"After breakfast, I read from the Song of Solomon for a while. It is my favorite book in the Bible. There are no murders in it. No beheadings. No godly fury. There is only a boy and a girl, and it reminds of the soap operas on the radio, and of other, sweeter days of my life." ~ from Chantel Acevedo's The Distant Marvels
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| Beatrice and Benedick by Marina FioratoSparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick take center stage in this lively prequel to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Revealing the origins of their "merry war," this witty, yet heartfelt, novel shifts back and forth between its protagonists' perspectives as the couple meets, flirts, fights, and -- after a dramatic separation -- reunites. Looking for more fiction inspired by Shakespeare? Check out Lois Leveen's Juliet's Nurse, a poignant retelling of Romeo and Juliet, or Kathryn Johnson's The Gentleman Poet, which pays clever homage to The Tempest. |
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| Médicis Daughter: A Novel of Marguerite de Valois by Sophie PerinotFor certain 16th-century French noblewomen, the personal is political. The daughter of Queen consort Catherine de Médicis, sensitive Princess Marguerite de Valois ("Margot") is quite unlike her manipulative mama (dubbed La Serpente). With France gripped by religious warfare, Margot's fate, like that of her homeland, depends on not one, but three, powerful men named Henri: her brother, the Duc of Anjou; her betrothed, Henri of Bourbon, Prince of Navarre; and her lover, the Duc of Guise, who's got his eye on the throne. Like author Sophie Perinot's debut, The Sister Queens, this dramatic novel blends family drama and dynastic politics for a riveting read. |
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The Furies of Rome
by Robert Fabbri
AD 58: Rome is in turmoil once more. Emperor Nero has surrounded himself with sycophants and together they rampage by night through the city, visiting death and destruction as they go. Meanwhile, Nero's extravagance has reached new heights. The Emperor's spending is becoming profligate at the same time as the demands of keeping the provinces subdued have become increasingly unaffordable. Could Nero withdraw from Britannia, and at what price for the Empire? As the bankers of the Empire scramble to call in their loans, Vespasian is sent to Londinium on a secret mission, only to become embroiled in a deadly rebellion led by Boudicca, a female warrior of extraordinary bravery. As the uprising gathers pace, Vespasian must fight to stay ahead of Rome's enemies and complete his task- before all of Britannia burns. Book Annotation
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River of Ink
by Paul M. M. Cooper
Enjoying a luxurious 13th-century court life as the king's poet in Sri Lanka, Asanka finds his circumstances dramatically altered by a cruel and calculating usurper who commissions him to translate a holy Sanskrit epic that has revolutionary consequences.
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Books You May Have Missed
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| A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London's Flower Sellers by Hazel GaynorFlorrie and Rosie Flynn's story is tragic, but hardly atypical in 1870s London. After losing their mother to cholera, the sisters become flower sellers on the streets of London. Florrie, disabled by polio, protects blind Rosie, until fate intervenes and separates them. In 1912, Tilly Harper becomes the assistant housemother at Shaw's Training Home for Watercress and Flower Girls (known to locals as "the Crippleage"), where she discovers Florrie's diary and sets out to discover what happened to the lost girls. |
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| The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen"I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces," declares the sardonic narrator of this novel, a Viet Cong agent known as "the Captain." The orphaned child of a French Catholic priest and his Vietnamese lover, the Captain has spent his young life moving seamlessly between different worlds. After traveling abroad for a university education funded by the CIA, he returned to his homeland to fight for the Communist cause. Now, in 1975, he poses as a refugee in Los Angeles to infiltrate the household of a former South Vietnamese army general. However, disillusionment and doubt has begun to creep into his thoughts. Framed as a confession, this moving, introspective novel depicts complex geopolitical conflicts while reflecting on the nature of identity. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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