Leona's Reviews: Art. LibraryThing

Showing posts with label Art. LibraryThing. Show all posts

Friday, March 31, 2017

Review of The Art of Beatrix Potter: Sketches, Paintings, and Illustrations by Emily Zach

From goodreads.com:

The Art of Beatrix Potter: Sketches, Paintings, and Illustrations by Emily Zach

Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth, this magnificent collection celebrates the artist behind The Tale of Peter Rabbit and numerous other beloved children's books. Brimming with famous images and rarely seen gems—ranging from character sketches and notebook pages to watercolor landscapes and natural history illustrations—this monograph explores Potter's artistic process and reveals the places that inspired her timeless work. Organized geographically and featuring more than 200 images from the artist's oeuvre, The Art of Beatrix Potter includes illuminating essays by Potter scholar Linda Lear, illustration historian Steven Heller, and children's book illustrator Eleanor Taylor. It is the definitive volume on one of the world's most influential authors, a woman whose artistry, until now, has not been fully celebrated.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published November 22nd 2016 by Chronicle Books
ISBN145215127X (ISBN13: 9781452151274)

Leona's review:

This is a beautiful, hardcover, coffee table book. The drawings takes one to English gardens, and I loved the drawings of the animals and small creatures. Page 194 has "Studies of Kep, the collie". c1907, done in pencil and watercolor. The mouse, page 79 is really cute. There are landscapes as well as indoor and outdoor scenes. There are drawings of plants as well as archaeological tools and bones. (page 127)

I did not know Beatrix Potter was an artist as well as an author. Her books have been read and cherished for many years. I personally think of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor when I think of Beatrix Potter. A wonderful book about a woman, her life and her talents.

From page 154. The next page is the art of the gardens done in pencil, pen-and-ink, sepia ink and watercolor. The colors are soft with some red flowers that stand out. There is a garden gate and a pathway with the cat sleeping.

"The Garden at Fawe Park, with visiting cat, unused background for The of Benjamin Bunny, 1903.
In August, the Potter family spent another summer on Derwentwater at Fawe Park, a less formal estate neighboring Lingholm, but still an easy trip to the shores of the lake. The large house was beautiful and comfortable, and Potter was taken by its gardens. With formal flowerbeds and landscaping bordering three sides of the house, the estate also contained orchards and productive kitchen gardens down the hillside toward the lake. Potter gathered her watercolors and sketches in the Derwentwater sketchbook she had begun, preparing the setting for her next "rabbit book".
Using the Fawe Park gardens for Mr. McGregor's garden in this sequel to The Tale of Peter Rabbit, she portrays Peter and his cousin Benjamin Bunny setting out, while Mr. and Mrs. McGregor went away, to rescue Peter's clothes from the scarecrow that now wears his blue jacket and slippers. That task complete, the two decide to take a present of onions back to old Mrs. Rabbit, but they are soon trapped under a basket by an unknowing cat. The rescuers become the rescued as old Mr. Benjamin Bunny comes upon them and chases the cat away. The naughty bunnies are given a whipping but old Mrs. Rabbit forgives Peter when she sees he has brought back his shoes and coat, as well as the gift of the onions, which she strings up with her herbs and "rabbit-tobacco".(lavender)"

Contents:

Foreword: Beatrix Potter's Artistic Spell by Steven Heller page 6

Introduction: Observation and Imagination by Linda Lear page 8

A Sense of Place: The Art and geography of Beatrix Potter page 11

Part One: Becoming Beatrix Potter page 17

Part Two: London and the South Coast page 57

Part Three: Scotland page 93

part Four: The Lake District page 137

part Five: Wales and Beyond page 221

Afterword: An Illustrator's World by Elizabeth Taylor page 240

Acknowledgments page 242

Bibliography page 243

Image Credits page 245

Index page 250

I won a complimentary copy of The Art of Beatrix Potter from LibraryThing and Chronicle Books. The opinions are my own.

I give it a 5 star plus. It really is a beautiful book.

Easter is coming and this would make an excellent book, along with the Peter Rabbit books for the Easter basket for a child or an adult. A gift like this can be read and re-read for many years.

It can also a gift for yourself or someone in your life on any occasion.

Leona Olson

http://www.mnleona.blogspot.com

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Review of The Riddle of Prague by Laura DeBruce

From amazon.com:

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2013

When 18-year-old Hana Silna travels to Prague to reclaim her family's ancestral home, she finds herself on an unexpected adventure in a city brimming with ancient secrets. She discovers a riddle by the infamous alchemist Edward Kelley that claims to lead to a long-last flask. The contents of that flask could change the fate of the world.

