From January 26 – June 2, 2013 art lovers will be able to view Johannes Vermeer’s celebrated masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.   Girl with a Pearl Earring is part of an exhibition of 35 Dutch paintings on loan from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague.  This exhibition will be touring the United States and the de Young Museum in San Francisco is its very first venue.  Several years ago Author Tracy Chevalier wrote the bestselling historical fiction book Girl With a Pearl Earring.  In her book Chevalier details the life of Vermeer as an artist and explores what might have been behind his captivating painting of a young girl wearing a turban and a pearl earring.  The success of Chevalier's book inspired the film Girl With a Pearl Earring starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

With the arrival of the film version of Cloud Atlas, there's sure to be increased interest in the 2004 novel by David Mitchell on which the film is based. From my perspective, that's great - this novel should be reintroduced, so that readers who have not yet delved into the extravagant prose and complexity of plot and language of this extraordinary story can experience a truly original work of literature.

I've heard that the novel can be compared in structure to a Russian matryoshka doll: opened in layers until the center piece is reached, then reassembled  piece by piece to form the whole.

And the novel's structure does have that kind of symmetry. The novel is the clever blending of six novellas, wildly divergent in setting and tone, but with a common thread that emerges at crucial junctures in each story. The first is the story of a nineteenth century American, Adam Ewing,  whose innocence and faith in humanity is tested on a voyage through the south Pacific. The subsequent tales are set in Belgium in the 1930s, California in the 1970s, present-day Britain, Korea of the future (the 23rd century?), and, at the book's center, a post-apocalyptic Hawaii where civilization is reduced to a few small agricultural tribes surviving in one of the few areas of the world that has not be made uninhabitable by pollution and the depletion of natural resources. After this central piece, the other stories unfold in reverse order until we finally return to the nineteenth century and discover the fate of the Adam in the middle of the Pacific.

If you want a challenging read with beautiful prose and a timeless theme of hope in the midst of man's inhumanity to man, I recommend Cloud Atlas: Available in print, and as an e-book from San José Public Library.

View the trailer for the film

Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool, is the story of a young twelve year old, Abilene, who is sent to live with her father's friend in Manifest, a small lazy town in Kansas.  She feels abandoned by the father she loves and is at loss for why he would do this.  She only knows that her father had changed after her sickness, when she had an accident and her leg became infected.  So, now, alone, in Manifest, the town where her father considers home, Abilene is trying to sort our her father's past and his identity and her own destiny.  Through the course of a summer, she discovers Manifest's history, her father's history, and her own place in Manifest's destiny.

A Newberry Award Winner for 2011, Moon Over Manifest is, in my opinion, a simply wonderful book, but I would not recommend it for everyone, because its narrative is sophisticated and complex with three threads which the author skillfully weaves to reveal a narrative which is a colorful depiction of life in small town Kansas.  This book is a book for a good reader, probably a girl, and for someone around 6th or 7th grade because the main character is young, but the scope of the story is big and the narrative complex. 

I am always on the lookout for an enthralling historical fiction novel to transport me to another time and another place.   Recently, a friend recommended The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer.  This novel takes place in Budapest, Hungary and Paris, France during the late 1930’s when Europe was in the grip of the rising Nazi threat.    The story begins in Budapest, Hungary as a young Hungarian Jew, Andras Levi, leaves for Paris to begin his studies at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture.  While in Paris, Andras meets and falls in love with Klara, a Hungarian ballet instructor.   Their love story is the centerpiece of this riveting novel that immerses the reader in the terrifying life that Hungarian Jews endured during the Second World War.  I could not put this book down.  Warning: it is about 600 pages in length, but every page is beautifully written and absolutely captivating.   Vivid details, excellent characterization, and impeccable historical research make this book a memorable read.   If you love historical fiction and are looking for a long, satisfying summer read, try The Invisible Bridge. ( Also available as a downloadable audio book or ebook ).

The West Valley Book Club will meet on Wednesday, April 11 at 6:30pm in the Community Room to discuss No Graves As Yet: A Novel of World War I by Anne Perry. Perry is a prolific genre fiction author, but she is most well-known for her historical mystery novels. Published in 2003, No Graves as Yet is the opener for her World War I historical mystery series featuring lead protagonist Joseph Reavley, named after Perry's maternal grandfather, who was a captain in England during World War I.

On a sunny afternoon in late June, 1914, Cambridge don, Joseph Reavley is summoned from a student cricket match to learn that his parents have died in a road accident.  Joseph’s brother, Matthew, as an officer in the Intelligence Service, reveals that their father had been en route to London to turn over to him a secret document – allegedly with the power to England and damage the British Empire.  At the same time, events in Sarajevo will propel Europe, and the whole world, into war.  But there are some tragic deaths on the home front and where is this mysterious document...if it exists at all? (from anneperry.net)

Think about what it would be like to walk from Spokane, Washington to New York City.   This 3,500 mile, seven month long trek was made in 1896 by a 36 year old Norwegian American woman named Helga Estby and her eighteen-year-old daughter Clara.    Helga Estby was a Norwegian immigrant living on a farm in the state of Washington with her husband and eight children.   When the farm was threatened with foreclosure because of unpaid taxes, Helga decided to accept a $10,000 wager from an anonymous sponsor of the fashion industry.   If Helga could walk across the country wearing the new “reform dress”( shorter skirt ) , following the strict rules set out by the sponsor, she would win $10,000.  Helga and her daughter left the family in Washington State and set out on a perilous journey that was fraught with danger, exhaustion and propelled by courage, strength, determination and love for family.   This true story is told in the book Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America , by Linda Lawrence Hunt.    Using newspaper clippings, research and memories of Helga’s descendants, Lawrence gives a captivating account of these incredible women defied the accepted norm for women’s behavior and aspirations in 1896.  Author Jane Kirkpatrick has written a compelling and moving historical fiction novel  based on Helga Estby’s walk across the United States.   This novel, The  Daughter’s Walk : A Novel  tells the story of the walk and then moves forward to  daughter Clara Estby’s  continued journey through life.   These two outstanding books are fine tributes to the strength, determination and the struggles for rights and independence that women faced in the late 19^thCentury.

Think about what it would be like to walk from Spokane, Washington to New York City.   This 3,500 mile, seven month long trek was made in 1896 by a 36 year old Norwegian American woman named Helga Estby and her eighteen-year-old daughter Clara.    Helga Estby was a Norwegian immigrant living on a farm in Washington State with her husband and eight children.   When the farm was threatened with foreclosure because of unpaid taxes, Helga decided to accept a $10,000 wager from an anonymous sponsor of the fashion industry.   If Helga could walk across the country wearing the new “reform dress”( shorter skirt ) , following the strict rules set out by the sponsor, she would win $10,000.  Helga and her daughter left the family in Washington State and set out on a perilous journey that was fraught with danger, exhaustion and propelled by courage, strength, determination and love for family.   This true story is told in the book Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, by Linda Lawrence Hunt.    Using newspaper clippings, research and memories of Helga’s descendants, Hunt has pieced together a captivating account of a long forgotten trek made by two  incredible women who defied society's restrictions on women’s behavior and aspirations in 1896.  

Author Jane Kirkpatrick has written a compelling and moving historical fiction novel  based on Helga Estby’s walk across the United States.   The  Daughter’s Walk : A Novel tells the story of the walk and then moves forward to  daughter Clara Estby’s  continued journey through life.   These two outstanding books are fine tributes to the strength, determination and struggle for rights and independence that  American women faced during the late 19^thCentury.