art family history reading

Seventeen – Another Novel Based on History

I posted a few weeks ago about a novel I read, “The Art Forger,” that was based on a historical event, the theft of numerous works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Since that time, I have read another novel based on a historical event. This one is called “Seventeen” by Hideo Yokoyama. I found a hardcover copy at a local dollar store and was so taken with the cover art and description…

Continue reading

art history pragmatic historian reading

Teasing Out the Real History in Historical Fiction

Note: This post contains spoilers for the novel “The Art Forger” by B.A. Shapiro. I finished reading “The Art Forger” by B.A. Shapiro this week. The novel reminded me of the movie “National Treasure.” “The Art Forger” would lend itself well to being turned into a movie because of the action and intrigue. (Though there are other movies about art forgers, I could not find one based on this book.) In it, we are treated…

Continue reading

music olio reading

Olio: October 11, 2021

Olio: A miscellaneous collection of things Today is National Coming Out Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day (with President Joe Biden the first president to officially proclaim it so). Those are great holidays to have as part of my birthday. I’ve had a number of small ideas for blog posts over the past couple of weeks and rather than write each one out separately, I thought I’d share a bunch in one of my Olio posts.…

Continue reading