Michelangelo


Howard Hibbard - 1974
    What emerges is both a perspective appraisal of his work and a revealing life history of the man who was arguably the greatest artist of all time.

Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art


Gregor Muir - 2009
    But Gregor Muir knew them at the start; his unique memoir chronicles the birth of Young British Art. Muir, YBA’s ‘embedded journalist’, happened to be in Shoreditch and Hoxton before Jay Jopling arrived with his White Cube Gallery, when this was still a semi-derelict landscape of grotty pubs and squats. There he witnessed, amid a whirl of drunkenness, scrapes and riotous hedonism, the coming-together of a remarkable array of young artists – Hirst, the Chapman brothers, Rachel Whiteread, Sam Taylor-Wood, Angus Fairhurst - who went on to produce a fresh, irreverent, often notorious form of art - Hirst’s shark, Sarah Lucas’s two fried eggs and a kebab. By the time of the seminal Sensation show at the Royal Academy YBA had changed the art world for ever.

City of the Soul: A Walk in Rome


William Murray - 2003
    In City of the Soul, William Murray begins to show us why.Growing up in Rome and spending much of his life in the city, William Murray is an expert guide as he takes us on an intimate walking tour of some of Rome’s most glorious achievements, illuminating the history and the mythology that define the city. Murray leads us through the centro, the city’s historic downtown center. He writes about the Villa Borghese, the Piazza di Spagna, and the Trevi Fountain and describes such singular attractions as the Capuchin Church of Santa Maria della Concezione, whose macabre crypt has impressed visitors from Mark Twain to the Marquis de Sade. As he walks, he reveals stories that only a longtime resident would know, capturing the sights, sounds, and flavors that make Rome a combination of the deep past and the ever-sensual present.

The One Plus One: Free Ebook Sampler


Jojo Moyes - 2013
    But it's hard on your own. And sometimes you take risks you shouldn't. Because you have to . . . One chaotic family Jess's gifted, quirky daughter Tanzie is brilliant with numbers, but without a helping hand she'll never get the chance to shine. And Nicky, Jess's teenage stepson, can't fight the bullies alone. Sometimes Jess feels like they're sinking . . . One handsome stranger Into their lives comes Ed Nicholls, a man whose life is in chaos, and who is running from a deeply uncertain future. But he has time on his hands. He knows what it's like to be lonely. And he wants to help . . . One unexpected love story The One Plus One is a captivating and unconventional romance from Jojo Moyes about two lost souls meeting in the most unlikely circumstances. Praise for Jojo Moyes: 'Majestic, utterly compelling, tremendous. A heart-stopping read' Independent on Sunday'Truly beautiful. Made us laugh, smile and sob like a baby - you simply have to read it' Closer'A triumph. Packs such an emotional punch, you'll need a box of tissues' ElleJojo Moyes is a novelist and a journalist. She worked at the Independent for ten years before leaving to write full time. Her previous novels have all been critically acclaimed and include The Ship of Brides, Foreign Fruit, The Last Letter From Your Lover, winner of Spring 2012's most popular Richard and Judy Book Club title Me Before You and most recently The Girl you Left Behind. She lives in Essex with her husband and their three children.

Insatiable


Marne Davis Kellogg - 2001
    loyal, trustworthy, and discreet. But his adored employer — the internationally famed portrait painter Jacqueline di Fidelio — suddenly finds herself in hot water with the IRS, the FBI, and two dangerous, attractive men. And Nigel discovers his duties expanding in a most unexpected way....As Madam jets from one glamorous playground to the next, Nigel turns spy and protector to fend off those who would do Jacqueline wrong. For in Nigel’s opinion, his irresistibly alluring employer’s torturous past has rendered her as unstable as a house of cards. Yet when one of Jacqueline’s simpering socialite clients is murdered — and then another mysterious death follows while Jacqueline is on the scene — Nigel begins to wonder if he has it all wrong. Is the woman to whom he has dedicated his life simply an innocent victim of careless, callous men? Or is she a heartless manipulator whose mask of black Prada and pearls hides the tortured secrets of a ruthless killer?

The List of Real Things


Sarah Moore Fitzgerald - 2018
    The fourth novel from bestselling Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlisted author Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, following BACK TO BLACKBRICK, THE APPLE TART OF HOPE and A VERY GOOD CHANCE.Grace knows the difference between what's real and the strange ideas that float around in her little sister's mind. Their parents died - that's real. A secret hotel on the cliff-top where their parents are waiting - definitely NOT real. So when grief strikes again, Grace is determined not to let her sister's outlandish imagination spiral out of control. But the line between truth and fantasy is more complicated than it seems...

The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany


James Bentley - 1995
    Tuscany has its grand cities—Florence and Siena—but their distinctive elegance is found on a more intimate scale in numerous small towns and villages.There is a richness in these small places, of architecture and artistic life, which lends them an interest and complexity shared by no other rural communities in Europe. Their sense of civilization is deep and ancient, but it is the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance which have left their mark, tempting travelers and settlers from abroad from the time of the Grand Tour to the present day. Here is the village of Settignano, where Michelangelo lived and which also boasts the glorious Renassiance garden of the Villa Gamberaia. Piero della Francesca's lovely Madonna del Parto decorates the tiny cemetery chapel of Monterchi. The medieval towers of San Gimignano loom over the town's squares and streets like the backdrop to some surreal stage set.James Bentley has chosen thirty-seven villages and small towns, both for their intrinsic beauty and for the part they have played in Tuscan history and culture. Page after page of Hugh Palmer's magnificent color photographs evoke the beauty and the wonder of this land. For the visitor, there are specially compiled listings of hotels, restaurants, and festivals to complete the tribute to Tuscany and its villages.

