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  The Rules Upheld by No One

  Amie McNee

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  There is no dowry left for Elisabeth Knolly. She is destined for a nunnery, for eternal chastity – which is a good thing – because she doesn’t want to do that with anyone. 
  But the devil is at her back, tempting her with impure thoughts about her tutor, Samuel. Her parents, deeply ashamed of their libidinous daughter, do everything they can to keep Elisa’s thoughts from bodily pleasures. When she finally finds refuge in the nunnery, Elisa breathes a sigh of relief. But shame and guilt about her true nature follow her everywhere and it becomes apparent that the rules of the nunnery are not being obeyed. There’s a phallic shaped piece of wood hidden behind St Jerome’s books in the library and there are even rumours that the nunnery’s chaplain is defiling women. Elisabeth seeks shelter from the realities of the convent with Sister Constance and Sister Isabella, but with King Henry’s commitment to dissolving the abbeys, the sisters are left to fend for themselves. 
  Elisa, not knowing where to turn, finds sanctuary in one of London’s infamous stews.

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  Last Friends

  Jane Gardam

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  “The satisfying conclusion to Gardam’s Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death” (The New Yorker). 
   
  While Old Filth introduced readers to Sir Edward Feathers, his dreadful childhood, and his decades-long marriage, The Man in the Wooden Hat was his wife Betty’s story. Last Friends is Terence Veneering’s turn. His beginnings were not those of the usual establishment grandee. Filth’s hated rival in court and in love is the son of a Russian acrobat marooned in the English midlands and a local girl. He escapes the war and later emerges in the Far East as a man of panache and fame. The Bar treats his success with suspicion: Where did this handsome, brilliant Slav come from? This exquisite story of Veneering, Filth, and their circle tells a bittersweet tale of friendship and grace and of the disappointments and consolations of age. They are all, finally, each other’s last friend as this magnificent series ends with the deep and abiding satisfaction that only great literature provides. 
   
  “[Gardam’s] prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor. She keeps us entertained, and she keeps us guessing. Be thankful for her books. Be thankful for this trilogy, which is ultimately an elegy, created with deep affection.” —The Washington Post 
   
  “Restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk . . . the story (and the author) will endure.” —The Boston Globe 
   
  “All three Gardam books are beautifully written but it’s a pleasure to note that Last Friends is the most enjoyable, the funniest and the most touching.” —National Post

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  Barnaby Rudge

  Charles Dickens

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  A wayside tavern where the local men drink and gossip; an unsolved, twenty year old murder at a nearby mansion; a very talkative black raven; a London locksmith and his family; a man apparently returned from the dead; a hangman who enjoys his job way too much; an anti-Catholic lord; a large and violent mob; and the British Militia-what do all these things have in common? All have, in some way, touched or been touched by the loveable, young, simple-minded “idiot,” Barnaby Rudge. 
   
  Barnaby’s good nature makes him a joy to most who know him. Unfortunately, his eagerness to please and his gullibility make him an easy prey for the unscrupulous. Can he emerge unscathed when once he gets tangled up with the wrong crowd? 
   
  Once again, Dickens has managed to temper the horrific with his characteristic wit and humor, as he tells this tale based on the "no-popery" or Gordon riots of 1780. 
   
  (Note: If the bird in this story seems familiar, it may be because he was the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven.”) (Summary by Debra Lynn)

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  Lazarus in St Petersburg

  Wayne Goodman

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  Would you alter the course of history if you had foreknowledge of a catastrophic event?  
  Lazarus wrestles with this dilemma as he carries on his business as a healer in 1879 St. Petersburg. Accustomed to working with the talented and prominent, his charmed life gets upended with the introduction of a peculiar boy apprentice who might be the malevolent instrument of fate. 
  "Goodman’s book is a peek into Imperial Russia from a unique point of view. Rich in history and full of curious turns, I highly recommend it." 
  --Jo Niederhoff, San Francisco Book Review

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  The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen

  Syrie James

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  In The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, screenwriter, playwright, and British literature expert Syrie James imagines a hidden journal kept by Jane Austen from 1815 to 1817. This revealing narrative tells the poignant tale of the blossoming romance between Jane and a landed aristocrat. Such a love fills the 30-something Jane with hope for marriage and provides her with fodder for her finest writing.

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  The Heart Specialist - A Novel

  Claire Holden Rothman

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  “Based on the life of one of Canada’s pioneering female physicians, [this] novel paints an arresting portrait of an indomitable yet vulnerable young woman” (Booklist).   Set in Quebec near the beginning of the twentieth century, The Heart Specialist is the epic story of Agnes White, a lonely orphaned girl fascinated by the “wrong” things—microscopes, dissections, and anatomy instead of more ladylike interests. When Agnes is young, her father, a French-Canadian doctor living in Montreal, is charged with the murder of his handicapped sister. Although he is eventually acquitted, his reputation is ruined, and he flees, abandoning Agnes and her pregnant mother.   Less than a year later, her mother dies of consumption, leaving Agnes and her baby sister, Laure, on their own. From this tumultuous childhood, the story follows Agnes as she grows up yearning to track her father down—and to follow in his footsteps as a doctor, even though medical schools in Canada don’t yet admit women. She eventually finds a niche for herself as the curator of the McGill University pathology museum. But even as her professional star begins to rise, her life is solitary and her happiness remains incomplete. A world-renowned expert on the human heart, she still struggles to understand her own.   Inspired by the career of Maude Abbott, one of Canada’s first female physicians, The Heart Specialist is a story about the mysterious, painful journey into selfhood, and a “brilliant first novel” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).  

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