Master the art of reading

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Since it is Arts Festival week in State College, I thought I would write about books, both fiction and nonfiction, about art that have been very popular reads.

To give nonfiction its due, I thought "The Lost Painting" by Jonathan Harr, was a fabulous read, very exciting and compelling AND true! It was fascinating to me to see how an art historian would know there should be a painting that had never been found and then track it down. There are other wonderful nonfiction books about specific paintings, including "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling"  and "The Judgment of Paris" both by Ross King. If you want to read more about Caravaggio, try "M: the man who became Caravaggio" by Peter Rob.

 

Many of you may have read the fictional account "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier or seen the movie. Other fiction titles include: "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" and "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Susan Vreeland, "Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper" by Harriet Scott Chessman and "Lady's Maid" by Margaret Forster (fiction tale of Elizabether Barrett Browning's maid).

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