Welcome to Litsy!

Another incredible book in the Road to Dalton series. If you haven‘t read these three books about a group of average people living in small town Maine, put them on your TBR list. They are so beautifully written, the descriptions of the characters‘ thoughts and feelings magical. Just ordinary people, living their lives, dealing with the hands they‘ve been dealt. These books ring so true. #EuropaCollective actually led me to the first one!

Ch 18: Caspar David Friedrich Close your bodily eye. A Tree of Crows giving Gothic Romance vibes with a murder of crows in a dead oak tree by a the burial mound of a Hun warrior. The Huns came from an island off the coast of Germany called Rügen known for chalk cliffs like Dover. I feel like the Brontës and Poe fit well here. I also think Mona‘s bedazzlement of the headgehog is = to an art installation #europacollective

Ch 15: Jacques-Louis David Use the ancient as your future. Mona wants to set up Vertunni displays in her father‘s store, almost loses her pendant and sees spots = a bit of a roller coaster ride. The artist, JLD, is putting the Rococo movement to bed with this massive royal commission that portrays male sacrifice in a polished and precise style. The completion of this painting kicks off the French Revolution. #europacollective cont‘d

I‘m really savouring this book. This chapter on Pierrot by Antoine Watteau just spoke to me 🤍 #europacollective

Ch 14: Marguerite Gérard There‘s no such thing as the weaker sex. Mona stands up to bullying and Dadé shows her a recent acquisition of an overlooked female painter, MG, who brings her A game! Sumptuous fabrics, furs, a painting within a painting, mirrored reflections of what happens out of the scene and a Vermeer inspired focus on women doing women‘s work aka whatever they want and doing it well #europacollective

Ch 13: Thomas Gainsborough Let feelings be expressed. Dadé debates sharing artists who overcame physical impairments with Mona but she controls the visit wanting to see lovers, who break the 4th wall inviting the viewer into their delight with each other. Who doesn‘t want to distract themselves with pretty things when the world is a shit show? #controlyourenvironment #controlthenarrative #europacollective

Chapter 12: Antonio Canaletto Make the world stand still. Painting that captures a moment frozen in time AND more than the human eye can see irl ❤️❤️❤️ humans become accessories not the main attraction ( can just imagine the tweets this would set off) and science evolves in art, the camera obscura Canaletto uses is portable going with him instead of subjects coming to him like Vermeer #europacollective I LOVE this book

Top two books are read alones; the rest are buddy reads.
#CommissarioBrunettiNovel #fictionaltraveler2025 #tree #wildwoman #familybuddyread #europacollective #sundaybuddyread

I wasn‘t that crazy about this book to begin with. Not much of a story, not that great on character development. But then I started to love this story about a 10 year old girl who might be going blind and her grandfather who takes her once a week to see one piece of art in a Paris museum. Each short chapter discusses a piece of art with grandpa describing its artist and history and Mona describing her feelings about it. ⬇️

Ch 11: Antoine Watteau There‘s a downside to every celebration. “..society kind of relaxed-a society that, strained and exhausted by the solar absolutism of the preceding reign, can suddenly breathe, feel free, have fun. And weep….” Is there hope for all that is wrong with the world now? I hope sooner than later 🥂#europacollective