jelly
A masterpiece. The unknown and unspoken story of one of the first inventors of the photography in colors. Warm, moving and fascinating photographs of Russia from the early 20th century. His project was to educate the youth, through colored photography, of the splendors and diversity of motherland. He still succeed at it today. A must read.
I always enjoy a monograph directly written by one of the artist's closest friends. This one is well written, well analyzed, and well illustrated. A great read.
An art history book that reads like a novel, thanks to the captivating analysis by Xavier Bray. His writing is simple but very lively, his analysis straight to the point and wrapped up with unique details, and every single mentioned œuvre is immediately reproduced on the next page. What a wonderful reading experience.
A group of friends rented a house for vacations on the French Riviera. One day, a French tourist join them. The next day, Madame Henriette is gone. She left a note: she run away with the French man, leaving her husband and her kids behind. After the shock of the news, the group of friends gather, exchange opinions, and then quietly go back to their respective rooms. An old women, then, feels the need to confess a story that happened to her two decades ago: the story of 24 hours of the life of a woman.
I absolutely adored this novella. I was even refraining myself from not just just spending my full day listening to it. Stephan Zweig has such a incredible talent to describe life: the animation of hands, the micro-expressions of faces, the burst of a new emotion...
My first book from Stefan Zweig. Definitively not my last one.
Audiobook read in French by Isabelle Carré via Librivox.
I couldn't make myself finish this monograph, mostly because of the author (Jan Garden Castro) writing over and over again about the mistakes and errors of Georgia O'Keeffe. Like a circle, starting and finishing the book mentioning it. I expected more from the study of this brilliant artist.
Wonderful monograph of Vincent Van Gogh containing a seven-page biography, 50 colored reproductions and 25 details. Each painting is primary explained by quotes from Van Gogh himself in his letters to Theo. A clear, minimalist and straightforward book.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
“The painter of the future will be a colorist such as has never yet existed.” VVG
“The pictures which must be made so that painting should be wholly itself and should raise itself to a heigh equivalent to the severe summits which the Greek sculptors, the German musicians, the writers of the French novel reach, are far beyond the powers of an isolated individual.” VVG
Biography
Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Brabant, at the border of Netherlands and Belgium. His father was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church ; his mother, the daughter of a bookseller and bookbinder. Two of his uncles were art dealers. Van Gogh's early attempts to find a career embraced each of these professions: he was an art dealer, a book dealer and a trainee candidate for the Church of England.
In 1869, at the age of 16, he began to work at La Hague for Goupil and Co., an international firm of art specialized in contemporary French art and photographic reproductions. In 1873, he was transfered in London. Inspired by the novelists George Eliot and Charles Dickens. In 1875, transfered to Goupil in Paris.
“When I entered the hall of the Hôtel Drouot, where they were exhibiting Millet, I felt like saying, ‘Take off your shoes, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Brief periods in London, Holland, Amsterdam and finally Belgium where he became a lay preacher. In 1880, he decides to become a graphic artist and studies at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, then moved to La Hague.
He lives with Clasina Hoornik, a prostitute and her two children. After pressure from his family, he breaks up with her and moves to Holland.
“It is necessary to thoroughly feel the link between nature and pictures in general. I have had to renew that in myself.” He now begins to paint in oil and commits to be a peasant painter. He studies plaster casts and live model for several months at Antwerp.
In 1886, he moves to Paris, where his brother Theo lives. He meets Fernand Cormon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard. He also admired Signac and Seurat. Strong interest in Japanese woodcuts.
“One can hardly be said to belong to one's time if one has paid no attention to it.”
In 1888, he moves to Arles. “I kept looking out of the window to see if it was beginning to look like Japan.” Friendship with Gauguin. Short stay at the asylum of Saint-Rémy.
He spends the last months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, North of Paris. He committed suicide in July 1890, and his brother Theo died six months later.
