The Art of Amy Brown
Amy Brown
Chimera Publishing
Nonfiction, Art
****
DESCRIPTION: Amy Brown compiles many of her faery- and fantasy-themed watercolor images in this full-color collection. Each image has a brief annotation.
REVIEW: If you like Amy Brown's work, you will enjoy this book. The introduction by Charles de Lint and the afterword by Amy Brown are very brief, leaving almost all of the book's 160 pages dedicated to the artwork. Unlike many artists, Brown varies the poses and appearances of her subjects significantly; there's not just one "Amy Brown faerie" in different poses, but a wide variety of faeries, each with a distinctive look and personality. One big weakness is animal anatomy, followed by occasionally peculiar or weak perspective, but I'm really not one to talk about art weaknesses. Overall, I like her colorful and imaginative works, plus the fact that she actually gave the art game a shot and came up a winner.
You might also enjoy:
Fabulous Beasts (Malcom Ashman, Art - Ashman illustrates all manner of fantastic animals)
Myth & Magic: The Art of John Howe (John Howe, Art - A collection of Howe's popular artwork)
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (Terry Jones, Fiction - Brian Froud illustrates a tale of pesky fairies)
The Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were (Michael Page and Robert Ingpen, Fiction - Enyclopedia of fairies, fantasty worlds, and other impossibilities)
How to Draw and Paint Fairies (Linda Ravenscroft, Art - How to create imaginative faeries of your own)
Michael Whelan's art books (Michael Whelan, Art - A collection of the popular artist's paintings)
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Wish You Were Here
(A Mrs. Murphy Mystery, Book 1)
Rita Mae Brown (and Sneaky Pie Brown)
Bantam
Fiction, Mystery
***
DESCRIPTION: Crozet, Virginia is a typical small town, with a history dating back to the Civil War (and beyond) and a full host of colorful residents. In Crozet,
everyone knows everyone else's business... or thinks they do. The postmistress, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, has a tabby (Mrs. Murphy), a Welsh Corgi (Tee Tucker), and a bad
habit of skimming postcards that come through her small office. Ultimately, it may be a life-saver. When residents start turning up dead, she recalls that each received a
mysterious postcard of a gravestone with the morbid message "Wish you were here" on the back.
Everyone has secrets, even in a small town. The question is, who has secrets worth killing for?
REVIEW: I guess I'm just not a mystery fan. The actual mystery part was lackluster, and spelled out fairly obviously about halfway through. The characters were more interesting to read about, though not by a great margin. All in all, a fair story. I don't intend to read any more in the series, though.
You might also enjoy:
Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God (Guy Adams, Fiction - Holmes investigates a mysterious murder tied to the occult Order of the Golden Dawn)
A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Fiction - An eccentric genius named Sherlock Holmes pursues a killer in 19th-century London)
The Sherlock Holmes collections (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Fiction - Short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes)
The House of Silk (Anthony Horowitz, Fiction - An aging Dr. Watson writes of Sherlock's darkest, most controversial investigation)
The Ghosts of Belfast (Stuart Neville, Fiction - A former IRA killer seeks justice for the twelve ghosts haunting him)
felidae (Akif Pirinçci, Fiction - A cat solves a deadly mystery in his new home)
Ruby in the Smoke (Phillip Pullman, YA? Fiction - An orphaned girl in Victorian London suspects foul play in her father's death at at sea)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series (Alexander McCall Smith, Fiction - Precious Ramotswe solves mysteries in Botswana, Africa)
Three Bags Full (Leonie Swann, Fiction - Irish sheep investigate the death of their shepherd)
The Crimson-Eyed Dragon (D. M. Trink, YA Fiction - A teen boy discovers secrets tied to a silver dragon statue from an antique store)
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Dragon World
Rob Brown
Brown Trout Publishing
Nonfiction, Art/Poetry
***+
DESCRIPTION: In the fantastic realm of the Dragon World, all manner of dragons live, swim, play, fight, dance, and dream. Rob Brown's rhyming story annotates a collection of illustrations featuring dragons big and small, nasty and nice.
REVIEW: I suppose I could've called it a picture book, but it's really more of an art gallery; the story, which appears in half-lines per page, does little but give a rough structure and order to the paintings. Brown's illustrations are striking, colorful, and imaginative - everything a dragon should be. Some of his pictures feel a bit off, and the "story" (told in rhyming verse, a couple of words per double-page spread) is largely irrelevant. Still, it does spark the imagination, and can be enjoyed by dracophiles young and old.
You might also enjoy:
Dragoncharm (Graham Edwards, Fiction - Two dragons undertake a quest to save their species, before the rise of mankind)
Dragonhenge and The Star Dragons (Bob Eggleton and John Grant, Fiction - The illustrated story of ancient dragon mythos and interstellar descendants)
Step Inside Dragons (Gaby Goldsack, Nick Harris, and Richard Jewitt, YA Picture Book - 3D pictures describe dragons)
The Dragons are Singing Tonight (Jack Prelutsky, YA Fiction - Fanciful poems about dragons of all kinds)
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