Luncheon of the Boating Party, the novel and the painting, depicts the summer of 1880, an exuberant postwar time when social constraints were loosening, Paris was healing, and Parisians were bursting with a desire for pleasure. The fourteen painted figures on the terrace overlooking the Seine enjoying this moment of la vie moderne are Renoir’s very real friends, whose lives unfold and connect during the course of the making of the painting. Seven of the models are viewpoint characters who reveal in their own voices the events of their lives during the weeks in between painting sessions.
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A fire destroys a New York City rare bookstore—and reveals clues to a treasure worth killing for. . . . A disgraced scholar is found tortured to death. . . . And those pursuing the most valuable literary find in history are about to cross from the harmless mundane into inescapable nightmare.
From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Tropic of Night comes a breathtaking thriller that twists, shocks, and surprises at every turn as it crisscrosses centuries, from the glaring violence of today into the dark shadows of truth and lies surrounding the greatest writer the world has ever known.
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Tensions between the Israelites and the Canaanites have been mounting for years, but finally Deborah—the wise and revered judge of the Israelites—decides it is time to strike out against the enemy before the enemy strikes in full force against them. She calls on Barak, an equally revered warrior, to lead the call to war. Under his leadership, the Israelites destroy the Canaanite army, and Barak takes as his prisoners the daughters of the late Canaanite king.
Deborah’s decision to rely on Barak, however, costs her dearly. Her husband Lapidoth divorces her, knowing Barak’s reputation as a womanizer and suspecting the warrior of ulterior motives in his dealings with her.
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An elegantly designed, beautifully composed volume of personal letters from famous American men and women that celebrates the American Experience and illuminates the rich history of some of America’s most storied families.
Posterity is at once an epistolary chronicle of America and a fascinating glimpse into the hearts and minds of some of history’s most admired figures. Spanning more than three centuries, these letters contain enduring lessons in life and love, character and compassion that will surprise and enlighten.
Included here are letters from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter,
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As New York City swelters under the August sun, D.A. Alex Cooper takes on her most riveting case to date in Killer Heat. While masterminding a courtroom victory for a rape victim who was denied justice decades earlier, Alex is called to the scene of a brutal murder. A young woman was severely beaten to death, her body disposed of in an abandoned building. The heat is on when a similar murder victim is found soon after, but connections between the two women slip away from Alex, despite her hard-as-nails interrogation tactics. By the time a third woman is murdered,
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I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
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