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  The Secret Wife of Louis XIV -...

  Veronica Buckley

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  Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon and secret wife of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden's seduced daughter. A timely pardon and a hopeful Caribbean colonial venture failed to mend the family's fortunes, and Françoise was reduced to begging in the streets. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe.At fifteen, she was married off to the forty-two-year-old satirical poet Paul Scarron, a former roué now grievously deformed by rheumatism—"a sort of human Z," as he described himself. Despite his ailments, Scarron presided over the liveliest and most scandalous literary salon in Paris, and Françoise quickly became its most prized ornament.After Scarron's death, she enjoyed a merry widowhood in the fashionable Marais district, in the company of the courtesan Ninon de Lenclos and the King's splendid mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan, who made the young widow governess to her brood of illegitimate children. The appointment transformed Françoise's life, but was fatal to the temperamental Athénaïs herself, with the King soon turning his attentions to the graceful governess. Françoise was raised to the nobility as Madame de Maintenon—and, unofficially, "Madame de Maintenant," the lady of the moment.The acclaimed biographer Veronica Buckley traces the extraordinary story of Françoise's progress from pauper child to salonnière to the compromised position of Louis's secret wife and uncrowned Queen. An absolute ruler, Louis turned away his many other mistresses to live with Françoise only, trusting her as his closest confidante and remaining in love with her for forty years.Sparkling with the irresistible wit of contemporary chroniclers such as Madame de Sévigné, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form. In vibrant colors, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV paints a portrait of Europe in an age of violent change, and the Sun King's France in the process of becoming its modern self.

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  The Cruise of the Dazzler

  Jack London

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  The Cruise of the Dazzler is an early novel by Jack London, set in his home city of San Francisco. It is considered a boy's adventure novel.In the novel, Joe Bronson, dissatisfied with his dull life at school, runs away and joins the crew of a sloop he sees in San Francisco Bay. He finds the captain is involved in criminal activities.The nautical activities on board a sailing boat are authentically described, and there are convincing descriptions of boats enduring stormy weather at sea.

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  Witness - Stories

  Jamel Brinkley

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  What does it mean to really see the world around you—to bear witness? And what does it cost us, both to see and not to see?In these ten stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters—from children to grandmothers to ghosts—live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect with, stand up for, care for, and remember one another, they often fall short, and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape their futures as well as the legacies and prospects of their communities and their city.In its portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief, and the meaning of home, Witness enacts its own testimony. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in just a few generations, where strangers might sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches: flowers on a windowsill, dancing in the street, glimpsing your purpose, change on the horizon.With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully, seamlessly crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.

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  My Life My Way The Conditioning

  Carmen James

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  The meanderings and twists and turns of real-life told through the poetry of a crazy mind… or am I sane? You decide… 
   
  What if I told you all is not as it seems… 
   
  What if I told you this is the land of dreams… 
   
  Dive inside, come on, let’s see… the twists and turns of the life we see.

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  Homeless at Harvard - Finding...

  John Christopher Frame

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  Harvard Square is at the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the business district around Harvard University. It’s a place of history, culture, and some of the most momentous events of the nation. But it’s also a gathering place for some of the city’s homeless.What is life like for the homeless in Harvard Square? Do they have anything to tell people about life? And God?That’s what Harvard student John Frame discovered and shares in Homeless at Harvard. While taking his final course at Harvard, John Frame stepped outside the walls of academia and onto the streets, pursuing a different kind of education with his homeless friends.What he found—in the way of community and how people understand themselves---may surprise you.In this unique book, each of these urban pioneers shares his own story, providing insider perspectives of life as homeless people see it. This heartwarming page-turner shows how John learned with, from, and about his homeless friends—who together tell an unforgettable story—helping readers’ better understand problems outside themselves and that they’re more similar to those on the streets than they may have believed.

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  Deadly Housewives

  Sara Paretsky

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  In the expert hands of two of the mystery world's top storytellers, being a housewife takes on a whole new meaning. These original stories explore the dark side of the housewife psyche and are guaranteed to delight. But be cautioned: These stories—“GDMFSOB” by Nevada Barr (author of the Anna Pigeon series) and “Acid Test” by Sara Paretsky (author of the V.I. Warshawski novels)—are meant to be listened to alone while sipping a glass of wine. Do not operate a motor vehicle or handle any kind of weapon for one hour after reading. Guaranteed to raise your blood pressure and your craving for revenge.

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