Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Girl Reading Under an Oak by Winslow Homer

Mercury and Me by Jim Hutton My rating: 1 of 5 stars Of all the Freddie Mercury books to choose from, I had to go and choose this one. Big mistake! Although it purports to be an in depth look at Jim's life with Freddie and an up-close-and-personal never-before-reported look at Freddie, it seemed more like a great big middle finger to Mary Austin saying, "Ha ha. I gave him something you couldn't." Also, the writing was terrible (I don't know how the narrator managed to get through it.) and, Jim seemed to be more in love with himself than he was with Freddie. Disappointing on many levels. View all my reviews

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis My rating: 5 of 5 stars I love historical fiction, especially when the main character (in both the 1920s and 1970s) is a strong woman. In this story, one is an artist; one is learning who she is after a divorce and other traumatic events. One of the underlying themes is how women are treated differently. It was so blatant in the '20s that people "in the know" in the art world didn't think a woman artist's work would sell -- despite the fact she was a successful illustrator for Vogue magazine and designer for Studebaker. In the 1970s portion, the woman learns Grand Central Terminal is in danger of having a skyscraper built on top of it and she wants to help (along with Jackie Onassis) stop that. Grand Central -- and the Grand Central School of Art -- are where the two parts of the story come together. View all my reviews

Keep You Close by Karen Cleveland My rating: 5 of 5 stars FBI agent Steph Maddox realizes she doesn't know her teenage son as well as she thinks she does and he may be involved in something nefarious. She has to figure out if he's a willing participant in a plot or if he's being used, because the plot is bigger than anything a high school senior could plan on his own and involves the US intelligence community, members of Congress, and more. This is a fast-paced thriller with suspense on every page and a plot that doesn't fully unfold until the very last line. (view spoiler) [This made me think about what would happen if Putin picked smart people in the US to do his dirty work. (hide spoiler) ] View all my reviews

These are the books I read from January through the end of March:

The Summer We Lost Her by Tish Cohen My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is a compelling family drama that shows what can happen when a husband and wife lose their way, and how tragedy can either break them or make them stronger. Matt, a 50-something lawyer, and Elise, a 30-something Olympic-caliber equestrian, are in the Adirondacks to sell Matt's deceased grandfather's house. The trip started out badly when Matt and their 8-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, Gracie, left NYC without Elise because she was having a problem getting her horse back from Florida and, because of that, she missed Gracie's first-ever school play. It gets even more tense as Matt reconnects with the woman next door who he lost his virginity to when they were teenagers. Matt eventually learns some things about his grandfather (who raised him after his parents died) that would mean...

Reclining Women Reading  (1939), Pablo Picasso

Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I would give the first half of this book 3 stars; the next quarter, 3 1/2; the final quarter, 5. The reason is that it was billed as a thriller but there was nothing thrilling in the first half and it was only mildly suspenseful. But I was rewarded for sticking with it because the last quarter of the book had me on the edge of my seat and was so twisty I couldn't -- and didn't -- figure out who the bad guy was. The story is about Becky and Carl Gerard and their 15-year-old daughter Meghan, who has a mysterious illness. After one flare up a doctor thinks he has the answer and begins treating Meghan. But then when she develops symptoms not consistent with that illness another doctor suggests Becky may have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and, because of that Meghan is placed in a hospital psychiatric ward for teens and her ca...

An upcoming exhibition of quilts at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts aims to comfort victims of sexual assault while focusing on the need to create safer environments for all. “Discomforters,” an exhibition of quilts by fiber artist Ruta Butkus Marino, former curator at the Quick Center, opens Monday, April 1, and runs through Thursday, April 11. A panel discussion of sexual assault featuring Marino and panelists from the university and the local community will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at the Quick Center. The panel discussion is open to all. Words on Marino’s quilts are direct quotes taken from Project Unbreakable, a web-based photography project started in 2011 by then 19-year-old Grace Brown, the friend of a sexual assault survivor. Before disbanding the project, Brown collected more than 4,000 submissions from around the world, each photo showing a sexual-assault survivor holding a poster with a quote by his or ...

The Laughing Owl Press Co. is hosting an Interactive Art Show to benefit Kane Area School District art classes, grades K-12 at the Thomas L. Kane Memorial Chapel. Come enjoy music by The Moon Whistlers while viewing an art exhibit featuring Brooke Balliet, Sara Aiello, Cathy Sirianni, select KASD students, and other talented artists. Light hors d’ouvres will be served. Tickets are $10 and are available at the Laughing Owl Press and at the door.

Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book kept my interest, but I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I suppose it could be called a character study on what grief can do to a person. It also shows what can happen if you have a few secrets that are uncovered and you never get a chance to explain. The story starts with young dentist Nick dying in a car crash, leaving behind his wife Clara and their children, 4-year-old Maisie and 4-day-old Felix. Shortly after the crash Maisie starts have nightmares, talks about a "bad man" who was following her and Nick on the day of the crash, and acts out in various ways when she sees black cars. This, and a couple of other things, lead Clara to believe Nick's crash may not have been an accident after all. She goes to the police but when the detective attempts to assure her it was, in fact, an accident and Nick's fault, she doesn't believe him and starts her own inv...

Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is an interesting character study about what grief and secrets can do to people. It starts with Allie Garvey at a funeral for a high school classmate with whom she shared a terrible secret. But, we don't know which classmate it is yet. The story then moves to 20 years ago and is told in alternating chapters by Allie, her classmates/neighbors, a new kid in town, and some of the adults in their lives. When an horrific event occurs the classmates don't tell anyone, and hope no one is able to connect them to it. But in the years that follow the event touches them all in profound ways and shapes the people they are by the time they get to the grave site. Allie is also dealing with the death of her sister from cystic fibrosis and her mother's severe depression stemming from that. One of the others in the group is a manipulative narcissist; one is a closeted homosexual; one is a ...

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner My rating: 5 of 5 stars If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. It's exquisitely written, hauntingly poignant and emotionally draining. Have tissues ready when you're reading. The story is told by Elise, who is now in her early 80s and in the early stages of Alzheimer's, as she sets out to meet her friend Mariko, who she has not seen since they were teenagers in the Crystal City, Texas, internment camp during World War II. Elise's parents were German immigrants; Mariko's were Japanese. Despite the hardships the girls and their families suffered during their internment they managed to be teenage girls and do most of the things teenage girls do, including making a promise to each other that they would move to New York City together when they were 18. They lose touch -- except for a couple of letters -- when Elise's family is sent back to Germany and, later, Mariko's is...

It's World Poetry Day. Celebrate by checking out Beth Ann Fennelly's newest book “Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs.” An excerpt: I Come From a Long Line of Modest Achievers I’m fond of recalling how my mother is fond of recalling how my great-grandfather was the very first person to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on the second day.

  The National Comedy Center in Jamestown will be preserving a piece of comedy history. Legendary producer, director, writer and actor Carl Reiner today announced an initiative to digitally preserve his extensive personal collection of production-used scripts from "The Dick Van Dyke Show." The scripts for all 158 episodes, which are heavily annotated in Reiner's own handwriting, have been stored away since the series ended in 1966 and have never before been made available to a cultural institution for conservation or exhibition. The announcement came on Reiner's 97th birthday. https://comedycenter.org/dick-van-dyke-show-archives/

Young Lady Reading by Mary Cassatt

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin My rating: 5 of 5 stars Beautifully written with prose that made me feel the rain, hear the gunshots, taste the moonshine. I love Dixie Clay's spirit. She married -- way too young -- a man who was handsome, charming, and well-to-do. But things aren't exactly what they seem with Jessie. At one point, after she learns he's a successful moonshiner, she talks him into letting her help him with the business. And she's very good at it. But the revenuers are after Jessie. Ham and Ingersoll are both very likable and quirky. Dixie Clay, who lost a baby of her own, ends up with someone else's baby. That whole series of events is sad, lovely, funny, and heart-wrenching all at the same time. All of this is set against the backdrop of the Mississippi River flood of 1927. Parallels can be made with Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Maria because of the devastation they caused and the government response. Co-author...

My #MondayMotivation is that the sooner I can get my work done the sooner I can get home and continue reading "The Last Year of the War" by Susan Meissner. By Keith Larson

Blood Oath by Linda Fairstein My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is not related to the novel but whenever I read an Alexandra Cooper book I picture Olivia Benson from Law & Order SVU. I know Coop is a blonde lawyer, not a brunette cop but I can't help it. Every time Mike calls Coop "blondie," I get confused for a nano second. Anyway ... Alexandra Cooper is back at work full-strength after her kidnapping and the shooting death of her boss, and she's dealing with a few seemingly unrelated cases: A 10-year-old cold case involving 20-something Lucy Jenner; Judge Bud Corliss and his wife's domestic abuse claims; and her friend Francie Fain who mysteriously collapses and falls into a coma. Lucy was sexually assaulted when she a teenager by someone who is involved in law enforcement in NYC, but it takes hours and hours of interviews and persuasion before Coop can get her to give up the man's name. The fact that Lucy is a habitual lia...

By John Robertson