HANNAH MARCH CAMPBELL

Scintillating personal history forthcoming... maybe.

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
by Deborah Davis
To turn the world on end with a painting is surely a feat of fine artistry, and Sargent sets the pace for us all to find a way to challenge and redefine the standards of society (even if its not entirely intentional.) Three Cheers for author Deborah Davis.

Full of eccentric characters such as a pet turtle encrusted in rhinestones and a suave gynecologust that "gets it on" with all of his patients, Sargent's pictorial subjects come to life in this magnificant art of a book.

Strapless offered me all the details I crave, and I wish, like the many french women inhibiting its pages, I were expected to spend one day a week in bed for my "health and beauty," just so I'd have more time to stick my nose in this book.

Everyday Matters: A New York Diary by Danny Gregory
Beautifully illustrated, Everyday Matters begins with a life-altering tragedy and shows how art helped Gregory overcome the confusing pain of the accident that left his wife wheelchair-bound, and helped him adapt to life with their newborn son, Jack. I discovered Gregory through his website, www.dannygregory.com, and have been enthralled with his artwork ever since.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
This book of short stories best captures Wallace's eccentricities while still remaining readable. The obsessive footnotes and various story formats--such as Q&A, pop quiz, transcript, drama, essay, and classic narrative--are incredibly inventive and witty, and explore both the dark and light sides of humor and human emotion.