The Center for the Arts Evergreen Book Chat meets on the third Wednesday of every month from 7-9 pm via ZOOM. CAE’s Book Chat is free to all CAE members. We choose fictional AND nonfictional books based in the world of arts and culture and have lively discussions about the world of art. Some past titles have been The Art Forger, Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet, Clara & Mr. Tiffany, Oil & Marble, Dancing for Degas, The Lacuna, Lust for Life, and The Last Painting of Sara DeVos. We encourage you to support local, independently-owned bookstores if you are purchasing selections for CAE’s book chat. We’d love for you to join us. Please consider becoming a CAE member and we’ll add you to our Book Chat list. See below for upcoming dates and titles. Happy Reading!
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 – 7 pm
The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84026327132?pwd=IfibQbKAObA01aKoykKUPV6elLfDBL.1
By the time Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum in 1903 to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d’art, she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston’s polite society. But when Isabella first arrived in Boston in 1861, she was twenty years old, newly married to a wealthy trader, and unsure of herself. Puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods, she strived to fit in. After two devastating tragedies and rejection from upper-society, Isabella discovered her spirit and cast off expectations.
Freed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas, and letters, meeting such kindred spirits as Henry James and Oscar Wilde. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform nineteenth century thinking in the twentieth century. Isabella becomes an eccentric trailblazer, painted by John Singer Sargent in a portrait of daring décolletage, and fond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions in the Boston Public Garden.
The Lioness of Boston is a portrait of what society expected a woman’s life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and was determined to live on her own terms.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025 – 7 pm
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81653370855?pwd=4BJL713JB9skYmc4B0EaauVET6xYyH.1
Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamourous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought that he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.
To his surprise and your delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 – 7 pm
The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85974785808?pwd=he9o9Id7T8qZluqKF7Y1baa0yLesYp.1
Gustav Klimt, one of the great painters of fin de siècle Austria—and the subject of the film Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren—takes center stage in this passionate and atmospheric historical novel, which reimagines the tumultuous relationship between the Viennese painter and Emilie Flöge, the woman who posed for his masterpiece The Kiss, and whose name he uttered with his dying breath.
Vienna in 1886 was a city of elegant cafés, grand opera houses, and a thriving and adventurous artistic community. It is here where the twelve-year-old Emilie meets the controversial libertine and painter. Hired by her bourgeois father for basic drawing lessons, Klimt introduces Emilie to a subculture of dissolute artists, wanton models, and decadent patrons that both terrifies and inspires her. The Painted Kiss follows Emilie as she blossoms from a naïve young girl to one of Europe’s most exclusive couturiers—and Klimt’s most beloved model and mistress. A provocative love story that brings to life Vienna’s cultural milieu, The Painted Kiss is as compelling as a work by Klimt himself.
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 – 7 pm
Breaking Ground: An Immigrant’s Journey from Poland to Ground Zero by Daniel Liebskind
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88674879792?pwd=AwPeu9a0maFPx59xbd5fhtcXL9Sclc.1
Daniel Libeskind’s iconic buildings around the world — from the Jewish Museum in Berlin to the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, the V&A ‘Spiral’ to the most symbolic rebuilding project the World Trade Center — have sparked vigorous debate, not only for the way they look but for the ideas they contain. These are ideas that are important for all of us, and this is the story of those ideas — a memoir of Libeskind’s own life experiences, and of the events of history that have informed them. It is a book about the adventure life can offer each of us if we seize it, and about how we can all harness positively the powerful forces of tragedy, memory and hope.
Wednesday, May 21, 2025 – 7 pm
Mademoiselle Chanel: A Novel by C. W. Gortner
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85829318359?pwd=bXScE42bXiY8Nkvq9dYct7tYn2yy5s.1
For readers of The Paris Wife and Z comes this vivid novel full of drama, passion, tragedy, and beauty that stunningly imagines the life of iconic fashion designer Coco Chanel—the ambitious, gifted laundrywoman’s daughter who revolutionized fashion, built an international empire, and become one of the most influential and controversial figures of the twentieth century.
Born into rural poverty, Gabrielle Chanel and her siblings are sent to orphanage after their mother’s death. The sisters nurture Gabrielle’s exceptional sewing skills, a talent that will propel the willful young woman into a life far removed from the drudgery of her childhood.
Transforming herself into Coco—a seamstress and sometime torch singer—the petite brunette burns with ambition, an incandescence that draws a wealthy gentleman who will become the love of her life. She immerses herself in his world of money and luxury, discovering a freedom that sparks her creativity. But it is only when her lover takes her to Paris that Coco discovers her destiny.
Wednesday, June 18, 2025 – 7 pm
In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85896041108?pwd=JlA6tFDou7yH1nieO3PLvhHwfObB62.1
The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children’s classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny comes alive in this fascinating biography of Margaret Wise Brown.
Margaret’s books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children’s book publishing revolution. Her whimsy and imagination fueled a steady stream of stories, book ideas, songs, and poems and she was renowned for her prolific writing and business savvy, as well as her stunning beauty and endless thirst for adventure.
