Secret Codes within the Classic Paintings

The Master of the Prado
by Javier Sierra
Atria Books
November 2015

For lovers of the Prado and the masters that are represented therein, this book is a delight -- perhaps as close as some can come to re-visiting an unforgettable treasure.

What's different about this book
Built in the form of a fictional autobiography, this story of Sierra meeting a mysterious master in the Prado in Madrid breathes through the reader, reanimating the times she has spent admiring the museum's works.

The key difference in this writing is the answers -- answers to questions that many Prado visitors would not expect to receive.  Sierra does a masterful job weaving fact and fiction throughout centuries of art history.  After reading, I feel an irresistible need to return to visit the Prado, this time with new eyes and listening ears.  Now I have a better understanding of what --and how-- to look at those priceless treasures. This is a thrilling book for those who love art and are familiar with the Prado and the city of Madrid. Ciudad de encanto. 

What I'll do now that I've read it
The full-color illustrations and the stories Sierra weaves through historical fact and fiction make a compelling resource for library patrons.  I'll be sharing this resource with friends and patrons beyond the regular readers.  The art aficionados will love this and my reading patrons will as well.

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An excellent historical fiction series from WWII

Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante, A Maggie Hope Mystery

by Susan Elia MacNeal
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Bantam 

The longevity of this series is a testament to a compelling plot, an engaging heroine, and a tightly cohesive story of historical events.  Book 5, Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante, extends and enlarges on the original -- much to the delight of Maggie Hope's readers.

What's different about this book
The story arc of the series follows Maggie Hope as she first appears: a young and naive American caught in London at the start of World War II.  Maggie's character development of is well done. Author MacNeal realistically and engagingly develops Maggie into an experienced and competent spy, still with her faults but with a much wiser understanding of the world around her.  I was sometimes impatient with her younger, ingenuous character, but Maggie is coming into her own with this fifth title.  A particular treasure of this book and the series itself is the exceptional look at a complex and compelling time in history and its remarkable heroes (and villains).  Ms. MacNeal is careful to characterize her books as fiction, but there is a wonderful interweaving of historicity with that fiction.

What I'll do now that I've read it
Being a compulsive series reader, I couldn't begin book 5 until I had read through the preceding four titles.  And I was pleasantly entertained, not by any single book but by the collective story.  However this fifth title is perhaps the strongest of the series.  As I have been reading, I have mentally enumerated the historical fiction readers who will want to read these -- along with those who want to see the growth of a feminist perspective grounded in a historical setting. This series will fill a great niche for our library patrons.

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