Linda K. Taylor, Printmaker

Is there anything more interesting than an artist's studio?  When visiting this printmaking studio it is further expanded with the education of technique.  The artist and her assistant demonstrated a monotype.  The demonstration was in conjunction with the Ojai Studio Artist

Tour. http://ojaistudioartists.org/ 

"The Goldfinch"

I just finished reading all 771 pages of "The Goldfinch," and wished it was twice as long.  Inside the book jacket it claimed, "...beautiful, stay-up-all-night-and-tell-your-friends triumph."  I agree. www.washingtonpost.com/.../the-disappointing-novel-.

"The Valley of Amazement" and "China Dolls"

...did so enjoy the newest books by Amy Tan and Lisa See.  

"The Eternal Wonder"

I am not going to lie, when confessing that it took me three tries to get into reading Pearl Buck's, "The Eternal Wonder."  This saga of the life-long questioning of a brilliant person left me questioning my own intelligence.  But, finally, Buck's great writing started to flow for me.  Then, I couldn't put it down.  In one sentence, I can say, "it is about so much more than the story."  Written by this Novel-Prize-winning author, it is filled with importance.  

"My Beloved World"

Brilliant and inspiring...

L A Art Book Fair

What a delightful surprise to see the L A Art Book Fair jam packed with young hipsters.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-art-contemporary-los-angeles-la-art-book-fair-20140129,0,860000.story#axzz2sJyiVCZL

The Cat's Table

Do you remember what you did when you were 11 years old?  In the novel, "The Cat's Table," the elegant prose chronicles the sea voyage of just such a young child, a boy.  He is put on a ship in Sri Lanka and disembarks in London.  The adventures, other passengers, and circumstances are revealed in the beautiful words of the author, Michael Ondaatji.  I didn't want to miss a single word. 

Einstein, The Life of a Genius

Reading a biography is, for me, a way to feel as though I know the subject.  This book is filled with facsimile documents and memorabilia, which help to understand the theories that this brilliant physicist developed.  Is that even possible?  What it does reveal about the genius are varieties in his personal life, the continued love of making music, his role in the development of the atomic bomb and his passions and concerns for political and social issues.  So much more about Albert Einstein than the famous E=mc2. 

Steve Jobs

After having read the last word of Steve Jobs' biography I felt that I really knew him.  The author, Walter Isaacson, was given full access per Jobs' wishes.  An American genius, he is compared to Edison and Ford.  He was an artist in his zeal to create products that would serve the user with beautifully minimal design. 

It happened that I was frequently swimming with a member of the team who created the first ipod commercials.  So exciting to then see, all over the world, the dancing shadow that told exactly what a heretofore unknown product would do. 

"Then Again"

Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actor, Diane Keaton, has just released her autobiography. The memoir describes her life growing up in Southern California using parts of her Mother's eighty-five journals. Growing up in the same area, myself, I could so easily relate.

But, then, isn't being approachable Keaton's allure?

The Painted Drum

There were times when reading Louise Erdrich's, "The Painted Drum," that I got so involved with the beautiful words as to forget noticing the story. Whether the scene was current or delving into history, I only knew I didn't want to put down the book.

Olive Kitteridge

It seems hard to believe that this book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I could not even like the characters enough to care about what happened to them. Isn't that critical?

Enrique's Journey

I just finished reading Sonia Nazario's "Enrique's Journey," and I am changed! Once again, a Los Angeles Times columnist (refer to a earlier posting re Steve Lopez's "The Soloist"), has brought reality to heart-rending human conditions. It is no wonder the newspaper series on which this book was predicated won two Pulitzer Prizes.

The Snowball

How does someone in Omaha, Nebraska, become one of the the richest men on earth? Warren Buffett authorized "The Snowball," making it as true to life as a biography can be... and it is not at all simple. As fascinating as his documented successes are, much of details of his personal life had been unknown. These revelations made for a totally absorbing one thousand pages. Or, as he speaks into the microphone to begin speeches, "testing, one million, two million, three million."

Shanghai Girls

I have spent some time in Shanghai and much more in Los Angeles, but I will never see either place the same again after having read Shanghai Girls. The author, Lisa See, again describes the indelible bond between sisters. There couldn't be two more unlikely survivors of the Japanese occupation as these two beautiful sisters. Being surrounded by World War ll, they are faced with incomprehensible circumstances. I will never again visit the Chinatown section of Los Angeles without being touched by the struggle of Pearl and May and others when coming to America.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

It is said that "no one writes letters anymore."  Not so with  the authors Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows.  In a series of letters the cast of characters  are introduced to us in such a way that they feel like new friends.  The setting is on an island called Guernsey between England and France (so close to France that cars on their highway can be seen on a clear day).  The time is when I was ten years old and the World War II was raging. The Nazis' had occupied this small British Isle.  While trying to survive this five-year-long occupation these people read many books, cared for and about each other and become ingenious in their survival.  As I read this series of letters I was definitely changed, feeling  more intimately involved and wishing to be much more clever and caring myself.

Poeny in Love

Was there anything you ever wanted to do that you couldn't do?  Reading "Poeny in Love" shows that the privileges of choice and artistic freedom are to be cherished.  This tale, set inside the framework of a centuries-old opera, will wrench your heart and inspire.  

Halleluah Junction

When Salonen conducted this past weekend after  his 17 years as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra he left a legacy that was vastly broadened . Other artists, such as John Adams, Frank Gehry and Bill Viola helped him create his artistic visions.  *My thanks to Mary-Laure for introducing me to this  autobiographical book about the genius  of Adams.   

Into the Arms of Puskin

It was a privilege being in the company of the author at our monthly book group meeting.  With elegance, this book of poetry charted memories of time spent with her young children in St. Petersburg.  The administrators of the Fulbright program where she was a senior scholar had great pride when the result of her work there won the 2007 T. S. Eliot Prize.  

Infidel

Have you  wondered about the rights of women in a traditional  Muslim culture?   "Infidel," by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, will answer many of those questions.   This memoir, with it's harrowing details, might help in understanding why a person would isolate oneself from family, homeland, and religious upbringing.    This is a time in history when these and other questions are aching to be answered. Ali refuses to be quieted---she lives in fear of her life---she is triumphantly expressing the hope of all women, to be free.