The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen

It's 1559. A young woman painter is given the honor of traveling to Michelangelo's Roman workshop to learn from the Maestro himself. Only men are allowed to draw the naked figure, so she can merely observe from afar the lush works of art that Michelangelo sculpts and paints from life. Sheltered and yet gifted with extraordinary talent, she yearns to capture all that life and beauty in her own art. But after a scandal involving one of Michelangelo's students, she flees Rome and fears she has doomed herself and her family.

After Sofi's flight from Rome, her family eagerly accepts an invitation from fearsome King Felipe II of Spain for her to become lady-in-waiting and painting instructor to his young bride. The Spanish court is a nest of intrigue and gossip, where a whiff of impropriety can bring ruin. Hopelessly bound by the rules and restrictions of her position, Sofi yearns only to paint. And yet the young Queen needs Sofi's help in other matters- inexperiences as she is, the Queen not only fails to catch the King's eye, but she fails to give him an heir, both of which are crimes that could result in her banishment. Sofi guides her in how best to win the heart of the King, but the Queen is too young, and too romantic, to be satisfied. Soon, Sofi becomes embroiled in a love triangle involving the Queen, the King, and the King's illegitimate half brother, Don Juan. And if the crime of displeasing the King is banishment, the crime of cuckolding him must surely be death.

Combining art, drama, and history from the Golden Age of Spain, "The Creation of Eve" is an expansive, original, and addictively entertaining novel that asks the question: Can you ever truly know another person's heart?

When visiting Michelangelo's workshop in Rome, Sofi becomes tempted into an indiscretion with the young man she has longed for for some time, Tiberio. With no resulting offer of marriage Sofi accepts the position of lady-in-waiting to the very young, newly crowned Queen of Spain, Elisabeth, and in doing so subjugates her love and talent for painting. The story follows Sofi through the trials of the Queen's new marriage to King Felipe II and the jealousies and rivalries that arise between the King's son Don Carlos, his brother Don Juan, nephew Don Allesandro and the King for the attentions of the Queen.  The King is fiercely jealous and has total command over the lives of those in the royal household. Sofi becomes favourite of the Queen and through her naive errors and inherent timidity creates more difficulties for herself, and at times, the increasing discontented Queen Elisabeth.

What I loved about this book was the original story about a little-known, unique person in history, Sofonisba Anguissola, a female painter during the Renaissance. The novel is very intimate from the first, presented in journal format, so we are reading about the events as they happened through Sofi's eyes.  The novel is divided into Notebooks and journal entries, and before each journal entry Sofi writes Items...little notes about painting, herbs, history, culture, court life...whatever Sofi deems important.

Sofi is very naive and I chuckled at every time she was driven to say "Sweetest Holy Mary" when confronted with temptation or surprising events.  Sofi is used to living within a constrained lifestyle and the story is more about her attempts to have increased understanding of the world and venturing beyond the restrictions imposed on her...sometimes with disastrous consequences. The story is bittersweet as Sofi both indulges and repels her yearnings to paint, experience life and discover love.

At times some of the scenes were repetitive...the King comes across the Queen acting seemingly indiscreet one too many times.  Some of the story seems to lagged in places, but the premise is creative and very well researched.  This is quality historical fiction that I recommend if you like original characters, court intrigue and a focus on artistic talent.

Disclosure: LibraryThing EarlyReviewers ARC from Publisher
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 390
Publisher: Putnam
Release: Hardcover March 23, 2010

My Rating: 4.0

Chapters
Amazon

Further Recommendations:
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

Signora Da Vinci by Robin Maxwell

The Queen's Dollmaker by Christine Trent

Other Obsessions Besides Books?

Being obsessed with books from an early age, I have to admit I am a creature of habit in other areas of my life too, so when I try new things and absolutely love them I usually go back to them them over and over again. Like I have used the same shampoo and conditioner for over I think five years and it wasn't only until last winter that I changed from "volumizing" to "moisturizing" in the same brand.  I don't know what this says about me...but if you find something great, why deviate? These are some of my favourite things.  I'd love to hear of some of your obsessions beyond books, so please comment!!!

