Miriam's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2014 16:54:57 -0700 60 Miriam's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Water Like a Stone (Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James, #11)]]> 89130 Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner, Sergeant Gemma James, take their sons to picturesque Cheshire for their first family Christmas with Duncan's parents - a holiday both dreaded and anticipated. But not even the charming town of Nantwich and the dreaming canals can mask the tensions in Duncan's family, which are tragically heightened by the discovery of an infant's body hidden in the wall of an old dairy.

As Duncan and Gemma help the police investigate the infant's death, another murder strikes closer to home, revealing that far from being idyllic, Duncan's childhood paradise holds dark and deadly secrets . . . secrets that threaten everything and everyone Duncan and Gemma hold most dear.

]]> 407 Deborah Crombie 0060525274 Miriam 0 to-read 4.13 2007 Water Like a Stone (Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James, #11)
author: Deborah Crombie
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #4)]]> 4201106 "What happened here last night isn't allowed," said Madame Dubois.
It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on baguette.
"You have a rule against murder?" he asked.
"I do. When my husband and I bought the Bellechasse we made a pact....Everything that stepped foot on this land would be safe."

It is the height of summer, and Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are celebrating their wedding anniversary at Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious inn not far from the village of Three Pines. But they're not alone. The Finney family—rich, cultured, and respectable—has also arrived for a celebration of their own.
The beautiful Manoir Bellechasse might be surrounded by nature, but there is something unnatural looming. As the heat rises and the humidity closes in, some surprising guests turn up at the family reunion, and a terrible summer storm leaves behind a dead body. It is up to Chief Inspector Gamache to unearth secrets long buried and hatreds hidden behind polite smiles. The chase takes him to Three Pines, into the dark corners of his own life, and finally to a harrowing climax.]]> 322 Louise Penny 0312377029 Miriam 0 to-read 4.15 2008 A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #4)
author: Louise Penny
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #7)]]> 10680329 "Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead."

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montréal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Québec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.]]> 339 Louise Penny 0312655452 Miriam 0 to-read 4.26 2011 A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #7)
author: Louise Penny
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Fountain Filled with Blood (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #2)]]> 60281 ]]> 385 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312995431 Miriam 4 3.89 2003 A Fountain Filled with Blood (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #2)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Bleak Midwinter (The Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries #1)]]> 113002 a world of trouble, an attraction to each other--and murder...]]> 370 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312986769 Miriam 5 3.89 2002 In the Bleak Midwinter (The Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries #1)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[To Darkness and to Death (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #4)]]> 60278 Ěý
Reverend Clare Fergusson gets an early morning phone call to join the Millers Kill search and rescue operation. As a former Army helicopter pilot trained in survival skills, she can't refuse the request—even though it's the day of the bishop's annual visit. Worse for Clare, the search operation will link her up with Russ Van Alstyne, the very married local police chief who is her greatest temptation. Now, as Clare and Russ race time to find Millie van der Hoeven, they soon discover the secrets of someone who is desperate to stop the sale...and a deadly madness waiting to destroy them all.
Ěý

To Darkness and to Death is aĚýstunning mystery from award-winning author Julia Spencer-Fleming.]]> 370 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312988877 Miriam 4 4.00 2005 To Darkness and to Death (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #4)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Through the Evil Days (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #8)]]> 16044985 The eighth book in the Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery series.

On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire, that quickly becomes a double homicide and kidnapping. Which is the very last thing Russ needs...

Currently he's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood. And his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week in an unelectrified ice-fishing cabin. The vestry of St. Alban's Church has called for the bishop to investigate Clare's "unpriestly" pregnancy. She has one week to find out if she will be scolded, censured, or suspended from her duties. Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again-off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.