Margaret started her writing career by helping to shape the curriculum for the Bank Street School for children, making it her mission to create stories that would rise above traditional fairy tales and allowed girls to see themselves as equal to boys. At the same time, she also experimented endlessly with her own writing. Margaret would spend days researching subjects, picking daisies, cloud gazing, and observing nature, all in an effort to precisely capture a child’s sense of awe and wonder as they discovered the world.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 – 7 pm
The Painter of Souls: A Novel by Philip Kazan
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87449360219?pwd=nQupJdLb4R7PIA7gVbt9ySkxR6dsp2.1
Beauty can be a gift—or a wicked temptation.
So it is for Filippo Lippi, growing up in Renaissance Florence. He has a talent—not only can he see the beauty in everything, he can capture it, paint it. But while beauty can seduce you and art can transport you—it cannot always feed you or protect you.
To survive, Pippo Lippi, orphan, street urchin, budding rogue, must first become Fra Filippo Lippi: Carmelite friar, man of God. His life will take him down two paths at once. He will become a gambler, a forger, a seducer of nuns; and at the same time he will be the greatest painter of his time, the teacher of Botticelli and the confidante of the Medicis.
So who is he really—lover, believer, father, teacher, artist? Is anything true except the paintings?
An extraordinary journey of passion, art and intrigue, The Painter of Souls takes us to a time and place in Italy’s history where desire reigns and salvation is found in the strangest of places.
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 – 7 pm
Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order) by Bridget Quinn
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84064287455?pwd=Qp9Cy7GI0fiab0cziv0T7nsgvTZ3Pp.1
Historically, major women artists have been excluded from the mainstream art canon. Aligned with the resurgence of feminism in pop culture, Broad Strokes offers an entertaining corrective to that omission. Art historian Bridget Quinn delves into the lives and careers of 15 brilliant female artists in text that’s smart, feisty, educational, and an enjoyable read. Replete with beautiful reproductions of the artists’ works and contemporary portraits of each artist by renowned illustrator Lisa Congdon, this is art history from 1600 to the present day for the modern art lover, reader, and feminist.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025 – 7 pm
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85481097814?pwd=PURbRru0NaoHDbqYJ6mOyHivDp5K07.1
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he’s lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025 – 7 pm
Hanging Man: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei by Barnaby Martin
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84232496836?pwd=APChlbSsKpvmMFKFaVRO0Sg4rbHgMQ.1
The gripping story of post-Mao China and the harrowing fate of the artist and activist Ai Weiwei In October 2010, Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds appeared in the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern. In April 2011, he was arrested and held for more than two months in terrible conditions. The most famous living Chinese artist and activist, Weiwei is a figure of extraordinary talent, courage, and integrity. From the beginning of his career, he has spoken out against the world’s most powerful totalitarian regime, in part by creating some of the most beautiful and mysterious artworks of our age, works which have touched millions around the world. Just after Ai Weiwei’s release from illegal detention, Barnaby Martin flew to Beijing to interview him about his imprisonment and to learn more about what is really going on behind the scenes in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party. Based on these interviews and Martin’s own intimate connections with China, Hanging Man is an exploration of Weiwei’s life, art, and activism and also a meditation on the creative process, and on the history of art in modern China. It is a rich picture of the man and his milieu, of what he is trying to communicate with his art, and of the growing campaign for democracy and accountability in China. It is a book about courage and hope found in the absence of freedom and justice.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 – 7 pm
The Masterpiece: A Novel by Fiona Davis
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88677504015?pwd=BbdnGbqvIqk0w8ADlR2DuN2gEdqaAj.1
For most New Yorkers, Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel, a masterpiece of design. But for Clara Darden and Virginia Clay, it represents something quite different.
For Clara, the terminal is the stepping stone to her future. It is 1928, and Clara is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. Though not even the prestige of the school can override the public’s disdain for a “woman artist,” fiery Clara is single-minded in her quest to achieve every creative success—even while juggling the affections of two very different men. But she and her bohemian friends have no idea that they’ll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression…and that even poverty and hunger will do little to prepare Clara for the greater tragedy yet to come.
By 1974, the terminal has declined almost as sharply as Virginia Clay’s life. Dilapidated and dangerous, Grand Central is at the center of a fierce lawsuit: Is the once-grand building a landmark to be preserved, or a cancer to be demolished? For Virginia, it is simply her last resort. Recently divorced, she has just accepted a job in the information booth in order to support herself and her college-age daughter, Ruby. But when Virginia stumbles upon an abandoned art school within the terminal and discovers a striking watercolor, her eyes are opened to the elegance beneath the decay. She embarks on a quest to find the artist of the unsigned masterpiece—an impassioned chase that draws Virginia not only into the battle to save Grand Central but deep into the mystery of Clara Darden, the famed 1920s illustrator who disappeared from history in 1931.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025 – 7 pm
Finding Dorothy: A Novel by Elizabeth Letts
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89829744407?pwd=vbgL8W6h81JJ02mJymbyVh8Bj9DxFl.1
Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece for the screen, Maud Gage Baum, now in her seventies, sets about trying to finagle her way onto the set. Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book—she’s the only one left who knows its secrets.
But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of “Over the Rainbow,” Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story, from her youth as a suffragist’s daughter to her hardscrabble prairie years with Frank, which inspired The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Judy reminds Maud of a young girl she cared for in South Dakota, a dreamer who never got a happy ending. Now, with the young girl under pressure from the studio as well as from her ambitious stage mother, Maud resolves to protect Judy—the way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy.