What Houston's Reading

"Why do some laudable efforts to bring fraudsters to justice fail and others succeed?

Ruthless provides  answers (additional to don't swindle intelligent,resourceful, respected journalists). A victim of the 'Auction Rate Securities' (ARS) fraud, author Phil Trupp candidly discloses how he and 146,500 individuals and major institutions believed reassuring misrepresentations that their ARS investments were 'just like cash' in liquidity. Only when the investors were told the then-$336 billion market was 'frozen' in early 2008 did investors learn that it was a scam; underlying bonds and preferred stocks were not liquid at all, but distressingly long term. If all was well, the investors' granchildren, decades later, would be paid. Meanwhile, issuers and banks fared well, timely paid for issuance and holding auctions, some of which never happened.

The story of action by companies and investors catastrophically damaged by the massive liquidity crisis is summarized nicely by Phil Trupp's subtitle: 'How enraged investors reclaimed their investments...and beat Wall Street.' If you've not heard much about the Auction Rates Securities 2008 scandal, you are not alone; the book offers interesting explanation why there was little coverage for a fraud of breathtaking scope. Enjoy this honest, readable explanation and story, with a cast of bizarre characters including infamous personality and newsmaker 'Radioactive Man,' providing a diversion into the Kennedy and King assasinations after the major Bush Administration figure explains the President was 'actually aware' of all the (ARS) problems, and that 'Government jumping in - well it can only make matters worse.'"

Barbara Ann Radnofsky - August 2010

"Evan is a friend (but doesn't give me freebees!) and this is his latest book.  He's been out promoting the book, speaking in D.C. bookstores and on TV.  He's entertaining."

John Ramsey - August 2010

"This wonderfully written and meticulously researched book tells the story of the great 15th century artist Jan van Eyck and "The Ghent Altarpiece".  The recoverers of Nazi-stolen treasures regarded this massive 12-piece altarpiece as the most valuable, important piece to recover.  The masterpiece had been top of Hitler's list to procure.

The book is more than a fascinating history of art plunder, notions of preservation, great artistry, Christian thought as the Middle Ages became the Renaissance, and centuries of European military, economic, social and political history anchored by the world's most stolen piece of art, "the size of a barn wall and the weight of an elephant."

In developing the myriad stories surrounding this fabled piece of art, Mr. Charney provides each reader a unique opportunity for reflection on applications beyond a great work of art. We are forced to consider treasure as battlestandard and the role of war through the ages. We are provoked into additional thought as we learn why this artwork is considered pre-eminent in importance.

Charney's  genius is making the art history lesson as vibrant, thought provoking and personal an experience as great art; each reader experiences his own views, thoughts, and imaginings. Charney's style urges you on to perspective and reflection. The experience stays with you long after the reading. 

Charney teaches that, unlike many other masterful, historical works and other historically significant artists whose paths, innovations, techniques and improvements can be historically traced, van Eyck's style seen in this work "exploded out of thin air." Charney explains it represents a number of firsts (naturalistic details, identifiable faces in crowds, bodies truly depicted under clothing, painted haze to recreate aerial perspective, among others), brilliantly and beautifully executed. Van Eyck's Adam and Eve portraits, as part of the work, made this the first portrayal of the unidealized human nude. And the great artist, secret agent and Ambassador was the first to place objects with covert (and at times microscopic!) symbolism.

Certainly we learn this is the world's first major oil painting, and marked the opening of Renaissance painting. But the author gives us opportunity to reflect further. Here's one  comment, simply put: "It is one thing to be physically able to paint the pores on a man's skin; it is another to choose to do so, when no other artists had thought to."

And so we are reminded that in the march of great ideas and history, someone was first. This book allows us to celebrate genius and the explanation of firsts, without complete knowledge of how they came about. We marvel today at genius and excitement surrounding revolutionary, successful effort, while our curiosity seeks to answer how and why. 

Expect additional pilgrimages  to the cathedral in Ghent, Belgium upon October 2010 publication of Stealing the Mystic Lamb."

Barbara Ann Radnofsky - July 2010

"I just read our own Emily Fox Gordon's Mockingbird Years - great insight and revelations about psychotherapy from the 50s onward. Simultaneously reading Lit by Mary Karr - so lots of psychological fun for me this summer!"

Kristi Beer, Inprint - June 2010 

"Really cute and funny; a good, light summer read."

Sharon Reed, Upper School Librarian at the Kinkaid School - June 2010 

Nick Flynn's class at the University of Houston