_
My favorites:
Sorrow, 1882
The State Lottery Office, 1882
Women Miners, 1882
Weaver, 1884
Peasant Woman Gleaning, 1885
Wheatfields with Sheaves, 1888
The Old Peasant (Patience Escalier), 1888
Memory of the Garden at Etten, 1888
Wheatfields with Cypresses, 1889
Self-portrait, 1889
Midday, 1889-1890
Sorrow, 1882
The starting point for this drawing was a woodcut by Millet: “Last Summer, when you showed me The Sheperdess, I thougth, ‘how much can be done with a single contour?'” He includes the lines from Michelet's La Femme, ‘How can it be that a woman is left alone, anywhere on earth'. In a letter to Teo: I wanted to express the struggle for life in both that white, slender figure of the woman, and those angry, gnarled black roots.The State Lottery Office, The Hague, 1882: Women Miners, 1882:Weaver, 1884:Peasant Women Gleaning, 1885:Wheatfields with Sheaves, 1888The Old Peasant (Patience Escalier), 1888:Memory of the Garden at Etten, 1888:It was not Van Gogh's habit to paint from his imagination, but Gauguin encouraged him to do so. Van Gogh wrote to his sister: “there is not the least vulgar and fatuous ressemblance, yet the deliberate choice of the color, the sombre violet with the blotch of violent citron yellow of the dahlias suggest Mother's personality to me. The figure in the scotch plaid... against the sombre green of the cypress... further accentuated by the red parasol... gives me an impression of you like those in Dicken's novels.”Wheatfields with Cypresses, 1889Self-portrait, 1889:Midday, 1888-1889:L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux, 1889
White man asking 10-11-12 years old girls to pose naked and in sexual poses = pedophile.
The fact that he is famous is an aberration.
200+ plates. 38 pages of analysis.
Racing steamboats by Currier and Ives, 1886
Kitty by George White
Little nemo and the walking bed, Winsor McCay, 1905-1911
Catrina by Guadalupe Posada, 1890s
A brilliant monograph of David, with full-page colorplates, and rich and lively analysis of his work.
Monsieur Lavoisier and his wife, 1788:
Napoleon in His Study, 1812:
John O'Shea (1876-1956) was an Irish-American painter, member of the Carmel School in California, who specialized in nature and seashore painting. Most of his work were destroyed in the 1991 Diablo Fire.
Eucalyptus trees in a storm:
Red Rocks:
Notley's landing:
A wonderful pop-up book, richly illustrated and truly fascinating.
Read and reviewed: 2018-10-21
“What I am concerned with is no longer metaphor, but metamorphosis” - Braque
This monograph contains 174 reproductions, but unfortunately only 9 in colors. The 12-page analysis compares Kafka to Braque, their visions and their use of the line, but it felt too constructed and not that relevant. I enjoyed Braque's work a lot.
Resurrection of a bird, 1959:
L'oiseau et son ombre II, 1961
L'oiseau traversant le nuage, 1957
Si je mourais là-bas, 1962 (non included in this edition)
This story feels like the start of a bigger adventure. While it can (sort of) stand on its own, knowing more about the story's world would help. Because of this, it was tough to connect deeply with the characters, and the spicy scene didn't quite hit the mark for me. I found myself reading without feeling fully engaged, yet I'm still intrigued about what unfolds next. I might give other books by the same author a shot. She's definitely gifted!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
TL;DR: The first half was a spicy romance, the second half a no-spice fantasy sci-fi adventure. Too many typos and inconsistancies broke the immersion, but the characters and the sweet ending redeemed the book. I wanted more spice!
Full review:
The beginning was a 3.5 stars, the middle a generous 2 stars, and the ending a 3 stars, so 2.5 all in all, rounded up to 3.
I liked the story, I liked the characters, I liked how they bicker all the time, and the whole set reminds me a of a mash between a Chinese drama and a JRPG video game :).
