't There by Steve Brezenoff

Field Trip Mysteries #1 (as of Oct. 2017 there are 20 in the series so far)
Illustrated by C. B. Canga
read the book, borrowed from Bosler Library
2010, Stone Arch Books
85 pgs.
First Chapter Books, Mystery
Finished 10/23/17
Goodreads rating:  3.56 - 71 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting: contemporary River City, USA

First line/s:  "My name is James Shoo.  No one calls me that, though.  Everyone calls me Gum instead."

My comments:  Although the protagonists in this book are sixth graders, this is definitely a book for kids who are just starting to read chapter books.  The story and the characters are very simple.  The mystery, although absurd to an adult, would probably be enjoyed by a first or second grader. I would definitely add this to my collection of first chapter books. It's unimportant that the kids are older, they act like any kids - and would totally be embraced by a younger reader. The book has all the elements of a mystery, and would be a good read aloud when introduction the genre to a first or second (or perhaps even third) grade class.

There are several pages after the story that could be very useful in a classroom - including discussion questions and ideas about setting up a mystery notebook for yourself.

Goodreads synopsis: James "Gum" Shoo's art class heads to the museum. They've been learning about forged art, but they never expected to find a fake in the gallery! Only Gum and his gumshoe friends will be able to solve this museum caper.

MOVIE - Maudie

PG-13 (1:55)

Limited release June 16, 2017

Viewed date at Carlisle Theater (downtown) onFirday, July 21, 2017
IMBd: 7.7/10

RT Critic: 90   Audience:  93
Critic's Consensus:  Maudie's talented cast -- particularly Sally Hawkins in the title role -- breathe much-needed depth into a story that only skims the surface of a fascinating life and talent.

Cag:  5.5.Loved it

Directed by Aisling Walsh

Sony Pictures Classics

Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke

My comments:  About halfway through the movie I realized that it had to be a biopic, based on a true story.  Had to be.  Maudie Lewis was Canada's Grandma Moses, born in 1903, died in 1970.  Sally Hawkins was amazing as a arthritically crippled painter, aging, becoming more bent and stooped while looking for the good in her curmudgeonly husband, played by Ethan Hawke.  He was pretty decent, too (but MUCH better looking than the real guy probably was), but Sally Hawkins stole the show completely.  Their actual life was lived in Nova Scotia, but the movie was filmed in Newfoundland and was just gorgeous.  The credits at the end of the film were interspersed with some of Maud Lewis's real paintings.  Superb movie, easily a five.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  MAUDIE, based on a true story, is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched with crippled hands, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family and she also yearns, passionately, to create art. Unexpectedly, Everett finds himself falling in love. MAUDIE charts Everett's efforts to protect himself from being hurt, Maudie's deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.

PICTURE BOOK - What Degas Saw by Samantha Friedman

Illustrated by Cristina Pieropan
with reproductions of works by Edgar Degas (7 of them)

2016, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.97 - 34 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: Front: Pen and Ink people - Back: Made to look like a blank canvas

My comments:  The concept of the book is that Paris is changing and that Degas, as an artist, wanted to change with the times.  So he went out walking the streets of Paris, examining its people and their activities.  The explanation is in words and watercolor and ink illustrations, but when you turn the page, you see Degas' actual painting.  The writing was lovely, except for the first and last page. "The world was changing.  Paris was alive." (What, exactly, does this mean?).  Then, on the next-to-last page was my favorite paragraph, "Soon he would put brush to canvas, or pastel to paper, or ink to plate, and he would try to describe the city's push and pull, its run and hum, its lean and stretch."  But when you turn the page, it reads, "But for just a little while, all was still."  There is still activity on the streets.  Those two pages - because of their words - just didn't work for me.  Ah, well.  Otherwise, an excellent picture book.

Goodreads:  What Degas Saw looks at the world through a beloved artist’s eyes and provides insight into his creative process. Walking through the streets of Paris with cape and cane, the French artist Edgar Degas observes the world around him, finding inspiration at every turn. From the blurry faces of passersby glimpsed through a bus window to the sun-dappled landscape seen from a moving train, from the hunched profiles of laundresses at work to light-bathed ballerinas on the opera house stage, the artist—with open eyes and a curious mind—collects impressions of the people and places he sees. Accompanies major MoMA exhibition, Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty, on view March 26 through July 24, 2016.

