Clara and Mr. Tiffany - Gorgeous prose - sad details

Clara and Mr. Tiffany
by Susan Vreeland
2/5 stars
⭐⭐


Clara and Mr. Tiffany is about Clara Driscoll who is an unknown artist that worked at Louis Comfort Tiffany studios and was instrumental in designing the famous stained-glass lampshades.
Apparently Tiffany had a women's department because he felt women were more sensitive to colors, but he did not allow any married women to work there, so once you married, you were out.

The book was just OK for me, it was extremely slow in starting, and maybe it suffered from being an online edition. Perhaps in a print book there are photos or drawings of the works being discussed, and processes being discussed. Even though I am somewhat familiar with many of Tiffany's works, this was fairly technical in its discussions, and would have highly benefitted from some illustrations or photos, which I have seen in other online books, so I know it can be done.

I did get into the story more towards the end, but it was very depressing, and really presents a very negative view of Tiffany as a person. As someone that really loves the art of Tiffany, it was very discouraging to hear that not only did he not design many of his own art objects, he was a miserable human being, is not what one really wants to know, so I came away from this book with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth if you will.

However, I do have to commend the author on her exceptional research on Clara Driscoll, and on the era in general. She also had lovely prose and did a nice job of painting the "word pictures" of a scene. When she describes a winter day, you can practically feel the wind cutting through your own coat, and turning your cheeks pink and numb.

So in summary, great research, great writing, slow start, OK story, but some disappointing story points if you're a Tiffany fan.

What Should Be Wild - Beautiful writing, disappointing story.

What Should Be Wild
by Julia Fine
3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐

I wanted to love this book.
I met the author at an event, bought a signed copy, and she's an alumnus of the College my daughter went to. I really wanted to love it.

I did love the writing. The prose is beautiful. When she writes about the house and the woods, the words are lyrical and paint beautiful word pictures. So I would give it 4 stars for writing.
Unfortunately, I would give it 2 stars for story, so I split the difference here.
It is a "magical realism" kind of story, which in all fairness is not my favorite genre.
I did like the premise of the main character, who if she touches something, changes its state of animation (alive to dead, dead to alive), but there are some fairly gruesome chapters, that involve extended torture, without consent, and one character is used sexually without consent, and the storyline was sooo convoluted I just didn't love it at all.
I did like the backstories of the historical characters in the Blakely family tree, who all end up trapped in the haunted wood. It was interesting to hear how they all dealt with their circumstances at different points in time.

So I guess if you like magical realism, maybe this is your book, but it wasn't for me.