Anne Easter Smith, author of A Rose for the Crown and Queen by Right, once again transports readers to the glorious fifteenth-century court of the house of York. In Royal Mistress, a historical novel about the rise and fall of Jane Shore, readers learn about the woman who captivated three of England's most powerful men and has been remembered through the ages as the “merriest mistress” of Edward IV. The dramatic tale of Edward IV's final and favorite mistress, who survived court intrigue, the end of one king's reign, and the turbulent start of another, has been an inspiration to poets and playwrights for 500 years. Smith's rendering of Jane's interactions with her lover's more serious, principled sibling and her vision of the drama-packed four months between Edward's death and Richard's coronation will be especially engrossing to those interested in the legacy of Richard III.
A native of England, Anne Easter Smith has lived in the United States for more than forty years. She was the featured editor at a newspaper in New York State and now lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Over the past few years, Nancy Thayer’s New York Times bestselling Nantucket beach novels have become a summer staple for readers across the country. Thayer is back with Island Girls, a highly emotional, wholly entertaining tale of three sisters forced to confront the past over one eventful summer on the island. Nancy Thayer’s novel insightfully illustrates how the push and pull of family altercations make us whole.
Nancy Thayer is the author of Beachcombers, Summer House, Moon Shell Beach, and The Hot Flash Club books. She lives on Nantucket.
Thursday
July 18
6:00 p.m.
Central Library
Commonwealth Salon
700 Boylston StreetAuthor Panel with Stephen Kiernan, author of The Curiosity, and Jennifer Zobair, author of Painted Hands
The Curiosity mixes cutting-edge science with an all-too-human love story, while simultaneously asking the big questions: What is the true measure of a human life? If death could be undone, what would it mean to live?
Award-winning journalist Stephen Kiernan is a graduate of Middlebury College and holds a Master of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has written two works of nonfiction, Last Rights and Authentic Patriotism. The Curiosity is his first novel.
The Namesake meets Sex and the City in Painted Hands, an engaging and provocative debut novel about friendship and the love lives of American Muslim women. Based in part on the author’s personal experience, Painted Hands is a truly original story that explores what it means to be a Muslim in America and a woman in Islam in the current political climate.
Jennifer Zobair grew up in Iowa and attended Smith College and Georgetown Law School. She has practiced corporate and immigration law and as a convert to Islam, is a strong advocate for Muslim women’s rights.
Tuesday
July 30
6:00 p.m.
Central Library
Commonwealth Salon
700 Boylston StreetAuthor Panel with Henriette Lazaridis Power, author of The Clover House, and Thomas Van Essen, author of The Center of the World
The Clover House opens with protagonist Calliope Notaris Brown, who has always felt trapped between cultures. In Boston with her compassionate fiancé, she can reinvent herself as Callie Brown. When Callie receives a call that her beloved uncle has passed away, she is drawn back to Greece to claim her inheritance. Alternating between contemporary and WW II-occupied Greece, The Clover House captures the challenges of forgiveness and the strong bonds that forever bind family together. The Clover House was sixth on the Boston Globe’s Local Best Sellers list.
Henriette Lazaridis Power is a first-generation Greek American who holds degrees in English Literature from Middlebury College; Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar; and the University of Pennsylvania. She taught at Harvard for ten years and is the founding editor of The Drum, a literary magazine publishing exclusively in audio form.
Shifting between nineteenth-century England and present-day New York, The Center of the World is the story of renowned British painter J. M.W. Turner and his circle of patrons and lovers. It is also the story of Henry Leiden, a middle-aged family man with a troubled marriage and a dead-end job, who finds his life transformed by his discovery of Turner's The Center of the World, a mesmerizing and unsettling painting of Helen of Troy that was thought to have been lost forever. A debut novel filled with sex, beauty, and love (of all kinds), The Center of the World explores the ever-evolving role of art in our lives.
Thomas Van Essen graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and earned his PhD in English from Rutgers University. The Center of the World is his first novel.
If you had the chance to start over, in love or in life, would you take it? Five Days is the story of a chance meeting between two people and how it changes their lives forever. The book vividly displays Kennedy’s heartfelt and fallible characters in a story countless readers will all too deeply understand.
Douglas Kennedy is the author of ten novels, including the international bestseller The Moment. His work has been translated into 22 languages, and in 2007 he received the French distinction of “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.”
Carole DeSanti clandestinely wrote her debut novel, 