PICTURE BOOK - Why is Art Full of Naked People and Other Vital Questions about Art? by Susie Hodge

Illustrated by Claire Goble

2016, Thames & Hudson, Britain

HC $19.95

96 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.12 - 25 ratings

My rating: 5
Glossary, Index

Endpapers: Light blue with all sorts of different question markes in white
Thick board cover - not sure why, it makes it appear to be a big board book, which it isn't

My comments:  When I picked up this book, before opening it I asked myself, "How can you write a whole book - for kids - explaining why art if full of naked people?" Well, come to find out, it's the second half of the title that really explains the book - Other Vital Questions About Art.  Hodge uses 88 pieces of well-known art by famous artists, and with humorous and informative short paragraphs answers good questions and gives interesting information while giving the reader a chance to examine great art.  As many times (hundreds!) that I've looked at Seurat's  "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Tatte" I never, ever realized that he'd drawn a frame around the picture using more dots - thousands of them!  I really, really enjoyed reading this book....and discovered quite a bit of new artists while doing so!

Goodreads: Why is Art Full of Naked People? is an irreverent and informative primer that asks tricky questions about what makes art art. What is with all the fruit? Why is art so weird nowadays? There are questions about how art views the world, from cave paintings through to Cubism, from the Renaissance to contemporary art, questions about different genres, including still-life painting, landscapes and portraits, and questions about the role and value of art in the past and today.
          Artists ask questions when they make art and viewers ask questions when they look at art; this book provides an engaging way for young people to explore asking and answering questions for themselves. The book is structured around twenty-two questions, each one tackled over two spreads. Through this provocative approach it offers an introduction to art history and a toolkit to enable young people to feel confident asking questions, searching for answers, and “reading” art for themselves.

PICTURE BOOK - The Artist and Me by Shane Peacock

Illustrated by Sophie Casson

2016 Owlkids Books

HC $16.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.92

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers:  white with pale blue/gray dabs of paint - a few generic photos in the front, none in the back

1^st line/s:  "In the beautiful countryside in southern France near the town of Arles long ago, I used to do an ugly thing."

My comments:  4.5  This book says SO much.  The story, from the point-of-view of a bully who was horrendous to VanGogh when he lived in Arles, is excellent and thought-provoking.  I love the way that Sophie Casson used Van Gogh's paintings and put her own "brand" to them for most of the illustrations in the book.  There is one illustration, however, that is a bit off-putting to me, a doubled page spread of the bullies laughing at him.  They are really ugly and don't fit with the rest of the story somehow.  Perhaps it's to show how ugly bullies really are?
     I've already got lots of lesson plans in mind to use with this book - both for Owning Up/ Annatude/ bullying and for the glory of VanGogh's art!  This is a really nice addition to the genre of art books for kids.
     1 - Van Gogh's art
     2 - info about Van Gogh (include info from the afterword)
     3 - read aloud the book
     4 - create a piece of art using the kinds of strokes that Van Gogh and Casson used

Publisher's Weekly review.
Kirkus review.

Goodreads:  Vincent van Gogh is now known as an acclaimed, incomparable Post-Impressionist painter. But when he lived in Arles, France, in the 1880s, he was mocked for being different. Back then, van Gogh was an eccentric man with wild red hair who used clashing hues to paint unusual-looking people and strange starry skies. Children and adults alike called him names and laughed at him. Nobody bought his art. But he kept painting.
          Inspired by these events, The Artist and Me is the fictional confession of one of van Gogh’s bullies — a young boy who adopted the popular attitude of adults around him. It’s not until the boy faces his victim alone that he realizes there is more than one way to see the world.
          Artwork in the book uses vibrant color and texture to bring the laneways, cafés, and wheat fields of southern France to life while playing on scenes from van Gogh’s own work. The lyrical text carries the emotional weight of the subject and will leave readers with the understanding that everyone’s point of view is valuable.

9. Saint's Gate - Carla Neggers

(It DOES look there will be more...)

2011, Mira Books

334 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 1/26/2015

Goodreads rating:  3.64

My rating: 2 - It was okay, but didn't grab me at all

TPPL

Setting:  Contemporary southern Maine coast (with a tiny bit of Dublin, Ireland thrown in)

1st sentence/s:  "Emma Sharpe steeled herself against the sights and sounds of her pas adn kept up with the nervous woman rushing ahead of her in the dense southern Maine fog."

