Genre of book
Alessandra Cecchi is a very precocious 14 year old when her father brings a young Northern Italian painter in to paint the chapel in the family's palazzo. Allessandra's father is a wealthy merchant in the Renaissance. Florence is under the influence of the Medicis with their love of art and luxury. But Savonarola, a religious monk, is trying to gain political power and life is becoming more violent and morally suffocating. In the midst of all this, the French are threatening to invade.
Alessandra loves to draw and finds the new painter attractive and mysterious. With the French on the doorstep of Florence, Alessandra is given a choice of being sent to a convent or marrying quickly. Her married life is a disaster but Alessandra is allowed the freedom to pursue her art.
Like many of Dunant's books, this is a very sexual book and has a few twists and turns. I did find it quite unrealistic that a child like Alessandra would be so worldly and knowledgeable sexually. That aside, I did find the book interesting in the historical area and a different turn on possible events.
First Line: "_"
Rating: 
(3.5/5)
Andie Miller is thinking about accepting a proposal of marriage but before she does that she must deal with her excess baggage, namely her ex, North Archer. Andie stops by North's office to drop off all his uncashed alimony cheques but Northnorth to makes one last request. A cousin of his has died and left the guardianship of two young children to his care. The children have run off all the nannies he has hired to care for them and they refuse to move north to move in with him. The house they live in is in a remote area of Ohio. The house which was moved piece by piece from England is reputed to be haunted. North will pay Andie ten thousand for one month while Andie figures out what is going on and moves the children north to North.
Jennifer Traig grew up in the 80s, as Jewish kid in a neighbourhood with very few Jewish families. As she learns more about her religion, she starts to exhibit strange behaviours. She is obsessive-compulsive with her OCD centering on her religion. Unfortunately, in the 80s obsessive-complusive disorder was rarely diagnosed. Traig has troubles determining what is kosher and what isn't, which affects her diet. She obsessively prays, scrubs her hands, and feeds her stuffed animals before feeding herself. Traig doesn't understand what she has or why she is different and neither does her family.
Chase Calder is shot in Texas and his kinfolk at the Calder ranch in Montana are mourning his death. Laredo Smith saved Chase but Chase is suffering from amnesia. Laredo has taken Chase to be taken care of by his mother Hattie, a registered nurse. Laredo learns who Chase is and packs up Chase and Hattie and takes them to Montana in time for Chase's 'funeral'.
The females of the Sparrow family are all born in March and on their thirteenth birthday, wake up with an unusual ability. Elinor, the eldest of the family has the ability to tell when anyone is lying. Her daughter Jenny has the ability to see other's dreams and Jenny's daughter Stella has the ability to see how people are going to die. 
This is a collection of short stories about Bill Cosby's life. A variety of topics are presented with wit and humour. I found 'To Mr. Sapolsky with Love' the funniest as it was really about how karma comes back to bite you in the rear. 'A Gift from God', although funny is very sentimental and the story of Cosby's first skiing trip is another humorous one.
Jennifer's experienced a lot of loss in her life. Most recently, her husband passed away in a surfing accident while waiting for Jennifer to finish work and join him on vacation. When Jennifer gets a call that her grandmother Sam is in a coma, Jennifer doesn't know how much more she can take. She drives to Lake Geneva to be by her grandmother's bedside at the hospital, living in her house waiting for Sam to get better. 
After the hype this book has been receiving (and now with the movie coming out), I thought I'd give it a try. I'd heard good and bad things so didn't know what to expect, but I was skeptical. Eat Pray Love is the journey of Gilbert after getting divorced and breaking up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend and determining that she needs to do something for herself. 
Richard is an ordinary man living an ordinary life engaged to Jessica. One night he stops to help a young girl (Door) who is bleeding, much to Jessica's chagrin. Door asks him to find the Marquis for help. Once Richard involves himself in Door's life, he becomes invisible and forgotten in London above.
Eve Dallas is back in another installment of the In Death series, this time getting called in to investigate the murder of a cop in a club that belongs to none other than her husband Roarke. As Eve tries to determine what the motive was, she keeps finding threads leading to Max Ricker. Ricker used to do business with Roarke, when Roarke's business wasn't completely above board. Now they are enemies, with Ricker waiting years to get back at Roarke. Was he involved in the murder?
Sephy is a Cross - dark-skinned and Callum is a Nought- light skinned. The Crosses run the government and the Noughts are considered the dregs of society. In this alternate world, Crosses and Noughts do not mix. Crosses are the privileged and the Noughts are distrusted and prejudiced against.