Volumizing Shampoo and Moisturizing Conditioner from Pureology - This conditioner is super and works great to counteract my daily use of a flat-iron.

Earl Grey (Loose Leaf) Tea from Café Artigiano - Has an amazingly strong Earl Grey flavour and wonderful scent.

Calvin Klein Black Shaper Tights from The Bay - I feel an inch thinner all over with these tights on.

Grilled cheese and ham sandwich with a garlic pickle on the side. Comfort food and my go to meal when I do not want to put any effort into dinner.

Narciso Rodriguez For Her Perfume (Pink Bottle) - Has a woodsy scent that is still feminine. I have a very sensitive sense of smell and this is the only perfume I have found I can wear.

Russian Caravan tea by Murchies…a unique smokiness in this medium-bodied tea.

Dark chocolate ice cream with Skor bites in a dark chocolate dipped waffle cone from Marble Slab Creamery.

Sony Reader PRS-600 - Pefect for travelling on the bus to and from work every day. Nothing can replace reading from the real thing though!

My Diamond Hoop Earrings from Anne Louise - The perfect discreet earring for everyday.

Ombra Eucalyptus Bubble Bath. Wonderfully strong menthol smell that is totally relaxing...almost like being at the spa!

Starbucks Extra Hot Hot Chocolate.  Some hot chocolates have a very week chocolate taste but not this one...I always order extra hot because I like to savour it rather than gulp it.

Rosebud’s Strawberry Lip Balm. I put this on every night before going to sleep and I never have chapped lips anymore...and I used to be a chapstickaholic.

Black Crocodile Print Riding Boots from Arnold Churgin - Perfect with skinny jeans and skirts.

Slate Blue Cashmere Scarf from Club Monaco. The perfect color for my blue eyes.

NeoStrata Intense Daytime Total Anti-Age Complex - A women in her 30s needs to fight those wrinkles. I have been a long-time user of NeoStrata products and this one was well worth the price. I waited until I got a two for one deal though!

Lush Fluffy White Clouds and Bathos Bubble Bars - Both bars have patchouli undertones which are soothing. I make the bars last a long time by using a bit of the bubble bar with Milk & Honey bubble bath gel from Bath & Body Works.

L'oreal Voluminous Mascara in Black with the Curved Brush - I  have used this mascara since my teens and only varied to black-brown from black a couple times. The best mascara!

Evolution of the Book Visualized

From Best Colleges Online. There is a larger graphic on their website.

Blog Award

I have mentioned before that I usually do not to participate in blog award chains but it is definitely super nice to be recognized for your efforts.  I appreciate each and every comment I receive, as I know its so much easier and quicker to read a blog post and then move on to the next. Just the fact that there is more than one person who even knows my blog exists is gratifying.  I blog because I have thoughts and opinions about books and if I do not put them into some concrete form they haunt me. I do not have many friends who have the same interests in books and reading as I do, so my blog and all the comments/feedback I receive is the substitute. I want to thank every individual who has ever left a comment at Obsessed With Books.

I also want to thank Mary Ann DeBorde at Mary Ann DeBorde Writes for her kindness in passing along this award.  This is an award to honor kindhearted bloggers, those certain individuals who leave the sweet comments that brighten our hearts and make blogging worthwhile.

AWOL at the Olympics

This Canuck was just at the Olympics in Vancouver!!!  We got lucky and were able to get tickets to a Germany-Belarus hockey game, Men's and Women's Curling in which we were able to see Canada play in both, the U.S.A.-Canada hockey game and the Ice Dance Free Dance.  We were quite bummed ar the loss to the U.S.A. in hockey but Monday night more than made up for the loss, with an incredible and historic golden win in Ice Dance. Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue were the youngest ever Ice Dance gold medal winners and the first time gold has been won in North America. Finally!  So glad to see that the waves Bourne and Kraatz made were enough to open the field for more Canadians. Too bad the Ice Dance rules were not changed years ago...

Vancouver was overflowing with Canadian patriotism and pride. An amazing once in a lifetime experience!