My comments:  I SOOOO wanted to like this book, but it was a little too like a cozy mystery for me.  The story could have been told quite well in 100-or so less pages.  The introduction and description of the two major paintings in the story were confusing...it took me more than awhile to realize that two different paintings were being discussed.  There were too many solutions that just fell into their laps (one chapter even began with the protagonist "finding" a key to get into the rectory, a place he's never before been.....).  One of the reasons I picked up this book was the setting - I've been in all those smallish Maine coastal towns hundreds of times and the descriptions in the book didn't take me there at all.  Not even a little.  So I was really disappointed.  However, I bet there are lots of mystery readers that will love this book...a "lighter" mystery than my tastes crave.

Goodreads book summary:  When Emma Sharpe is summoned to a convent on the Maine coast, it's partly for her art crimes work with the FBI, partly because of her past with the religious order. At issue is a mysterious painting depicting scenes of Irish lore and Viking legends, and her family's connection to the work. But when the nun who contacted her is murdered, it seems legend is becoming deadly reality.   
          Colin Donovan is one of the FBI's most valuable assets -- a deep-cover agent who prefers to go it alone. He's back home in Maine after wrapping up his latest mission, but his friend Father Bracken presents him with an intrigue of murder, international art heists and a convent's long-held secrets that is too tempting to resist. As the danger spirals ever closer, Colin is certain of only one thing—the very intriguing Emma Sharp is at the center of it all.    
          A ruthless killer has Emma and Colin in the crosshairs, plunging them into a race against time and drawing them deeper into a twisted legacy of betrayal and deceit.

51. The Art Forger - B. A. Shapiro

2012, Algonquin Books

355 pgs.

Adult mystery

Finished 8/13/2014

Goodreads rating:  3.67

My rating:    4 - Loved it

Acquired TPPL, Recommended by Fran

Contemporary BOSTON!

1st sentence/s: "I step back and scrutinize the paintings.  There are eleven, although I have hundreds, maybe thousands.  My plan is to show him only pieces from my window series.  Or not.  I pull my cell from my pocket, check the time.  I can still change my mind."

My comments:  I haven't read late into the night to see what was going to happen in a book in ages. This was an interesting book on many levels.  It was a clever mystery (at the end, the reader had some facts about some of the "whys" that even the protagonist did not have).  It was about art ... and artists ... and the art world ... which all seem totally fascinating to me.  It was based on a real-life art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that i have followed for the last 20+ years.  The protagonist has many flaws, which makes her seem real.  She is sneaky and also brutally honest.  She is driven.  I also got to learn a lot about Edgar Degas in a really interesting way.  I only think of his ballet paintings when I hear his name, so now I want to look at much more.

Goodreads book summary:  On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye.

Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting—a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.

MOVIE - The Monuments Men

PG-13 (1:58)

Wide release 2/7/14

Viewed with Fran at the Orleans 2/15/2014

RT Critic: 34 Audience: 52

Cag: 3-Liked it

Directed by George Clooney

SONY Pictures

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchette,

My comments:  I enjoyed learning about the history behind this World War II true story.  The storyline was a little choppy, but the actors were enjoyable and the story extremely interesting.  And it's never difficult watching Bill Murray and Matt Damon!

Fandango review:  Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.

Zentangle Untangled - Kass Hall

Inspirantion and Prompts for Meditative Drawing
North Light Books, 2012
128 pgs.
$24.99 TPPL
Goodreads Rating:  3.62
My rating:  3/Liked it

I found the subtitle a little misleading,   - at least the "prompts" part.  I'm not sure what was meant by that, I don't really consider there are prompts, exactly, here.  However, I did learn from - and enjoy - this book - primarily as a gallery.  It's fun to see finished products that aren't part of instruction.  There are 12 tangles that are showcased, including 8 by the author and her friends.  Half the book is about adding color to your tangles, and her take is interesting.  I wouldn't consider this a beginning book, but one in which you can enjoy the art and the artist's thoughts.

Goodreads Summary:  Unwind, Tangle and Relax!In "Zentangle Untangled," Kass Hall introduces you to the fun and relaxing \doodling\" process of Zentangle(c)--an engaging art form that uses repetitive patterns to create striking works of art that anyone can achieve regardless of age or artistic ability.

Following an explanation of the Zentangle(c) process, inside you will find 12 step-by-step demonstrations showing you how to create enticing tangle patterns, followed by several examples of how to add eye-popping color to your pieces, as well as fun ways to use tangles in your art journals. Captivating pieces from Kass and a slew of other artists will further satisfy your craving for inspiration!