I stumbled across the movie, with Colin Firth, on a free pay-per-view channel one evening when watching tv. This was quite awhile ago. I enjoyed the movie, but my husband, who was in and out of the room, did not care for it, saying it went like this: "Stare. ... Mumble, mumble, mumble. ... Stare. ... Mumble, mumble, mumble. ... Stare." Oh well.

This book took me a few weeks to read, as I have not had as much reading time as I would have thought and it did take until Griet's portrait was actually being painted for me to have that "want to keep reading, not put it down" feeling.

I liked the spacing, the years listed and then just little tilde's to acknowledge a break. Those breaks were fairly often and made picking up and putting down the book easy in my hectic schedule.

I enjoyed the story and it has sparked an interest in Vermeer's work for me. I do not know much about the history of most art, so I do not know how much is known about the history and subjects of each painting, but I found Ms. Chevalier's story-telling interesting. I enjoyed this novel as a nice little read and would recommend it, although not enthusiastically.

I was irritated about the constant religious Catholic/Protestant issue mentioned on nearly every page of the book. I don't think it added to the story a whole lot, and it certainly did not need to be drilled into the reader, although I understand how it was a constant issue for Griet.

As I said before, I've seen the movie, quite awhile ago. Unfortunately, none of the scenes I remember from the movie were in the book. Either I am mis-remembering or the movie really went its own direction.