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One evening in 1990 while driving home from work, I came up with an idea. As an art lover, I had seen so many lovely paintings that depicted one intriguing subject: a woman reading. As an avid reader, I had often read what other women had written about their own love of reading. What, I thought, if I combined the images and the words ? The idea excited me and I gathered more than one hundred fine art images and I discovered the expressive words of famous women on their passion for books. I wrote a proposal and a prototype for a gift journal graced with quotations and art. I called it The Reading Woman, and I licensed the concept to Pomegranate, one of the largest publishers of fine art calendars, books and journals in North America.
Today, The Reading Woman has become its own phenomenon. Sold in English-speaking countries around the globe, The Reading Woman is now a family of several delightful gift products geared to the book-loving woman. The line includes not only the journal but a wall calendar, engagement diary, postcard book and boxed note cards. Each year The Reading Woman images and words are changed but they’re always exquisite. Like my other gift products, The Reading Woman has been and remains a labor of love.
In 1994, I created the vibrant art-filled journal: Enchanted Islands: Voices and Visions from the Caribbean. Also published by Pomegranate, this journal arose from my ongoing love affair with Caribbean art. As the former art columnist and feature writer for the magazine Caribbean Travel & Life, I had the opportunity to meet with the region’s most exciting artists and writers. I put the ones I loved most in this book. Enchanted Islands is the ideal gift for anyone who loves art, beautiful words and of course… a white sand beach.
In 2003, I dreamed of another gift journal. This one, Solo Passages is composed of excerpts of women’s most private diary entries and enhanced by art showing women writing. To create this journal, I read hundred of diaries from both little-known and famous women. I discovered that at heart, women around the globe, whether rich or poor, experience much the same insecurities, longings and joys. In Solo Passages we glimpse the private thoughts of an eclectic collection of women including Beatrix Potter, Virginia Woolf, Eleanor Roosevelt and Anaïs Nin. I’ve filled this journal with the art I’m personally most passionate about with works by Mary Cassat, John Singer Sargent, Frida Kahlo as well as wonderful new artists.
Solo Passages is packaged in a jewel-case box and comes with a CD of classical music solos for cello, harpsichord and piano performed by Sharon O’ Connor, founder of the San Francisco String Quartet.
To buy Maxine's gift items at Amazon.com, please click on the Title or Picture.
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Enchanted Islands : Voices & Visions from the Caribbean
ISBN 0-87654-076-0
The Enchanted Islands journal beautifully combines art, prose, and poetry from the Caribbean. It showcases works by a variety of Caribbean artists, from renowned painters to lesser-known but equally brilliant contemporary artists, all accompanied by literary excerpts of the likes of Nobel Prize winner, Derek Walcott. This exuberant combination of island voices and visions creates a soulful tapestry of Caribbean life -- and inspiration for your own experiences.
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The Reading Woman : A Journal
ISBN 0-87654-816-8
This exquisite volume with full-color reproductions of paintings of women reading, will provide inspiration for recording your private thoughts or keeping track of the books you've read. Art included is by Mary Cassatt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Edward Hopper, James McNeill Whistler, and Winslow Homer, as well as contemporary selections. Quotes from well-known women on their love of books and reading appear throughout. After ten years, this lovely journal is still a best seller and the perfect bookworm or reading-group gift.
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The Reading Woman Boxed Note Cards
ISBN: 0-7649-2601-2
20 greeting cards. Twenty assorted full-color 5 x 7" note cards with envelopes in a decorative box. All cards are blank inside. Each of the beautiful paintings included in this folio of note cards portrays the reading woman in her enjoyment of the printed page.
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The Reading Woman Book of Postcards
ISBN: 0-7649-1267-4
The images in this enchanting book of postcards capture the tranquil sanctuary and sublime beauty of women immersed in the pages of a book. The book of postcards contain thirty top-quality reproductions bound together in a handy collection. Easy to remove and produced on heavy card stock, these gorgeous postcards are a delight to the sender and receiver (and the letter carrier too). Size: 4 3/4 x 6 7/8"
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The Reading Woman II Book of Postcards
ISBN 978-0-7649-4109-2
Whether routes to escape or paths to enlightenment, books create enticing worlds so absorbing to the reader that other realities fade away. A painting of a woman immersed in a book suggests a story of its own: the woman is at peace, or not; perhaps she is silently thrilled by the words she reads. Is she stealing a moment from daily routine to indulge her love of literature? Is she studiously searching the pages for illumination? Is this book the one that will change her life?
Little wonder that the reading woman has appeared in art for hundreds of years. She is a beautiful enigma, an untold tale, a fragment of a life momentarily set free from its long, complex story. This book of postcards presents thirty quietly joyous studies of women at their books or letters. All are from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Thirty full-color reproductions. Oversized postcards measure 6 1/2 x 4 3/4 in.
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Reading Woman 2009 Calendar
ISBN: 0-7649-3568-2
A book can stop time, transcend circumstances, conjure a world in which to lose oneself. This calendar’s twelve paintings--including Edgar Degas’ Visit to a Museum, Laura Coombs Hills’ Fire Opal (Grace Mutell), John Singer Sargent’s Simplon Pass: Reading, and nine other serene and lovely images--achieve the same thing. Just as the reading woman has temporarily set herself free from her life’s narrative, so can we leave ours as we contemplate her image. Well-chosen words on the pleasures of literature, from historic and contemporary readers and writers, accompany each image.
Published with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Size: 12 x 13 in.; opens to 12 x 26 in.
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The Reading Woman 2009 Engagement Calendar
ISBN 978-0-7649-4379-9
Each of the thirty-two images in this calendar by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Lilian Westcott Hale, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and many others offers a unique interpretation of the reading woman. Each image is accompanied by a quotation related to the realm of the written word. Also included are fifty-four weekly grids, twelve full-page monthly grids, lists of international holidays and international calling codes/time differences, double-page spreads of 2009 and 2010 yearly grids, pages for notes, and a personal information page.
Published with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Size: 6 5/8 x 8 in.; 112 pages; hardcover Wire-O bound.
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The Reading Woman Deluxe Address Book
ISBN: 978-0-7649-4181-8
She is finding escape from routine in the pages of a novel. Or searching the pages of a more serious work for a way to broaden her horizons or transform her life. Or poring over a letter from a loved one. The reading woman represents a long, complex story that has fascinated generations of artists.
Why has the reading woman been such a popular subject for painters through the ages? Beyond being beautiful in herself, she is an expression of important, unspoken cultural ideas. She is ensconced in comfortable surroundings; she is at leisure: allís right with the world. Well-chosen observations on the pleasures of literature, from historical and contemporary readers and writers, accompany each of the images presented here.
Pomegranate's deluxe address books are hardbound with a hidden spiral binding that allows them to lie absolutely flat. Forty full color reproductions complement information pages with room for 480 names, addresses, home and business telephone numbers, cell/pager, and e-mail addresses. A lovely gift. Shipped individually shrink-wrapped for safety.
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Solo Passages
Woman ’s Journal with Inspiring Diary Passages and Paintings
Peaceful Music for Solo Harpsichord, Piano, and Cello
This gorgeous illustrated journal by Maxine Rose Schur will inspire women to record thoughts, wishes, and dreams. Classical solos performed by Sharon O’Connor set the mood for reading, writing, and contemplation. A perfect gift for mothers, daughters, or best-friends.
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