A Recent (and Fun!) Read: The Art Forger by BA Shapiro

A year and a half ago I read The Forger's Spell by Edward Dolnick. I'd just visited Atlanta's High Museum of Art's Dutch painters exhibit. I loved the exhibit, and the highlight was seeing the real "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as the last painting in the exhibit. I had built the book up and was so excited to read it, but was disappointed.

The Forger's Spell was a let down. Only a few parts interested me as a person who enjoys art but can only draw stick figures (my recent visit to a BYOB and paint-your-own-canvas thing produced a piece I'm not sure is worth hanging in my house).

Fast forward to this summer. I borrowed The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro from a friend, and this book has made up for the other in a sense. The book begins 25 years after the robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston (right about now). A talented painter named Claire has been trying to make it as an artist and win back a good reputation after accusations of a forging a painting a few years before. To earn money to supplement her own original works, Claire is paid to paint copies of famous paintings sold as fakes online by a large retailer. When she's approached by a trusted friend from the art world with a secret project with a large paycheck, Claire struggles to make a decision that's ethical and true to herself.

While I'd still be interested to read an interesting nonfiction book about the underground world of forging the works of famous artists, and the theft at the Gardner Museum, I enjoyed this book. The Art Forger was fun fiction, and was just the right amount of art for a person like me with good pacing and a character I could understand.

It's an interesting time to be reading a book like The Art Forger, as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the U.S. Department of Justice have just released new information on the heist this month. The two men who stole some of the world's most valuable paintings are now confirmed dead, though their names haven't been released. Now the investigation to locate those paintings continues.

Here's hoping they catch the thief and someone writes a good book about how they got away with it.

Book Review: Re Jane by Patricia Park

Re Jane by Patricia Park

Published by: Pamela Dorman Books
Published on: May 5, 2015

Page Count: 352

Genre: Fiction

My Reading Format: ARC ebook for Kindle provided by NetGalley

Available Formats: Hardcover, Kindle ebook, Audible

My Review:

Jane is a college graduate living in Queens, NY, with her uncle and his family, and working in the family business, an international grocery store, while she is job hunting. As she is unappreciated and brushed aside by her uncle and his family, they are the only family she has outside of Korea. When a friend shows her a want ad for an au pair in Brooklyn, she puts her dreams of a job on finance on hold and applies for the job. This live-in job will ensure that she can quit her job at the family business and move out from under her uncle's roof.

In her new role, Jane is caregiver for Devon, the Chinese adopted daughter of Ed Farley and Beth Mazer, two professors. In their home, she is out from the watchful eye of her uncle and his high expectations that she'll act according to her Korean upbringing. Jane feels freer to be herself and forms a friendship with Ed over late-night conversations in the kitchen, which develops into a deeper relationship. As Jane is falling more deeply in love, she and her New York family are summoned to Seoul for a family funeral.  

Jane stays in Seoul longer than expected, and while she is gone, September 11, 2001 happens in New York City, changing everything. She finds a job teaching English and makes new friends. In Seoul, Jane also becomes more self-assured. Her time in Korea makes Jane's attempt to balance the two parts of her life (Korean and American) and her family's wishes with her own even more difficult.

Overall, I liked this modern interpretation of Jane Eyre. As a modern woman, I wished Jane had a stronger resolve against her attraction to her boss. I was disappointed that she was so intrigued with Ed without getting a connection from his end. I found their relationship to be creepy, as Beth wasn't the madwoman in the attic but a very present parent in the same household as this developing romance. Ed went back to Beth, which I expected. Becomes more self-assured once she spends time in Seoul. She's tired of doing what's expected of her. Jane leaves Ed. She knows she can do better for herself. He knows it too.

I very much enjoyed watching Jane navigate her world, which included living in two cultures and balancing what she wanted to do with her life with what she was expected to do. By the end of the book, I was satisfied with the decisions she made for herself. And, even though she dreamed of a job in finance, she made a good au pair and I liked watching a warm relationship with Devon develop. 

Three and a half out of five stars

If you liked this book, you’ll like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (of course!), The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland. 

Book Review: The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin

The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin (The American Heiress)

Published by: St. Martin's Press

Published on: July 29, 2014

Page Count: 480

Genre: Historical fiction

My Reading Format: ARC provided by NetGalley on behalf of publisher

Available Formats: Hardback, paperback, audiobook, Audible, Kindle ebook

My Review: 

Empress Elizabeth "Sisi" of Austria, in need of a change of scenery and some space from her husband Emperor Franz Joseph, travels to the English countryside to engage in fox hunting with her English royal counterparts. Here she is provided with Bay Middleton, a hunting guide and accomplished horseman who is without a fortune. Bay is engaged to Charlotte Baird, a noblewoman who is bossed around by her older brother and his fiance Augusta. Charlotte looks forward to starting her life with Bay but he is sidetracked by his employ by Sisi, who is older but beautiful. The attraction between Sisi and Bay is mutual, and Bay is torn between the potential for an exciting affair with the Empress or a comfortable life with Charlotte. 

