Gave to a new Bcer so she can experience the process.
Will go back to my TBR stack.

Thanks to Cafemundo for getting me started. I enjoyed the book: it held me and compelled me to finish it as soon as I began. But I couldn't really say why - it was a quiet read about a small amount of time and a very circumscribed environment. And it's sad to think of the center character now (pretending for the moment Chevalier's depiction of the muse to be "real") to think of the life of Griet, however long it lasted, with the disturbing blood forever under her nails and its smell in her nostrils. But, I will never again look at one of the great masters' anonymous portraits in the same way.

Returned Girl With A Pearl... to Cafemundo on 6/9/03 Thanks again!

This is such a wonderful book! I'm already wanting to read it again. Griet, a maid at Vermeer's home, takes the 1st person narrative and makes you feel as if you are right beside her at every turn she makes. Tracy Chevalier gives us the most beautifully detailed descriptions of colors, light, and place that the entire story is like a painting. It is another story of women's limited choices but also, how all women have survived in spite of it. I truly loved this book. I'm hoping to turn it into a bookray.

Join This BookRay at any time


Girl with a Pearl Earring - Bookray Members

Wandeca   Ontario, Canada
aannddee  MN
adarcia   NY
rhythmbiscuit - already journaled
CrazyPooka   OR
bassoony  UT
rern  NY
Kernow8  VA
sejent  KY
boutish  Quebec, Canada
pikapolonica  Sweden
blacksheeps99  Austria
Caracas    Germany
16stepper  AZ
nmarshall88  TN
weeblet  VA
adrienne10  NE
BooksandJava  FL

How Does a Bookray work?

A book passes from BCer to BCer based on the list of members who've signed up.

To join this bookray please send a PM (private message) to me and I will add you to the list. New members will be added to the end of the list in the order in which I receive the messages. Please be aware that this is an international bookray and you may have to ship overseas. The list of members will be listed here at the book's home page.

As a member, you will receive the book from the person listed before you. When you receive the book please make a journal entry stating that you’ve received it. Please read it as soon as you can (don't rush, just be reasonable about the length of time). After you read the book, please journal again with your comments. You will then need to PM (private message) the next person on the list for their mailing address. Mailing the book by media mail is the least expensive way in the US. Check to see if air mail is cheaper to send overseas, sometimes it is!

If you are unable to reach the person after you on the list, in a reasonable amount of time, then PM the next person on the list. If any questions come up, please send me a PM. Thank you all for participating in this bookray. ~ Happy Reading ~

Just got home, and a few packages were waiting for me....including this book....Hopefully I'll start reading "Girl With A Pearl Earring" sometime this weekend.

Hardships have fallen upon Griet's family. Her father once a tile painter, has suffered an accident which left him blind. Griet is hired as a maid to work at the Vermeer household. There she is responsible for keeping Johannes Vermeer' studio clean without moving anything. Easy enough. It all changes when Vermeer's lecherous patron commissions a portrait of Griet. The result is the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring".

I really enjoyed the book, my first by Ms. Chevalier, the language was lovely and flowing....When I finished reading the book, the story felt finished, but I was disappointed because I wanted more.

The book will be mailed as soon as I received the postal address of the next reader.... :)

I'm posting in this bookray out of order because I managed to find another copy of the book. I enjoyed reading about Vermeer's work and 17th century Holland. I recently read Girl in Hyacinth Blue, also a work of fiction about Vermeer's art. I enjoyed that novel better than this one.

I had sympathy for Griet, a decent girl caught in a difficult situation. I like that she too had an artist's eye and a passionate nature.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the imagined story behind the creation of one of my favorite paintings by Vermeer. While I read the novel, I frequently flipped to the cover and studied the girl's face to see if I could find the emotions of Griet shining out from her eyes. I have always been intrigued by the way Vermeer imbues his subjects' expressions with such vitality.

Cornelia was just wicked, wasn't she?

The book continues on its journey.....mailed it to aannddee. I hope you enjoy as much as I did. :) Happy reading!

