Book Nook Club: art

Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

January 23, 2012

Reverb by J. Cafesin

Let me start off by apologizing to the author of this book. I received a copy of this to review a while ago haven't had a chance to read it until now. Once I finally started Reverb, I couldn't put it down.

James Wren is brilliant, beautiful, wealthy, and taken - with himself, or more precisely, his genius for creating music. But on the evening of his brother's funeral, his father turns James' life upside down.

All that happens in the first fifteen pages.

James escapes from the prison his father put him in and goes on the run to find money and disappear forever. While on the run, he crashes into new and old friends who don't recognize this James - a James with suicidal scars on his arms, wakes up with nightmares, and doesn't trust anyone. Despite his friends' wishes, James retrieves large amounts of money and disappears to a small island outside of Athens, Greece.

And that's where he meets recently widowed Elisabeth and her young son Cameron. Their story isn't a happy and optimistic one, it's a real one about facing your fears, learning from your past, and building a new future. Up until he met Elisabeth I didn't like James but Elisabeth brought out an completely different side of him both to her and to me as the reader, and I really appreciated the way the author did that. By the end of the book, I really liked the three main characters (Elisabeth, James, and Cameron) and wanted to just keep following their story.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I have two warnings for readers out there. First, don't judge a book by its cover. The cover is disturbing and not the James I imagined in the book at all. If I saw the book in a bookstore or library, there's no chance I would pick it up based on the cover. And second, this book has A LOT of language and a few disturbing scenes (James was tortured, raped, etc.). If you don't handle either of those things well, I do not recommend this book to you. Other than those two things, this book was great. 4 stars.

I receied a free copy of this book in return for my honest and unbiased opinion.
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June 30, 2011

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose is the third book in a series that begins with The Reincarnationist and is followed by The Memorist, but it stands perfectly well on it's own. (I haven't read the other two and I did not feel left out at all).

The Hypnotist is a thrilling and quick moving, smart novel that will keep you thinking once you've closed it. The book follows Lucian Glass, a member of the FBI Art Crime Team (ACT), as he tries to uncover crimes and mysteries spanning the course of a time between 24 hours and 4 thousand years ago.

The main object Glass comes to protect is an ancient statue, Hypnos. It was believed that Hypnos was created during the time of philosopher, Pythagorus, and used to help the sick find peace in sleep temples. As Glass begins to uncover truths about this statue, he also begins to realize how many people are in search of it themselves. Several countries take claim to it's ownership and hire terrorists to help retrieve it at any cost. Another takes claim to it's ownership through rightful inheritance. While still another seeks it for it's hidden mystical powers, in hopes of unlocking the secrets of reincarnation.

Glass is able to learn more about each persons' quest to it's ownership by diving into his own past lives through hypnotism. He discovers that he has had a hand in Hypnos' history all along and is still being used to protect it in his current life.

It's difficult to write a review for this book because it was written like a puzzle. There are many characters, and you don't quite understand how they fit into the storyline until the end. Little by little, the picture starts coming together and you are able to realize the intricacies of the plot. His is how you know it's truly great writing! Rose had everything well researched and in order prior to piecing this all together... she really knew what she was doing. The chapters are very short and each moves to a different character or time, always making you want to read more... just one more chapter and then I'll go to bed... ok, ONE more!

Overall, I found the story to be smart, interesting, thrilling and mysterious. I really enjoyed it!

4.5 stars!

I received this book free of charge for the purpose of this review. This is my honest opinion.

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May 11, 2011

The Swan Theives by Elizabeth Kostova

I'm always excited to see a big fat book I've never read before, doubly so if it's by a writer I'm familiar with. I grabbed this almost without thought during my last trip to the library, registering the writer's name with a mental golf clap, and salivated at its juicy width without actually knowing anything of the contents.

I reviewed The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova nearly two years ago. It was a compelling yet somewhat disturbing read, because it took a familiar myth, the story of Dracula, and made it seem plausible. It was psychologically dark, and several times its darkness made me feel I ought not to be reading it, but I am not one to put a book down unless it is phenomenally bad.

The Swan Thieves is also dark, but not in the same way. I never felt my soul was suffering for coming back to it every night. It's dark in a more romantic way, the way of impossible love and tortured artists and fascinating spans of History. It centers around painting, Impressionistic painting in particular. I do enjoy art but have never studied it and don't especially want to. I don't want to become one of those people that becomes so cerebral about brushstrokes and geometry and form and self-importance that they can't see the forest for the trees. I think there's a real purity about appreciating art in a state of ignorance. It's not an excuse; I have met too many art snobs that I have no wish to be like.

The Swan Thieves is the story of a troubled artist, Robert Oliver, who paints the same unknown woman in great detail obsessively and repeatedly. In doing so he loses his sanity and his relationships, until he is led to attacking a painting at the Met, resulting in his arrest and institutionalization. His psychiatrist, Dr. Marlow, a painter himself, is determined to get to the bottom of Oliver's issues. But when he is stonewalled by his patient he is forced to investigate on his own.

What follows is an interesting story of a talented female painter living at the time and space of Monet and other great Impressionists. As Marlow uncovers her story the reader finds it mirroring Marlow's own (a bit cliche in my opinion). He unravels a semi-great mystery and we find ourselves in a happily-ever-after scenario.

This was a good book, but not as riveting as The Historian. I had trouble getting into it and staying with it, not really getting interested until about halfway through. The first half reminded me too much of the film Don Juan DeMarco, although it's not at all comical. The mystery once unraveled isn't as climactic as the modern reader has come to expect, and the ending was too easy. Oliver experiences a complete full recovery as soon as Marlow reveals his knowledge of it, even though Oliver already has complete knowledge of it, and is released the next day. I don't like easy explanations or endings that seem to have come together under a looming deadline. I feel this book, while good, could have been better. That being said, I will certainly read whatever Kostova comes up with next, and hope she has learned from this one.

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June 27, 2010

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Every time I pick up a historical fiction novel I am expecting to be blown away because of my experiences with novels like Cleopatra's Daughter. But lately every time I get through one, I'm highly disappointed because maybe my expectations were too high. The back cover of Girl with a Pearl Earring says, "The bestselling novel hailed by critics from coast to coast." It's a good thing I wasn't one of those critics.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is about a real artist, Vermeer, and a fictitious muse that becomes the source of one of his most famous paintings. The muse is a young girl, Griet who has to go to work as a maid to make money for her family when her father cannot. As she cleans the artists studio, she becomes his apprentice/assistant of sorts. As is the case with many instructor/student relationships, Griet quickly falls into adoration with her master both physically and artistically.

The book was well written and had a good plot, but I was left dissatisfied in far too many ways to put it on my book recommendation list. As hard as her life really was, the author made it seem like life was easy for Griet and things just worked out in the ways they were supposed to. I didn't feel her emotions at all and didn't connect with her at all. 3 stars for good writing but definitely not on the top of list.

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January 23, 2012

Reverb by J. Cafesin

June 30, 2011

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose

May 11, 2011

The Swan Theives by Elizabeth Kostova

June 27, 2010

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

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