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Posts Tagged ‘Italy’

Juliet ♥ ♥ ♥
Cassandra Campbell
16 discs

Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved Aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy.  This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei.  In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.

But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present, and Julie gradually begins to discover that here, in this ancient city, the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta, and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind, the greater the danger surrounding her—superstitions, ancient hostilities, and personal vendettas. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in the unforgettable blood feud, she begins to fear that the notorious curse—“A plague on both your houses!”

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Heresy ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by John Lee
13:9

Set in the 16th-century England, Giordano Bruno, monk, poet, scientist, and magician is on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. Bruno’s pursuit of rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen.   His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.

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A Murderous Procession  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Jill Tanner
10 discs

Medieval forensic pathologist Adelia Aguilar has been an enjoying a quiet life in the countryside with her daughter and friends. Then Henry II demands that she accompany his daughter, Joan, and her formal procession to Italy and offers to keep her daughter with Queen Eleanor until her safe return. But death stalks the procession, and Adelia and her loyal friends soon realize that the killer is someone from her past bent on revenge.  -Booklist

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Pope Joan ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Barbara Rosenblat
19 hrs 24 mins

There are few historical heroines as fascinating and controversial as Pope Joan, a woman whose hunger for knowledge and independent nature led her to pass as a man and ultimately to attain the high seat in Rome. Pope Joan is a spellbinding tale of a woman who gave up everything, even her very name, for the sake of knowledge.

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The Birth of Venus ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Kathe Mazur

11 discs

In the declining years of the rule of the Medici over Renaissance Florence, an atmosphere of enlightenment and sophistication prevailed; gorgeous art, relaxed mores, and intellectual freedom were the order of the day. But the puritan ideologue Savonarola began to exert ever more control over the city, and was turning it, bit by bit, into a totalitarian theocratic city-state, burning art and banning books with abandon. It is in this atmosphere that Alessandra, an unusually educated woman, must make the choices of her life: a marriage of convenience to her brother’s homosexual lover and a dangerous fascination with the intense, mystical painter who comes to decorate her parents’ chapel. As the world becomes increasingly unsafe for her, she must choose her own path and retain her own individuality.

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The Lost Painting ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Campbell Scott
6 discs

In an Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, Francesca Cappelletti, a young graduate student from Rome, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power.

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Wolf Hall ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Simon Slater
18 discs

With no male heir, the infamous Henry VIII wants to annul his 20-year marriage to Queen Catherine in favor of a marriage to Anne Boleyn. When Cardinal Wolsey fails to convince the Catholic Church to follow his king’s ideas, he falls out of favor. In steps Thomas Cromwell–a blacksmith’s son who has seen his share of hardship. When he is able to give the king his heart’s desire, he finds himself in a powerful position. But his new role is a dangerous one with the volatile king.

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The Rule of Four ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Jeff Woodman

11 discs

On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets.  Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future in academia depends on it, find that as the deadline looms and their research has stalled events begine to turn deadly.

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The Children’s Book ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Rosalyn Landor
24 discs

When Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum, the talented working-class boy is introduced into a completely new world.   Olive takes Philip home to meet her family and friends all of whom could be characters out of one of  her magical tales.  Yet this world conceals more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined and that will soon be eclipsed by far greater forces.

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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Simon Prebble
26 discs

Set in a world where the study of theoretical magic is common, but the practice of it is unheard of, the story follows the exploits of England’s only two practical magicians, the bookish Mr. Norrell and the affable Jonathan Strange, as they struggle to revive the country’s magic in very different ways. Mr. Norrell is content to publish opaque, opinionated pieces on magic’s uses and misuses, but Strange is fascinated by the legend and lore of the Raven King, the so-called father of English magic.

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