As the days and hours tick by, Russ and Clare fight personal and professional battles they've never encountered. In the course of this one tumultuous week the lives of the Millers-Kill residents readers have come to love and cherish change forever. Readers have waited years for Through The Evil Days and Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers with the exquisite skill and craftsmanship that have made her such a success.]]> 355 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312606842 Miriam 0 to-read 4.01 2013 Through the Evil Days (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #8)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[All Mortal Flesh (The Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries #5)]]> 60279
Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne's first encounter with Clare Fergusson was in the hospital emergency room on a freezing December night. A newborn infant had been abandoned on the town's Episcopal church steps. If Russ had known that the church had a new priest, he certainly would never have guessed that it would be a woman. Not a woman like Clare. That night in the hospital was the beginning of an attraction so fierce, so forbidden, that the only thing that could keep them safe from compromising their every belief was distance---but in a small town like Millers Kill, distance is hard to find.
Russ Van Alstyne figures his wife kicking him out of their house is nobody's business but his own. Until a neighbor pays a friendly visit to Linda Van Alstyne ­and finds the woman's body, gruesomely butchered, on the kitchen floor. To the state police, it's an open-and-shut case of a disaffected husband, silencing first his wife, then the murder investigation he controls. To the townspeople, it's proof that the whispered gossip about the police chief and the priest was true. To the powers-that-be in the church hierarchy, it's a chance to control their wayward cleric once and for all.

Obsession. Lies. Nothing is as it seems in Millers Kill, where betrayal twists old friendships and evil waits inside quaint white clapboard farmhouses.]]> 322 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312312644 Miriam 0 to-read 4.10 2006 All Mortal Flesh (The Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries #5)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[One Was a Soldier (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #7)]]> 6388272
The Rev. Clare Fergusson wants to forget the things she saw as a combat helicopter pilot and concentrate on her relationship with Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. MP Eric McCrea needs to control the explosive anger threatening his job as a police officer. Will Ellis, high school track star, faces the reality of life as a double amputee. Orthopedist Trip Stillman is denying the extent of his traumatic brain injury. And bookkeeper Tally McNabb wrestles with guilt over the in-country affair that may derail her marriage.

But coming home is harder than it looks. One vet will struggle with drugs and alcohol. One will lose his family and friends. One will die.

Since their first meeting, Russ and Clare's bond has been tried, torn, and forged by adversity. But when he rules the veteran's death a suicide, she violently rejects his verdict, drawing the surviving vets into an unorthodox investigation that threatens jobs, relationships, and her own future with Russ.
As the days cool and the nights grow longer, they will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny town to the upper ranks of the U.S. Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad.
One Was a Soldier is "a surefire winner" (Booklist) and "Outstanding" (Library Journal)--Julia Spencer-Fleming at her best.]]> 336 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312334893 Miriam 0 to-read 4.11 2011 One Was a Soldier (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #7)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[I Shall Not Want (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #6)]]> 2191114 Millers Kill reaches the boiling point in this white-hot novel of love and suspense

People die. Marriages fail. In the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill, New York, however, life doesn’t stop for heartbreak. A brand-new officer in the police department, a breaking-and-entering, and trouble within his own family keep Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne busy enough to ignore the pain of losing his wife---and the woman he loves.

At St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, the Reverend Clare Fergusson is trying to keep her vestry, her bishop, and her National Guard superiors happy---all the while denying her own wounded soul.

When a Mexican farmhand stumbles over a Latino man killed with a single shot to the back of his head, Clare is sucked into the investigation through her involvement in the migrant community. The discovery of two more bodies executed in the same way ignites fears that a serial killer is loose in the close-knit community. While the sorrowful spring turns into a scorching summer, Russ is plagued by media hysteria, conflict within his department, and a series of baffling assaults.

As the violence strikes closer and closer to home, an untried officer is tested, a wary migrant worker is tempted, and two would-be lovers who thought they had lost everything must find a way to trust each other again---before it becomes forever, fatally, too late.

Julia Spencer-Fleming shows you can escape danger---but not desire---in her most suspenseful, passionate novel yet, I Shall Not Want.]]> 322 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312334877 Miriam 0 to-read 4.17 2008 I Shall Not Want (Rev. Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries, #6)
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> The Guns of August 11366
In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize–winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.]]> 606 Barbara W. Tuchman 0345476093 Miriam 4 4.18 1962 The Guns of August
author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1962
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln]]> 2199 Winner of the Lincoln Prize

Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.]]> 916 Doris Kearns Goodwin Miriam 5 4.27 2005 Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]> 3301907 Traitor to His Class sheds new light on FDR's formative years, his remarkable willingness to champion the concerns of the poor and disenfranchised, his combination of political genius, firm leadership, and matchless diplomacy in saving democracy in America during the Great Depression and the American cause of freedom in World War II.

Drawing on archival materials, public speeches, personal correspondence, and accounts by family and close associates, acclaimed bestselling historian and biographer H. W. Brands offers a compelling and intimate portrait of Roosevelt’s life and career.

