Book Spew, yipeeeee!

Alrighty, my little reading binge has been wonderful, sometimes I just focus on Business books and other times History, but lately it's been loverly fiction. Two weeks ago I read The Passion of Artemisa by Susan Vreeland author of the much acclaimed Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The story is based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi a post-Renaissance painter, the first *famous* female painter of her time. I had no clue as to who she was until I read this wonderful book. It starts with her rape by her teacher and her fathers painting partner, and how the Church saw her as guilty until proven innocent, and then it covers her marriage and it's failure and her traveling throughout Europe for her commisions. The author shares with us how the act of painting is life for some, a hunger that needs satiating. This books got it all, love, lust, art, and gender wars. I read it in one day and have been exploring her life ever since......Google her name, look at the paintings......this book was yummy!

One of the few perks of my job is that I receive Advance Reading Copies of unpublished titles, some of which I pass on and some I give away.....but I opted on reading one that truly intrigue me. The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. It's a suspense/mystery of sorts, that blew my freaking mind. What begins with a murder in Musee' du Lourve, turns into a search for the Holy Grail, yes the mudder fucking Grail. I admit all the Grail was to me was a King Arthur tale, I knew it had to do with the Crusades and it was the supposed cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. This book takes all the myth and rumor and neatly ties it up to a fantastical conclusion of what the Grail really is! I was wowed and have gone on yet another research binge of Leonarda Da Vinci, Newton, symbology, secret societies like the Knights of the Templar, the Freemasons, cryptology, and the freaking Bible!! If you dig conspiracies, religion, Art, and suspense.....read it!!!!! Well read it in March....(release date) der.