Just received this in the mail yesterday. I'm looking forward to reading it. I just have to finish the book ahead of it, and I will read and send along. Thank you!!

Released on Monday, August 25, 2003 at to fellow bookcrosser in postal release, postal release USA.

This book is on its way to adarcia via the USPS.

I just loved the story, and was inspired to look up Vermeer on the internet to read more about him.

Thank you Cafemundo for starting this bookray!

Just got this in the mail (thanks aannddee!) and just in time, no less. I just finished "The Anatomist" which I think I'll be releasing soon, so the timing is perfect.

This was a really lovely read. It was nice to open the book and slip so fully into her world and get a real sense of both her delights and her societally imposed restrictions. Releasing this via mail today to Crazypooka.

First, apologies...I've had this book for a while, and am now finished with it. But I see that I never caught it. Life has been crazy for me lately! Anyhow, planning on sending it out to the next person tomorrow, if addy comes in time. I hear that this one is being turned into a movie (or maybe it already is?) I'm anxious to see the interpretation--I find that books are generally better than the film version, but I do enjoy placing the characters in an environment.

I've already read a few chapters of this, and so far it's wonderful. I'm looking forward to finishing it.

This one took me a while to get into, and the story itself hasn't got a lot of "story" so much as it has an anecdotal appeal. It's a lovely narrative though, and I enjoyed reading it once I shut out the distractions of life.
I read, in TIME, that they are going to be doing a movie about this book...Colin Firth playing the role of Vermeer. I'm afraid to see it, because I don't know that the tone of the novel can support what actors must do to make a movie shine. I'm afraid that what comes through in the book will be dwarfed by screen directions and close ups of intense gazes...the story might become somewhat silly in that light.
I was disappointed with the epilogue, where we are taken to Griet's life ten years later. It sort of spoiled it for me. It was almost like reading your teenage journals again, and seeing them from your adult perspective...the sparkle and magic of your memories fades...and that's what happened in the epilogue.

This arrived in the mail today and I can't wait to get into it! I bought my Mum a copy for her 60th birthday in September (I made up a box of books for her that had a total of 60 words in the titles - this was good at 5 words but the best was probably "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood". Don't think I'm stingy though as there were some 1 or 2 word titles there too - I just had to be creative to be able to fit all the books in the box!) and have been dying to read it since then.

The best thing about the timing of this arrival is that I'll be able to see the movie at the cinema after reading the book now!

I have a few books in front of this and will update this journal entry when I start reading. I should be able to finish it within the next month. Thanks!

Update February 1, 2004 - started yesterday!

I adored this book, and am looking forward to reading more Chevalier (this was my first) and also to reading "Girl in the Hyacinth Blue" by Vreeland. It was one of the hardest books to put down that I have read recently - I think that is due to the suspense created by the atmosphere of repressed desire in the house, and also because almost throughout the book I was kept wondering which of the two options presented for her life (to go with her desire and become a fallen woman, or to do the sensible thing and ignore her heart) I would prefer for her to choose. The book was a nice length (I don't think the story could have supported a longer book) and the language was economical - Chevalier used enough description to conjure up vibrant images of 17th century Delft and Vermeer's paintings, but the vocabulary and style were simple enough to give a nice flow to the book.

I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Vermeer's paintings and think that this kind of dramatisation of a painting is a great way to get people to linger more over works of art. I couldn't resist Googling for Vermeer (I had the same impulse when I read "The Da Vinci Code"!) and found this great website on Vermeer where I could easily find each piece the book describes. The book certainly has helped me appreciate the layering of colour Vermeer used, and it is interesting to see on this at-a-glance look at his work that so many of them were seemingly set in the same corner of the room by the window. The picture I've added to this journal entry is Woman With a Pearl Necklace, the first painting for which Griet cleans the studio.

Unfortunately I have read the book with the knowledge of which actors star in the movie version, so my imagination has been curtailed - I can only imagine Vermeer in the form of Colin Firth (it could be worse). I think the best time to read a book is not only before you've seen the movie adaptation, but before anyone even starts talking about movie rights and casting!! I am looking forward to seeing this film though.