Brands explores the powerful influence of FDR’s dominating mother and the often tense and always unusual partnership between FDR and his wife, Eleanor, and her indispensable contributions to his presidency. Most of all, the book traces in breathtaking detail FDR’s revolutionary efforts with his New Deal legislation to transform the American political economy in order to save it, his forceful—and cagey—leadership before and during World War II, and his lasting legacy in creating the foundations of the postwar international order.

Traitor to His Class brilliantly captures the qualities that have made FDR a beloved figure to millions of Americans.]]> 896 H.W. Brands 0385519583 Miriam 4 3.99 2008 Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
author: H.W. Brands
name: Miriam
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[First Family: Abigail and John Adams]]> 8320280 John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: both Adamses were prolific letter writers (although John conceded that Abigail was clearly the more gifted of the two), and over the years they exchanged more than twelve hundred letters. Joseph J. Ellis distills this unprecedented and unsurpassed record to give us an account both intimate and panoramic; part biography, part political history, and part love story.
Ellis describes the first meeting between the two as inauspicious--John was twenty-four, Abigail just fifteen, and each was entirely unimpressed with the other. But they soon began a passionate correspondence that resulted in their marriage five years later.
Over the next decades, the couple were separated nearly as much as they were together. John's political career took him first to Philadelphia, where he became the boldest advocate for the measures that would lead to the Declaration of Independence. Yet in order to attend the Second Continental Congress, he left his wife and children in the middle of the war zone that had by then engulfed Massachusetts. Later he was sent to Paris, where he served as a minister to the court of France alongside Benjamin Franklin. These years apart stressed the Adamses' union almost beyond what it could bear: Abigail grew lonely, while the Adams children suffered from their father's absence.
John was elected the nation's first vice president, but by the time of his reelection, Abigail's health prevented her from joining him in Philadelphia, the interim capital. She no doubt had further reservations about moving to the swamp on the Potomac when John became president, although this time he persuaded her. President Adams inherited a weak and bitterly divided country from George Washington. The political situation was perilous at best, and he needed his closest advisor by his side: "I can do nothing," John told Abigail after his election, "without you."
In Ellis's rich and striking new history, John and Abigail's relationship unfolds in the context of America's birth as a nation.]]> 299 Joseph J. Ellis 0307269620 Miriam 4 4.03 2010 First Family: Abigail and John Adams
author: Joseph J. Ellis
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Washington: The Indispensable Man]]> 254310 423 James Thomas Flexner 0316286168 Miriam 5 4.09 1974 Washington: The Indispensable Man
author: James Thomas Flexner
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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]]> Washington's Crossing 1206073
Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.

Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.]]> 564 David Hackett Fischer 0195170342 Miriam 4 4.14 2003 Washington's Crossing
author: David Hackett Fischer
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> Washington: A Life 8255917
Despite the reverence his name inspires Washington remains a waxwork to many readers, worthy but dull, a laconic man of remarkable self-control. But in this groundbreaking work Chernow revises forever the uninspiring stereotype. He portrays Washington as a strapping, celebrated horseman, elegant dancer and tireless hunter, who guarded his emotional life with intriguing ferocity. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, he orchestrated their actions to help realise his vision for the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency.

