Still Lives: The stunning Reese Witherspoon Book Club mystery

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And then there is the particular quality of light in Florence, which helps one forgive the fact that it is quite smelly, for divinity must always be accompanied by mundanity. And where a central character is a parrot named Claude that swears like a sailor and quotes Shakespeare. (Hence that gorgeous cover illustration.) The author undoubtedly has a talent to make words sing. This was alphabet music. She covered several decades of European renaissance in her descriptions of places and people. Her characters were likable and lovable and often hilariously funny. Cressy's dialogue with prunus serrulata(Japanese Cherry blossom tree) tugged at my heartstrings. His devotion to Claude,the philosophical parrot, guaranteed entertainment. The terrible, but comical incident with Davy; Col's infatuation with his wailing 1930s 's, right old boneshaker ambulance, which promised to be a charisma lobotomy, said Peg; and a few other incidents brought much joy and laughter about. And they couldn’t believe how so many roads had either led to him or led to her. And for Evelyn, there was equal sadness as there was delight at hearing how close they’d been to one another, how touchable, if only – the preciousness of time, you see. Iacob, Anisia (3 January 2023). "The Fascinating Traits of Spanish Vanitas Paintings". The Collector. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023 . Retrieved 4 March 2023.

But at the crux of this beautiful story is a young British soldier, Ulysses Temper, that we meet during the war in 1944 while he is in the Tuscan hills as the Allied troops are waiting to enter Florence and his chance meeting with art historian Evelyn Skinner, sixty-something years old, and wanting to liaise with Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Officers to salvage paintings from the ruins. It is in the wine cellar in the ruins of a Tuscan villa where Private Temper and Captain Darnley and Evelyn Skinner share bottles of wine, 1902 Carruades de Lafite, and intimate conversation as bombs explode overhead discussing that the human heart is capable of both grace and fury. It is during these hours of this very special evening that a fierce connection or one of kindred spirits is forged between Evelyn and Ulysses that will last a lifetime. In Tuscany Evelyn Skinner relives her memories of her 21st birthday and her meeting EM Forster in a pensione in Florence where she had a lovely room with a view of the Arno. Still Life is simultaneously expansive and intimate, a heady brew of disasters, both natural and manmade, of death and life, of the power of great art and, most especially, the resonance of those loves we carry for a lifetime. A truly spectacular achievement. I've never read anything quite like it." - Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves The careful characterizations of the players . . . mean that, as the mystery unfolds to reveal them as suspects or victims, the reader feels deep empathy that comes from perceiving them as real people, not plot devices. Hummel builds visceral intimacy around 'women’s oppressive anxiety about [their] ultimate vulnerability' in this often uncomfortable tale about the media’s fetishistic fascination with the violent murders of beautiful women.”— Publishers Weekly(starred review) The exciting male characters were mostly single, or gay, or brute vox populi of the deplorables, and ugh, the epitome of red-meat masculinity. By the grace of all the planets, one of them became an anti-hero and, at last, most lovable. Well, he stopped eating meat, now you've got to love him. Similar to “A Gentleman In Moscow” one cannot include all the character antics that cover 4 decades. This is a series of life moments that include historical events. In addition to WWII and the mission of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Achieves department, Winman includes the devastating 1966 flood in personal form. Major artwork was harmed in that flood; hundreds become homeless and livelihoods were destroyed. Winman writes these “still life” or stories of side characters and major characters that creates “real life” films in the readers heads.Hummel crafts a shrewd and suspenseful inquiry into womanhood and the dark side of the art market, punctuated by striking variations on identity, portraiture, and 'still lives.'" - Booklist

However, I appreciated the vast array of personalities and the immense effort of the author to make this an informative experience. It just felt everything was overstaying the welcome, sort of. And too familiar. A lot of word dumping. Too much for me.In 1627 Lievens also painted a similar work titled, Vanitas still life. In the painting he used a skull, a violin, an extinguished candle and an hourglass, ostensibly to illustrate mortality. The painting was also attributed to Rembrandt for many years until a 2014 examination by experts at the Rijksmuseum determined that it was the work of Lievens. [10] Reception [ edit ] It’s a thrilling mystery that will leave you wondering which characters you can and can’t trust . . . There’s a twist at the end that still keeps us up at night, it's THAT good.”—Reese Witherspoon (A Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Selection) This is a wonderful character driven story of kindred spirits which takes us on an emotional journey from Florence to the East End of London. In 1944 Evelyn Skinner and Margaret Somebody or other meet Private Ulysses Temper of the 8th Army in the Tuscan Hills. Evelyn and Ulysses form a connection and a bond that will remain for many years. Meanwhile in London, Uly’s wife Peg is enduring the war years as best she can with some ‘comforting’ from Eddie an American soldier. Post war the action alternates between the two areas - in London it centres on The Stoat and Parot with landlord Col and wonderful customers like Cress and Pete. Named a Best Book to Read by Time, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Buzzfeed, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Refinery29, and more.

How to convey writing that is so suffused with warmth and wit, color and energy? Themes that are enormous in their strokes and yet intimate in detail? Landscapes that belong to a particular moment yet are timeless in their effect? Still Life is anything but still - it dances and sings, weeps and trills with delight. This is as lovely a novel as I can hope to read, one that offers both hope and longing during a time when they seem too dear to hold onto. Art and creatives wander in and out of this novel as decades pass. Ulysses and Evelyn continue to ramble ever nearer to reconnecting. The trajectory of the novel promises that they will. Even the first epitaph Winman selects for her novel suggests as much: “Two people pulling each other into Salvation is the only theme I find worthwhile. – E. M. Forester, Commonplace Book.” But along the way to that reunion, the reader accompanies each character through life and witnesses the memories and relationships they cherish most. No education, no money, only men. Her beauty was her currency. Always had been. No one talked about when the bank ran dry as it inevitable would... Once again, it's beautifully character-driven with a simple yet emotive writing style. Characters lead the story rather than plot, however of a book of this length I was kind of waiting for... something to happen. It's a long old book and — although this is because it spans decades in both Florence and East London in the mid-20th century — perhaps it could have worked better if it was trimmed down significantly.

Still Life with Books is an oil-on-panel, with dimensions of 91cm (36in) × 120cm (47in). It is in the style of Spanish vanitas paintings. [1] The idea of this style of painting was to show possessions and wealth are fleeting and mean nothing when one is faced with death. [6] The vanitas genre involves subject matter which includes symbols depicting mortality or the perishable nature of material things. The style can be seen in 17th-century Dutch still life paintings. [7] a b c van Thiel, Pieter J.J. "An Interpretation of the Still Life with Books, Jug, Glass and Bread Roll, Attributed to Jan Lievens". Rijksmuseum. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023 . Retrieved 19 March 2023. Her mother was the knot that stopped the fraying. That’s what she learned later, and learned it the hard way, too late to say thank you truly” (223). Mystery and murder cloud this feminist story set in the heart of Los Angeles’ art scene. When an avant–garde artist goes missing on the day her groundbreaking exhibition opens, the story spins out in many provocative directions.”— Entertainment Weekly, 1 of 20 New Books to Read in June