The next Genre Reading Group Meeting will be Tuesday, March 30th on Zoom at 6:30pm and the topic up for discussion is illness and disease. Register your email to receive a link to the meeting on that day: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/4597967
There is a small display at the 2nd floor service desk and all
of those books are on the GRG digital shelf under shelf care here: https://oneallibrary.org/adults---reading-recommendations
This week, GRG met to talk about art as portrayed in fiction!
The
Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Moving, intimate, and beautifully written, The
Beekeeper of Aleppo is a book for our times: a novel that at once
reminds us that the most peaceful and ordinary lives can be utterly upended in
unimaginable ways and brings a journey in faraway lands close to home, never to
be forgotten.
The
All Souls series by Deborah Harkness
A Discovery of Witches
Shadows of Night
The Book of Life
Time’s Convert
Deborah Harkness's sparkling debut, A Discovery of
Witches, brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the
world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and
a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical
manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance
summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man,
vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Look for the hit TV series “A Discovery
of Witches,” streaming on AMC Plus, Sundance Now, and Shudder.
Mr.
Mac and Me by Esther Freud
In this story of an unlikely friendship, Esther Freud paints
a vivid portrait of the home front during World War I, and of a man who was one
of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation.
The
Amber Room by Steve Berry
Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler loves her job and her kids, but
her life takes a dark turn when her father dies under strange circumstances,
leaving behind clues to a secret about one of the greatest treasures ever made
by man. Forged of the exquisite gem, the Amber Room inexplicably disappeared
sometime during World War II. Determined to solve its mysteries, Rachel takes
off for Germany with her ex-husband, Paul, close behind. Before long, they’re
in over their heads. Locked into a treacherous game with professional killers,
Rachel and Paul find themselves on a collision course with the forces of greed,
power, and history itself.
The
Swan Thieves by Elisabeth Kostova
Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities
to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from
young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of
obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
Luncheon
of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
With her richly textured novels, Susan Vreeland has offered
pioneering portraits of artists' lives. As
she did in Girl
in Hyacinth Blue, Vreeland focuses on a single painting, Auguste Renoir's
instantly recognizable masterpiece, which depicts a gathering of Renoir's real
friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine. Narrated by
Renoir and seven of the models, the novel illuminates the gusto, hedonism, and
art of the era. With a gorgeous palette of vibrant, captivating characters,
Vreeland paints their lives, loves, losses, and triumphs so vividly that
"the painting literally comes alive" (The Boston Globe).
Richard
Temple by Patrick O’Brian
Richard Temple escapes from a blighted childhood and his
widowed, alcoholic mother thanks to an artistic gift, which is the one thing of
value he has to his name. His life as a painter in London of the 1930s is
cruelly deprived. In order to eat, he squanders his one asset by becoming a
forger of art, specializing in minor works by Utrillo. He is rescued by the
love of a beautiful and wealthy woman, and it is the failure of this
relationship, coupled with the outbreak of war, that propels him into the world
of espionage.
Sacre
Bleu by Christopher Moore
Absolutely nothing is sacred to Christopher Moore. The
phenomenally popular, New York Times bestselling satirist whom
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls, “Stephen King with a whoopee
cushion and a double-espresso imagination” has already lampooned Shakespeare,
San Francisco vampires, marine biologists, Death…even Jesus Christ and Santa
Claus! Now, in his latest masterpiece, Sacré Bleu, the immortal
Moore takes on the Great French Masters. A magnificent “Comedy d’Art” from the
author of Lamb, Fool,
and Bite
Me, Moore’s Sacré Bleu is part mystery, part history (sort
of), part love story, and wholly hilarious as it follows a young baker-painter
as he joins the dapper Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on a quest to unravel the
mystery behind the supposed “suicide” of Vincent van Gogh.
The
Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva
Gabriel Allon is spy AND an Italian art restorer and he
adventures along through 21 books and counting!
The first in the series is The
Kill Artist.
Lulu
Meets God and Doubts Him by Danielle Ganek
As The
Devil Wears Prada demystified the world of high fashion, this funny
and insightful debut novel dishes the crazy and captivating Manhattan art
scene. When painter Jeffrey Finelli is run over by a cab, the art world clamors
for the instantly in-demand work by the late “emerging artist”—especially an
enormous painting called Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him.
The
Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
First published in 1919, W. Somerset Maugham’s “The Moon and
Sixpence” is an episodic first person narrative based on the life of Paul
Gaugin. At the center of the novel is the story of Charles Strickland, an
English banker who walks away from a life of privilege, abruptly abandoning his
wife and children, in order to pursue his passion to become an artist.
Strickland leaves London for Paris and ultimately Tahiti, mirroring the life of
Gaugin who would also split with his wife to pursue a life of painting
eventually immigrating to Tahiti. “The Moon and Sixpence” is the story of the
demands that can be placed on a tortured artistic soul and consequently the
lives that it touches.
The
God of Spring by Arabella Edge
A tale inspired by the life of early nineteenth-century
Romantic painter Théodore Géricault traces the creation of one of his most
controversial and sensational works, Raft of the Medusa, a
process during which he makes the two survivors of an infamous French frigate
his muses.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Hitler’s
Holy Relics: A True Story of Nazi Plunder and the Race to Recover the Crown
Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire by Sidney Kirkpatrick
Drawing on unpublished interrogation and intelligence
reports, as well as on diaries, letters, journals, and interviews in the
United States and Germany, Kirkpatrick tells this riveting and disturbing
story with cinematic detail and reveals— for the first time—how a failed Vienna
art student, obsessed with the occult and dreams of his own grandeur, nearly
succeeded in creating a Holy Reich rooted in a twisted reinvention of medieval
and Church history.
Color:
A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Discover the tantalizing true stories behind your favorite
colors. For example: Cleopatra used saffron—a source of the color yellow—for
seduction. Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue “ultramarine” paint used by
Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn’t afford to buy it himself. Since
ancient times, carmine red—still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today—has
come from the blood of insects.
Jewels:
A Secret History by Victoria Finlay
Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through
history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the
glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the
Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the
peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest
by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling
stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.
The
Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The
Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty
Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to
accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British
society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to
attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess
her life and learn how to love. The Painted Veil is a beautifully written
affirmation of the human capacity to grow, to change, and to forgive.
Memnoch
the Devil by Anne Rice
"Like Interview with the Vampire, Memnoch has a
half-maddened, fever-pitch intensity. . . . Narrated by Rice's most cherished
character, the vampire Lestat, Memnoch tells a tale as old as Scripture's
legends and as modern as today's religious strife."
--Rolling Stone
The
Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe
Our protagonist takes refuge in an abandoned castle and
discovers a room with a series of paintings accompanied by a small book
describing them. His attention is attracted by an oval portrait depicting a
young woman of rare beauty. The book tells of the artist falling in love with
the gir and marrying her. It was not soon after that the girl realised her
husband was already married to his art. One day the painter decides to paint
his wife and in doing so with such fervor, he didn’t notice that as the days
passed she became more and more saddened. When the portrait was finished he was
shocked to discover that the painting of his wife was much, much more than
life-like.
The
Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Dorian Gray, a handsome young man, receives a beautiful
painting of himself from his good friend Basil Hallward. In the same moment, a
new acquaintance, Lord Henry, introduces Dorian to the ideals of youthfulness
and hedonism, of which Gray becomes immediately obsessed. Meanwhile, the
painting in Dorian's possession serves as a constant reminder of his passing
beauty and youth, driving his obsession.
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