Review #577: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

----Pablo Picasso

Sarah Dunant, the British bestselling novelist, has penned a delectable and extremely tempting historical fiction, The Birth of Venus that is set against the backdrop of the Renaissance Florence and that which revolves around a young 14 year old girl who is not beautiful or skilled like her elder sister, yet her talent and eye for art and mind for translating languages is extraordinary but with the changing times, she is forced into matrimony at a tender age, and little did she knew what fight she is put up for, in the name of honor, respect and womanhood during the Dominican rule in the 15th century Florence.

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Author Q&A Session #51: With Philip Kazan

Good evening everyone,

Hope you're having a great day. In another new author Q&A Session, today we have the author who re-creates Florence vividly and strikingly with his stories that not only traces the outline of a beautiful and elegant city but also takes us back in time in a different era. Yes Philip Kazan is here to talk about art, his objectives, his books and his life beyond books and all. So stay tuned and keep reading the interview.

Read the review of The Painter of Souls

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Review #275: The Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

----Pablo Picasso

Pip Vaughan-Hughes, an English writer, writing under the name of Philip Kazan, pens a mystifying historical fiction, The Painter of Souls that is based on the life and times of the famous painter, Fra Filippo Lippi, during the 15th century Renaissance Florence. Although there is not much known to this great historic painter's life, so the author immerses into Filippo's paintings to give a fictional sketch of his early as well as later life in Florence.

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Review #91: An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Michael Foley, an English author, has quoted about "servants" as:

“The perfect servant is the one who attends to all the master's whims - anyone can do that - but the one who anticipates the whims.”

Martine Bailey, another English author, has penned her debut novel named, An Appetite For Violets about the miserable lives of servants and how sometimes, by a simple stroke of luck, they are born with a new identity.

Synopsis:
“That's how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you're invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. Then you find something, something you should not have found.”

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