New Reads:

For Christmas, I bought Andrew the new Steve Martin book (cause he's such a huge fan), An Object of Beauty. He read a few pages, got distracted with other things, and never finished. And after I caught up on all my reading, I went searching for something I hadn't read yet. So I picked this up and am almost done with it. It's good -- not something I would have expected from Steve Martin. The subject that is, not the whole being good part.

From the inside cover:

"I am tired, so very tired of thinking about Lacey Yeager, yet I worry that unless I write her story down, and see it bound and tidy on my bookshelf, I will be unable to ever write about anything else.

So writes Daniel Franks, the narrator of the story about a woman he's been unable to let go of for years in the latest novel by bestselling and acclaimed entertainer Steve Martin.

Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take on the notoriously demanding art world of New York City. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put up before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her charisma and liveliness. Her career sends her zipping all over Manhattan, the East Coast, and even St. Petersburg, and her self-manufactured allure makes the reader wonder if it is not she who is the object of beauty. Her ascension to the highest tiers of New York parallels the soaring heights -- and, at times, the darkest lows -- of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today. 

With twenty two lush, four-color art reproductions throughout, An Object of Beauty is both a primer on the business of fine art collecting and a close study of the personalities that make it run. With his latest novel Steve Martin once again displays his compassion and keen skills of observation and understanding."