Jennifer S. Alderson's Blog, page 10

New review on By Rite of Word

I'm tickled pink to share this wonderful new 4 star review of The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery, on By Rite of Word's book review site:

"The Lover’s Portrait is an intricate and well-written story, prefaced with the welcoming, culture-loving face of modern Amsterdam, and underlaid by the city’s wartime past—a past that rises like the tide to infiltrate Zelda’s research assignment. Jennifer S. Alderson is particularly adept at sketching in the complex connections between her characters’ pasts and their present-day actions and motivations, pulling the whole together in a fast-paced and credible plot that is supported by the detail of Zelda’s experiences as she tries to piece together the scattered shards of history. I can absolutely recommend this book to any fans of mystery or art looking for their next read – it will not disappoint.
[ http://byriteofword.com/thriller/the-... ]

How cool is that?

I just noticed that this review was written and posted to Goodreads by fellow Goodreads member J.C. Steel - I really appreciate your wonderfully detailed review!!

Also saw on Twitter that By Rite of Word is looking for more Thrillers, Fantasy and Sci-fi novels to review; if you write in those categories, perhaps you should take a look...

BookLife Prize for Fiction

Hello fellow readers and authors! I'm sort of happy to announce that The Lover's Portrait came in at number 14 out of +1,000 entries in the BookLife Prize for Fiction!
Unfortunately it won't be advancing to the next round (only the top 10 do), yet their 8 out of 10 star review makes me feel like a winner anyway. :)
http://booklife.com/project/the-lover...

Another great 5 star review for Lover's Portrait!

I'm absolutely thrilled to see that The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery is currently the no. 3 Art Mystery on Amazon - out of 75,000 books!

I'm also pleased to see this wonderful 5 star review by Goodreads member Anne Janzer on Amazon! Reviews really do help others discover new books. Thank you, Anne Janzer and all the other lovely people who've reviewed my books, for taking the time to do so!

https://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Portrai...

Fantastic new review by Publishers Weekly reviewer!

When your book is entered into a contest, especially one which includes a Critic's Report written by a professional reviewer, you can't help but get nervous, hoping and praying the reviewer finds *something* enjoyable about your book. So it was an enormous relief to see this very fine review, as part of the BookLife Prize for Fiction contest, written by a Publishers Weekly reviewer!

The competition is fierce as there are quite a few great books participating. I will know mid-October if The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery makes it to the next round, but either way this review makes me feel like a winner!

Read the entire review now on BookLife if you're so inclined: [ http://booklife.com/project/the-lover... ]

Happy Reading!

Guest on Mysteristas this weekend!

I'm thrilled to be a guest on Mysteristas this weekend! My post is about archival research in fiction. Let me know what you think about it here or in the comments on their site, I appreciate it!

https://mysteristas.wordpress.com/201...

First author interview posted!

I'm excited to see my first ever author interview posted on Goodreads author Amy Shannon's book review site (Amy's Bookshelf Reviews) and blog! Thanks Amy, great questions!

To read about my writing process, favorite books and addiction to traveling, click here: http://writeramyshannon.wix.com/amysh...

Or here: http://writeramyshannon.wix.com/books...

Happy Reading!

3 great new reviews in 1 week!

What an amazing week: Two new wonderful 5 star reviews of Down and Out in Kathmandu, and one new fantastic 4.5 review of The Lover's Portrait!

"Down and Out is an engrossing and thrilling travel mystery that was hard to put down."

"Alderson’s portrayal allows the reader to view the underbelly of the city, with all its smells and sounds, its chaos and pathos.... This is a well-researched (on site experience) and entertaining read for both armchair travelers and trekkers."

The Lover's Portrait is "an enjoyable mystery...Setting is delightful. She has captured the very Dutch nature of the city and clearly knows it well."

So proud and pleased!

Thanks to Goodread members Jill Dobbe, Pamela Allegretto and TripFiction for taking the time to review my books. I'm so glad you all enjoyed them both!

You can read TripFiction's 4.5 star review of The Lover's Portrait on their website [ http://www.tripfiction.com/review/lea... ] or here on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... .

The reviews of Down and Out in Kathmandu can be read here on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

BOOKLUST, WANDERLUST: Expat creatives recommend books for the (not quite) end of summer

Hello again! Hope you got to enjoy your summer. My son started back up at school last week, marking the end of our ‘vacation time’ for a while.

Funny enough, The Displaced Nation’s latest book review column, ‘BOOKLUST, WANDERLUST: Expat creatives recommend books for the (not quite) end of summer’ also appeared on their site last week. Myself, Helena Halme, Matt Krause, Annika Milisic-Stanley, Pamela Jane Rogers, Jasmine Silvera, ML Awanohara and Beth Green all recommend books that qualify as “displaced” reads, meaning they are for, by, or about expats or other internationals. It was a lot of fun to do! Take a look at what we recommend and why, you just might find a few titles for your TBR list.

Have a great week!

https://thedisplacednation.com/2016/0...

Six reviews in eight weeks - Goodreads members are amazing!

The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery has been available for eight full weeks now, and I'm extremely pleased to see SIX wonderful reviews already placed on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, LibraryThing and of course - Goodreads!

Thanks to Goodreads members ReadingFury, Amy Shannon, Pamela Allegretto and T. J. Green for reading and reviewing my second book - it means the world to me!

Is there a sculpture by Picasso in Vondelpark?

Scattered throughout Amsterdam’s largest city park – Vondelpark – are several statues and sculptures, including one designed by Pablo Picasso, Figure découpée l’Oiseau. Though Picasso intended it to be a bird (note the feet recognizable at the bottom of the sculpture), Amsterdammers have always seen it as a fish and locally it’s known as ‘Picasso’s Fish statue’.

It was a gift from the artist to Amsterdam in 1965. That same year, the city organized an exhibition of artwork featuring some of the most important international sculptors at that time, to commemorate Vondelpark’s 100th year of existence. It was curated by Willem Sandberg, then director of the Stedelijk Museum. Picasso allegedly gave the sculpture to Amsterdam as a token of his friendship with Sandberg.

But was it really his to give? The great artist himself created a small, scale model of the sculpture out of sheet metal, and the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar created the 8 meter high version now standing in Vondelpark. Nesjar was an acclaimed painter, sculptor and graphic artist who developed a unique method of concrete sculpting called “betograve”. He introduced Picasso to the technique, sparking a twenty-year collaboration during which time Nesjar turned twenty-four of Picasso’s drawings and scale models into large public sculptures.

Figure découpée l’Oiseau is also executed in betograve; white concrete was poured into a form tightly packed with black stones, then – once set – Picasso’s lines were sandblasted into the slab, exposing the gravel beneath the surface.

When you read about Carl Nesjar and his oeuvre, the sculptures he and Picasso collaborated on are usually credited as: “Designed by Pablo Picasso, executed by Carl Nesjar.”

What do you think: Is our beloved Fish statue a Picasso? Or is it really a Nesjar?

Here’s a link to an interactive map of Amsterdam, pinpointing the Fish sculpture: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?...

Here’s a beautiful 2-minute long video of the 1965 exhibition in Vondelpark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVCZQ...

Picasso's statue also plays a small role in my second novel, The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery.