Get The Picture

A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See

By Bianca Bosker

The author worked in galleries, in an artist studio, and at the Guggenheim, in order to learn how to understand art, and in the process she gained insight into the crazy art world. I found the first part a bit whiny, but soon enough it started to provide some really valuable information about how the highbrow art world operates. Reading it, I was swung between despair and hope back and forth, trying to figure out how and if I could fit in. [non fiction, 370pp. incl. notes and index]

Link to book

The Maytrees

By Annie Dillard

A story of a family of sorts, connected to the water and the sand dunes off the shores of Massachusetts. It took me a while to get into this book. I think it's because the writing is very lyrical, and not always clear-cut. I'm not even sure of all the things that happen in there. Did I really get what I was reading? Retelling the story would probably add too much of my own interpretation of it. Was that what the author intended? [fiction, 216pp.]

Link to book

Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea

By Hannah Stowe

A memoir that's combines life experience with scientific knowledge and research of the oceans and the in them. The author weaves anecdotes from her life with the life history of specific organisms, providing information and lessons she learned from them, as well as what we can do to help save them from the damage we are causing them. [non fiction, 288 pp.]

Link to book

Passing

By Nella Larsen

Story about race and living in Harlem in the 1920s. The reading flows effortlessly and the historical background is very interesting. 

[Fiction; 160 pp. including notes and introduction]

Link to book

The Professor's House

By Willa Cather

Another repeat. Probably my least favorite of this great author. 

Here are my impressions from the first reading.

The Private Lives of the Impressionists

By Sue Roe

Reading this for the second time, and being more familiar with names compared to two years ago, made it much easier to follow the numerous lives told about in this book.

Link to first post on this book

 

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

By Isabel Wilkerson

Amazing writing and organizing of this book. It focuses on the stories of three people who have migrated from the Jim Crow South to the North and West. These people migrated in different decades, to different cities, and were from completely different backgrounds. One gets to see their personal thoughts and motives for moving away from their places of birth, from their families, their lives, the hardships they faced along the way, the adjustments and disillusions they went through when they got to their respective promised lands. In between their stories, Wilkerson gives big-picture reports to put the personal accounts in context. I am totally in awe with how well-done this book is. I think it is important for everyone living in the United States to read this book. [non-fiction, 622 pp.]

Link to book