This was one of the most fun art books I’ve ever read. Januszcak’s Japanese mother-in-law provides a unique way into the 1980s cleaning and restoration of Michelangelo’s ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, funded and obsessively covered by Japanese TV company NTV. This quirky book looks at all the old debates revived by the project and many new ones: how exactly did Michelangelo create this masterpiece? Did he have a plan or did he improvise? Why are his female figures so notoriously masculine? Most importantly, did the restoration ruin the artist’s creation or return it to his original conception? Januszcak occasionally uses four satirical composite characters to debate the issues—a nun, an art critic, a self-taught Japanese enthusiast, and his own character—which sometimes gets tiresome. But otherwise the depth of his understanding of the meaning of this piece is inspiring.