Ron Chernow takes us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America's founding. This is a magisterial work from one of America's foremost writers and historians.]]> 904 Ron Chernow 1594202664 Miriam 5 4.14 2010 Washington: A Life
author: Ron Chernow
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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]]> 1776 1067 386 David McCullough 0743226720 Miriam 5 4.10 2005 1776
author: David McCullough
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Dragon's Lair (Justin de Quincy, #3)]]> 819236 Rare Book 352 Sharon Kay Penman 0345434234 Miriam 4 4.01 2003 Dragon's Lair (Justin de Quincy, #3)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Magnificent Century (The Plantagenets, #2)]]> 1193013 324 Thomas B. Costain 1568493711 Miriam 5 4.12 1949 The Magnificent Century (The Plantagenets, #2)
author: Thomas B. Costain
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1949
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Devil's Brood (Plantagenets #3; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, #3)]]> 2859559
Devil’s Brood , a breathtaking and sweeping epic of a family at its breaking point, shows how two monumental figures once bound by all-consuming love became the bitterest of adversaries.]]> 736 Sharon Kay Penman 0399155260 Miriam 4 4.36 2008 Devil's Brood (Plantagenets #3; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, #3)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Fortune's Favorites (Masters of Rome, #3)]]> 182430 1028 Colleen McCullough 0380710838 Miriam 5 4.39 1993 Fortune's Favorites (Masters of Rome, #3)
author: Colleen McCullough
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina (Claudius, #2)]]> 52251 I, Claudius, Robert Graves continues the tumultuous life of the Roman who became emperor in spite of himself and his handicaps. Claudius the God reveals the splendor, vitality and decadence of the Roman Empire through the eyes of the wry and bemused Claudius who reigns as emperor for thirteen years. The crippled Claudius describes himself as the fool of the royal family, whom none of his ambitious and blood-thirsty relatives considered worth the trouble of killing. Once in the throne, however, he finds himself at last at the center of the political maelstrom.]]> 533 Robert Graves 0679725733 Miriam 4 4.22 1934 Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina (Claudius, #2)
author: Robert Graves
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1934
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The First Man in Rome (Masters of Rome, #1)]]> 480570 The Thorn Birds comes a masterpiece of historical fiction that is fascinating, moving, and gloriously heroic. The reader is swept into the whirlpool of pageantry, passion, splendor, chaos and earth-shattering upheaval that was ancient Rome. Here is the story of Marius, wealthy but lowborn, and Sulla, aristocratic but penniless and debauched -- extraordinary men of vision whose ruthless ambition will lay the foundations of the most awesome and enduring empire known to humankind.

A towering saga of great events and mortal frailties, it is peopled with a vast, and vivid cast of unforgettable men and women -- soldiers and senators, mistresses and wives, kings and commoners -- combined in a richly embroidered human tapestry to bring a remarkable era to bold and breathtaking life.]]> 1076 Colleen McCullough 0380710811 Miriam 5 4.12 1990 The First Man in Rome (Masters of Rome, #1)
author: Colleen McCullough
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1990
rating: 5
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]]> Loving Frank 898885 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.

In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.

Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel’s stunning conclusion.

Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.]]> 384 Nancy Horan 0345494997 Miriam 4 3.76 2007 Loving Frank
author: Nancy Horan
name: Miriam
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[When Christ and His Saints Slept (Plantagenets #1; Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, #1)]]> 43841
Sharon Kay Penman's magnificent fifth novel summons to life a spectacular medieval tragedy whose unfolding breaks the heart even as it prepares the way for splendors to come—the glorious age of Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets that would soon illumine the world.]]> 784 Sharon Kay Penman 0345396685 Miriam 3 4.25 1994 When Christ and His Saints Slept (Plantagenets #1; Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, #1)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1994
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Scarlet Lion (William Marshal, #3)]]> 1309082 592 Elizabeth Chadwick 0316728314 Miriam 0 to-read 4.29 2006 The Scarlet Lion (William Marshal, #3)
author: Elizabeth Chadwick
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> The Sunne in Splendour 119829
In this beautifully rendered modern classic, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III - vilified as the bitter, twisted, schemingĚýhunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower - from his malignedĚýplace in history with aĚýdazzling combination of research and storytelling.Ěý

Born intoĚýthe treacherous courts of fifteenth-centuryĚýEngland, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning.Ěý

This magnificent retelling of his life is filled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the fifteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.]]> 936 Sharon Kay Penman 0345363132 Miriam 4 4.39 1982 The Sunne in Splendour
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)]]> 960
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]> 736 Dan Brown 1416524797 Miriam 3 3.95 2000 Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)
author: Dan Brown
name: Miriam
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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]]> The Scarlet Pimpernel 136116 182 Emmuska Orczy 1576469239 Miriam 4 4.07 1905 The Scarlet Pimpernel
author: Emmuska Orczy
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1905
rating: 4
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]]> I, Claudius (Claudius, #1) 18765
I, Claudius and its sequel, Claudius the God, are among the most celebrated, as well the most gripping historical novels ever written.

Cover illustration: Brian Pike]]> 469 Robert Graves 067972477X Miriam 4 4.24 1934 I, Claudius (Claudius, #1)
author: Robert Graves
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1934
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Little Women (Little Women, #1)]]> 1934 This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451529305.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,� including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book� her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

]]> 449 Louisa May Alcott Miriam 1 4.16 1868 Little Women (Little Women, #1)
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Miriam
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1868
rating: 1
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date added: 2014/04/26
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]]>