Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
So You Want to Be a P.I. by Pamela Beason
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Ross Poldark by Winston Graham
Demelza by Winston Graham
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr
The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits by Simon Schama
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Clara and Mr. Tiffany and Loving Frank were alike in that they were novels that dealt with the lives of prominent artists. I feel like Clara and Mr. Tiffany relied far less on historical fact and more on the imagination of the artist, which made it a more effective work of fiction. I very much enjoyed both, though, and this is an example of algorithms suggesting things that will appeal.
I read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo as one of my classic self assignments. I didn’t intend to love it as deeply as I do. The thing you don’t get very much of in the musical and movie adaptations is the sheer goodness of Jean Valjean. I had such sympathy for him. It’s a gorgeous piece of writing, as well. I had a good translation, but I believe the excellence will convey even in inferior translations.
I started reading the Poldark series by Winston Graham because I’d like the first season of the mini series starring Aiden Turner so well, but the character of Ross makes me so damned angry, I not only stopped reading the books, I stopped watching the show as well. The final series is set to air soon, so I really should catch up, but Ross makes my blood boil.
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece was a book I picked up when I started researching for my current novel-in-progress. It’s very engaging, for a work of non-fiction, and I owe a lot of inspiration to this book.
The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits was a bit of a disappointment because I expected the audiobook to be fully narrated by Simon Schama and it is not. Only the foreword and certain chapters are narrated by him, which is a shame, because I could listen to him talk about art for hours on end and never get bored.
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a classic self-assignment. I’d never read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels before, so I thought it was high time I dig into them. I found it a surprisingly easy read and it was interesting to read the source material to the many adaptations I’d seen, some more faithful than others. I’ve always adored the character of Sherlock in his many, many iterations.