Even with all that went on this year, I spent a fair amount of time reading. I’m publishing a two part blog post with short reviews summarizing what I read this past year. I grabbed most of these books from the New Fiction rack at the library, although next year I’m planning on being a little more picky choosy about my reading material. If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know in the comments.
And below, some more work on my latest sunset piece. I love my glass desktop–it makes a perfect work surface for me.
©2012 Carolyn A Pappas, Work in Progress (Sunset). Colored pencil on paper, 9 x 12 inches (final size to be determined).
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, A Red Herring without Mustard and I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley are the sequels to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which I read back in 2010. I really love this series not as much for the mysteries, but for the characters. These books are quick to read and very funny. More are scheduled to be published and I’m definitely going to be looking for them.
The Printmaker’s Daughter by Katherine Govier is a historical novel about the daughter of the famous Japanese printmaker Hokusai (of The Great Wave fame). The premise of the book is that most of Hokusai’s great works were really created by his daughter Ei. This book felt like a research project that someone tried to turn into fiction. It didn’t really have a plot though, which left me disappointed throughout, and it had a number of quite vulgar scenes which didn’t add much to the story. The author didn’t manage to wrap things up with the characters at the end either. I think she tried to end it as a mystery as to how the daughter died, but it just left me confused. I do not recommend this novel.
The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos. This novel was set in Greece in the 1970’s and it focused on the members of one particular family, from the day before the coup d’état to when the new government was established. It perfectly illustrates how the people’s freedoms were eroded until they were living in a state of constant fear. This book gave me a lot of insight into Greece’s current problems, and also shed light on the gross mismanagement of the country that led to my own family to emigrate to America.
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