A wonder-struck art school dropout and a disillusioned Italian bachelor have ten days in Florence to change their lives.After Samantha dropped out of art school to care for her grandmother, the two spent years planning a trip to Italy together… but now her grandmother is dead, and Samantha is left to pick up the pieces of her own life and dreams. She’ll start with Florence: stay at a charming countryside castle, study all the sculptures… and try not to get distract...

Mr. Popper and his family have penguins in the fridge and an ice rink in the basement in this hilarious Newbery Honor book that inspired the hit movie!How many penguins in the house is too many? Mr. Popper is a humble house painter living in Stillwater who dreams of faraway places like the South Pole. When an explorer responds to his letter by sending him a penguin named Captain Cook, Mr. Popper and his family's lives change forever. Soon one penguin becomes twelve...

**Winner of the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardA Five Books "Best Literary Science Writing" Book of 2023 • A Smithsonian Best Science Book of 2022 • A Prospect Magazine Top Memoir of 2022 • A KCRW Life Examined Best Book of 2022"Keen observer [and] deft writer" (David Quammen) Florence Williams explores the fascinating, cutting-edge science of heartbreak while seeking creative ways to mend her own.**When her tw...

In this bold, illustrated guide, bestselling author and podcaster Florence Given encourages women to rediscover their joy, reject toxic wellness culture, and redefine feminism for themselves.Women Living Deliciously wants us to fall in love with our lives. It will help women uncover the sense of awe and wonder that has been buried by the layers of shame, perfectionism and self-objectification that get piled on us by the patriarchy. For too long we have int...

**A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and a READ WITH JENNA PICK—A ONCE-IN-A-GENERATION READ“Dazzling.” —The Washington Post“A magnificent novel.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Horse**“This one will stay with me for years to come.” —Miranda Cowley Heller, New York Times bestselling author of The Paper PalaceIn the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old dau...

Valentino, Carlina's cousin and a banker, is hands-down the most unpopular member of the wide-spread Mantoni clan. However, a true Mantoni never accepts an intolerable situation, so one evening, they sit down to plot his death.When Valentino is indeed found stabbed, commissario Stefano Garini, now officially Carlina's boyfriend, only wants to turn and run. While he tries to sort through the clues and his feelings with grim determination, the family, in inimitable Mantoni style, mana...

Everybody knows the Mantoni girls are attractive, and theoretically, that's a good thing, right? Only this time, a charming but older millionaire desires the most beautiful Mantoni, Annalisa, as his lover for the Christmas season. Her cousin, Carlina, is disgusted by the liaison and says she'd rather see him dead than at Annalisa's side.The next day, her wish is fulfilled. The charmer is dead, strangled with a pair of pantyhose which comes straight from her own luxurious lingerie st...

In the months before she died, Florence Ballard, the spunky teenager who founded the most successful female vocal group in history—the Supremes—told her own side of the story. Recorded on tape, Flo shed light on all areas of her life, including the surprising identity of the man by whom she was raped prior to her entering the music business, the details of her love-hate relationship with Motown Records czar Berry Gordy, her drinking problem and pleas for help, a never-ending desire to be t...

The Mantonis are going on vacation! Carlina & Stefano are looking forward to relaxing in Italy's Forte dei Marmi, the elegant seaside resort on the Ligurian Sea, but the holidays have hardly begun when their hotel manager is shot.For once, Florentine policeman Stefano Garini isn't responsible for investigating the crime, but when the local police become convinced that Carlina's young cousin, Ernesto, is the killer, the Mantoni family is up in arms: Stefano has to clear Ernesto, and ...

Santa's Christmas Library gathers more than four hundred seasonal narratives, poems, carols, legends, and illustrated selections into a capacious archive of Christmas writing. Moving from folktale and devotional verse to domestic realism, fantasy, satire, and moral fable, the volume traces the holiday's literary transformations across languages and centuries. Canonical Christmas narratives stand beside fairy tales, hymns, children's literature, and lesser-known period pieces, while such la...

When the Second World War broke out, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, then 25-years-old, fought enthusiastically for Germany as a cavalry officer. But after discovering Nazi crimes, von Boeselager’s patriotism quickly turned to disgust, and he joined a group of conspirators who plotted to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. In this elegant but unflinching memoir, von Boeselager gives voice to the spirit of the small but determined band of men who took a stand against the Third Reich in...

Completely updated, this edition contains superb coverage of painting, architecture and sculpture as well as updates on museums including the reorganized Uffizi. Detailed coverage of where to stay and eat. The depth of information and quality of research make this book the best guide for the independent cultural traveller as well as for all students of art history, architecture and Italian culture. Ideal as an on-site guide as well as a desk resource. With maps and plans.