Adult

By the end of the 15th century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched by its brutality and corruption, nowhere more than in Rome and inside the Church. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy as Alexander VI, he is defined by his blood: He is a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If the Borgias are to triumph, this charismatic, consummate politician must use papacy and family --- in particular, his eldest son, Cesare, and his daughter Lucrezia --- in order to succeed.

Why does knitting occupy a place in the hearts of so many writers? What’s so magical and transformative about yarn and needles? How does knitting help us get through life-changing events and inspire joy? In KNITTING YARNS, 27 writers --- including Anita Shreve, Elizabeth Berg, Ann Patchett and Barbara Kingsolver --- tell stories about how knitting healed, challenged, or helped them to grow.

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething who heads to pick up a pizza for one on New Year's Day. She isn't expecting to see anyone, much less charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they've eloped. Only days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed. At the hospital, Elsie faces Susan, the mother-in-law who doesn't even know she exists.

For centuries, the Four Lands enjoyed freedom from its demon-haunted past, protected by magic-enhanced borders from the dark dimension known as the Forbidding and the profound evil imprisoned there. But now the unthinkable is happening: The ancient wards securing the barrier between order and mayhem have begun to erode --- and generations of bloodthirsty, monstrous creatures, fueled by a rage thousands of years in the making, are poised to spill forth, seeking revenge for what was done to them.

Hope Tantry arrives at the small cottage where her mother, Ally, spent the last years of her life. Ally had used the cottage as a writer’s retreat while she worked on her unpublished biography of Beatrix Potter, yet Hope knows little about her mother’s time there. Traveling with Hope are friends Anna Page and Julie, who are grappling with issues of a different era. They’ve come to help Hope sort through her mother’s personal effects, yet what they find is a tangled family history.

Will Trent is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent whose latest case has him posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con who rides a motorcycle around Macon, Georgia, and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. The cover has worked, and he has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer who thinks he might be a useful ally. But undercover and cut off from the support of the woman he loves, Sara Linton, Will finds his demons catching up with him.

After more than 20 years of marriage, Chloe comes home one night to find that her husband, Nate, is gone. All he has left behind is a cryptic note explaining that he has returned to their childhood town, a place Chloe never wants to see again. While trying to reach Nate, Chloe stumbles upon a notebook tucked inside his antique copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Written in code, the pages contain long-buried secrets from their past, and clues to why he went home after all these years.

Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. The victim is a 23-year-old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends the lead detectives and a witness. They discover that this is only one in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points to a psychopath working his way across the country. Harry fears that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.

Betty Jewel Hughes was once the hottest black jazz singer in Memphis. But when she finds herself pregnant and alone, she gives up her dream of being a star to raise her beautiful daughter, Billie, in Shakerag, Mississippi. Now, 10 years later, in 1955, Betty Jewel is dying of cancer and looking for someone to care for Billie when she's gone. With no one she can count on, Betty Jewel does the unthinkable: she takes out a want ad seeking a loving mother for her daughter.