This week I had the privilege of celebrating book launches with Fiona Davis and M.J. Rose. Both books delve deep into the history of New York in the twentieth century and both are excellent.
The Masterpiece
takes us deep into Grand Central Terminal, first in the glory days of the 1920s, then in the gritty grimness of the 1970s, when New York was in a rather bad way, and Grand Central with it, as a talented illustrator seeks to win recognition as an artist in the Grand Central Art School in the days before the Depression, and a recent divorcee finds herself on the trail of an unknown artist in the 1970s.
Tiffany Blues
also explores the art scene of the Jazz Age, as a talented artist fleeing from her past receives a coveted invitation to join Louis Comfort Tiffany’s artist colony at Laurelton Hall (which was a work of art in its own right). But can she escape her past?
The books make excellent companion pieces!
After my dip into New York’s artistic past, I moved into the past that never was with Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric’s Demon
, a novella in the same pseudo medieval fantasy world as her brilliant The Curse of Chalion
. (For everyone out there who watches Game of Thrones
, you will LOVE The Curse of Chalion. It’s beautifully written, bursting with magic and intrigue, and wonderfully flawed characters– and much less gruesome than GoT.)
Right now, I’m deep in the midst of revisions on the Barbados Book (which is actually beginning to feel like it might be a book!), so I’m revisiting an old friend, Dorothy Sayers’s Murder Must Advertise
.
What have you been reading this week?
I finished Tasha Alexander’s wonderful Tears of Pearl (Constantinople and harems!) to embrace a full on Harry Potter re-read for my 40th birthday on Monday. Time for some comfort reading.
Happy 40! A re-read of Harry sounds like a great idea!!
Thank you Lynn! I’ve already gotten through Fantastic Beasts, screenplay AND textbook and am half way through Sorcerer’s Stone! It’s so much fun!
Belleweather by Susanna Kearsley. So good. Rereading The Firebird by her as well. Love her writing.
I’m currently reading Lloyd Alexander’s The Town Cat and Other Tales. It’s such fun, light reading about cats who go on different adventures. Of course, it’s for young readers, but the language is quite historical and detailed which makes it all the more whimsical.
I LOVE Lloyd Alexander’s writing, especially about cats!
Four Funerals and a Wedding Maybe by Rhys Bowen and Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan