Amsterdam Sketchbook

I have had a difficult time locating this book. After a year of searching various websites I finally found one that had a copy to sell. Artist Graham Byfield has published several other watercolor sketchbooks since Amsterdam was published, with Menorca coming out earlier this year. Byfield's style is loose. He is somewhat detailed in his watercolor paintings but not as detailed as France's Fabrice Moireau. I prefer lots of detail but that is not to say that I don't enjoy Graham Byfield.  

Amsterdam contains paintings of several neighborhoods.  Byfield created drawings in the Oude Zijde, Nieuwe Zijde, Leidsestraat, Rosengracht, Amstel and Vondelpark.  A handwritten font is used to describe each painting which adds a personal touch to the sketchbook.  I think that this sketchbook has more information for each subject than other sketchbooks by both Byfield and other watercolor artist sketchbooks.  I enjoyed reading about the buildings and parks that Byfeild drew.  There are 4 or 5 full page paintings but most pages contain 2 paintings.  The publisher, EDM, always publishes their watercolor sketchbooks on actual watercolor paper so that the paintings are shown in the best format.  

This is a first rate artist's book that inspires me to get busy on my own artwork.  I highly recommend it to artists of all mediums.  It makes a great coffee table book too.  5 out of 5 stars.

Empire of Pain

Empire of Pain details the Sackler family's pharmaceutical businesses. The Sacklers have given us librium, valium, oxycontin as well as the antiseptic betadine and the laxative senotkot.  From the language that the author has used, it is obvious that this book was intended not just to ruin the family name (which they did a good job of themselves) but to show that the opioid epidemic in the U. S. was directly caused by the use of oxycontin. However, "gaps" in the meticulously researched expose speak loudly.  

The Sackler brothers Arthur, Raymond and Mortimer were the children of American immigrants Isaac and Sophie Sackler. As first generation kids, their parents instilled in them the desire to make a name for the family. Sophie wanted all of her sons to be doctors and they all became one. Arthur, being the oldest, led his brothers to inherit all of his jobs and businesses when he went to college, whether that be a paper route or a vice president in one of his many corporations that he started while still in high school. When it came time to start a new corporation for the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma, Arthur's push to succeed caused him to shelter the family under 30 shadow companies. This business structure remained over the decades. These umbrella corporations handled things that would be a conflict of interest for Purdue Pharma, such as medical advertising and medical trials. The main company did the research and development, the drug trials and the advertising of the drug. Arthur made a ton of money for the family and succeeding generations merely followed his business plan.

Another one of Arthur's ideas was to take a product and advertise it as not just being for the main purpose it was created for but also to broaden its functions so that more people would want to buy the product. Arthur was a master advertiser. He was taking over the advertising for companies when he was still in high school. With the Sacklers being involved in pharmaceuticals, they were steering people toward drugs that were created for patients with severe pain even though their pain might be considered slight or moderate. These company strategies were later determined to be criminal and resulted in the company's downfall.

The author performed meticulous research. He read every document in every lawsuit of which the family was a part. The author's premise that oxycontin was the sole cause of the opioid epidemic does not hold water. He shows how those people prone to addiction and those who were already addicted to other drugs became addicted to oxycontin. However, he does not cite any data that shows that all people with chronic pain became addicted.  This was the family's defense. Many patients with chronic pain from identifiable conditions shown on x-rays and MRIs could not be shown to be addicted. Given that the author researched every single document on Purdue Pharma it is suspicious to me that there was no study showing this to be true. The author always refers to specific documents to prove his point. However, he sidetracked on this point and I can only surmise that is because there is no evidence to the contrary. 

A big part why family members behaved the way they did was due to their overwhelming wealth. The second and third generations grew up with no boundaries and no real concern for how well they performed in school or how well they performed their jobs in the company. If a problem arose concerning reports of addiction from oxycontin use, they simply ignored it because it was not in their interest.

Empire of Pain is a great resource for readers who want to learn the details about the oxycontin problem.  I highly recommend it.  5 out of 5 stars.

