There has been much internet talk about buying books as Christmas gifts in order to bolster the publishing industry.
Lucy Pick has started a
meme describing ten books she's enjoyed this year in order to give people ideas of books they might like to read themselves or buy for another. Here's my contribution to the effort:
Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name: A beautifully written fictional account of the life of an African woman during the colonial era: her abduction by slave traders as a child, her harrowing journey to South Carolina and its indigo plantations, her escape to New York and relocation to Canada, and her eventual return to Africa and work with British abolitionists. I learned many new things about British involvement in both the slave trade and the abolition movement. The colonial timeframe is a nice change from the standard Civil War setting.
Vanora Bennett, Portrait of an Unknown Woman: Although I haven't finished this one yet, I'm finding it an engaging account of the interaction between the painter Hans Holbein and the family of Sir Thomas More, with an intriguing twist on the story of the Princes in the Tower. The depiction of sixteenth century life and thought is quite detailed and accurate.
Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Française: The interrelated stories of a vast cast of characters caught up in the German Occupation of France. Beautifully executed characters detailed from a wryly ironic perspective; the author explores human weakness and the heroic self-sacrifice in ways that makes both extremes sympathetic.
Alice McDermott, After This: A lyrical account of the inner lives of the members of an Irish Catholic American family during the Vietnam War era. McDermott captures the dynamics of the large Irish Catholic family so perfectly as she charts the course of the various Keane siblings during a turbulent era.
R. J. Knecht, Renaissance Patron and Warrior: The Reign of Francis I: A thorough account of the life and times of François I, who ruled for thirty-three years as the Renaissance blossomed in France. The author shies from a strictly chronological approach and organizes the material thematically within loose boundary dates. Well chosen photographs and artwork support the text, which introduces many major figures the sixteenth-century Europe. If you've always wondered when or why something happened in Renaissance France, this is the book to start with.
The other books I've loved this year I've already blogged about:
Catherine Delors's Mistress of the Revolution, C.W. Gortner's The Last Queen, Michelle Moran's Nefertiti.
If I can remember others (why do I always go blank when someone asks me for book suggestions?) I'll add them to the list.
Happy book browsing. I hope you find lots to like this season at your neighborhood bookstore!
I just discovered this exhibition running at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 16: "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy." Here is the description of the exhibit, taken from the Met website:
One of my readers was kind enough to identify the cover portrait for me. The painting, Portrait of a Young Girl Holding a Book, was painted in 1545 by the Florentine painter Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Il Bronzino (1503-72). Nicknamed in all likelihood for his dark complexion, Bronzino was the pupil and adopted son of the painter Pontormo. For most of his career Bronzino worked as court painter for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. He decorated the private chapel of the duke's wife, Eleanor of Toledo, and painted a highly detailed portrait of her and her son in 1550 (below). Bronzino is known for his vivid use of color and analytical detachment from his subjects, as well as the enamel-like finish he gave his works. He painted many religious and allegorical themes (a fine example is An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, below) but is best known for his portraiture. He helped found the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts in 1563. Also a poet, Bronzino wrote and circulated more than 300 poems over the course of his career.
I was goofing around the other day and made myself a cover for The Measure of SIlence. I'd been looking for a sixteenth-century portrait of a woman holding a book and was thrilled to find this one (although I didn't note the artist or title, and now I can't remember where I found it!). Anyway, I proceeded to cut off most of her head--otherwise no one would realize the book is a historical novel. *wink* I don't have an art program on my laptop, so just imagine my name and the title in the blue area in the upper left. Voilà. They say if you want to succeed at something, visualize yourself doing the thing successfully. We'll see how it works!
There has been much internet talk about buying books as Christmas gifts in order to bolster the publishing industry. Lucy Pick has started a meme describing ten books she's enjoyed this year in order to give people ideas of books they might like to read themselves or buy for another. Here's my contribution to the effort:
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