the Book Brothel

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 239 pages, 2006

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: From first-flip I could tell this book had a huge ‘wow’ factor.

Synopsis: What do women in their 20s and 30s think about themselves? How do they view the world? How is life different for them than it was for their mothers and grandmothers? How does the place they live impact all of their opinions? Imagining Ourselves is a diverse collection of essays, poems, and artwork from young women all across the globe which attempts to answer these questions and many more.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 128 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I love having gorgeous photograph collections around to randomly browse through when the mood strikes.

Synopsis: The Women is a collection of one hundred photographs focusing on the Native American women of more than eighty tribes (culled from what Cardozo believes may have been as many as 10,000 negatives in which the women were a strong presence in the photo). The photographs cover a lot of ground: portraits of elderly women, groups of giggling school-aged girls, mothers with their babies, women at work, women bundled up for winter - anything that Curtis believed captured the heritage and everyday lives of these Native women in the years of 1899-1928.

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alt="The Effects of Light by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore" />

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 349 pages, 2005

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: I liked the title and the cover. Not what an author wants to hear, I’m sure, but there you have it.

Synopsis: Where does art stop and child pornography begin? Two sisters, Myla and

Pru, spent much of their childhood posing for nude photographs that caused an uproar over

whether they were a true portrayal of the innocence of youth or simply fodder for

child-abusing perverts. Thirteen years pass, until the day Myla finds her easy-going grad
student life disrupted by the arrival of a letter that lures her back into the past and spurs her into hopping on a flight headed for her hometown, finally ready to uncover the secrets of her family’s past after years of wanting nothing more than to forget.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 412 pages, 2003

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I believe I saw an ad for it in the book section of Saturday’s Globe and Mail. I like to pick the section up once and a while and hunt for brand new (to me, at least) authors.

Synopsis: Alessandra Cecci is a fourteen-year-old surrounded by the vibrancy of life in Florence during the Renaissance, yet yet she finds herself frustrated because she is expected to be ladylike and either marry or join a nunnery. Neither sounds very appealing to Alessandra, who is determined to paint, a hobby she must keep hidden from parents, who see it as self-sabatoging the chance for a normal life. When a painter shows up to paint her father’s cathedral, she thinks she may have found the answer to her prayers, but with the turbulance of an upcoming war, things might not turn out the way she wants them to….

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 373 pages (incl. 54 pages of notes/bibliography), 2003

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I’m fascinated by how the Renaissance was a time for such dramatic strides in so many areas seemingly all at once, and Michelangelo’s works are definitely a favourite of mine.

Synopsis: Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling analyzes all of the troubles that ailed Michelangelo in his four years of painting the Sistine Chapel for the religious leader of his time, Pope Julius II. Michelangelo was forced by the pope to paint the ceiling, despite how Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor rather than a painter, as well as various issues with his family, a lack of money, a rivalry with the young up-and-coming painter named Raphael, an expected completion date that moved ever further away, and war being waged outside of the city. This is an account of how Michelangelo dealt with all of the obstacles to paint one of the most magnificicent artistic endeavors the world has ever seen.

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