Book Details:
Book Title: The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel (Between Two Worlds, Book 6) by Evy Journey
Category: Adult Fiction 18+, 340 pages
Genre: Women's Literary Fiction
Publisher: Evy Journey
Release date: April 2, 2023
Content Rating: PG: Some kissing, no bad language, no sex scenes
Book Description:
Clarissa, an Asian/Caucasian young woman has lived in seven different countries and has no lasting connection to any place. She thinks it’s time to settle somewhere she could eventually call home. But where?
She decides to live in the city of her birth. There, she joins a quest for the provenance of stolen illuminated manuscripts—a medieval art form that languished with the fifteenth-century invention of the printing press—hoping it would give her the sense of belonging she craves. But will it be enough?
For her, these ancient manuscripts elicit cherished memories of children’s picture books her mother read to her, nourishing a passion for art.
The trail of the manuscripts leads to an American soldier who served in World War II. Clarissa is anxious to know what motivated him to steal and keep the artwork for fifty years. But instead of easy answers, she finds bigger questions.
Immersed in art, but naïve about life, she’s disheartened and disillusioned by the machinations the quest reveals of an esoteric, sometimes unscrupulous art world. What compels individuals to steal artworks, and conquerors to plunder them from the vanquished? Why do collectors buy artworks for hundreds of millions of dollars? Who decides the value of an art piece and how?
The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel is inspired by the actual theft of medieval manuscript illuminations during the second world war.
Clarissa, an Asian/Caucasian young woman has lived in seven different countries and has no lasting connection to any place. She thinks it’s time to settle somewhere she could eventually call home. But where?
She decides to live in the city of her birth. There, she joins a quest for the provenance of stolen illuminated manuscripts—a medieval art form that languished with the fifteenth-century invention of the printing press—hoping it would give her the sense of belonging she craves. But will it be enough?
For her, these ancient manuscripts elicit cherished memories of children’s picture books her mother read to her, nourishing a passion for art.
The trail of the manuscripts leads to an American soldier who served in World War II. Clarissa is anxious to know what motivated him to steal and keep the artwork for fifty years. But instead of easy answers, she finds bigger questions.
Immersed in art, but naïve about life, she’s disheartened and disillusioned by the machinations the quest reveals of an esoteric, sometimes unscrupulous art world. What compels individuals to steal artworks, and conquerors to plunder them from the vanquished? Why do collectors buy artworks for hundreds of millions of dollars? Who decides the value of an art piece and how?
The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel is inspired by the actual theft of medieval manuscript illuminations during the second world war.
How About A Deleted Scene From The Golden Manuscripts' Epilogue?
The house is quiet. I’m alone. I must run. Rush to my studio and paint. I must paint. Anything. Just paint, or at least draw.
But I scan the living area, and my sense of obligation takes over. Sigh! Sigh. I can do this. One hour, tops.
On the coffee table, a few paces from the television, are half-empty glasses begging to be washed, drained and returned to their home in a cabinet. Underneath, socks, shoes and slippers—not content to be mere clutter—emit an unpleasant sour old leather smell best confined within the shoe closet. On the floor in front of the table, a few pieces from an open box of Legos are strewn on the floor for everyone to step on.
Next, I peek into the two children’s bedrooms. The girls made their beds, though hastily. That’s a pass. My son, as usual, left his bed as if it had been hit by a storm—one pillow scrunched up at the foot of the bed, another on the floor entangled with half of the bedcover.
A minute is all it needs: Extract the pillow on the floor out of the sheet. Throw it against the headboard. A dull thud and it lands next to it. Straighten the sheet.
In the children’s bathroom, I find wet towels draped on the bathtub. Toothbrushes sticking out of colored glasses is a tiny triumph for me that stopped arguments among the kids—purple for Susie, pink for Maddie, and dark blue for Sean, their favorite colors.
I pick up the wet towels. Gather glasses and socks. Dump pieces of Legos into the box in Sean’s bedroom.