Play Dead

Play Dead is a fast pulsing techno thriller that takes place in the year 2050, fifteen years after the U. S. A. entered a drought and after characters Clair Milton and Timothy Blake were born. Both kids attend the St. Andrew's School of Higher Learning in the accelerated learning program. They are dead heads, that is, while using virtual reality technology they die to their identities in the real world and assume alternate identities in a virtual reality.  

The publisher's summary:

"The discovery of two teenagers ritualistically murdered in a secluded Austin park outrages a nation already on the brink of tearing itself apart. The victims are the latest in an epidemic of deaths linked to a mysterious, underground virtual game known only as Play Dead. 

The forensic evidence soon points to Jamie Hamilton, a brilliant yet naive young man on the autism spectrum. But Angie Channing, a world-renown true crime writer, isn’t so sure. Could such a seemingly innocent person be capable of clinical brutality? Why the rush to silence him? What secrets are hidden in the world of Play Dead that were worth killing for? What if Jamie is the key to something far more sinister? 

Angie quickly finds herself in a relentless game of cat and mouse that threatens far more than just her sanity or her life. How far will she go to uncover the shocking truth? Enter a psychological thriller ripped from tomorrow’s headlines that will haunt you until the last page. It is said that nothing is as it seems in the halls of power and that some truths are far too dangerous for the common man."

The setting is not Texas but the virtual reality world itself.  How virtual reality works as well as how it could be used in the future is prominant.  After all, the story takes place 30 years from now and the virtual reality of today has been tremendously expanded in this futuristic novel. I don't know much about virtual reality but the book had a sci-fi feel to me. 

The characters were quite compelling. In the beginning the reader only hears about Clair and Timothy but Angie Channing is the main character.  The hunt to determine what Clair and Timothy had discovered about a virtual reality game called Play Dead is the focus of Angie's search for truth. The answer concerning what the teenagers found also solves their murders. One thought kept coming back to me:  how can two teenagers know more about this topic than the adults who create these virtual reality games.  It didn't seem authentic to me. Angie and another character, Jamie, are the primary characters after the teenagers are killed. Jamie is autistic and is a virtual reality game champion. Society calls him a derogatory term  "dead head."  Angie is also a dead head but she has been able to keep this fact a secret from her readers.  Angie has authored a book on the subject and is researching another one.  No one knows how she does her research, though.  

The plot is intricate but I got lost in all the background information on virtual reality.  I am not scientifically inclined so trying to figure all this out was challenging.  This was a huge drawback to my enjoyment of the novel.  Some chapters went so far over my head that I merely tried to read fast through them until more plot action took place.

 I enjoyed Play Dead but did not enjoy it as much as someone who is more scientificaly inclined will enjoy it. However, I will highly recommend the book.  It is thought provoking.  4 out of 5 stars.

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba follows the lives of three revolutionary women, two of whom actually lived in the 1890s when the story takes place. The novel was inspired by real-life events in Cuba as well as the true story of a legendary Cuban woman - Evangelina Cisneros.  The novel also shows the real-life struggle between two newspaper publishers for the top circulation in New York City: Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. 

The publisher's summary:

"A feud rages in Gilded Age New York City between newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.  When Grace Harrington lands a job at Hearst's newspaper in 1896, she's caught in a cutthroat world where one scoop can make or break your career, but its a story emerging from Cuba that changes her life.  

Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana women's jail, eighteen-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression.  When Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, proclaiming her "The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba," she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence.

With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, Grace and Hearst's staff attempt to free Evangelina.  But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom."

The Cuban setting comes to life with the author's meticulous descriptions of the homes of the rich and the poor.  She presents the awful truth about the conditions of the women's prison in Havana, the Recogidas. The prisoners all lost a tremendous amount of weight, froze during the night and many just hugged their bodies and stared into space. The prison is what I remember most from the novel. I learned a great deal about the battle between Pulitzer and Hearst. Pulitzer ran a news focused paper that did not earn much profit.  Hearst, on the other hand, ran news stories that were sensationalized and his profits soared. Does this sound familiar in today's society?

