The Night Portrait

Laura Morelli has changed her usual historical period from the Renaissance to 1930s and 1940s Germany with The Last Portrait. It includes an account of the Butcher of Poland Hans Frank's acquisitions of stolen art from Polish families and museums. He is an historical figure who was executed at Nuremberg in 1946 for his war crimes.  Frank is known for killing six million Poles during WWII. Morelli's fictional characters were not likable but, of course, they worked for the Nazis.  The story alternates between the WWII era and 1490s Milan.

The blurb summary reads:  

"Milan, 1492:  When a 16-year-old beauty becomes the mistress of the Duke of Milan, she must fight for her place in the palace - and against those who want her out.  Soon, she finds herself sitting before Leonardo da Vinci, who wants to ensure his own place in the ducal palace by painting his most ambitious portrait to date.

Munich, World War II:  After a modest conservator unwittingly places a priceless Italian Renaissance portrait into the hands of a high-ranking Nazi leader, she risks her life to recover it, working with an American soldier, part of the famed Monuments Men team, to get it back.

Two women, separated by 500 years, are swept up in the tide of history as one painting stands at the center of their quests for their own destinies."

I am not sure how I feel about the Edith Becker character who was a conservator at an art museum.  I believe the author tried to portray her in a positive light. I just don't buy it. While I understand that it is hard to go against the political tide, especially when that puts your life in danger, she did in fact participate in stealing artworks in Poland for the Nazis.  She got off easy.  Edith was never tried for war crimes.  She was retained as an adviser to the Allies when the war ended.  I don't know if this is plausible or not. Likewise, I don't know if it is plausible for a German citizen to have felt sympathy for those whom the Nazi's targeted as Edith did.  My history education showed that the Germans were enthusiastically behind Hitler. They were crushed when he died and the war ended.  I wish that I could find out what the author intended for her characters and her plot.  Did she just want her readers to think? I would love to interview her to find out.

I am always suspicious when WWII stories are told by characters who were German but never felt the love for Hitler. If this many people opposed Hitler in real life would he have been successful? When am I going to see a WWII story about a German who loved working and killing for Hitler? I guess this protagonist would not be sympathetic to readers but neither are the white washed characters in current historical fiction. With 68% of American youths disbelieving that the Holocaust happened, these stories are not helpful. 

The Cecelia Gallerani character was more believable. She had no choice in life other than to enter a convent or become a kept woman. I respect her decision. This is the type of character Morelli is good at writing about. She excels in writing Renaissance novels.  In addition, I had a slight problem concerning the promotion of the book. It is advertised as a novel of DaVinci's Italy. However, DaVinci was not central to the plot. Also, the WWII subplot overshadowed the Renaissance era subplot. The WWII story covered 70% of the book and I did not feel that I was reading a DaVinci plot as advertised. The horrors of the second world War made me feel overwhelming sadness as I read the book.  For example, Morelli explicitly details Allied soldier's thoughts as they liberated one concentration camp after another.  One striking fact that I never thought of before is that someone (soldiers) had to clean up the emptied camps; such a gruesome thought.

I usually love a Laura Morelli book but this one left me with many questions.  As I contemplated Edith more and more I realize that I just did not like her. I did enjoy following the plot even though half of it left a bad taste in my mouth. I hoped that Edith would get her act together but she never did.  An unlikable protagonist is death to a novel.

I don't know how to rate this book.  It was an emotional journey.  It certainly made me think and my misgivings affected how I feel about the book.  My personal biases concerning the actions of the German people during WWII  were challenged, which made writing this review difficult.  If the author intended to create such a flawed and unlikable character, she just wrote the book of the year. 

October Armchair Travel Plans

Next month I will be traveling via the armchair to six countries. With my supersonic mind I will be flying to Israel, Iran, Spain, Italy, Burma and China with books written by Rachel Kadish, Guy Gavriel Kay, Marjan Kamali, Charmaine Craig, Ken Tentarelli, and Maxine Hong Kingston.  I will be transported to the 1930s as well as the medieval era. The books from my bookshelf that I will be reading can be seen in the below book covers.

Rage

"I bring rage out.  I do bring rage out.  I always have.  I don't know if that's an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do."  Donald Trump, March 31, 2016.

Rage is the second book Bob Woodward has written about Donald Trump's presidency.  It is a sequel to Woodward's 2018 book Fear and covers Trump's entire first term in office. I was thrilled to get one of the first copies of the book.  While reading I sensed that much of the information presented in the book I already knew about, but it seemed new. Trump fatigue has affected my ability to remember. 

The first third of the book concerns all of the scandals, foreign policy problems, impeachment and all of the discord among staffers. Woodward then begins to talk about COVID-19.  Since I am a news junkie I will only mention information that is new to me that I feel is noteworthy. The timeline of events was one of those things new to me. Two U. S. government offices, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH), received notice about the coronavirus on December 31, 2019. Robert Redfield immediately began working on a memo.  On January 1, 2020 he distributed the first internal report regarding the virus within the CDC.  On January 3, 2020 the U. S. was aware that it spread from human to human contact by deciphering the lies it was told by a Chinese representative over the phone. On January 5 Chinese social media sites were using #WuhanReportedMysteriousPneumonia and the posts indicated community spread of the virus.  By January 10, 2020 when the Chinese posted online the virus's genome, a vaccine began being worked on by Dr. Anthony Fauci at the NIH. This timeline is vastly different from what the media has reported. Essentially, the U. S. government knew everything it needed to know to act by the end of the first week of January. The problem with acting swiftly was that Trump was not on board. He did not want to act. Trump did not declare a national emergency until March 13.

Another interesting piece of information is how Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner behaved in his role as senior advisor to the president. He stated that the Administration's communication strategy was called "intentional wrongness persuasion."  He was quoting the Dilbert cartoon.  Kushner also told Woodward that "controversy elevates message."  He was further quoted saying "Trump would say that he is going to respect the One China policy, that is wasn't that big if a give because you can always say you wouldn't respect it a day later." Whew!  Is Kushner just as nuts as Trump or is this something he came up with to explain why Trump behaved as he did?

The timing of the publication of Rage is perfect for reminding voters of all we have been through with Trump. Whether you like Trump or not, Rage is the reminder we need in order to determine how to cast our ballots. After all, all of us have Trump fatigue.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Lover's Portrait

 

The Lover's Portrait:  An Art Mystery is the second book in Jennifer Alderson's Zelda Richardson Mysteries. Three additional books have been published and all of them are art mysteries.  The author also writes the Travel Can be Murder cozy mystery series.

The Lover's Portrait alternates between the WWII era and the present day. The story opens with Philip Verbeet and Arjan van Heemsvliet storing artworks in a secret location to keep the Nazis from finding them.  The scene then flips to the present day Germany with Konrad Heider perusing his computer for sightings of paintings from his late father's lost art collection. The scene changes one more time to Amsterdam in the current year. Zelda Richardson has just been hired as an intern at The Amsterdam Museum and tasked with revising the website for an exhibition of over 3,000 stolen artworks that have gone unclaimed since WWII. When the exhibition opens one month later, Zelda is invited to attend with her boss. There she meets Rita Brouwer, an American who is claiming that her father owned one of the lesser known paintings that she calls Irises. Zelda falls in love with Rita's family story and wants to help her prove that she is the owner of the painting. When a photo of Rita and the painting appear in the newspaper the next day, another claimant comes forward. Who is the owner? The Museum meets with the claimants as an investigation into the ownership of the painting begins. 

I loved this art mystery. Zelda's extensive investigation into a stolen artwork was fascinating. Before reading the book I did not know the process that museums follow to determine the history of a painting. Alot of research has to be done concerning the artist's business and personal life. Business records, mortgages, leases, letters, birth and death records, new articles, exhibition catalogs, and government documents are reviewed to become familiar with the artist. Likewise, a claimant's background is similarly reviewed to see if it matches up with the artist's background. 

Zelda is a great amateur sleuth. With an art history baccalaureate degree, she is seeking to be admitted to a master's program in museum studies. Zelda is ambitious enough to defy her superiors at the museum. She wants to come up with new facts to impress her bosses and has to take risks to find them, even if that puts her in danger.

The other two books in the series are now on my tbr list. This mystery was that good.  5 out of 5 stars.

Upcoming Books in September

Two of  my favorite authors will publish a new book next week.  On September 15, 2020 Bob Woodward's second book on the Trump presidency, Rage, will be published.  It is a sequel to his 2018 book Fear. Likewise, Ken Follett is publishing his fourth book in his Knightsbridge series. It is titled The Evening and the Morning. I cannot wait to read both of them.  As soon as I get up out of bed next Tuesday I will be on Amazon.com to purchase them. I want to read and review them both ASAP but since they are both chunksters it will take a few days.  Rage is 480 pages long and The Evening and the Morning has 926 pages. 

