This is 14th in the series featuring detectives David Brock and Kathy Kolla and the first that I have read. It was easy to pick up the story and follow along without reading the previous books. Brock and Kolla have their own mysteries to solve – Brock, apparent suicides and art fraud and Kolla a corruption charge against her. An enjoyable read.
In 1930s Melbourne, Lily meets Eva at school and begins an intense friendship. Lily falls in love with Eva, her sisters, and the glamorous, bohemian lifestyle at Eva’s, where the parents are trying to create an artistic refuge from conservative society. Too much freedom isn’t a good thing, and it is the daughters who suffer. Covering two time periods, this is an evocative, dream-like story with a well-developed sense of place. It’s about art, friendship, the desire to be different, mental health, and belonging.
The Museum of Modern Love is set during Marina Abramović’s 75 day art work, The Artist is Present, at MOMA in New York City. There are lots of facts about Abramović‘s life and career, as it introduces characters who become fascinated by her, and visit MOMA often to watch. It’s about the impact of art on life, relationships, purpose, and hope.
Historical fiction based on fact. Told through the eyes of Adele, whose portrait is painted by Klimt, and her niece Maria, who flees Vienna during World War II. Although their stories are decades apart they share a strength of spirit. They were remarkale women. The story balances the excesses of Vienna’s Succession Art Movement with the Nazi rule and dispossession of Jewish wealth. I love a story that invites me to explore the topic further, I was looking at the artists mentioned and their work. You will want to watch the movie Woman in gold after reading this story.
Yuki is a Japanese teenager, living in New York City in the late 60s; no longer belonging in Japan, she is also an outsider in New York. Her parents return to Japan, and she stays, with an almost friend, and for the next few years tries to be an artist. The story of her son, set in the current day, is also told, as he tries to adjust to parenthood, and wonders why his mother left him. It’s a quietly bleak story, with flashes emotion, of Yuki and Jay’s internal struggle for meaning and place, and for peace within themselves. The characters are deeply flawed, most are unlikeable, and it is a touch melancholy, but it is strangely suspenseful and compelling.
Totally bizarre, The Last Days of New Paris certainly isn’t a book for everyone. It is alternate history set in two time periods, 1941 and 1950. What is created in 1940, leaves Thibaut and Sam still fighting Nazis in 1950 Paris, along with surrealist art that has come to life, and demons. It’s kind of like looking at surrealist artworks; I don’t really have any idea of what is going on, but it is disturbing, intriguing, frightening and somehow beautiful.
The Improbability of Love is the story of an 18th Century French painting, which turns up in a junk shop, and sets an awful lot of drama in motion. It’s a fast-paced mystery/thriller with elements of chick lit and satire. It was a bit of a mixed bag for me, sometimes the sense of everything going wrong before it could go right, just made me want to put it down, and I found some aspects over done, but the resolution was satisfying and the journey often amusing or engaging.
How to be Both is a clever, strange, moving novel about art, life, death and love. There are two stories, one set in modern day, about a girl dealing with the loss of her mother, and the other about an Italian painter in the 1460s. The stories are linked, and full of surprises. There’s probably so much that I didn’t get, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I chose this book because it is a great example of the book as an object of beauty – that is lovely to hold – to flip between the pages – soak up the ideas – and think about a trip to Tasmania to see MONA for real. It also matches my jacket!
In the world of eBooks there are lot of reasons why the new formats are so convenient, portable and accessible. But sometimes I just want to hold a paper book – it has a certain weight in your hands, it has a beautiful layout, amazing images and it tells a story – this time it is about the mysterious art collector and successful gambler David Walsh and how he created the always controversial MONA: the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart.
Libraries give us the chance to walk in someone else’s shoes and travel to places we may never know otherwise. Don’t forget to check out our books on design, art and architecture nest time you come to the library. Be inspired!
rrlreads 