The only character that interested me was Evangelina.  Perhaps she was easier to write about since there are many news articles about her.  We know from history what she thought and how she lived during this time period.  The other two main characters did not seem as prominent, although the chapters that were told from their points of view had just as many pages as Evangeline's chapters.  Evangelina was brave but she had to be.  Before her arrest and incarceration, she was spoiled, rich girl.  We don't see her slowly becoming brave, she just rose to the occasion when it was necessary.

I enjoyed reading The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba and highly recommend it to historical fiction fans.  It isn't every day that we get a novel set in Cuba. This should be appreciated by those of tired of reading about books set in England, France and Italy.  4 out of 5 stars.

The Guest List

The Guest List is a novel about the wedding of Jules and Will on a remote Irish island. The festivities are taking place at The Folly, a restored fifteenth century building. All of the characters are in the bridal party. None of the actual guests are part of the plot. We have Aoife, the wedding planner, Johnno, the best man, Olivia, sister of the bride, Charlie, the man of honor for the bride, Charlie's wife Hannah, and ushers Duncan, Pete, Femi, and Angus.  The ushers met the groom whe they were in school at Treveyllen's. The story takes place on the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding and the night of the wedding. 

The story is told from several points of view. We hear from Jules, Will, Johnny, Aoife, Olivia and Hannah, who is Charlie's wife. All of these characters have secrets with another character. No one knows all of the secrets. How they are related becomes aware as each character tells their story. 

I tend to like novels with alternate stories but this one had too many. Usually there are only two alternate storylines. We have six here. It was difficult to follow but, more importantly, it was a little dull. The last thirty pages show how all of the character's lives intersect and there is  a shocking conclusion. However,getting there did not make much sense. There were so many main characters that none of them seemed appealing to me. I think the author had a difficult time with the plot because she showcased six people at the same level. 

Not my best read. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Marriage Clock

The Marriage Clock is a delightful modern day story about a South Indian American Muslim woman living in Los Angeles. Leila Abid is a 26 year old single woman who teaches high school English. Her parents are mortified that she has not gotten married yet and begin to search for a husband for her. Leila, though, wants to find a husband on her own.  She does not want an arranged marriage.

Leila discusses her predicament with close friends Tania, Annie, Liv and Hannah. Tania, a divorced Muslim, is the only friend who agrees with Leila that she should not accept an arranged marriage.  Tania had a bad experience with hers. Leila's other friends offer suggestions on how to find a man such as online and speed dating. With her parents setting up family dinners with prospects from her mother's portfolio, Leila agrees to an arranged marriage but only after she has had three months to do her own search. The marriage clock is ticking for Leila.

This story showcases Leila's internal musings over her self worth as a female.  Indian women are taught from birth their only value is from marrying well. A doctor or engineer is the preferred career for a prospective husband. Leila, though, grew up in Los Angeles and has American ideals concerning marriage. While she is a Muslim, her parents had a semi-traditional home. These two factors contribute to Leila's predicament.

I loved this novel and highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Stacking the Shelves #5

I just returned home from a trip to Barnes and Noble having spent way too much money. I could have easily spent $500 but was able to keep my purchases lower.  There are four new books that I am adding to my bookshelf. Two are graphic novels, one is art history and the fourth book is historical fiction.  

Yellow the history of a color is the fifth book in a series by Michel Pastoureau. He has written books on the colors black, green, red and blue. While the blurb states that the book is chock full of images, it really is a scientific book on the color.  It focuses on the visual, social and cultural history of yellow with chapters on the color's place in art, religion, fashion, literature and science.

China is the latest novel in a series by Edward Rutherford.  He has written historical novels on Paris, London, New York and Ireland.  When I first saw the book, I recognized the surname of the author.  When I was in college I had a class on asian history.  I remember reading two books written by someone with the last name of Rutherford.  One was on China and the other on Japan. I loved those books and wondered whether this Rutherford wrote those histories.  I do not know if this author is the same person or not but it propelled me to buy the book.

Hawking is a graphic biography of Stephen Hawking.  I have had this book on my Amazon wishlist for some time so when I saw it on the B&N shelf, I bought it.  The illustrations are colored which is a must if I am going to buy a comic. 

Idle Days is about a man who deserted his post in the Canadian forces. The man's mother sent him to live with his grandfather in a remote location.  Here he is isolated and the only thing that interests him is the history of the house.  The house has bootleggers, a fire and a suicide as former residents and their ghosts begin to haunt him.  The comic has colored illustrations which, as I said above, is a must for me to want to spend money on a comic.

I am going to get started reading these tonight.  It's a cold, rainy day here in Chicago so I will get a cup of cocoa and sit in my favorite chair.

Book of the Month: May

My favorite book for this month is Alan Brennert's Honolulu. While there were 2 other books that I loved I had to pick Honolulu because I am enthralled with Hawaii.  Psychological thrillers The Girl From Silent Lake and The Lantern Boats were close seconds.  Honolulu concerns the lives of seven picture brides who emigrated from Korea to Hawaii around 1913.  A picture bride is a woman chosen by an overseas man for marriage on the basis of the woman's photographs. They don't see who they are marrying until they step off the boat. Most of the women were married on the ship's dock having just set eyes on their men. The lives of these seven ladies are detailed through 1957.

The Banks

Roxane Gay's The Banks is a heist thriller in comic book form. The Banks are a family of thieves from the South Side of Chicago and include married couple Melvin and Clara, their daughter Cora and their granddaughter Celia, an investment banker.  Their philosophy is to get in, get out, get paid and don't get greedy.  They are the most successful thieves in the city.  When Celia, who has long turned her back on her family, comes across a great idea for the heist of all heists it brings together three generations to determine whether it is feasible.

The Banks is a fun read. I especially loved the illustrations and coloring. The story begins in 1972 and I remember the fashions and hair styles well. It's what made me read the comic twice before writing a review. Ming Doyle drew the illustrations and Jordie Bellaire did the coloring. The colors that Bellaire used are all cool jewel tones which I found attractive. 

The Banks family accurately reflects the the time and place of the story. All three of the Banks women are products of the era in which they were born. Clara and Celia have a particularly rough relationship as Celia wants to be an honest worker in a high paying career while Clara didn't feel she had many options for a career. Celia is an investment banker and her grandmother tells her that being a thief is not as bad as being an investment banker.  Cora tells Celia that Celia steals from more people than Clara and steals much more money. Thus, Clara is more honest than her granddaughter. While the heist itself is prominent, these three characters are a major part of the story. 

Highly recommended!  5 out of 5 stars.

Redfork

The advertisement that I read for Redfork went as follows:  "Ex-con Noah McGlade returns to find his coal mining hometown of Redfork to be blighted by opioid use and economic decline. But there is something even darker draining the life from this town. As Noah digs deeper he unearths a dormant horror that threatens to consume what little he has left to live for." I was not expecting to read a dark supernatural horror comic but that's what I got. Obviously I missed the clues in the description.

Tragedy follows Noah upon his return to his hometown. His younger brother gets trapped in a mine and his daughter, who suffers from asthma, cannot get medical attention becauseshe is not insured. When a scab miner, Gallowglass, rescues Noah's brother during a strike, he sets up the townspeople against Amcore. Amcore is an energy giant in the country and owns the mine. 

This comic has alot of foul language, even too much for me. The artwork  reflects the horror story that is Redfork. The pages are colored in dark blues, greens and purple and supernatural creatures abound. This type of comic is not my cup of tea but other readers may enjoy it. It had a detailed plot and character development so I hate to give the book a poor rating just because Redfork is not the type of book I enjoy.  I will leave that up to other reviewers.

Persian Perpetrator

When I purchased this cozy mystery for my Kindle, I thought it was a full length  novel. However, it is only 113 pages long. The story began well with the introduction of the characters, including a Persian cat named Monkey Business.  The coronavirus shutdown has just begun in Christchurch, New Zealand where the story takes place. The author's dialogue between the characters was the apparatus used to advance the plot. In a modern twist, all of the dialogue was via Zoom community meetings. I knew that one day we would be reading stories that take place during Covidtide but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly.  

