Sunday Post 5/28/17 Still dreaming of Van Gogh in NYC etc.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…

Happy Sunday. It is a nice three day weekend as we celebrate Memorial Day here in the US. That picture above is of my all time favorite paintings, by Vincent van Gogh, “The Starry Night“. I went into NYC yesterday to see it at the MOMA. I went in specifically to see Van Gogh and I definitely enjoyed my trip to the museum. It was my first time going to this one because whenever I go into the city for a museum trip, I always go to the Met, that is my absolute favorite. There was a little crowd gathered around The Starry Night but my son and I managed to take a selfie with it anyway…lol. I will be printing that one out and hanging it in my cubicle at work. 🙂

Sunday Post: Christmas in New York, goodbye 2016, etc.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog…

Oh my gosh, I cannot believe that December is flying by so quickly and that Christmas is right around the corner. This is always a busy time of year and I haven’t gotten in as much reading time as I would have liked to, but that’s ok. Once the hustle and bustle of the holidays are over hopefully I can get more time to read.

Lately, I feel like after a busy day I can’t sit and focus on reading. I tend to gravitate towards crocheting instead, I think it’s because my hands are moving. Does that make sense? With crochet, depending on the project, I usually don’t have to focus too much and I can just do it while watching tv.

Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss

source: free review copy via Amazon Vine
title: Tuesday Nights in 1980
author: Molly Prentiss
genre: fiction
published: 2016
pages: 317
first line: The meetings happen on Tuesdays, in the basement of Cafe Crocodile.
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

blurb:
A transcendent debut novel that follows a critic, an artist, and a desirous, determined young woman as they find their way—and ultimately collide—amid the ever-evolving New York City art scene of the 1980’s.

Welcome to SoHo at the onset of the eighties: a gritty, not-yet-gentrified playground for artists and writers looking to make it in the big city. Among them: James Bennett, a synesthetic art critic for The New York Times whose unlikely condition enables him to describe art in profound, magical ways, and Raul Engales, an exiled Argentinian painter running from his past and the Dirty War that has enveloped his country. As the two men ascend in the downtown arts scene, dual tragedies strike, and each is faced with a loss that acutely affects his relationship to life and to art. It is not until they are inadvertently brought together by Lucy Olliason—a small town beauty and Raul’s muse—and a young orphan boy sent mysteriously from Buenos Aires, that James and Raul are able to rediscover some semblance of what they’ve lost.

my thoughts:
An AmazonVine find, the cover and title on Tuesday Nights in 1980 captured my interest straight away, as did the New York setting. This is a story about three people, Lucy, Raul and James and how their lives intersect.

I enjoyed the 1980’s NYC setting and found that the author wove the art scene into the storyline really nicely.

Weekend Updates and The Met

Happy weekend everyone. my blog has been collecting dust lately. I’m finally on my computer this morning playing catch up. I hope to do some blog hopping today and work on my review of The Great Gatsby, which I can never do justice to anyway.

I also have a Top Ten Tuesday post from a few weeks ago that I never posted. I think I will post it this week or next even though the theme, “songs I wish were books”, has come and gone.

I’ll close this post with a few shots I took last week when we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was fantastic and I recommend visiting if you are ever in the area. I mainly went into see Vigée Le Brun exhibit. Le Brun was the official portraitist of Marie Antoinette and seeing the paintings of the former Queen of France was really a treat. I hope to get back to the museum again sooner than later since there are so many beautiful and inspiring things to see there.

 

I found the sculptures entrancing, some look so lifelike. This is a sleeping cupid.

Sunday Salon: The Brooklyn Bridge

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope you are all having a nice weekend. We’ve had some rainy weather here and are keeping an eye out for Hurricane Joaquin as it passes through New Jersey. We haven’t been hit badly where I live, just plenty of rain and some winds.

Last month we took a trip out to NYC into Brooklyn. I wanted Brooklyn pizza and it was well worth the trip. I thought I’d share some pics.