Tweaking My Blog

Most of us I know are addicted to our Feed Readers but if you click on this post link you will see my new tailor-made background that I designed using this BgPatterns tool.  Its been fun to tweak the color and design of my blog to give it a more personalized and sophisticated look.  I did have to enter the html code though to change the background...I would advise saving a copy of your template code in a safe place before you go making any changes.  I also used Photobucket to grab the image of the background from my computer (which I has downloaded from BgPatterns once I was happy with my creation) to create a link which I could then use in the html code in replace of Blogger's background image link.  The images are small gifs or jpegs which are then applied in a repeated pattern.

I recommend creating free accounts with both BgPatterns and Photobucket. In BgPatterns if you do not create an account you can only rely on your memory of the patterns you make but if you have an account you can save your patterns to My Favorites. Photobucket has come in useful many times for hosting images and gif slideshows in various blog posts and the tweaks I have made to my blog design.

I've said goodbye to blah brown and hello to glamourous grey and green. So what do you think of the new look?

Looking for more inspiration to beautify your blog? Here is a post at Mashable about how to Build A More Beautiful Blog. Good luck and have fun tinkering!

Sharon Lathan Giveaway at Hist-Fic Chick

Hist-Fic Chick is hosting an amazing giveaway for Sharon Lathan's three Jane Austen fan fiction novels: Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One, Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley and My Dearest Mr. Darcy: An Amazing Journey into Love Everlasting, which is being released by Sourcebooks this month.  Don't miss out on your chance to enter...the contest ends January 28th. Open to residents of U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Masterpiece Classic - Jane Austen's Emma

The beginning of every year would not be the same without new productions from Masterpiece Classic. I've loved Masterpiece Theatre and PBS for years because of the Jane Austen productions and 2010 is no different with Emma (January 24-February 7), Northanger Abbey - Encore (February 14, 2010) and Persuasion - Encore (February 21, 2010) all upcoming.

I'm looking forward to watching the new Emma three part mini series although I still have to wrap my head around Jonny Lee Miller as Mr. Knightly when everytime I think of him I see him as Dade Murphy from Hackers...with both characters wearing tight pants though its not that much different. :)

Here are all the online special features for Emma on the Masterpiece Classic website.

Here is the Masterpiece Classic complete schedule.

Deanna Raybourn's Next Julia Grey Mystery - Dark Road to Darjeeling

I love Deanna Raybourn's blog and follow it religiously...she posts every day and has so many great viewpoints on life, love, beauty and fashion, as well as music, reading and writing.

I caught in yesterday's post the title of the next Lady Julia Grey mystery...Dark Road to Darjeeling, although I believe the title was first announced in Raybourn's Twitter feed on January 13. No release date mentioned.

Lady Julia Grey has a Twitter feed too.  Soooo looking forward to the next book in the series!

Blog Award

I just wanted to thank Kath at http://kathmeista.blogspot.com/ for the Honest Scrap Award.  I am not a fan of spamming other bloggers with awards so I will refrain from passing the award along but how about I reveal some secrets.

The rules for this award are:

1. The Honest Scrap Blogger Award must be shared.
2. The recipient has to tell 10 (true) things about themselves that no one else knows.
3. The recipient has to pass on the award to 7 more bloggers.
4. Those 7 bloggers should link back to the blog that awarded them.





10 True Things About Me That Most People Do Not Know

1. I'm a rule breaker and risk taker.
2. I write a blog about books...about my book obsession.
3. I am a fanatic about cataloging the books I own using Bookpedia.
4. I refuse to sell or giveaway any of my books if I only own the one copy. For giveaways I always buy additional copies.
5. I love really strong black tea such as Irish Breakfast and Lapsang Souchong...they both have smoky notes.
6. The painting of Girl Reading by Sir Charles Perugini on my blog is the same graphic I use on my work computer desktop and my Blackberry. I also own a poster and one day hope to frame and hang it.
7. I have not used the library to borrow books in many years because I buy all my books.  But I love libraries and bookstores. It would be a dream to visit The Library at Trinity College in Dublin.
8. I cry when characters are crying on TV, in books and in movies.
9. As a young adult we received a Doubleday flyer in the mail and I secretly subscribed without telling my parents...of course they eventually found out when the bills and books started coming in the mail.
10. I have a couple odd talents like being about to pick out the perfect greeting card and being able to square a picture frame on a wall by just eyeballing.