Reading on a Theme: Art and Artists

I (JoLee) am an Art Historian, and I have shared my love of art history with my sister. When well done, I love a novel that incorporates art in some form. I've been looking forward to creating a Reading on a Theme about art for some time. I imagine this won't be the last time you'll see this topic featured.

Forgery and Theft:
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro revolves around the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Claire is hired to make a reproduction of the museum's stolen Degas, but she is only a small piece in a dicey operation. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am an Art Historian, so, when done well, I love this type of thing. Sure, I had to just roll with the idea that Claire would get forgery training in a Reproductions.com class, but I expect to suspend my disbelief at least a little when reading fiction. I loved the many levels of deception and the mirroring of Claire’s past and present. This novel would also be a good choice for art lovers, Bostonians, and fans of the television show White Collar.

Art Come to Life:
Julien Garnier recently discovered that the art in the Musee d'Orsay comes alive at night, but it isn't until a lost Renoir comes to the museum that his life truly gets interesting. Starry Nights is full of magic, mystery, mythology and just enough weird to make it a delightful read. I loved Daisy Whitney's interesting characters and the way she weaves a mystery through a love story.  The art is described simply, and I particularly enjoyed the pieces that were reproduced in the end pages of the book. The art in Starry Nights is mainly focused around the work of Renoir and other Impressionists.

Murder in the Art Museum:
Alix London is an art conservator with a talent for spotting forgeries that  keeps getting her into trouble. The Art Whisperer is the third in Charlotte Elkins and Aaron Elkins's Alix London series. I have not read the first two in the series, and so I was missing out in that character love that you develop when you read multiple books about the same characters. Even so, the book was really enjoyable. I especially liked how many American modernists are mentioned in this book. However, I was surprised by the number of fictional art academics in this book who have a prejudice against Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists. The Art Whisperer is out August 19th, 2014.  Review copy from NetGalley.

A Young Artist's First Love:
Wren Noorlander is the daughter of the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she is a brilliant artist. She's been dreaming of doing a semester in France for years and her chances of getting in look promising. At a black-tie event at the Met, Wren meets Nolan. Starry Night is not your typical love story. When I strip this book down to its essentials, it feels really real to me. The icing (the wealthy, the Met, New York, etc.) is there to make the story more interesting, but, when you come down to it, what this story is about is kids that make mistakes in the name of love. People sacrifice things for love all the time, and sometimes that is the right thing to do, and sometimes it is not. Isabel Gillies's book is about when it is not. Starry Night is out September 2nd, 2014. Review copy from NetGalley.

Manet and Time Travel:
Emily Porterfield works as a conservator at the Art Institute in Chicago. She discovers a note behind the painted surface of one of Manet's works that sends her back in time to 19th-century Paris where she meets Edouard Manet. M. Clifford's fictional interpretations of Manet's paintings are fabulous! He obviously looked very closely at Manet's works. What I didn't like so much: Emily. I expect a woman who is working at one of the world's finest art establishments to be a little brighter. Garrett puts all the intellectual pieces of the puzzle together while Emily is swooning over how dreamy Edouard is. Also, Edouard is very fictionalized, but I can get over that because it is a novel.

Reading on a Theme: Historical Fantasies

I love a bit of genre mixing. These novels mix a historical setting with magic. I'm always fascinated when authors create a fully-formed alternate history, and I've always loved magic, so the combination of the two is the best of all.

Two Great Magicians:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is kind of the ultimate historical fantasy for me. It is set in 18th-century England and centers around two great magicians, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I love this book. I love the alternate history and everything Susanna Clarke did with the Napoleonic Wars, Duke Wellington, King George III's madness, and Lord Byron. The characters are incredible. Both the major and minor characters are either very likable or very interesting. I especially like Stephen Black and Childermass and the Gentleman with Thistle-Down Hair was very well done. The book is very long, but I was glad that is was so lengthy so I could keep enjoying it. 

