The Auctioneer, by Simon de Pury

Simon de Pury has for decades been an insider in the high-flying world of fine art.  Among other things, he has worked for Sotheby's, started his own auction house, and was personal curator to the billionaire and nobleman Heini Thyssen.  Along the way, de Pury became a world's leading expert in fine art and a sought-after auctioneer.

In The Auctioneer: Adventures in the Art Trade, he ostensibly pulls back the curtain on the insiders' world of fine art.  In reality, de Pury tells the story of his life and career, which happens to be in art, while telling name-dropping stories about his many encounters with the world's elite classes.  De Pury was hanging out with the jet setters before people really had jets.  He has spent his career rubbing shoulders with industrialists and entreprenuers, heirs and heiresses, titled nobility, politicians, and others who have millions of dollars to throw around.

As he tells his stories, I was sickened by the "lifestyles of the rich and famous."  These aren't the one percent that the Occupy movement gets upset about.  These are the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the world who spend seven or even eight figures on a single work of art.  They also have appalling morals and habits, and seemingly endless funds to finance their debauchery and profligacy.  I don't know if de Pury meant to cast these elite in a repulsive light.  I rather got the impression that he celebrates them and considers himself as one of them.

What I really would have liked to have read about is the question of art as a luxury good.  De Pury's clients and friends plop down ungodly amounts of money for art.  But he doesn't reflect on value.  While he talks about pieces whose beauty captures him, beauty often does not have a relationship to price.  He doesn't mind if they "ratchet up rates" since his customers are "a price-insensitive elite that would pay anything if they wanted the beauty we were selling."  And when they do drive up prices, it becomes a cycle: "Money brings recognition, and what artist doesn't want to be recognized?  That is the calculus of taste."

I conclude from his experiences that the value of a work of art is not determined by its intrinsic beauty or in the talent, skill, and workmanship that went into its creation, but simply by the price a promoter like de Pury is able to get out of the pockets of his "price-insensitive" clients.  While much of his career has been spent on recognizable masters, he proudly touts his role in promoting the careers of modern artists like Urs Fischer and Jeff Koons, who is most famous for his animal carcasses suspended in formaldehyde.  Google those two names, look at some of their work and ask yourself if they belong in the same pantheon as some of the great artists of past centuries.  Then ask yourself if you would pay a million bucks (if you had it) for one of their "works of art."

I know, I sound like an uneducated Philistine with buorgeois morality and unrefined taste.  But de Pury prides himself in bringing fine art to the masses, as demonstrated by his participation in a short-lived art reality show and some of his charity work.  (I can't imagine why that show wasn't a big hit. . . .)  If he really wants to make a contribution to the world of art, he needs to convince people like me that the prices paid for art are justifiable and not simply an expression of ego and power by oligarchs and heiresses, and that the value of a piece of art lies in more than the prices paid.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Tomb, by F. Paul Wilson

Years ago, I read F. Paul Wilson's LaNague Federation series, plus one or two of his medical thrillers.  For no good reason, I avoided his Repairman Jack books, which make up a large part of Wilson's work.  I finally decided to check out Repairman Jack in the first book featuring him, The Tomb.

Jack is a nobody, just like he likes it.  No SSN, no bank account, no taxes, no strings, he pays cash for everything and only takes cash for payment.  Payment for what?  He's a "fixer."  Sometimes referred to as a "security consultant."  Or a thug.  But he's one of the good guys.  In The Tomb, an Indian diplomat recruits him to recover an heirloom necklace that a mugger stole from his grandmother.

As Jack gets more involved with the Indian family, including an affair with the diplomat's sister, he uncovers links to his ex-girlfriend's family, he learns about the magical qualities of the necklace, and discovers a brood of inhuman creatures prowling the streets of New York for sacrificial victims.  The connections, and the evil behind it all, surprises him, and of course leads to lots and lots of violence.

Repairman Jack reminded me, somewhat, of another favorite fictional Jack, Lee Child's Jack Reacher.  A key difference in The Tomb, and, as best I can tell, the whole Repairman Jack series, is that Repairman Jack is constantly finding his way into these supernatural encounters.  (Come to think of it, this is why I have avoided Repairman Jack novels.  I'm not really a fan of supernatural horror fiction.) 

