Set in the early eighteenth century, Vivaldi’s Virgins depicts the last days of the Republic, a place of wild extremes and intriguing mysteries where the hedonistic pleasures of Carnival and the severe austerity embodied by the Grand Inquisitor coexist and often collide. Seen through the perceptive eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, this lyrical coming-of-age tale travels from the luxurious palaces of the elite and grand high society galas to the poverty of the Jewish Ghetto and the tenements of the underclass, capturing the city’s magnificent heights, its squalid depths and everything in between.
A foundling given the name of her instrument,
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Artist Miranda Jones wants to cause both success and love in her life, and takes a summer job at the University of Alaska to gain perspective on her life. Meanwhile, in the picturesque coastal town of Milford-Haven, the unfinished Clarke mansion draws Deputy Delmar Johnson, battered wife Stacey Chernak and rebellious environmentalist Susan Winslow, even as its builder Jack Sawyer sidesteps both building codes and a guilty conscience. Zack Calvin tries to recover from his brush with death but sinks deeper into a tangled romance with Cynthia Radcliffe. Sally O’Mally’s conscience tells her to confess an ancient sin to her old love,
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In his first novel since The Light of Day, the Booker Prize–winning author gives us a luminous tale about the closest of human bonds.
On a midsummer’s night Paula Hook lies awake; Mike, her husband of twenty-five years, asleep beside her; her teenage twins, Nick and Kate, sleeping in nearby rooms. The next day, she knows, will redefine all of their lives. A revelation lies in store. Her children’s future lies before them. The house holds the family’s history and fate.
Recalling the years before and after her children were born,
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Sue Monk Kidd’s ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the town’s fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees,
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;Paris in the 1860s: a magnificent time of expression, where brilliant young artists rebel against the stodginess of the past to freely explore new styles of creating—and bold new ways of living.
Passionate, beautiful, and utterly devoted to her art, Berthe Morisot is determined to be recognized as an important painter. But as a woman, she finds herself sometimes overlooked in favor of her male counterparts—Monet, Pissarro, Degas.
And there is one great artist among them who captivates young Berthe like none other: the celebrated genius Édouard Manet. A mesmerizing, breathtaking rogue—a shameless roué, undeterred and irresistible—his life is a wildly overgrown garden of scandal.
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Physician Deborah Monroe and her teenage daughter Grace are driving home one night in a raging rainstorm when their car hits a man who is on foot on the road. He subsequently dies, throwing Deborah and Grace into emotional turmoil. They share a secret concerning the accident, a lie that takes on a life of its own and threatens both their everyday lives and the special bond between them. And it refuses to go away, growing larger with each denial, jeopardizing ties Deborah has with her renegade sister and their father, a recent widower, and with the ex-husband whose role in their children’s lives is at stake.
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