St. Patrick's Day is Waiting on Wednesday!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!


Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. What book are you waiting for to be released?
My WoW is Claude and Camille by Stephanie Cowell. It will be released April 6, 2010. From her website... "In his early twenties, Claude Monet came to Paris, determined to make a success in painting. He quickly found poverty, obscurity and a beautiful upper-class girl Camille who threw away a life of privilege to be with him. He also made friends with a group of likewise unknown painters, often as poor as he was: Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Bazille, Manet and Cezanne and somehow through every obstacle in the world kept them together until they began to be known as impressionists. But the years of struggle and life in wretched rooms with little food began to wear on his patience and Camille's endurance until even as he was beginning to sell his work, their passionate love was descending into tragedy and he was beginning to understand that he had never completely known her.
CLAUDE AND CAMILLE begins when as an old man in Giverny, Claude discovers a letter from Camille’s sister written nearly forty years earlier, holding him responsible for her death. Through the book, traveling back and forth between the young man so in love and the old man remembering, the reader will decide for herself if the terrible accusation is in anyway true and if so, does the great work he gave the world including the many water lily paintings make up in beauty and perfection for what he could not give others in his life?"

If you've read my blog, you probably know that I love art... especially when the subjects are women. Monet's paintings of Camille are, most definitely, my favorites of his. I have this print, "Camille Au Metier" in my hallway. It was one of the first prints I purchased when I had my first apartment. My love of Monet must be genetic because one of M's favorite books is Linnea in Monet's Garden by Cristina Bjork. She also asks for a Monet calendar every Christmas.

I am so excited to read this book! I love art, I love historical novels, I love love stories :D and Claude and Camille seems to have all of those. It's written in a "back and forth" style... when Monet is an old man as well as when he and Camille are contemporaries. I'm sure this will add an even deeper dimension to the story. I've read about this novel on several blogs whose authors' opinions I find mirror my own. It seems to be getting a lot of positive "buzz". Amy who writes the great blog, Passages to the Past (http://www.passagestothepast.com/), posted a wonderful book trailer... one of my most favorite things about YouTube and the internet! Head over to her blog and check it out.

Because today is St. Patrick's Day, you'd think I'd carry a green bag. Well, I didn't, I couldn't, really. I wore a green shirt and jeans and none of my green bags looked quite right with the outfit. They were neither a perfect match nor a coordinating shade. So, I carried my striped Coach tote. The green stripe was matched the shirt and the dark blue stripe went great with my jeans.