Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat before a Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the young mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Sforza was a brutal and clever man who was mindful that Leonardo’s genius would ... more >
A gripping story of love, escape, and survival, from wartime Poland to a courtship in the Catskills In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal ... more >
Can one unlikely bookshop heal two broken souls? It is 1968 in rural Australia and lonely Tom Hope can’t make heads or tails of Hannah Babel. Newly arrived from Hungary, Hannah is unlike anyone he’s ever met–she’s passionate, brilliant, and fiercely determined to open sleepy Hometown’s first bookshop. Despite the ... more >
Waterstones is removing Kindles from stores – In the wake of reports that print sales continue to gain strength, UK bookseller Waterstones is going to stop selling Kindles in their store due to poor sales. In fact, the word “pitiful” was used to describe sales of the e-reading device. This reality ... more >
ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS Janine: I asked Sunita, who read this book in its entirety, to join me for this discussion. As one whose relatives died in Auschwitz, I could only bring myself to read 35% of Breslin’s novel, the first 145 pages. So there are questions I can’t answer, ... more >
Author of fake Holocaust memoir ordered to return $22.5m to publisher – In another chapter of the strange case of Misha Defonseca, the author of the fake Holocaust Memoir has been ordered by a judge to return $22.5 million that she won in another suit against her US publisher. Defonseca’s ... more >