There is a new book by Laura Morelli. The Night Portrait was published a few days ago on September 8. On September 29, Joanne Fluke's 26th installment of her Hannah Swenson Mysteries will be published. The Christmas Cupcake Murder is a cozy mystery. I enjoy the light reading that Fluke provides with her books. Next month, on October 20, 2020, Ariana Franklin's fifth and final book in her Mistress of the Art of Death series will be published. Franklin has passed away so the book is co-authored by Samantha Norman. I cannot wait for Death and the Maiden to be released! 

This Was Our Pact

This Was Our Pact is a children's graphic novel completely illustrated in shades of blue.  Five friends decide that they will meet on their bikes and follow lanterns that have been placed in a river as they float downstream. They have many adventures along the way, with friendships being cemented throughout the journey.

The publisher's summary:

"It's the night of the Autumn Equinox Festival, when the town gathers to float paper lanterns down the river.  Legend has it that after drifting out of sight, they'll soar off to the Milky Way and turn into brilliant stars, but could this be true?  This year, Ben and his classmates are determined to find out where those lanterns really go, and to ensure success in their mission, they've made a pact with two simple rules:  No one turns for home.  No one looks back.

The plan is to follow the river on their bikes for as long as it takes to learn the truth, but it isn't long before the pact is broken by all except for Ben, and (much to Ben's disappointment) Nathaniel, the one kid who just doesn't seem to fit in.  Together, Nathaniel and Ben will travel farther than anyone has ever gone, down a winding road full of magic, wonder, and unexpected friendship."

This Was Our Pact is a great fantasy quest for kids. Kids will love the adventures that the boys come across on their journey. Every now and then science facts are thrown in but the quest to follow the lanterns is the main story. The adventure itself is mesmerizing but the artwork with all its blue hues accentuates their escapades. The storyline also includes the quest of a bear that the boys meet so this book is definitely all about the exhilaration of following a quest.  

5 out of 5 stars.

Notes on a Thesis

French cartoonist Tiphaine Riviere's graphic novel covers the life of Jeanne Dargan during her 6 years as a PhD student.  While the book is satire, her story is sad and discouraging as well. Jeanne's life during those years was so disjointed that I would not choose to work one a PhD myself.

The publisher's summary:

"When Jeanne is accepted on to a PhD course, she is over the moon, brimming with excitement and grand plans - but is the world ready for her masterful analysis of labyrinth motifs in Kafka's The Trial?  At first Jeanne throws herself into research with great enthusiasm, but as time goes by, it becomes clear that things aren't quite going according to plan.  Notes on a Thesis is a reminder of the strangeness of academia, of every awful essay, every disastrous exam, and every insanity-inducing dissertation."

The artwork in Notes is interesting.  As Jeanne becomes more and more discouraged by her lack of progress, she is drawn with an increasingly wilted body.  Some of the other characters are drawn the same way, especially the lazy administrator Brigitte who I think resembles a government employee more than an administrator. I think I know her! She looks like my department's secretary.

The story was funny but also discouraging. I have thought about getting an advanced degree but Jeanne's experience makes me think twice about it. Jeanne got bogged down in teaching grad students and spent years just working on her thesis idea and creating the writing plan. This is not something that I want to do. 

Riviere is known for writing satire. She certainly excelled with Notes. She has Jeanne reading 3,200 books during the research phase of her degree and Jeanne wrote a 69 page outline of her thesis. Unbelievable!

5 out of 5 stars.

Shanghai Dream

Shanghai Dream is a sad book.  It is well written and illustrated but because the story concerns Jews running away from Nazis, and then the Japanese, in order to save their lives.  It ends abrultly without a denouement and I feel the rest of the story should be told in a subsequent novel. Luckily, Shanghai Dream is Book One.

The publisher's summary:  

"A young German Jewish filmmaker escapes the Nazi threat in Shanghai, where he is forced to adapt to a new land and cope with familial loss through the magic of filmmaking.  In 1938 Berlin, aspiring filmmaker Bernard Hersch works at the UFA studios and dreams of one day directing the screenplay he and his wife Illo are writing. But as a Jew in Hitler's Germany, Bernard faces increasing danger and discrimination, and is soon forced to accept deportation to Japan as his only hope.  However, Illo, disconcerted at having to abandon her elderly father, leaves Bernard behind at the last minute and returns to Berlin, where she and her father are shot by Nazis.  Rerouted to China, a heartbroken Bernard struggles through grief and vows to bring his and Illo's screenplay to life as a tribute to her legacy. Along the way, he finds love in a city under siege."