I wash the glasses and leave them bottom sides up on a dish drainer to dry. The laundry basket is filled nearly to the top, so I throw the clothes into the washing machine. Press all the necessary buttons until the machine jiggles and gurgles.
One bright, sweet spot—a vase of damask roses exudes heady fragrance at the center of the dining table. My mood booster. My bridge to a past that now lives only in my imagination. My ode to beauty to remind me that if there is such a thing as a perfect artwork, you can only find it in nature. No one but me notices these flowers. An open secret visible to everyone that they don’t see until I point it out.
I ignore Nathan’s pair of slippers under the coffee table. A habit that mystifies me. And annoys me. He leaves them there after watching late-night news and walks into our bedroom in his bare feet. Without fail. This evening, he’ll change into casual attire upon returning from work, look for his slippers—but not find them—under a chair in our bedroom where I used to place them after taking them out of the living room.
The whole house is tidy enough. “Tidy,” as a concept, was easy to grasp, watching my mother. She didn’t teach me. She practiced it. But I never learned how to do it well or efficiently. People with the proper mindset turn housework into zen moments or mindfulness practice. Me? I’m just impatient to get back to my art studio and do some catching up. I’ll catch up with zen, too, but in some distant, uncertain future.
Enjoy These Other Titles in Evy Journey's Between Two Worlds Series:
Book Details:
Book Title: Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies (Between Two Worlds, Book 4) by Evy Journey
Category: Adult Fiction, 300 pages
Genre: Literary / Women's Fiction / Crime / Mystery
Publisher: Evy Journey
Release date: January 2018
Content Rating: R (Two bedroom scenes)
Book Title: Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies (Between Two Worlds, Book 4) by Evy Journey
Category: Adult Fiction, 300 pages
Genre: Literary / Women's Fiction / Crime / Mystery
Publisher: Evy Journey
Release date: January 2018
Content Rating: R (Two bedroom scenes)
Book Description:
Chanterelles garnished with cream and mayhem.
Tantalizing…alluring…satisfyingly luscious Women’s Fiction—San Francisco Book Review
Cooking a sumptuous meal is an act of love. An act of grace. An art and passion Gina inherits from her grandfather —a French chef felled by a robber’s bullet.
Raised in a marginal neighborhood, she’s keen to taste life in the world where she’s been chosen to cook. A scintillating world of wealth and privilege, great food, new challenges and fascinating friends.
But beneath this new world, unexpected danger lurks. Gina’s passion for cooking is all she has to help her navigate it.
Amidst her culinary adventures, she befriends the pastry chef, worldly loyal Marcia. She falls in love in different ways with two very different men. Leon, a playboy, is rich, charming, and carefree but honest, complicated, and devoted to his legacy.
Serious and idealistic Brent is a lawyer turned brooding detective. Haunted by the many violent crimes he has worked on, he prefers to be alone.
Can the lessons Gina learned about cooking and life help her survive and thrive in this other world of privilege, pleasure, and menace?
Chanterelles garnished with cream and mayhem.
Tantalizing…alluring…satisfyingly luscious Women’s Fiction—San Francisco Book Review
Cooking a sumptuous meal is an act of love. An act of grace. An art and passion Gina inherits from her grandfather —a French chef felled by a robber’s bullet.
Raised in a marginal neighborhood, she’s keen to taste life in the world where she’s been chosen to cook. A scintillating world of wealth and privilege, great food, new challenges and fascinating friends.
But beneath this new world, unexpected danger lurks. Gina’s passion for cooking is all she has to help her navigate it.
Amidst her culinary adventures, she befriends the pastry chef, worldly loyal Marcia. She falls in love in different ways with two very different men. Leon, a playboy, is rich, charming, and carefree but honest, complicated, and devoted to his legacy.
Serious and idealistic Brent is a lawyer turned brooding detective. Haunted by the many violent crimes he has worked on, he prefers to be alone.
Can the lessons Gina learned about cooking and life help her survive and thrive in this other world of privilege, pleasure, and menace?
Book Details:
Book Title: The Shade Under the Mango Tree (Between Two Worlds, Book 5) by Evy Journey
Category: Adult Fiction 18+, 400 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction-Literary; Contemporary Multicultural Fiction
Publisher: Evy Journey
Release date: November 2, 2020
Content Rating: PG13 & M: There is suicide and mention of sexual encounters that are not described--nothing explicit
Book Title: The Shade Under the Mango Tree (Between Two Worlds, Book 5) by Evy Journey
Category: Adult Fiction 18+, 400 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction-Literary; Contemporary Multicultural Fiction
Publisher: Evy Journey
Release date: November 2, 2020
Content Rating: PG13 & M: There is suicide and mention of sexual encounters that are not described--nothing explicit
Gold Medal, Contemporary Fiction, 2021 Global Book Awards (formerly New York City Book Awards)
Finalist, 2021 SPR (Self Publishing Review) Book Awards
Finalist, Multicultural Fiction, 2021 International Book Awards
Finalist, 2022 Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Finalist, 2021 SPR (Self Publishing Review) Book Awards
Finalist, Multicultural Fiction, 2021 International Book Awards
Finalist, 2022 Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Book Description:
Luna hungers for adventure. Lucien has chosen a solitary professional life. She’s breaking away from her sheltered existence while he’s a widely-traveled but disillusioned young architect.
Drawn together by an intimate journal that he found abandoned in a café, these two strangers begin to shed the shackles of their painful pasts.
Lucien opens himself up to Luna. But she isn’t ready. She travels far, into a world steeped in ancient culture and the ravages of a deadly history. Can she survive unscathed? And will she be the soulmate he has been searching for?
Book 5 in the series Between Two Worlds is an epistolary tale of courage, resilience, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.
Luna hungers for adventure. Lucien has chosen a solitary professional life. She’s breaking away from her sheltered existence while he’s a widely-traveled but disillusioned young architect.
Drawn together by an intimate journal that he found abandoned in a café, these two strangers begin to shed the shackles of their painful pasts.
Lucien opens himself up to Luna. But she isn’t ready. She travels far, into a world steeped in ancient culture and the ravages of a deadly history. Can she survive unscathed? And will she be the soulmate he has been searching for?
Book 5 in the series Between Two Worlds is an epistolary tale of courage, resilience, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.
Meet the Author:
Evy Journey writes. Stories. Blogs (three sites). Cross-genre novels. She’s also a wannabe artist, and a flâneuse (an ambler).
Evy studied psychology (M.A., University of Hawaii; Ph.D. University of Illinois) initially to help her understand herself and Dostoevsky. Now, she spins tales about multicultural characters dealing with problems and issues of contemporary life. She believes in love and its many faces.
Just as she has crossed genres in writing fiction, she has also crossed cultures, having lived and traveled in various cities in different countries. Find her thoughts on travel, art, and food at Artsy Rambler.
She has one ungranted wish: To live in Paris where art is everywhere and people have honed aimless roaming to an art form. She visits and stays a few months when she can.
connect with the author: website ~ blog ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ bookbub ~ goodreads
Evy Journey writes. Stories. Blogs (three sites). Cross-genre novels. She’s also a wannabe artist, and a flâneuse (an ambler).
Evy studied psychology (M.A., University of Hawaii; Ph.D. University of Illinois) initially to help her understand herself and Dostoevsky. Now, she spins tales about multicultural characters dealing with problems and issues of contemporary life. She believes in love and its many faces.
Just as she has crossed genres in writing fiction, she has also crossed cultures, having lived and traveled in various cities in different countries. Find her thoughts on travel, art, and food at Artsy Rambler.
She has one ungranted wish: To live in Paris where art is everywhere and people have honed aimless roaming to an art form. She visits and stays a few months when she can.
connect with the author: website ~ blog ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ bookbub ~ goodreads
Enter the Giveaway: Win a $50 Visa Gift Card, courtesy of author of THE GOLDEN MANUSCRIPTS (2 winners) (USA only) (ends Oct 9)
Sounds great!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a interesting book
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