The Magical Realm:
A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first book in a trilogy set in Victorian England. At boarding school Gemma Doyle discovers she can enter The Realms, a world of magic. Libba Bray's novels are a combination of creepy horrors and deep friendships. Gemma, Pippa, Felicity, and Ann make an interesting group. They kind of come together by accident, but, over the course of the trilogy, they must rely on one another implicitly. The Realms is a mysterious place. It is both beautiful and terrifying (thus the title). I especially love the creepy parts of this tale. The insane asylum and the girls in white always creep me out. A Great and Terrible Beauty would be a good choice for a Halloween read.

Material Magicians:
Ceony Twill is disappointed when she is not given the opportunity to chose her own specialty and is instead compelled to become apprenticed to a paper magician. Set in early-1900s England, the best part about Charlie N. Holmberg's debut novel is the magical system. Magic can only be worked through man-made material by a magician bonded to that material alone. Ceony sees paper as the most mundane of all the magical mediums, but she is won over by the whimsical creations of her master, Emery Thane whom she must rescue when his beating heart is stolen by an Excisioner. The Paper Magician was an enjoyable read, and I am hopeful that the sequels expand on this intriguing world and its magic.

A Magical Nobility:
Kiersten White's newest book, Illusions of Fate, is a historical fantasy packed full of magic and ravens. Jessamin is a student in Albion (basically England). She doesn't fit in well since she's from Melei and of mixed race. When she meets Finn, a young, dashing lord, she gets swept up in the world of the nobility. And these nobles have power, wealth, rivalries, and magic. I wish that the fascinating world of Illusions of Fate was a bit more developed. I like how this fantasy tackles race, colonialism, and imperialism. However, while I think the cover is lovely, I really do wish that Jessamin had darker skin. It should be really obvious that the main character is not a white European as this is such a crucial part of the story. Illusions of Fate is out September 9th, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss.

Suffrage and Hypnosis:
It's 1900 in Portland, Oregon, and Olivia Mead is excited about the changes that seem to be happening all around. Women are advocating for change; they just might win the right to vote. Olivia's father, however, feels very differently. He hires Henri Reverie to hypnotize the rebellion right out of his daughter. Cat Winter's Cure for Dreaming is an inventive historical fantasy. Olivia, once hypnotized, is open to the possibility of magic in the world. Henri is a fun character, and Olivia is a fighter. She was never going to be a docile girl. The inclusion of ads, photographs, and quotes from the period are a fun addition to the novel. The Cure for Dreaming is out October 14th, 2014. Review copy from NetGalley. 
 

Reading on a Theme: Unpleasant Futures

Let's hope the future is better for us than it is for these characters.

Disposable Teens:
This unpleasant future has made abortion illegal while legalizing the "unwinding" of teenagers. If a 13 to 18 year old is unruly or unwanted, his/her parents can have her/him unwound and his/her organs will be given to others.  Connor, Risa, and Lev are thrown together on the way to their unwindings and the story is told mostly from their perspectives. It has been awhile since I've read a young adult book with a male main character and I found that refreshing. In Unwind, Neal Shusterman created a complex world with fascinating mores. The book is a little intense in parts but thought-provoking and certainly makes for an interesting discussion. 

The Golden Age:
After a flood destroys the earth, the spared of New North live as the people did in the Golden Age of the Medieval era. Eva has been raised to become a perfect Maiden, but, after her twin brother falls to his death, she decides to take his place in The Testing to become an Archon leader. The Testing will take her across the frozen tundra where she will search for relics in the ice, in hopes of writing a chronicle that secure her the Archon laurels. Heather Terrell created an interesting world where technology is seen as blasphemous. The religion in Relic is clear, with specific leadership and religious texts. Relic felt didactic at times, but when I got to the end of the book, there was a shift in how I saw things. I was pleasantly surprised in the end and liked the book more than I expected to. Review copy from NetGalley.

Life Underground: 
Some Fine Day by debut author Kat Ross takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where humans have moved underground to avoid global warming and the resulting hypercanes. Jansin Nordqvist has trained her whole life to join her city-state's elite fighting force. As a graduation gift her parents take her on vacation to the surface where the party is attacked and, as a result, Jansin begins to question everything she thought she knew about life. Jansin is a pretty kick butt character. She is tough, can fight, and does what she thinks is right. The novel's action happens in fits and starts with a long lull of peaceful tranquility and a fast and furious ending. Some Fine Day is out July 1st, 2014. Review copy from NetGalley.

Death Contracts:
In this dystopic future Nat and her brother Sam have come to Hawaii to "celebrate" their parents' final week of life. Choosing one's death date is common in Nat's world and corporations usher the elderly to their deaths. In a world full of dystopia stories, I really think that Lydia Millet's is special. I loved the journal format. Nat has the soul of an artist and writes with lyrical descriptions. I loved how the world was revealed one puzzle piece at a time. Pills and Starships is about a future family when families are at the point of dying away. There is a sense of melancholy to the whole book, but it is mingled with the hope and irrepressible optimism of the young. Pills and Starships is out June 10, 2014.  Review copy from Edelweiss. 
 
Teen Surrogates: 
In the center of a futuristic city lies The Jewel, home to the city's royalty. They have wealth and power but are unable to bear their own children. Violet has trained for most of her life to develop the necessary, perhaps magical, abilities that will allow her to be a surrogate for one of the royals, and soon she will be sold at auction. Amy Ewing's debut novel, The Jewel is sufficiently dark and icky. The pacing of the novel is almost perfect, and the writing is sharp and fresh. In many ways The Jewel is The Handmaid's Tale for young adults, but because it's such a powerful premise, I think there is room for a similar story.  The Jewel is out September 2nd, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss.

Reading on a Theme: Mean Popular Girls

Life on the top of the social ladder is not for the faint of heart. This week's post is about mean popular girls, the things they do to maintain their position on top, and the resulting carnage. All I can say is that I'm glad this was not my experience of high school.

Why She Did It:
In Falling into Place by debut novelist Amy Zhang, Liz Emerson, beautiful, popular, and ruthless, is wracked with guilt over the lives she's ruined as a mean popular girl. So, hoping to die, she drives her car off a cliff. Told through several points of view and jumping back and forth in time, Zhang's novel slowly paints the complete picture of a trio of mean popular girls who look like the pinnacle of perfection on the outside but inside are quickly unraveling. Zhang's novel is beautifully written, but I struggled with the depressing subject matter. It is hard to think about teens who do this much damage to themselves. Falling Into Place is out September 9th, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss.

Ousted from the Inner Circle:
In Some Girls Are, Regina Afton's place of the top of the social ladder as one of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girls clique that rules the school with terror and beauty, comes crashing down in one terrible night. She is frozen out, and her former friends are out to make her life miserable. She reacts the only way she knows how; she fights back. These are some serious fights. Regina is scrabbling for any handhold at all. She finds herself sitting with Michael Hayden, one of her former victims, at the garbage table. They have an uncomfortable relationship, but it grows on the reader as the two of them grow on each other, and Regina starts to embrace her humanity. Courtney Summers' book is good. Really good.

Body Swap: 
Scarlet is pretty, part of the mean popular girl clique, and a star soccer player. Lavender is picked on, klutzy, and sarcastic. On their thirteenth birthday (it happens to be on the same day) they both make a wish to be someone else. The next morning they have switched bodies. Suddenly, Scarlet is one of the girls her crowd picks on, and Lavender has to negotiate the mean crowd from the inside. Seeing the two navigate another life is both hilarious and poignant. To pull this off, Lavender and Scarlet have to talk and get along. In the process they build a friendship. Natalie Standiford's Switched at Birthday is such a cute middle-grade novel. And it has a great title too.

Mean Girl's Groundhog's Day:
In Before I Fall, Sam Kingston relives her dying day seven times. Each day is impressively different, even though basically the same events occur, and little by little Sam learns how to make the ending right. This is a good book, but it's one of the those books that is at times painful to read and where the characters have to do hard things and maybe they aren't even that likable. Sam is a mean popular girl and probably hated by most of her classmates, but what's so lovely about this book is that Lauren Oliver succeeds in making even Sam's not-so-nice friends absolutely sympathetic. The reader really feels Sam's love for these friends, and by the end you kind of love them too, despite everything.  

