Broken Colors follows the life of painter Sophie Marks. Brushed with moments of passion, heartbreak, and longing, Sophie’s journey takes her from World War II England to post-war Paris, to the Italian countryside, the American Southwest, and back to England where she comes face to face with hidden memories.
“I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.”
For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage.
In The Bastard of Istanbul, her second novel to be written in English, Turkish author Elif Shafak confronts her country’s poignant past in a vivid and colorful tale about the tangled history of two families—one Turkish and one Armenian American. Shafak has created an intricately woven tale about the very different but equally difficult struggles of living with the past and trying to survive without one. Full of bold, unforgettable characters, The Bastard of Istanbul reveals that even the worst events are important ingredients in the recipes that make each of us who we are.
Nicholas Lyon is the perfect husband—a handsome divorce attorney who dotes on his family. Sara Kaplan is the perfect seductress—a vivacious young lawyer unburdened by sexual scruples. And Malinche Lyon is the perfect wife—a beautiful cookbook writer and mother to three darling daughters. Now, in this smart, wickedly sexy novel, Nick, Sara, and Malinche are all about to join…The Adultery Club
Suddenly Nicholas—a man totally in love with his wife—is fantasizing about Sara. Sara is toying with Nick. And Malinche is facing temptations of her own. While appetites are whetted and sated from London to the English countryside,
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.
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.
