Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris
The bestselling author of Chocolat and The Girl with No Shadow returns to Lansquenet in this enchanting new novel, Peaches for Father Francis (in the UK called Peaches for Monsieur le Curé) When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the beautiful French village in which eight years ago she opened a chocolate shop and first learned the meaning of home. But returning to one's past can be a dangerous pursuit. Vianne, with her daughters, Anouk and Rosette, finds Lansquenet changed in unexpected ways: women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea--and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the church, a minaret. Most surprising of all, her old nemesis, Father Francis Reynaud, desperately needs her help. Can Vianne work her magic once again?
Sweet Tooth In this stunning new novel, Ian McEwan's first female protagonist since Atonement is about to learn that espionage is the ultimate seduction. Cambridge student Serena Frome's beauty and intelligence make her the ideal recruit for MI5. The year is 1972. The Cold War is far from over. England's legendary intelligence agency is determined to manipulate the cultural conversation by funding writers whose politics align with those of the government. The operation is code named "Sweet Tooth." Serena, a compulsive reader of novels, is the perfect candidate to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer named Tom Healy. At first, she loves his stories. Then she begins to love the man. How long can she conceal her undercover life? To answer that question, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage: trust no one. Once again, Ian McEwan's mastery dazzles us in this superbly deft and witty story of betrayal and intrigue, love and the invented self.
The Boy in the Snow by M. J. McGrathEdie Kiglatuk's discovery along Alaska's Iditarod trail leads to a massive, far-reaching conspiracy M. J. McGrath's debut novel, White Heat, earned both fans and favorable comparisons to bestselling Scandinavian thrillers such as Smilla's Sense of Snow and the Kurt Wallander series. In The Boy in the Snow , half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk finds herself in Alaska with Sergeant Derek Palliser, helping her ex-husband Sammy in his bid to win the famous Iditarod dog sled race. The race takes a grim turn when Edie stumbles upon the body of a baby left out in the forest. The state troopers are keen to pin the death on the Dark Believers-a sinister offshoot of a Russian Orthodox sect-but Edie's instincts tell her otherwise. Her investigations take her into a world of corrupt politics, religious intolerance, greed, and sex trafficking. But just as she begins to get some answers, Edie finds herself confronted by a painful secret from her past.
The Sanctuary THE SANCTUARY is the gripping story of vigilante priest, Danny Hansen, who is now serving a fifty year prison term in California for the murder of two abusive men. Filled with remorse, Danny is determined to live out his days by a code of non-violence and maneuvers deftly within a ruthless prison system. But when Renee Gilmore, the woman he loves, receives a box containing a bloody finger and draconian demands from a mysterious enemy on the outside, Danny must find a way to escape. They are both drawn into a terrifying game of life and death. If Renee fails, the priest will die; if Danny fails, Renee will die. And the body count will not stop at two. THE SANCTUARY is Ted Dekker at his best, a powerful thriller that relentlessly plumbs the depths of punishment and rehabilitation, both in a flawed corrections system and in the human heart.
Leonardo and the Last Supper Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art- The Last Supper . After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at forty-three, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing promise. His latest failure was a giant bronze horse to honor Sforza's father: His 75 tons of bronze had been expropriated to be turned into cannons to help repel a French invasion of Italy. The commission to paint The Last Supper in the refectory of a Dominican convent was a small compensation, and his odds of completing it were not promising: Not only had he never worked on a painting of such a large size-15' high x 30' wide-but he had no experience in the extremely difficult medium of fresco. In his compelling new book, Ross King explores how-amid war and the political and religious turmoil around him, and beset by his own insecurities and frustrations-Leonardo created the masterpiece that would forever define him. King unveils dozens of stories that are embedded in the painting. Examining who served as the models for the Apostles, he makes a unique claim: that Leonardo modeled two of them on himself. Reviewing Leonardo's religious beliefs, King paints a much more complex picture than the received wisdom that he was a heretic. The food that Leonardo, a famous vegetarian, placed on the table reveals as much as do the numerous hand gestures of those at Christ's banquet.As King explains, many of the myths that have grown up around The Last Supper are wrong, but its true story is ever more interesting. Bringing to life a fascinating period in European history, Ross King presents an original portrait of one of the world's greatest geniuses through the lens of his most famous work.
Twitch Upon a Star: the Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomeryby Herbie J. Pilato
Based on author Herbie J Pilato's exclusive interviews with Elizabeth Montgomery prior to her death in 1995 (from colon cancer), Twitch Upon A Star includes never-before published material and commentary from several individuals associated with her remarkable life and career before, during, and after Bewitched, including her classic feature films The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed? (1963), and Johnny Cool (1963). Two of Montgomery's many popular TV movies, A Case of Rape (which remains one of the highest-rated TV-movies of all time) and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (which will soon be remade as a feature film), were groundbreaking and remain classics. But Twitch Upon a Star also goes behind the scenes to explore Montgomery's political activism, including her early advocacy for AIDS research and the peace movement, support for the gay community, and participation as narrator of controversial 1988 feature film documentary Cover-Up, and its 1991 Oscar-winning sequel, The Panama Deception (both about the Iran/Contra scandal of the l980s). In addition, Montgomery had complicated relationships with her father, screen legend Robert Montgomery (she was a liberal; he was a staunch conservative), and four husbands (including actor Gig Young, who later died in a double murder/suicide). Still, to friends such as fellow performers Sally Kemp and Florence Henderson, Ronny Cox, and the Oscar-winning actor Cliff Robertson she was just Lizzie, down-to-earth and unaffected, just like Samantha the witch-with-a-twitch Stephens, her most famous role.
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