In a story set in nineteenth-century New Zealand and modern London, Jack Mackenzie, a minister and amateur botanist, arrives in Dunedin, only to be expelled from New Zealand, an event that has profound repercussions for his present-day descendants.

A tale inspired by the life of the Spanish saint describes how a wealthy girl from áAvila is sent to a convent by her parents and discovers within herself a spiritual fervor that is alternately criticized and admired by a society that is suffering through the Spanish Inquisition.

Traces the life of the venerated Southern writer from her Mississippi childhood to the present and discusses its relationship to her work

An intimate portrait of the founder of the Christian Science Church explores the life of Mary Baker Eddy within the context of her late-Victorian world and the experiences of illness and loss that led to her attempts to alleviate suffering. Tour.

In She Always Knew How, her wonderful new biography of legendary actress Mae West, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980. From their first meeting, where West held out a diamond-covered hand in greeting and lamented her interviewer's lack of jewels, to their farewell, where the star was still gamely offering advice on how to attract men, Mae West and Charlotte Chandler developed a warm rapport that glows on every page of this biography. Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West was born in New York in 1893. She created a scandal -- and a sensation -- on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict and emerged a star. Her next play, Diamond Lil, was a smash, and she would play the role of Diamond Lil in different variations for virtually her entire film career. In Hollywood she played opposite George Raft, Cary Grant (in one of his first starring roles), and W. C. Fields, among others. She was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners -- which she wrote herself -- that have become part of Hollywood lore: from "too much of a good thing can be wonderful" to "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Her risqué remarks got her banned from radio for a dozen years, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word "feminism" was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing. Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground, the most difficult cause of all. In addition to her extensive interviews of Mae West, Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who worked with and knew the star, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, as well as her closest assistant at the end of her life. Their comments and insights enrich this fascinating book. She Always Knew How captures the voice and spirit of this unique actress as no other biography ever has.

Rosa Raisa (1893-1963) was legendary for her imposing, powerful, and wide-ranging voice as well as for her highly dramatic and emotionally stirring stage presence. A renowned star of the Chicago Opera, Raisa sang over 1,000 opera performances and concerts around the world. Held in high esteem by composers, conductors, and colleagues, she was Puccini's choice to create the lead roles in La rondine and Turandot. In this first biography of Raisa, Charles Mintzer provides a captivating and revealing portrait of a warm-hearted, generous artist whose career and complex personality were shaped by a life that crossed Jewish, Italian, and American cultural boundaries. Mintzer masterfully blends together his narrative with selections from Raisa's unpublished memoir and excerpts from contemporary critical reviews to present a well-rounded picture of this extraordinary woman and to trace her incredible journey to operatic fame. Born Raitza Burchstein in the Polish ghetto of Bialystok, she fled the 1906 pogroms and settled in Italy, where she studied under Barbara Marchisio at the Conservatory of Naples. After her operatic debut in 1913 as Leonora in Oberto during the Verdi centenary celebrations at Parma, she immediately joined Cleofonte Campanini's Chicago Opera and, renamed Rosa Raisa, achieved instant acclaim. Mintzer recounts her great successes in Chicago and on the company's national tours, as well as several seasons in South America, Mexico, and Italy. He discusses Raisa's most famous roles, describes the La Scala premiere of Turandot with Arturo Toscanini conducting, and offers fresh insights into her controversial Berlin engagement in a Tosca performance with Adolf Hitler in the audience. Mintzer also chronicles her marriage to baritone Giacomo Rimini, her illnesses and miscarriages, her financial collapse, her lifelong commitment to Jewish organizations and causes, and her puzzling burial in a Catholic cemetery. Lavishly illustrated with over fifty photographs, many of them previously unpublished, the book includes an authoritative chronology of all of Raisa's performances, her concert repertoire, and an annotated discography.

This is a memoir of the writer Beryl Fletcher's life between the year of her birth in 1938 and 1972. It is the story of one woman's life -- but it is also the story of many others of her generation who have lived through a time of great change. The memoir also reflects on the life of her mother's generation, women who were primarily wives and mothers. Fearful of 'becoming her mother' with little identity or economic power of her own, Beryl Fletcher none the less married young, eventually running away from her husband with a virtual stranger. Interspersing the intimate narrative of a woman's life story as told by herself is the writer's contemporary voice, describing her current life and relationship. This is a rich multi-layered memoir exploring many themes including that of place, home, sexism and the meaning of language and the fickleness of memory. Beryl Fletcher's work has been acclaimed locally and internationally.

A history of the men in the author's family. Describes their pains and joys as they become American.

In her rebellion against the tyranny of her husband, Nell leaves her family to search for love and adventure, while her separation from her husband becomes a battle that eventually pulls her two beloved sons away from her

From one of America's best loved and most prolific novelists: the story of a woman coming to terms with the violent death of her mother, and uncovering all the hidden secrets stowed away over the years. Nikki Eaton is a journalist on the local newspaper. She loves wearing short skirts and nail polish. She's having an affair with a married man, and every time she visits her mother, she feels pangs of guilt for the lifestyle she leads. One day her life is turned upside-down. Worried because her mother hasn't returned her phone-calls, she drives over to her childhood home, only to discover her mother has been murdered and lies stone-cold on the garage floor. From this catalclysmic event unfolds the next year of Nikki's life as she reassess her relationship with her mother and discovers secrets about her past which reveal the cracks in the comfortable, suburban existence her family has built up around itself. This is a dark and unsettling novel from one of America's finest writers.

A collection of seafaring stories from the age of frigates, cruisers, sloops and cannon fire. The authors include Richard Woodman, Keith Teylor, Derek Wilson, Amy Myers, Peter T. Garratt, Peter Tremayne and C.S. Forester.

In early twentieth-century Russia, Sashenka Zeitlin becomes caught up in the revolutionary fervor destined to bring down the czar, as she deals with arrest and imprisonment, the bloody battles that engulf the country under Stalin, and a forbidden love affair