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  Maria La Divina - A Novel of...

  Jerome Charyn

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  An intimate portrait of the world's most iconic opera singer 
   
  Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn's Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality. 
   
  Callas, an outsider from an impoverished background, was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists—until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment. 
   
  In Charyn's inimitable style, Maria La Divina humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.

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  The Naval Officer or Scenes in...

  Frederick Marryat

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  Marryat was a midshipman under Captain Cochrane and this, his first naval adventure, is considered to be a highly autobiographical telling of his adventures with one of Britain's most famous and daring naval captains. (Summary by Paul Klipp)

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  The Chouans

  Honoré de Balzac

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  The Chouans by Honoré de Balzac is a sweeping historical novel that brings to life one of the most turbulent periods in French history. Set in 1799 during the aftermath of the French Revolution, this gripping narrative plunges readers into the violent struggle between Royalist insurgents and Republican forces in the rugged countryside of Brittany. Blending political conflict with intense personal drama, Balzac crafts a story of loyalty, betrayal, passion, and destiny against the backdrop of civil war.
  
  At the center of the novel is Marie de Verneuil, a beautiful and intelligent woman sent by the Republican government on a covert mission to capture or eliminate a charismatic Royalist leader known as the Marquis de Montauran. Determined and resourceful, Marie enters the volatile region under false pretenses, prepared to use charm and deception to accomplish her objective. Yet as she encounters Montauran, she finds herself torn between duty and unexpected emotion.
  
  Montauran, courageous and devoted to the Royalist cause, embodies the fading ideals of nobility and honor. His leadership of the Chouans—a band of Breton insurgents fiercely loyal to the monarchy—places him at the heart of a desperate resistance movement. The dense forests and isolated villages of Brittany become a battlefield where ambushes, shifting allegiances, and political maneuvering determine survival.
  
  Balzac vividly portrays the tension between revolutionary ideals and traditional loyalties, capturing the uncertainty of a nation struggling to redefine itself. Through detailed descriptions of the Breton landscape and its people, he immerses readers in a world marked by suspicion, secrecy, and fierce conviction. The novel's atmosphere is charged with danger, as personal motives intertwine with political agendas.
  
  At its core, The Chouans is also a tragic love story. Marie's growing affection for Montauran complicates her mission, forcing her to confront the moral consequences of her choices. The clash between love and ideology drives the narrative toward a dramatic and poignant conclusion, revealing how political conflict can devastate private lives.
  
  As Balzac's first major success and an early work in his vast literary project, La Comédie Humaine, The Chouans showcases his talent for combining historical realism with psychological depth. The novel not only recreates a specific moment in French history but also explores timeless themes of honor, sacrifice, and the cost of loyalty.
  
  Rich in suspense, romance, and political intrigue, The Chouans remains a compelling portrait of a divided nation and the individuals caught within its storm. Balzac's masterful storytelling transforms historical events into a vivid human drama, making this novel a classic of French literature and a powerful meditation on love and war.

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  COP Corner

  J.J. Zerr

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  Gregory George Notso Normal, and five of his buds, after a couple of beers at the American Legion Post, decide to take on the woke, politically correct crowd. These woke, politically incorrect whippersnappers fill the World Wide Web with their truth. Which in most cases is not the truth at all. Notso and the five form COPs, Curmudgeonly Old Poops. They decide to put the real truth, COP-truth out there. That will set the whippersnappers straight. It doesn’t take long, though, before the COPs run into trouble with the American Legion Post Commander, the police (real cops), and their own spouses, The Hermudgeons. 
  On the other side of the ledger, the Old Poops develop a required reading list for membership in COPs. The Hermudgeons are amazed to discover their Poop husbands will turn off Gunsmoke to read books. The Hers read the books, too, and are even more amazed.

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  A Slash of Emerald - A Dr Julia...

  Patrice McDonough

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  London, 1867: Among the genteel young ladies of London society, painting is a perfectly acceptable pastime—but a woman who dares to pursue art as a profession is another prospect, indeed. Dr. Julia Lewis, familiar with the disrespect afforded women in untraditional careers, is hardly surprised when Scotland Yard shows little interest in complaints made by her friend, Mary Allingham, about a break-in at her art studio. Mary is just one of many "lady painters" being targeted by vandals. 
   
   
   
  Painters' sitters are vanishing, too—women viewed by some as dispensable outcasts. Inspector Richard Tennant, however, takes the attacks seriously, suspecting they're linked to the poison-pen letters received by other members of the Allingham family. For Julia, the issue is complicated by Tennant's previous relationship with Mary's sister-in-law, Louisa, and by her own surprising reaction to that entanglement. 
   
   
   
  But when someone close to them commits suicide and a woman turns up dead, the case can no longer be so easily ignored by "respectable" society. Layer after layer, Julia and Tennant scrape away the facts of the case like paint from a canvas. What emerges is a somber picture of vice, depravity, and deception stretching from London's East End to the Far East—with a killer at its center, determined to get away with one last, grisly murder . . .

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  Northanger Abbey

  Jane Austen

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  Northanger Abbey is a wonderfully entertaining comingofage story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist. 
    
  The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeenyearold woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art. Executed with highspirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage. 
    
  Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19thcentury literary realism. Her use of biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary, have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

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