Reading on Holiday
Is there anything more bookishly pleasurable than reading on holiday? And feeling that you brought along the exact correct books for your time away?
I’ve read three books so far on my time in Rome this November and dipped into a few others. But the three that are just A+ chef’s kiss are:
Thunderclap by Laura Cumming, The Upside-Down World by Benjamin Moser, and Girls Interrupted by Lisa Whittington-Hill.
Let me preface all of this by saying that we are in Rome for a month, and the goal has been to fill up on art and beauty, once again. (We were here last year for a month and in previous years for 3 weeks a couple of times). We are art lovers. Rob, my partner, many of you know is an artist. I have a book of essays about living with art, and still life, and my art and writing practice, coming out in January 2024. As I write this, my book, Apples on a Windowsill, is currently at the printer and is available for pre-order!
Okay. You know I’m a terrible reviewer, so I’m just going to give you a couple of sentences from each volume. And also say that these 3 books would be a great pre-read for my book :)
1. Thunderclap: a Memoir of Art and Life by Laura Cumming:
“We see pictures in time and place. We cannot see them otherwise. They are fragments of our lives, moments of existence that may be as unremarkable as rain or as startling as a clap of thunder. Whatever we are that day, whatever is going on behind our eyes, or in the forest of our lives, is present in what we see. We see with everything that we are.”
— Cumming interweaves a memoir with the story of Carel Fabritius’s life and the moment of the “thunderclap.” A very compelling treatment, thoroughly researched, and feelingly told.
2. The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters by Benjamin Moser:
Well, Benjamin Moser will always have a special place in my heart for his stellar and epic work on my beloved Clarice Lispector. (And he mentions her a few times in this volume). You would maybe think that everything possible has been said about the Dutch Masters and what they might say about us now, but here you will learn, that is not so.
“If it is a great enrichment to be able to see the world from a different standpoint, it is also a great risk. It takes a while to learn that the questions are more important than the answers. At first you don’t know where to look. You don’t know where you are, or what you’re looking at. You don’t even know where to start.”
3. Girls Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women by Lisa Whittington-Hill:
Lisa Whittington-Hill happens to have a thing in common with me: we both started out in Edmonton. She currently resides in Toronto but even if this book didn’t rock my world (it did), I feel like we’d be bonded for life, in the way that people who have never met each other IRL can be these days.
“I often encounter men who tell me pop culture doesn’t have a gender bias problem. Pressed for specifics, they rattle off examples which add up to “Beyoncé” and “ladies winning award things.” Movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp, although they have been invaluable, can give the impression that things are now better for women in Hollywood, in publishing, and in the music industry. That the problems have been been fixed, that we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done and move on. This book exists to prove otherwise.”
— You might think that this book is the Sesame Street “one of these things is not like the others” but actually it fits in a lot of ways. These essays also weave in a personal memoir and are rigorous about the art they examine. It spoke to me in so many ways and will be the one I press upon a few friends, with “you HAVE to read this”).
Because we are the nerdiest travellers ever, we have also watched some good stuff of an evening in our Rome apartment, thanks to Kanopy, free with your library card (at least it is with mine). Close to Vermeer was a highlight. Highly recommend.
Also on Kanopy we’ve watched (extremely belatedly) a couple of seasons of Inspector Lynley. It’s okay to fall in love with Nathaniel Parker (who plays Lynley) right?
Up next in my reading stack is Marguerite Duras’ The Easy Life and Helena Attleee’s The Land where Lemons Grow. Rob and I are both obsessed with the orange trees at the end of our street. And then, we bought a small lemon tree for our windowsill which you could read about by subscribing to my Beauty School Patreon. (Link to that in the sidebar or footer).
Thanks for reading and sharing if you are so inclined! With luck I’ll write another post from Rome and in the meantime, wishing you all a good spot of beauty in your week.
Shawna