There were soooooo many typos and doubled words and errors, I was just so shocked by it. At one point, the heroine is talking about her hair and she says “her hair” instead of “my hair”. Never seen anything like this before. I read the ARC version, so hopefully it has been corrected in the published version.
What I had the most trouble with in this book is the number of inconsistancies. Physical ones. For example when someone gets killed and falls to their knees, they fall backwards on their back. Nope, gravity would make them fall face first to the ground. It took away from the immersion...
Also, this book was too hetero-normative, with sentences like “what all the girls want”, or things like this. Also, I know it's a breeding kink, but like adoption? Not sure why breeding with aliens is presented as the only way for her to get a baby. Could have been presented as a different option, like really wanting an alien-human baby.
Oh and I remember another inconsistancy, when the alien doesn't recognize the texture of jeans, but then calls another alien “moronic”, which means they are well versed in Earth's culture.
I will read more books from her, and from what I see, the ratings only get better as she becomes a better writer. Excited for it!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Interesting, grandiose. He is great at capturing an individual objet in a beautiful frame, not that much at the big scenic landscapes.
A masterpiece. High-quality print. Unfortunately, the photographs come with no legends.
2.5 stars. It is cutely drawn but I got confused in the beginning about who was who. But it was cute that they prepared a surprise for each other, despite the older sister's busy schedule.
Read and reviewed: 2021-07-28
The first half was just okay for me, but then the second half was so steamy and so well written I am bumping it to 4 stars. I will definitely read the rest of the series!
A little girl desires more than anything to have a cat. She prepares her bedroom with all the favorite things a cat might like, catnip, boxes, balls... and waits with the window open. When she wakes up, surprise!
The little girl ends up caring for dozens of cats, and they all start to live together. There is absolutely no input from the parents, no talk about possible hygiene and disease issues, either for the girl or for the granny's cat. And worst of all, the cats actually belong to actual owners and have been missing from their dear homes. In the end, all the cats go back to their owners, except one kitten, who stays with the little girl. Even this part is wrong. We saw that the mama cat gave birth to her kitten days ago and the kitten is not at all ready to be separated from her mom! It's so wrong!
Regarding the illustrations, I find that the illustrator didn't put enough effort into drawing correct volumes, shapes and perspectives for most of the cats, which makes them look funny or as big as foxes.
In the end, I feel like the message is very confusing to kids. Are they going to learn that it's okay to welcome cats without checking if they are not lost? That parents just should watch and say nothing? That you can just adopt a kitten without checking if it is old enough to be separated from its mom?
It would have been so much better for the girl to want a cat and for the parents to go to a shelter with her! And then show the vet visits, the daily care of a cat, the ups and downs of caring for cats... I do not recommend this book.
Read and reviewed: 2019-11-27
It could have been a great story, two siblings racing home with their bikes, but it became a story I would never read to kids. Zoé and Théo almost ran over chicken and rabbits as they raced, almost hurting them. That's not a good behavior to teach kids, and I'm shocked that the publisher chose it as the book cover.
Read and reviewed: 2018-10-29
As soon as I finished volume 1, I read the ENTIRE series online, the full 64 chapters. Does it tell you how much I liked it? Probably :) Have a ever read an entire manga series? Once, and it was Paradise Kiss from Ai Yazawa, twenty years ago. Why did Tied to You become so addictive? Probably because it was weird and a little bit creepy... haha
I picked up this ARC because of the sweet BL cover, and it pretty much became a page turner from the very beginning. It is kind of weird that you have a love triangle with two brothers, a major age gap, and some serious manipulative behavior, but if you are okay with that, I think you will enjoy it! The red flags are serious, and it is manipulative throughout the series, so if this is a trigger, please avoid this manhwa.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review
What a great book to introduce kids to technology and show them how to use tools, batteries and a little bit of extra help from adults. I loved that there was a girl and a boy working together cooperatively, and that they were both resourceful, actively building, and problem solving. Some extra humor and beautiful illustrations make this book a 5 stars.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-03