Repairman Jack is resourceful, effective, and good at what he does.  I will certainly come back to this series to see what else Repairman Jack gets into, but if every story involves some sort of supernatural creature, I might be turned off.  As a character, though, I really enjoyed Repairman Jack, and as a writer, Wilson tells a great story!



2016 Reading Challenge: A book with magic
#vtReadingChallenge

Seek and Hide, by Amanda Stevens

Is it difficult to imagine a future U.S. in which Christianity is outlawed completely?  If your imagination fails you, lend an ear to Amanda Stevens.  Seek and Hide is the first of four books in her Haven Seekers series.  In this all-to-believable future, Christianity has been deemed a dangerous worldview.  Pro-lifers took things one clinic bombing too far, and the powers-that-be decided Christianity would be outlawed.

In Seek and Hide, we meet Marcus, a recovering alcoholic and recent convert who makes it his personal mission to save as many Christians from arrest, imprisonment, and perhaps worse.  Through some personal sleuthing he warns some Christians that the Constabulary has a warrant for them.  But it gets much more personal when he picks up Aubrey, who is actively fleeing the Con cops.

Stevens definitely writes with a feminine tone.  Marcus is cast as the handsome, muscular strong-but-silent type.  Aubrey is attracted to him, but Marcus has eyes for Lee, who won't let Marcus get close because of her history of pain.  Don't get me wrong, Seek and Hide is not a romance novel, but the relationships of these three make up a good deal of the story.

Of course, the main thrust of the story is Aubrey's flight from the Con cops, her efforts, with Marcus and Lee's help, to get her baby back from the Con cop's custody, and Marcus's ongoing personal mission to save as many Christians as he can.

The scary thing about Seek and Hide is how believable it is.  For the most part, life goes on in the U.S. of A.  There are even government-approved quasi-religious groups and versions of a Bible, thoroughly edited and expurgated, of course.  But get caught meeting in a Christian worship service, or possessing a real Bible, and things get nasty.  One only has to thing of Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany to see how quickly a sick, anti-Christian perspective can take over a country.  It can't happen here, of course. . . . Or can it?

Believing Jesus, by Lisa Harper

As I thought about my review of Lisa Harper's Believing Jesus: Are You Willing to Risk Everything? A Journey Through the Book of Acts, I considered saying something about how I didn't like her "informal teaching style and the tendency to weave pop culture into biblical narrative or to refer to the Apostle Peter as 'Pete,'" but apparently she has heard that before!  I wouldn't go so far as to call her a "narcissistic windbag," and I certainly would not make comments about her being "too chubby to be an effective video-based Bible teacher!"  People are mean; I try not to be.

All that said, I hope Ms. Harper won't be offended by my simply stating that I did not particularly enjoy Believing Jesus.  And yes, I'll admit that it's a question of preference and style.  I did not find her theology objectionable; it was her style that put me off.  I can see why she's a popular speaker for women's conferences.  She's funny and entertaining while being insightful and biblical.  Harper takes the book of Acts as her framework for a light and breezy tour of the early church.  Along the way we hear stories of family, her adoption of a Haitian orphan, and her own experiences as a Christian.  (I did love hearing about her adoption experience, it just seemed not to fit all that well with the overall book.)

She identifies the main theme of the book of Acts: "the inestimable treasure of Jesus Christ and the exorbitant price His ancient followers were willing to pay because of their relationship with him."  As we follow their example, we have to grapple with the difference between belief in Jesus and believing him.  "Believing Jesus means you're willing to risk everything you are and everything you have based on everything He taught and everything He did.  It means learning to love Him more than you love your own life."

If you can get past her casual, sometimes silly style, that powerful message is what comes through in Believing Jesus.  This would be perfect for your women's Bible study or discussion group or for personal study.  Casual style or not, Harper writes with conviction and truth that will challenge her readers.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Trump: The Complete Collection, by Harvey Kurtzman

Trump is offensive, sometimes hilarious, irreverent, definitely not politically correct, and has limited popular appeal.  No, actually I'm not talking about Donald Trump!  I'm talking aboutTrump, the humor magazine that had a very short two-issue lifespan.  It was the mid-1950s, and Harvey Kurtzman had successfully transformed Mad magazine from a comic to more of a mainstream magazine.  Looking to delve into humor with a more sophisticated, grown-up appeal, he partnered with Hugh Hefner to create Trump.  Alas, as Hefner said, "I gave Harvey Kurtzman an unlimited budget . . . and he exceeded it."  After two issues, Trump was no more.


