A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnes Varda, by Carrie Rickey
I receive countless pitches from book publicists. I rarely bite. When I saw this one, it was an immediate “yes, please.” I know and love Varda’s films (Cleo from 5 to 7, Vagabond) and remembered that Rickey had been a newspaper film critic. Rickey’s telling of Varda’s artful life is well paced and informative. (We learn as much about the films she made as the ones she didn’t, typically because of financing.) I’m charmed by the work life created by Varda and husband Jacques Demy, who wrote and directed confections such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Donkey Skin. Wherever they were — Paris, Los Angeles, a French beach house — they worked, entertained, and raised their children. One anecdote I loved: a Hollywood producer pinched Varda’s cheek as she left his office; she slapped his hand away. Yeah… she didn’t get the money. This is a delightful deep-dive read about an artist’s life. Highly recommend.
The Heart in Winter, by Kevin Barry
Sitting on a plane about to take off I read an excerpt of this novel in The Atlantic, pulled out my phone, and ordered the book. Wowza. Barry’s prose enchants; his storytelling propels. His subject: lovers on the lam in the Rocky Mountains in 1891. More than I once wondered: how did a writer in Ireland come up with this very American story? How can we fall in love with two unlikeable characters? Tom Rourke is a drunk, a dope fiend, a poet: at the bar where his bill is never paid, he writes “Dear, Will You be my Wife” letters for his fellow townsmen. Polly is one such woman who arrives, marries a decent man, but falls for Rourke. And we’re off! On a stolen horse the lovers aim for San Francisco but never quite get there.
Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life, by Roxana Robinson
“Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks” is an exhibit at The Art Institute of Chicago, through Sept. 22. It’s worth a visit. Known for her oversized flowers and Southwest vistas, her New York work is a thrill to see, because she captured a low-rise landscape that no longer exists. 
I especially liked her delicate drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge. I loved the exhibit so much I felt like a fan girl: I needed to know more. Robinson’s biography gave me that. What a life! O’Keeffe (1887 – 1986) is a monolith, so it’s a pleasure to find the person she was and became. O’Keeffe was one of seven children and the eldest sister, the child of Wisconsin farmers. As a young woman she studied at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, worked as an illustrator, and as a schoolteacher in Texas, where she renewed her love of wide open spaces. Her drawings caught the eye of photographer Alfred Stiegtlitz, who ran a New York gallery. There, the two fell in love and spent the rest of his life (1864 -1946) together, in New York City and at New York’s Lake George. O’Keeffe’s life in the Southwest was her own. Hers was a life of triumph, heartbreak, humiliation, petty feuds. This is a fascinating life, well told.
During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, by Joan Chase
I try not to read books that make me cry, because I get a headache. Well, this one is worth it. (First published in 1983; reissued in 2014.) Told in the first person plural, there’s a haunted tone from its first pages. The “we” who tell the story are four girls, cousins, who spend every summer at their grandmother’s farm. This is no Eden: Gram (Lil Bradley) has no interest in the farm or her husband, and spends her days at the movie house and nights playing bingo. Lil owns the house and lands. There’s a boy cousin who’s a sex pest, and an unmarried aunt who lives a glamorous life in Manhattan. Lil’s adult daughters gather when Grace — who married the cute guy who turned out to be a drunk — comes home to die. Mostly this book is about life and longing and the land’s beauty, which is why I’m recommending it.