Thanks very much for sharing this Cafemundo and all. I'll be sending it to sejent today.

Received in today's mail...will start reading soon and will journal again when I have finished.

An outstanding piece of historical fiction.

Sending to boutish in Canada.

Got it in the mail yesterday! I'll try to read it ASAP

Wow. I kept this book a year! I'M SO sorry.

It was a really good book, I couldn't put it down. I also saw the movie afterwards and I loved to see how they filmed it. I was still glad that I read the book first because of so many details that made the book even better.

Sent to Pikipolonica in Sweden this Monday.

Arrived to Stockholm, thank you boutish!
I will try to read it as soon as possible.

Update on July 7th: this book was quite disappointing and did not meet my expectations at all. Extremelly simplistic and with a very predictable plot.

Sent on to blacksheeps99.

What a great surprise!! This is one of my favourite books! And I already know whom I´ll give to :-))

Ups I just realised that this is a bookray *sorry* - then my friend has to read my copy.

Will be off to the next one on the list soon!

Just for keep you up to date. I still haven´t got any respronse to my pms asking for adresses - but I´ll keep on trying

YUHUUUUUUUU! Finally someone received my PMs and I got an answer!

This book is on the way to 16stepper.

Sorry for the delay - it was really hard work!

The Girl with a Pearl Earring has arrived in Gilbert. Will read as soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading.

Dang, I finished this quite a while ago and thought I had journaled it. I'm sorry! I had medical adventures in November, December, and January, and my brain is just now getting back to normal.

I really enjoyed this book. I am trying to learn how to paint, and this is the first time I really understood why you do the underpainting. The technical aspects of the painting process were very interesting to me, so I very much enjoyed the book. I also enjoyed the primary character and felt a lot of empathy for her and her difficult position.

Sending a PM to nmarshall88 re: sending this book back on its journey.

No response from nmarshall88, and weeblet is moving and has asked to be skipped. Sending PM to adrienne10.

Sending out to adrienne10 in tomorrow's mail!

Received in today's mail. I have two ring books ahead of this one, but they appear to be quick reads. Will probably be able to get to this within a couple weeks.

Reading the journal entries reminded me that I asked to join this ray because I stumbled across the movie, with Colin Firth, on a free pay-per-view channel one evening when watching tv. This was quite awhile ago. I enjoyed the movie, but my husband, who was in and out of the room, did not care for it, saying it went like this: "Stare. ... Mumble, mumble, mumble. ... Stare. ... Mumble, mumble, mumble. ... Stare." Oh well.

I finished this book a couple days ago. It did take me a few weeks to read, as I have not had as much reading time as I would have thought and it did take until Griet's portrait was actually being painted for me to have that "want to keep reading, not put it down" feeling.

I liked the spacing, the years listed and then just little tilde's to acknowledge a break. Those breaks were fairly often and made picking up and putting down the book easy in my hectic schedule.

I enjoyed the story and it has sparked an interest in Vermeer's work for me. I do not know much about the history of most art, so I do not know how much is known about the history and subjects of each painting, but I found Ms. Chevalier's story-telling interesting. I enjoyed this novel as a nice little read and would recommend it, although not enthusiastically.

I was irritated about the constant religious Catholic/Protestant issue mentioned on nearly every page of the book. I don't think it added to the story a whole lot, and it certainly did not need to be drilled into the reader, although I understand how it was a constant issue for Griet.

As I said before, I've seen the movie, quite awhile ago. Unfortunately, none of the scenes I remember from the movie were in the book. Either I am mis-remembering or the movie really went its own direction.

Thanks for sharing this book, Cafemundo. As the last person on the ray, I'm not sure what I should do with it.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending onto BooksandJava.

Book arrived today! Will start it soon

This book held my attention, though the story itself was predictable. Still I enjoyed it and am happy to have read it finally.

I missed the movie and wanted to read the story. I will release when finished reading.

This book is by far the most traveled of any I've caught!

RELEASE NOTES:

Left outside at the front entrance. It was gone when I came out.