books forward friends | Ad Librum Aeternam

The Portraitist by Susanne Dunlap & the Author Behind the True Story of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

Want to read the true story of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard's fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of eighteenth-century Paris?

Read on, friend, read on!

What about the whole blurb?

With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. Meanwhile, her rival goes from strength to strength, becoming Marie Antoinette’s official portraitist and gaining entrance to the elite Académie Royale at the same time as Adélaïde.

When at last Adélaïde earns her own royal appointment and receives a massive commission from a member of the royal family, the timing couldn’t be worse: it’s 1789, and with the fall of the Bastille her world is turned upside down by political chaos and revolution. With danger around every corner in her beloved Paris, she must find a way to adjust to the new order, carving out a life and a career all over again—and stay alive in the process.

Published on August 30th, 2022 by She Writes Press

Now, thanks to Books Forward and Susanne Dunlap, I was offered a free e-copy of The Portraitist for a review (coming soon!) and the opportunity to shout out about this book depicting a true story of an artist woman (please see this very article).

But who's behind this great story and research?

Here's Susanne Dunlap:

Not only is she a wonderful author, she's quite savvy and passionate in her field. She published her first at 50 years old (amazing! dreams and talents are worth following!), and she's now an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach in fiction and nonfiction (impressive!). I particularly love how she first fell in love with historical fiction: I first by reading T.H. White’s The Once and Future King! I mean, already I was intrigued that Miss Dunlap had found and told a woman artist's tale mostly unknown to the general public, but now I gotta admit I feel a certain kinship with her. Arthurian legends, historical fiction, feminism, and all that good stuff? OMG, sign me up!

16 Historical Novels That Make History So Much Fun

Want to know more about The Portraitist?

You can visit the Goodreads page

the Amazon page

and the official page on the author's website

(there's even a Book Club Guide on there, woohoo!)

Please, take a look at Susanne Dunlap's bio (it's worth a read, it's impressive!), and at her blog and courses. Ah, finally a historical research course worthy of the name…!!!!

Wow GIFs | GIFDB.com

You can bet I'll take that course when I can fund it!

Don't forget to add The Portraitist: A Novel of Adelaide Labille-Guiard to your Goodreads bookshelves, or any other bookshelves for that matter, and visit Dunlap's site as well as my dear Books Forward!

Then, stay tuned for my upcoming review! 🙂

Happy reading, loves!

Tales from Cloud Canyon – Diverse Picture Book Series (Kickstarter Event!) by Dr. Rachel Kowert

Hello, dear folks!

(There's a surprise at the end of this article, so read on! ;))

As a newly minted bestie of Books Forward Friends (which means I'm one of their book reviewers now, yay!), I was offered the amazing opportunity to take part in a diverse picture book series kickstarter event. Indeed, Dr. Rachel Kowert penned books about the everyday children under the series title Tales from Cloud Canyon. She created her Kickstarter campaign to fund what the author describes as "a picture book series celebrating the everyday child, doing everyday things, with their everyday abilities for ages 3 and up."

Honestly, this was too much of a good intention and kind, thoughtful project that I simply couldn't pass over. So, here I am. 🙂

Dr. Rachel Kowert's teaser trailer for her diverse picture book series Tales from Cloud Canyon is touching, surprising, and eye-opening. I do enjoy her statistics, her bluntness, the kind thoughts towards the "ones forgotten by books", and the fact that we see her against a sweet but charming background. It speaks of reliability and passion.

Here it is so you can be taken aback and touched as well:

Sounds sweet and fantastic, touching even, right? How about you take a look at the series' Kickstarter page? Consider donating, even just 1$, as every amount helps. If you can't donate, write or shout about it on social media, will you? That would be tremendously helpful to, in turn, help children relate to characters like them with abilities like theirs. Wouldn't that be great for once? For every child to see themselves in literature?

I know I never saw any disabled child in books when I was younger, and I always felt even more forgotten or pushed away from society… I would have loved to read about a cardiac child like me! Who sought refuge and friends through reading like I did (and still do somehow).

So, her project resonates with me. I want every child to know they are worthy and talented in their own ways.

The Author: Dr. Rachel Kowert

Dr. Rachel Kowert is a research psychologist with her current research being primarily focused on the social impact of online games–but hang on, she's an online gamer herself! Now, that's both mind-blowing and fun to hear such crucial information about someone who actually experiences the topic first-hand. As a huge gamer myself, I'm rather intrigued by what she has to say and so far it's quite healthy, for example how she evaluates the potential for video game play to mitigate symptoms of PTSD among veterans. Honestly, that's just plain inspiring. 🙂

I love her research (which I will read as soon as I can purchase her books on the topic!) and her good intentions. Also, she has a YouTube channel called Psychgeist where she focuses "the psychology of the era: the science of video games."

If you want to learn more about this incredible professional, go to her website.

And now, it's tiiiiime fooooooorrr theeeee…

Surprise Giveaway!!

Tah-dah!

Everyone who leaves a comment here and over my Instagram posts which relate to Dr. Rachel Kowert's series Tales from Cloud Canyon has a chance to win the picture book Pragmatic Princess.

Here are the cover and blurb:

An A-Z compilation of short stories about self-reliance designed for children aged 3-8+.

Within each story in Pragmatic Princess, the main character in is confronted with a typical childhood challenge (e.g., a fear of trying something new or schoolyard bullying) and models a wide range of skills and ideas to navigate these challenges, such as problem solving, flexible thinking, and resourcefulness. The use of real-world situations and a diverse cast help helps foster observational learning and the successful acquisition of the skills modeled in each of the stories which span intellectual, social, emotional, and moral development.

The characters of Pragmatic Princess were developed to represent a range of shapes, sizes, abilities and disabilities, and traditional and non-traditional families. It was important to incorporate diverse backgrounds into the characters' lives for them to reflect the diverse world we live in. It was equally important that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.

On Monday, June 20^th, I will choose a winner among those who commented, and randomly at that to make it fair, and then I will contact the winner so you can receive the beautiful book via mail, thanks to Books Forward. :)

How awesome is that?!

See you on June 5^th with the sequel to this article and another chance to win the giveaway! More comments = more entries for you. 😉