I've long had a fascination with the British royal family, and since my trip to Austria last year, I've now added to that my obsession with Austrian-Hungarian royalty. This book, a marriage of the two, seemed like a perfect to-read for me. Therefore, I liked the book on the whole just for that reason. I also liked learning more about a traditional English hunting expedition. From a technical standpoint, I like Goodwin's writing style. She uses description beautifully and told the story in a way that was enjoyable to me as a reader.

I had trouble with a couple things with regard to character development. Charlotte is a well-rounded character, and I really felt for the tough spot she was in. Bay, however, made his choice very quickly right at the end of the book, which felt forced to me. Sisi was an interesting character, but I would have liked to know more about her inner struggle between her attraction to Bay and her loyalty to her husband and family. Overall I thought this was a fun read, even though I felt the plot was resolved abruptly. I'd love to do more reading about Sisi.

Three out of five stars

If you liked this book, you’ll like The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin, Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen, Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall, A Nervous Splendor by Frederic Morton and Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams.

Book Review: A Wedding in Provence: A Novel by Ellen Sussman

A Wedding in Provence: A Novel by Ellen Sussman

Published by: Ballantine Books

Published on: July 15, 2014

Page Count: 288

Genre: Fiction

My Reading Format: ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley

Available Formats: Kindle ebook and hardcover

My Review: 

Have you ever been a part of a wedding (your own or a family member or close friend's), and in the days leading up to the big event, tensions and relationship drama and past issues all begin to surface, layers peeling away like an onion? We all have. Weddings bring out the best and worst in people. All that togetherness can really make things interesting.

That's the case in A Wedding in Provence for the soon-to-be wed couple Brody and Olivia. They've arrived in the French countryside a few days before their ceremony, to be held at the inn owned and operated by Olivia's best friend Emily and her husband Sebastian. As the other wedding guests arrive, we learn about their relationships with one another and their past and present lives. There's Brody's womanizing best friend Jake, Olivia's two adult daughters Nell and Carly, Brody's mother Fanny and Nell's date Gavin who all bring their (literal and figurative) baggage with them for the weekend. Also present are the shadows of others who aren't attending the wedding: Nell's recently deceased boyfriend Chaney, Nell and Carly's father, Carly's workaholic boyfriend Wes, Brody's father and widower Brody's first wife and first love.

The relationships are complicated and still in progress in many cases. Olivia wants to relax as the bride-to-be but is mothering her two troubled daughters, both of whom are working through issues from their lives back home and undergoing a period of self-discovery. Their father is still a part of their lives (as much as he can be), and Nell and Carly are unsure about letting their mother's new husband into their lives. Nell still struggles with her boyfriend's suicide months before, and is still making the rash decisions she has made her whole life, such as bringing her seat mate from her flight with her to the wedding. Gavin seems like fun at first but is sketchy, not surprisingly bailing on Nell as soon as he gets the chance. Carly, the put-together, predictable sister, is rethinking her boring life with a boring boyfriend and let loose a little. Brody is navigating his parents' failed marriage, and father's sickness and absence from the wedding. Even innkeepers Emily and Sebastian have hit a rough patch in their marriage.

Overall, this book is a fun read. I would have loved to see this French town on the Mediterranean, and its fabulous wine and food take more of a central role in the book. At times I found the characters and their sex lives to be tiring. But, the characters are complex and were enjoyable. At the end of the book Olivia is the beautiful bride and Brody the happy groom, and they are married surrounded by their favorite friends and relatives. The book ends but not neatly, which is, I think, just like real life, which has many of the same themes this book has: second chances, making up for lost time, healing, forgiveness and love.

Three and a half stars out of five

If you liked this book, you’ll like French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman and Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes (for an American take on visiting the European countryside), and Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin and Once Upon a Time There Was You by Elizabeth Berg (for stories about weddings).

Summer Beach Reads

I recently saw an article posted on Facebook from NPR called "You Call That A Beach Book? Really?" and the title alone had me chuckling. I've spent two weekends this summer at the beach. On the first I started a book that had been patiently waiting for me to pick up ever since I brought it back from Germany called Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz: The Tragic Love Story of Queen Victoria's Eldest Daughter and the German Emperor. The second weekend I finished The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (I loved it, by the way) and Watermelon by Marian Keyes (a great, funny beach read) before starting another book I'd been waiting to read.

So maybe The Berlin Wall: 13 August 1961-9 November 1989 doesn't sound like what some people would choose to read unless their grade depended on it, much less on vacation, but I was happy to have some uninterrupted time to get into this book. While it's long, it's also turned out to be a great, interesting, informative read about a time in history that I know almost nothing about. I vaguely remember seeing footage of the wall coming down. I had just turned 11 three days before that happened. Later when parts of the Berlin Wall began traveling around the world, a piece came to the N.C. State Fairgrounds and my parents took my sister and me there to see it. After seeing parts of the wall for myself in Berlin earlier this year, I'd been waiting for the right time to enjoy the full story, and while sitting on the beach seemed like a great time to do so.

My sister gets married at the beach in September. Things are busy, busy at work right now, so I know by then I'll be ready to escape my matron of honor duties for a bit and read on the beach. I'm eyeing a few books on my self as potential beach reads. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, The Weekend by Bernard Schlink and Literary Life by Larry McMurtry all look like good contenders.

What do you like to read when you're at the beach or on vacation?