“There is plenty of action and drama…Fitch ( White Oleander) is an excellent writer.” fictionįitch's epic novel about the life of a young woman coming of age against the tumult of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war is only part one of two planned volumes. “Manages to bring (da Vinci) into vivid, 3D life…a 21st-century page-turner.” His obsession with apocalyptic images brought about blueprints for military designs that were centuries before their time. His passion for the human form and how muscles rippled and tensed as the body moved created a groundbreaking portrait artist. The way a bird gained loft or the way wind flowed over its wings led to his own sketches showing how man could one day fly. He was an inquisitive jack of all trades - painter, set designer, engineer - because that’s what helped pay the bills.īut most of all, he was an observer. He was left-handed and wrote backward, less for effect and more simply because it seemed easier. He was gay, enjoying the company of two younger men who eventually split his estate. Here are some of the things we learn about Leonardo the man, as opposed to Leonardo the cliché. Fabled techies-turned-collectors such as Bill Gates own his prized codexes. Beyond the ubiquitous references to paintings such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, a da Vinci painting of Christ just sold at auction for a record-shattering $450 million. Leonardo might have been born in the 15th century, but he’s never far from pop culture. Isaacson’s biographical choice is a shrewd one. And don’t laugh, but the movie rights have already been bought by Leonardo DiCaprio, whose namesake he’ll honor by taking the leading role. non-fictionīest-selling biographer Walter Isaacson has tackled Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs, and now he’s cast his considerable storytelling skills on an Italian Renaissance giant with Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson Simon & Schuster, 624 pp. What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY’s picks for book lovers include a big new biography of Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance painter very much in the news for smashing auction records.
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