Gone but not forgotten, Dark Horse Comics has published Trump: The Complete Collection, which preserves the entire two issues, includes a bit of history, and has tons of sketches, mock-ups, and annotations illuminating the original.  Real fans and nostalgia buffs will eat this stuff up.  Casual readers will just focus on the actual magazine portion.

Much of the humor is reminiscent of Mad magazine: spoofs on popular movies, fake ads, random cartoons.  One significant difference is the extended stories and satirical essays; Mad readers wouldn't have had the patience for these.  While the writing is funny and decent, the best part is the art.  On many pages, there is so much detail that it's easy to miss the humor in the background.

I'm not aware of any other magazine like Trump.  Humor magazines seem to be focused on younger audiences, like Mad or its imitator Cracked, or tend toward R-rated humor, like National Lampoon.  (I should point out that even though Playboy publisher Hefner backed Trump, the content was PG at worst, more reflective of the sensibilities of the 1950s than of the direction Hefner was taking publishing with his other magazine.)  I don't know if a humor magazine like Trump would make it today.  At least we have these two issues to show us what might have been.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

One Without the Other, by Shelley Moore

Canadian educator Shelley Moore has consulted with schools, school district, and community groups in the U.S. and Canada about her passion and specialty: inclusion.  She has gathered some of her wisdom and experience in a new book, One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion.  Her goal: to make inclusion a natural part of all education.  Whereas attempts to "homogenize and standardize our classrooms and learners" may have marked education in the past, homogeneity "is no longer our vision of education (thank goodness)."

She writes that "inclusion means everyone--but actually everyone, even our students who ned the most support in our classrooms, schools, and communities."  Realizing the realities of needed support, she says, "The goal is not inclusion 100 percent of the time, but that 100 percent of the time we are striving to be more inclusive."

In her extended discussion of "what is inclusion," I appreciated the fact that she started out with presuming competence.  For example, some might have assumed that her student with Down syndrome was not paying attention while she was showing him addition flash cards.  He seemed detached, flipping through pages of a dictionary.  Finally, she noticed that he was turning to the page number of the correct answer!  20 + 40, he turned to page 60!  Presuming competence means that from the start, teachers engage students as if they understand and hear it all, because they almost always are hearing, understanding, and learning more than we might have thought.  She goes on, "unless I presume competence in all people, I am the one who is disabled."

Teachers who are unfamiliar with inclusion ought to pick up Moore's book.  There are probably more technical and comprehensive studies of inclusion, but Moore's experienced bird's eye view will serve as introduction and inspiration to teachers and administrators.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Frayed, by Kerry Nietz

Has it really been nearly 5 years since I first read Kerry Nietz's A Star Curiously Singing?  Yes, but the story has stuck with me, as has whole DarkTrench trilogy.  Now Nietz has returned to the world of Sandfly and HardCandy in Frayed.  Nietz writes great future tech, tells a great story, and creates great characters.  Debuggers Sandfly and HardCandy have cameos in Frayed, but the story revolves around a new character, a debugger named ThreadBare. 

Like his cohorts, Thread is the property of the Imam.  He is human, but has been enhanced so that he is able to stream with machines and specializes in fixing and debugging them.  As a debugger, he is inhibited by "stops" that give him painful reminders if his thoughts or actions wander away from total obedience to his master or Sharia law.

After years of contentedly fixing machines in his garage, he is relocated to serve at the palace of the Imam's son.  The prince is a powerful, sadistic master who considers the moral laws of the religion of A (whose name is never spelled out in Frayed) to be optional for royalty.  The prince puts Thread in morally tenuous situations, where his implant's obligation to obey comes into conflict with some deeper sense of right and wrong.  To further complicate matters, one of the prince's concubines reaches out in friendship to Thread, stirring other forbidden feelings.

With Thread's moral conundrums, Frayed begins to hint at spiritual themes.  As readers of the DarkTrench trilogy will recall, in this world Christianity has been totally eradicated, with Islam now ruling the world.  The religious-political background frames Thread's struggles nicely without heavy-handed back story, and the hints of political conflict and war set up the struggles on a larger, society-wide scale.  Frayed is book 1 of the "DarkTrench Shadow Series."  I am already looking forward to the continuation of this new series and anticipate its dovetailing with the Sandfly's adventures in the DarkTrench trilogy.