Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I’ve officially entered it, folks. On Monday two of my kiddos had appointments and one of them involved a shopping trip afterwards for her required planner for school. (She and her sister were also out of conditioner, which they told me after I’d already made trips to both Costco and Walmart that week.) On Tuesday my 7th grader tried out for her school play and yesterday they had callbacks, and I’ve been to two DIs already looking for cheap scriptures for my oldest to leave in her seminary cubby so she doesn’t have to haul her nice ones back and forth. Good times! In the meantime, I meant to write a review on Monday but was waiting until I finished my book, only my sister called when I had three pages left and I got distracted. Yesterday night I was intending to review the same (fully finished!) book after our church youth activity and just plain forgot, which is why it’s the 26th and I’m here reviewing Nia Gould’s A History of Art in 21 Cats. It’s less than 100 pages and light on text, but I spent a ton of time googling the artists mentioned, so it took way more time than I’d anticipated.

Essentially, Gould gives brief descriptions of 21 art styles/periods/movements (generally mentioning at least two major examples of each, although I felt like some descriptions missed some notable artists) with a cat depicting significant aspects of each style. She then explains the specific representative parts of the cat, often including a quote or two from artists mentioned, and there you have it–an actual (if not full, you understand) history of art in what are, in fact, 21 artistically rendered cats. If you’re looking for an easy jumping off point for the visual arts, this flock of felines has your back!