When a ruthless enemy kidnaps her family, Hana has to find the flask to rescue them. On her quest she meets a mysterious man with a penchant for poetry, a Gypsy girl with a haunting past, and Alex, the motorcycle-riding son of a U.S. diplomat. Alex -- who's trying to save his sister from a crippling disease -- joins Hana on her race across Bohemia to find the hidden flask. It's hard to trust anyone when the stakes are this high -- especially when surrounded by experts at deception.

There's only one flask and Hana desperately needs to find it.

The Riddle of Prague is the first of the Quicksilver Legacy Trilogy.

Leona's Review:

This was a really good read about mystery and searching for the 400 year old flask that holds the elixir for immortality.

Hana Silna is flying to Prague from the United States to sign the papers for the home of her mother that has been returned to them by the government. This book takes place in 1991 before the luxury of cell phones and lap top computers. Hana's mother is having surgery and is unable to travel.

Hana meets Davis Borton on the plane; he becomes a major part of the book.

She is greeted by her mother's cousins and meets her mother's mother, Babi. She does not know who Hana is as she is somewhat senile. I wish Babi had been more of the book because I felt she knew a lot more and could do more that the story allowed.

Babi does warn Hana that Simona is not who she says she is.

Hana meets Alex Williams, the son of a U. S. Diplomat and his sister, Thalia, who suffers from Werner Syndrome. Alex owns a motorcycle and descriptions of the driving in the city of Prague are pretty real.

There are so many names in this book I will list some of them that become so much of the story. Hana Silna, Alex Williams, David Bolton, Simona, Michal, Elizabeth Weston, Valentina, Stefan, Denisa, Nadja, Don Julius, Julian, Luminitsa, Edward Kelley, Marketa, Ben Williams, Niku, L'ubo, Franta and many more. Some are not characters in the book but the names are part of the past and the story.

Places are described in the book: The Charles Bridge http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=598,

The Faust House http://www.prague.net/faust-house and St. Vitus Cathedral http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=602.

See http://www.pragueexperience.com/index.asp for more sites. I like the historical features in The Riddle of Prague.

There is intrigue, murder, escapes and fear in this gripping book. At one point Hana feels "So many radically unexpected things have happened that I'm feeling like Alice after she fell down the rabbit hole" (page 96). It is rated for Young Adults but as an older adult I enjoyed it. I give it a 5 star even though I was disappointed in the end. I finally decided to think of as Sherlock Holmes always running into Professor Moriarty and continuing the story.

I won a copy of The Riddle of Prague from LibraryThing.com. The opinions are my own. I will re-read this book even though I know the ending.

You may find Laura DeBruce at http://theriddleofprague.com/.

Leona Olson

www.mnleona.blogspot.com

Thursday, January 2, 2014

The Silver Madonna and Other Tales of America's Greatest Lost Treasures By W. C. Jameson

From goodreads.com

The twenty-four tales in this book are of the most famous lost treasures in America, from a two-foot statue reportedly made entirely of silver (the Madonna ) and a cache of gold, silver, and jewelry that was rumored to also contain the first Bible in America to seventeen tons of gold its value equal to the treasury of a mid-sized nation buried somewhere in northwestern New Mexico. What makes these tales even more compelling is that none of these known-to-be-lost treasures have been discovered, although modern detecting technology has made them eminently discoverable.

Paperback, 208 pages

Published September 6th 2013 by "Taylor Trade Publishing" (first published January 1st 2013)

ISBN

1589798392 (ISBN13:9781589798397)

Leona's Review:

The Silver Madonna and Other Tales of America's Greatest Lost Treasures

by W. C. Jameson.

This is the first book I have read by W. C Jameson and one I really enjoyed.

The first of the book has a map, always appreciated, which identifies the locations of the Treasures in this book. I must say I was excited to find my hometown of Monahans, Texas and the Monahans Sandhills State Park. I have been going to the Sandhills since I was a child.

This is a fast reading book and certainly for the readers who like the treasure magazines and tales. The stories are short and interesting.

Other books by W. C. Jameson are Buried Treasure of The America Series ( 28 books) which include treasures in Texas, California, Missouri, New England and more. Beyond the Grave Series which are about Billy the Kid, John Wilkes Booth and Butch Cassidy. More series on food, poetry, fiction, books on writing, mysteries, ghosts and monsters.

Contents of The Silver Madonna stories are:

Map (before introduction)

Introduction (page 1)

1. The Silver Madonna (page 3)

2. The Lost Treasure Ship of the California Desert (page 11)

3. The Goat Herder's Lost Treasure (page 23)

4. The Lost Treasure of Shafter Lake (page 31)

5. The Lost Dutchman Mine of the Superstition Mountain (page 37)

6. The Huachuca Canyon Treasure (page 45)

7. Seventeen Tons of Gold at Lost Mesa (page 53)

8. The Lost Treasure of Cancino Arroyo (page 59)

9. The Lost Grierson Fortune (page 67)