I was spellbound by the storyline. It was an emotional roller-coaster to read how the family made one choice after another, all of them lose-lose choices. I fell in love with the Bernard and Illo characters and felt like I knew them, perhaps because I have friends who lived this reality. The writing was suspenseful. A fast pace increased the suspense but it was also written with a sense of dread as the family had to make decisions quickly if they were going to survive the antisemitism directed at them. 

The artwork was drawn in comic strip panels. Some pages were colored by Delf in sepia tones and others were in black and white. All of the pages that referenced the writing of Illo's screenplay were drawn in black and white. 

Shanghai Dream is an accurate retelling of a part of WWII history. I highly recommend it, especially for young people.  5 out of 5 stars!

Book Art

What is book art? Is it book spine poetry? Is it book folding?  What about a color coded personal library? It is all three and probably more. 

I first learned about book spine poetry in 2012 when Librarything hosted a book spine poetry contest. At the time I had over 2,000 books of my own to choose from. I still found it difficult to come up with a poem. This form of "poetry" was initially created in 1993 by Nina Katchadourian for her Sorted Books Project. She began collecting interesting titles from her own library and arranged them in piles to create a column of poetry.  

I discovered book folding when my church hosted an art project in 2014 using old hymnals. About 20 members participated. I did a basic page folding technique but others carved out parts of pages with an exacto knife to create a scene. A few members cut shapes out of the pages and put them together in a 3-D sculpture. 

My Pinterest page has several examples of how to organize your books on bookshelves so that you create a color scheme.  This one is my favorite.  However, I cannot see how a prolific reader can create this type of a scheme because we buy the books for reading purposes not the color of their spine.  A company called Books by the Foot sells books in any color scheme and on any subject. I doubt these customers are the type of readers who read for pleasure because they are only purchasing books to create a piece of art in their homes, albeit art on a bookshelf.

If you know of any additional forms of book art, please leave a comment.

Lockdown

Peter May is one of my favorite authors. He wrote this book fifteen years ago and couldn't get it published. Publishers told him the idea of a worldwide lockdown due to a pandemic was unrealistic. I will bet that they regret their decision today. Lockdown was recently published by Quercus on June 13, 2020.

The story opens with Detective Inspector Jack MacNeil investigating the discovery of human bones in Lambeth, approximately five months after a flu pandemic hits London killing 80% of the infected. A thumbprint found on a public transportation ticket near the bones gives the first clues.  MacNeil's girlfriend, forensic scientist Dr. Amy Wu, determines that the bones belonged to a ten year old asian female. Wu begins to build a facial reconstruction of the female from her skull and later believes that she could be the source of the pandemic. MacNeil is followed throughout his investigation by a killer named Pinkie. Pinkie has been hired by a Mr. Smith to watch the police investigation unfold and ensure that the bones don't lead the police anywhere.  

The Lockdown plot was not what I expected.  It was mainly about the relationship between MacNeil and Wu instead of about the pandemic.  Since we are currently in a coronavirus pandemic, following the story's pandemic seemed to me to be more significant than MacNeil and Wu's relationship. It may be that a pacing problem resulted in the plot becoming more about the relationship than the action needed to resolve the pandemic.  Did the author spend too much time with character interaction, thereby slowing down the action?

Lockdown was not Peter May's best work nor was it his worst. The characters marginally kept me interested in continuing to read. The main reason that I kept reading was the fact that Peter May was the author. When he is at his best, his books are a dream to read. 

This suspense thriller had no suspense or thrills. 3 out of 5 stars. 

Filmish

Filmish:  A Graphic Journey Through Film offers the reader a history of the film industry.  Drawn in black and white comic panels, author Edward Ross teaches readers about the biases that are built in to the movies that we watch.  He focuses on seven aspects of filmmaking. They are the eye, the body, sets and architecture, voice and language, time, ideology, and technology and a separate chapter addresses each of these topics. The information he gives is beefy enough to be a textbook on films. The words and writing style that he used are also typical of a textbook. I certainly see it this way. Knowing nothing about movies before reading Filmish, I have come away with a long list of movies that I need to watch in order to see more clearly what Ross is talking about in each chapter. 

The first films were only a few seconds long and were created by putting several photographs together. The human eye will see movement where there is none and a new type of entertainment was born. Subsequent filmmakers improved upon this technique with new technologies. One aspect of filmmaking that has never changed is "male gaze." In the early days of the movies, producers purposely used storylines that could be enhanced with female subjects in situations that men like to watch. While several films have been made recently showing male muscle and nudity so that women could have "women gaze," the author states that men primarily watch these films to determine what women want from them. Nothing has changed here in a hundred years of making movies. One interesting fact about the use of sets is that heroes are shown in natural environments and villains are shown in stark, monochromatic environments. I never noticed this before and can't wait to watch a movie to see this for myself. Censorship is an issue covered at length in Filmish. The author writes that filmmakers will sign a contract with the Pentagon agreeing to only show the military in a positive light in exchange for the use of their machinery in a film. Producers see this as a way to save money as they can be assured of making an "approved" movie that will not be banned by theaters. 

I have learned so much about films from reading this book. I can't recommend it more highly. Anyone who loves movies as well as students who concentrate on studying filmmaking should read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

Favorite Historical Fiction Series

For the past couple of years I have been reading a lot of historical fiction.  While I prefer historical mysteries, there are several series and authors that I follow. They include:

C J. Sansom - Matthew Shardlake
Anna Castle - Francis Bacon Mysteries

Laura Morelli - Renaissance Artisan Series

Ariana Franklin - Mistress of the Art of Death

S. D. Sykes - Oswald de Lacy, Somershill Manor Series

C. De Melo - Medieval Mysteries

Ruth Downie - Medicus
Sharon Kay Penman
P. K. Adams
Conn Iggulden
Brenda Rickman Vantrease
Nancy Bilyeau
C. W. Gortner

Unfortunately, Ariana Franklin has passed away and there will not be any more novels coming from her. Anna Castle is currently working on the 7th Francis Bacon Mystery, Now and Then Stab, but also is writing another series that I am not that fond of. I loved Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series but have struggled with reading his other series. The Conqueror series concerns the lives of the Mongol warlords Ghengis and Kublai Khan. P. K. Adams is a fairly new author.  She has written three books. Two of them are a duology on the life of Hildegard and the last one is the beginning of a new series that takes place in Poland and Lithuania. Christine De Melo has published quite a few books and I have loved them all, with the exception of the last one which is not a historical fiction book.  Freelance is a spy romance based in Florence, Italy. Of course, anything C. W. Gortner and Nancy Bilyeau write are superb.

The medieval period is my favorite era. I would love to read about the Visigoths  though, but don't even know if anyone has tackled this era yet.  I have been having thoughts about writing one myself.  I would need to do alot research and am not sure that I am capable of writing historical fiction.  I have written some mystery short stories and feel much more confident about writing that genre. Anything is possible though.  

What are your favorite historical fiction series and authors?

My Favorite Cozy Mystery Serieses

While at one time I primarily read cozies, I currently only regularly read six cozy book authors. These authors write more contemporary cozies that are mysteries as well.

Cleo Coyle - Coffeehouse Mysteries
Susan Wittig Albert  - China Bayles
Laura Childs - Indigo Tea Shop
Julie Hyzy - White House Chef
Gary Corby - Athenian Mysteries
Ellen Crosby - Wine Country

The White House Chef series is over and I am not sure what is happening with Gary Corby's ancient Greece series.  He should have published another installment of the series in 2018 and 2019 but hasn't.  I used to read additional serieses but gave up on them. They are traditional cozies with more simple plot lines.

Joanna Carl - Chocoholic Mysteries
Leslie Meier - Lucy Johnson
Joanne Fluke - Hannah Swenson
Lillian Jackson Braun - Cat Who Loved Series
Dorothy Gilman - Mrs. Pollifax Series
Chris Cavender - Pizza Lover's Series
Margaret Frazer - Sister Frevisse Series

The latter four ended for various reasons. They may have not gotten their publisher's agreement to continue publishing the series or the author moved on with writing something different.  My favorites from this group are the Mrs. Pollifax and Sister Frevisse Novels.  I have been thinking lately about rereading them since I already know that they will be satisfying reads.  While caregiving for my mother twentysome years ago, we read many of the same books. She would read them first and then I would read them.  My mother loved the Mrs. Pollifax series too and we would talk about them, anxiously waiting for the next book to be published. This is one of my fond memories of that time period. Lillian Jackson Braun's series was another of her favorites. She did not read the other series that I have listed above but I know that she would have loved them. 

I have been searching for a new series to follow. Eileen Watkins' cat grooming series is enjoyable. There are only four books in that series to date and I have read three of them.  I also liked Molly MacRae's Last Wool and Testament, a haunted yarn shop mystery.  Since I am not fond of ghost stories I don't know whether this series will work for me. I did enjoy the fiber art aspect of the book though.

What cozy series do you read?