Shop Girl by Steve Martin

I'm going through a very challenging time in my life right now -- my Dad had a near fatal fall, so although I have a couple of books I'm itching to read, I'm listening to Shopgirl by Steve Martin, instead.  I just like listening to his voice...  It has been helpful as I drove back and forth between the hospital this weekend.

One thing about the book catches me -- Martin uses the word "confound" a lot.  I don't know why I make a mental note of that word every time he uses it, but I do, and he's used it at least three times.  It's a good word, but...  Maybe I'm just not in the best frame of mind. He does have a lovely voice... and yes, I'm enjoying the story, as well.

Here is the summary:

Mirabelle is the "shopgirl" of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus "selling things that nobody buys anymore..."  Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they struggle to decipher the language of love--with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking. Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness

An object of Beauty, by Steve Martin

Luke warm on this work... I just didn't care for Lacey and "her charms." She lacked depth and seemed a bit to much a stock character for my liking. I would like to see the novel complete with the paintings that Martin refers to throughout the work.

I understand Amy Adams is to play the lead for the movie version. Maybe she can breathe some life into Lacey...

Publisher's summary: Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Her ascension to highest tiers of the city parallel the soaring heights - and at times, the dark lows - of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through to today.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany, by Susan Vreeland

This book was recommended to me by a colleague. I don't often venture into historical romance but this was a nice easy read, albeit, a bit long. I read it while I was sick with a cold, and it was a perfect read for those days when I wasn't 100%. I was glad when it ended -- both the book and the cold.

Although some people may have enjoyed the detail on how the glass panels were made and assembled, I would have been satisfied with less. I was also reading The Sisters Brothers at the same time, and it was like mixing whiskey with saccharine. The whiskey will be remembered, but this book will be quietly forgotten.

Here is the summary:

Against the unforgettable backdrop of New York near the turn of the twentieth century, from the Gilded Age world of formal balls and opera to the immigrant poverty of the Lower East Side, bestselling author Susan Vreeland again breathes life into a work of art in this extraordinary novel, which brings a woman once lost in the shadows into vivid color. It's 1893, and at the Chicago World's Fair, Louis Comfort Tiffany makes his debut with a luminous exhibition of innovative stained-glass windows, which he hopes will honor his family business and earn him a place on the international artistic stage. But behind the scenes in his New York studio is the freethinking Clara Driscoll, head of his women's division. Publicly unrecognized by Tiffany, Clara conceives of and designs nearly all of the iconic leaded-glass lamps for which he is long remembered. Clara struggles with her desire for artistic recognition and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that she faces as a professional woman, which ultimately force her to protest against the company she has worked so hard to cultivate. She also yearns for love and companionship, and is devoted in different ways to five men, including Tiffany, who enforces to a strict policy: he does not hire married women, and any who do marry while under his employ must resign immediately. Eventually, like many women, Clara must decide what makes her happiest-the professional world of her hands or the personal world of her heart

The Lost Painting

What a slog this books was to read. I enjoy the works of Caravaggio and thought this would be something similar to Girl with a Pearl Earring. I was very wrong. First of all, it's non-fiction but it presents itself as fiction. I was so disappointed, and so glad to finish this completely dire text.

Publisher's blurb:

An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries.

The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn't alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances...