The Art Thief: a True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel, published in 2023, is a well researched and documented account of one of the most unusual art thieves of all time. For years, his heists stymied collectors and investigators in Europe, especially in France, Switzerland and Germany. And he …
Tag: books
When a con cons a con in merrie olde England
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson is a mystery set in London in 1749. It is a romp, filled with colorful characters, set against the well-detailed urban landscape of the Georgian era. The plot is full of surprises, twists and turns. It is a beautifully crafted page turner. A well-mannered beautiful widow in …
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A lifelong journey with college mates
Heart the Lover by Lily King shares some themes with What We Can Know by Ian McEwan, the book I reviewed two days ago. They’re both set against the backdrop of academia. King focuses on four young people in college, their spirit and energy, academic pressures, dating issues, insecurities, crushes, parties, and card games (one …
Much awaited, the latest novel by Ian McEwan
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan opens in the year 2119, which technically qualifies it as science fiction. But the characters and the issues that preoccupy them have a very contemporary feel. It is the most recent in a string of books I’ve read with pleasure by Ian McEwan, including Atonement, Amsterdam, On Chesil …
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Letters that tell her story
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is a beautifully written novel in epistolary style, presented as a series of fictional letters, mostly penned by one Sybil Van Antwerp over eighty+ years. Even as a child, she wrote letters, finding it easier to write than to speak. Readers learn on the very first page that the correspondence …
China’s One Child Policy reverberates today
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America by Barbara Demick is a stellar piece of journalistic reporting in book form, laying bare in well-researched details the far-reaching impacts of China’s One Child Policy. For more than 30 years, Chinese women who became pregnant were subjected to forced abortions, mandated sterilization, and fierce beatings. …
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The risks of denying history
The Granddaughter is a pretty straightforward novel by German writer Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins. The time is contemporary Germany, and Berlin book store owner Kaspar comes home to find wife Birgit dead in the bathtub, apparently by drowning. They had met in the early 60’s, in a divided country. They had fallen in …
Eminent education writer reverses course
An Education: How I changed My mind about Schools and Almost Everything Else is an eye-opening and deeply personal memoir, intricately wound up with the story of how our nation has been swept up with and jerked around by changing approaches to education. It's not often that a highly visible scholar or public official admits …
History that reads like a thriller
Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent: A Story of Mystery and Tragedy on the Gilded Age Frontier by Maura Jane Farrelly is a perfect book for someone who revels in the process of researching a story, over and above being swept up in the story itself. It is set in the late 19th century, the closing …
Literary fireworks for the July 4th holiday
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is one of the most captivating works of fiction I’ve read in a long time. (I thank my reliable source Beth G. for the recommendation.) Set in rural England, this is a story of youthful passion, class differences, family loyalty, secrets, crime, coverups, abiding love, wrong decisions, their consequences, …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 