Misfit in a Popular Girl's Body: 
Anika Dragomir is the third most popular girl at school and friends with mean Becky Vilhauer, queen of the school. Underneath, Anika is pretty sure she's a freak. I read about half of this book before I had to quit. Anatomy of a Misfit is full of tired YAlit tropes: the slutty best friend, the crazy-Christian mom, the caricature of a step-dad, the loner-dude with a bad reputation. The whole thing came across to me as patronizing of small, Midwestern towns; as if all the people in the Midwest are intolerant and horribly judgmental. I could not stand Anika's voice with its combination of whine and flippancy. Andrea Portes book did not work for me. Anatomy of a Misfit is out September 2nd, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss. 

Connections: Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld's new book Afterworlds is the story of Darcy Patel, who at 17, sells a young adult book to a major publishing company. After high school Darcy moves to New York to become a full-time author. Interspersed with Darcy's story are chapters from Darcy's book about a girl named Lizzie who crosses over into the afterworld during a terrorist attack and is changed forever.

Westerfeld's book is this crazy work of metafiction. It was strange (and sometimes wonderful) to be reading a book about publishing a book. To read a novel is to be taken to a new world, even when that world is based on our own. In Afterworlds the reader is reading about the creation of those fictional worlds and all the writing and rewriting, touring, editing, the agents, the editors, and the camaraderie and competition between authors that goes on behind the scenes. It was particularly surreal to read about Darcy's time at BookExpo America (which I have been to) and hear how many galleys of her book had already been downloaded (which is how I got a copy of this book). In a lovely little pairing, Westerfeld's Afterworlds comes out the same day that Darcy's Afterworlds comes out in the story, September 23rd, 2014, so, in some ways, Afterworlds feels like a book about writing the very book you are reading. It kind of makes my head hurt. And that comment that Kiralee makes about whitefellas plundering other cultures-that's at least somewhat directed at Westerfeld himself.

As a work of metafiction, Afterworlds pulls from many different literary tropes. It is kind of a melding of aspects from all of these books (and more):

Fangirl and Afterworlds:  College-age girls with literary aspirations writing paranormal fiction. Cath's and Darcy's writing is interspersed with the story of their daily lives.

Born Confused and Afterworlds: Daughters of Indian immigrants. Darcy Patel and Dimple Lala grapple with their cultural traditions.

Empress of the World and Afterworlds: Two smart, creative girls fall in love. One is sure of her sexuality. One has never been in love before and didn't know she was interested in girls.

The Memory of After and Afterworlds: The afterlife has multiple levels. It is closely tied to memory.

Tiger's Curse and Afterworlds: Indian mythology mixed with the modern world. Yama is an Hindu death god.

The Name of the Star and Afterworlds: Lizzie and Rory both have a near death experience and come out of it with the ability to see and talk to ghosts.


The metafiction was probably my very favorite thing about the book. I much preferred Darcy's story. Because this is a book about publishing a book, Darcy's problems--her inability to maintain her budget, her conflicting feelings about her cultural heritage and its manifestation in her book, even her relationship with Imogen (which is her very first relationship and Darcy didn't even know she was interested in girls)--all takes a second seat to Darcy's constant worry that she is a fraud and that writing the book was a fluke. Honestly, it would have been nice to have more of all the other issues and less writer-related worries.

Darcy's story is shared with Lizzie's, and Lizzie's story is a stereotypical paranormal. The first chapter is awesome with the terrorist attack and Lizzie's crossover to the afterworld (which is why her book got picked up in the first place). I think it's important to remember that Westerfeld's writing is not Darcy's writing, and Darcy's Afterworlds is a first novel by a talented but inexperienced author. It is somewhat satiric of the paranormal young adult genre and falls into the stereotypes that plague much of the genre--instalove, flat romantic male lead, cultural appropriation,etc.--while hinting at Darcy's potential. The best thing about Lizzie's story was seeing how Darcy's life experiences influenced her writing. I loved when Afterworlds was mentioned in the Darcy section and then I got to see how Darcy changed what she had originally written. As Darcy grew, so did the story.

At times Afterworlds feels long. It is basically two books in one. However, I don't think it could be any shorter and still do all that it does.

Afterworlds is out September 23rd, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss.