She chose this book because she received it in our Christmas book exchange and had high hopes since the setting was Venice and would include music and romance, one of her favorite reads.
There was little mention of food in the book so she took off on a Venice-themed party: meatballs in a red sauce, cheese tortellini, breadsticks served in an official Italian tomatoes can, cherry tomatoes, olives, and baby cucumbers served with dill dip, strawberries, green and purple grapes, and chocolate grahams served with cannoli dip, wine including Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and White Zinfandel.
Kelly created ambiance through the use of candles, red plates and toothpicks, red flowers, a violin, black and white striped shirt and black pants (gondolier-look) worn by Kelly and artist, and the playing of a CD she created that played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and a collection of violin inspired songs. While there was very little discussion of the book while they painted, everyone loved the CD!
Although there was very little discussion of the book due to the complexity of the painting, everyone seemed to like it. It could be described as both historical fiction and romance. One could tell that the author was a classically trained musician as you could practically hear the music as she described it. When Adriana interpreted the music against her own life, it gave the music new meaning. The short chapters kept the book moving along quickly. We loved the mix of learning about Venice, lives of wealthy 18th century Venetians, Carnevale, and the Ospedale della Pieta. The book truly had it all: passion, betrayal, heartache, birth, death, love, rebellion, beauty, reconciliation, ambition, and most of all, music!
Do you sing because you are happy or are you happy because you sing? Regardless, people should be surrounded by music in some way. Rarely do you see unhappy people when they are surrounded by music!
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| Barb's painting of Venice |
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