The Art Thief - M. Finkel

 

This book was given to me several years ago, I believe for Christmas, by my mother. She wrote in a note (that was still folded up in the book!) that "Because this one is not spiritual or self-help, it is interesting and fun and true and amazing and wretched and sometimes it is good to read something like this, ha." This was a spot on description!

I finished this book faster than any book to date. I heard somewhere that even though it is nonfiction, it reads like a fantasy book, which is also 100% accurate. The chapters are short enough where you can read one in a bathroom trip or a 4 minute window waiting for someone/something. And what a gripping tale it is! The fact that the story is true makes it so much more intriguing. 

This book sat gathering dust for years, and I was totally unprepared to get sucked into it to the extent that I did. It was refreshing to read a book that was purely entertaining and didn't make me think or ponder deeply about life or about the way I view society. I must admit I had begun to think that such stories were meant for school kids, but my book-reading horizon has now expanded. 

In terms of entertaining books, this is the book I would most quickly recommend. There are others I would recommend first to develop character more, but this was highly entertaining.