Because of the shortness of the script there was no sleuthing here.  Gossip among the city residents tells the reader who killed Lilith, an elderly woman. No investigation of Lilith's murder is mentioned either. In this respect the book was a let down. I was impressed, though, at the naturalness of the conversations between neighbors as well as showing how they had a hard time adjusting to lockdown. I also expected that the series would prominently feature a feline. Monkey Business did not have a role in the plot so I am unclear what the title refers to.

There are 4 more books in this series. I can only assume that they are short like Persian Perpetrator. I think I will skip them. 1 out of 5 stars.

Reckless

Reckless is part one of a new comic book series by Ed Brubaker. Part 2, Friend of the Devil, was published last month and the third and final part will be published later this year.  Reckless follows a man named Ethan Reckless.  He has a home business where he fixes your problems, for a price.  If someone owes you money, he will get you the money.  If someone stole your artwork, he will get it back.  It is something that he fell in to after helping out a few friends.  His jobs increased due to  the spread of word of mouth and after 2 years Ethan decided that it would be his career.  The setting is 1980s Los Angeles where sex and drugs were rampant. However, Ethan's past as a radical in the 1960s comes back to haunt him when a former girlfriend, Rainy, asks for his help. She has been running from the law ever since she took part in a bombing for the Weathermen group.  It's funny that Ethan Reckless is considered the good guy in this comic.  When compared to some of the people he does business with Ethan seems likable but he is clearly breaking the law just as his clients are.  

The artwork was drawn by Sean Phillips and colored by Jacob Phillips.  The dark color palettes used are monotone.  For me, it was a little depressing. There are a few pages colored in oranges which I liked better.  I prefer that the artwork be lighter but I must admit that the Phillips duo matched the feel of the story.  

Having come of age in the 1960s, Reckless was a trip down memory lane.  I enjoyed reading about the chaos of the times and even was proud of the "work" the Weatherman group was doing.  Today, I view their activities as domestic terrorism but back in the day, they were cool. Also, I hate to admit that I used to dress the way Rainy dressed.  

All comic fans are going to love this graphic novel.  I highly recommend it.  5 out of 5 stars.

The Henna Artist

The Henna Artist is a captivating story about a businesswoman in 1950s India. Our heroine, Lakshmi Shastra, is a thirty-year-old henna artist who lives in the pink city of Jaipur. She has left her husband because he frequently beat her and she has since built up a nice business drawing her original henna designs on the wealthy women of Jaipur. She has become the confidante of many of the ladies and must tread carefully in order to hide her own secret that she left her husband. One day her husband Hari shows up with a dirty young girl wearing rags. Hari wants money from Lakshmi for bringing her younger sister to her. Lakshmi did not know that her mother had another child after Lakshmi married and left her parent's home. However, she gives Hari some money and takes the girl in. 

I read several reviews of the book before writing mine and was surprised that many focused on abortion. Some of them gave a poor review because abortion was part of the story. I didn't even remember this part of the book as I began to compose my summary of the book. It was not central to the plot. Lakshmi uses herbs to heal people from whatever ails them. It is a skill she learned from her mother. Part of her herbal remedies includes a herbal drink that will cause a spontaneous abortion.  She also had a concoction that aided conception but other reviewers focused on abortion. In 1955 India when the story takes place it would not have been unusual for a pregnant woman to seek out someone with these skills. I think it is realistic to have a character perform this service for her community. It does not offend me that it happened. It is history.

That said, the novel has plenty of historical detail. The author lavishly describes the clothing, food, and atmosphere of India.  The reader learns what it feels like to ride in a rickshaw, visit the noisy street markets, have an arranged marriage, as well as seeing how the division of the upper castes and lower castes affects the daily lives of the characters. I particularly loved reading about the bright colors of the saris that the women wore. The artistry of Lakshmi's henna designs was vividly illustrated, another aspect of the novel I relished.

I loved this novel. I can highly recommend it but if you do not want to read about an abortion provider, you will want to skip this one. 5 out of 5 stars.