"The Art of Rivalry" by Sebastian Smee

    This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in art. It relates the rivalry between four pairs of artists: Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon, Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso, and Pollock and De Kooning. With each pairing, we are not only looking at the art of the painters but also their psychologies and their--often chaotic--lives.
    The author is an Australian who has been the art critic for The Boston Globe since 2008. He spent the previous four years in London, writing on art for a number of newspapers.
    One critic, in the New York Times, noted: "This is a magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine lines between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us are often the ones that inspire us most."