Leonardo Drawings: 60 Illustrations


Leonardo da Vinci - 1980
    60 illustrations.

Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and His Times


William E. Wallace - 1998
    In this vividly written biography, William E. Wallace offers a substantially new view of the artist. Not only a supremely gifted sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, Michelangelo was also an aristocrat who firmly believed in the ancient and noble origins of his family. The belief in his patrician status fueled his lifelong ambition to improve his family's financial situation and to raise the social standing of artists. Michelangelo's ambitions are evident in his writing, dress, and comportment, as well as in his ability to befriend, influence, and occasionally say "no" to popes, kings, and princes. Written from the words of Michelangelo and his contemporaries, this biography not only tells his own stories but also brings to life the culture and society of Renaissance Florence and Rome. Not since Irving Stone's novel The Agony and the Ecstasy has there been such a compelling and human portrayal of this remarkable yet credible human individual.Subscribe to William Wallace's podcast on individual works of the master! Click here!Episodes every week, right from this bookmark or your feed reader.

A Month in Siena


Hisham Matar - 2019
    In the year in which Matar's life was shattered by the disappearance of his father the work of the great artists of Siena seemed to offer him a sense of hope. Over the years since then, Matar's feelings towards these paintings would deepen and, as he says, 'Siena began to occupy the sort of uneasy reverence the devout might feel towards Mecca or Rome or Jerusalem'.A Month in Siena is the encounter, twenty-five years later, between the writer and the city he had worshipped from afar. It is a dazzling evocation of an extraordinary place and its effect on the writer's life. It is an immersion in painting, a consideration of grief and a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and the human condition.____________________________________'An exquisite, deeply affecting book' - Evening Standard'This book tells us much about the extraordinary power of art to inspire' Literary Review

Wifetress: One Man's Wife, Another Man's Mistress


Melinda Graves - 2015
    But she will soon out and someone is going to pay!Aliyah is attempting to put her life back together after an unsuccessful suicide attempt due to a horrific husband when someone from her past gives her a reason to live. Will Carlos let that happen?

सुन्दरकाण्ड: Sundarkand


Tulsidas - 2013
    They rech at the shore and finally Hanuman ji, The Monky God, jumped through the sea and landed in Lanka and handed Seeta mata the Ring of Shree Ram, with the help of Vibhishan, brother of Ravan. After that he burns the lanka, returns to Shree Ram and takes the whole Monky Army to Sea Shore. There Vibhishan meets them and the construction of bridge over Sea is planned.

The Power of Ten


Emily James - 2019
     Ten Dates Statistically, if you kiss a lot of frogs there's bound to be at least one that's not a complete toad, isn't there? When Joanie’s engagement becomes more stalemate than soulmate, her best friends stage an intervention sure to make even the most hardened, serial daters wince: 10 Dates in 10 Days. With nothing to lose, Joanie embarks on a hilarious rollercoaster of blind dates. But when the sexy as sin guy next door starts throwing his spanner in the works, Joanie soon realises she may have bitten off more than she can chew. 10 Dates is an enemies to lovers, standalone romantic comedy with a happy ending. It is best suited for readers over the age of eighteen due to sexual themes and mature content. Ten Dares Can 10 Dares help Melinda loosen up, conquer stress and find love? Or might they push her over the edge.... Melinda Spencer had everything but now her life has fallen apart. Her two best friends, Mikey and Joanie are worried. Melinda’s been acting even more highly strung than usual. They decide to stage an intervention. Something to help her lighten up and take her mind off things: 10 crazy dares. After all, they say laughter is the best medicine... Never one to squelch on a dare, Melinda accepts her challenge. The dares look simple enough: knock on a door and run away, tend her lady garden, flash a stranger… and if it gets Joanie and Mikey off her back about loosening up, it’ll be worth it. But with a sexy vet, a troublesome ex, and a village full of nutters hot on her trail, has Melinda finally bitten off more than she can chew? Ten Dares is a hilarious romp about a strung-out single mum trying to hold everything together when life is throwing her lemons as curve balls. Ten Lies Katie Perkins lives a simple life. She takes care of her son, works hard, and tries not to worry about the man shaped hole in her life. That is until she wins a fantastic luxury holiday. Throwing caution to the wind, Katie let’s down her hair and the holiday mood takes over. Enter Jackson Quinn, a handsome doctor who is no stranger to the good life. Katie has no experience of riches, and with only her bus fare home in her pocket she decides there’s no harm in a few white lies… Filthy rich? Check. Size ten? Check. Olympic Gymnast who can complete a Rubik’s Cube in under thirty seconds? Check. After all, it’s not like she’s ever going to see Doctor Quinn again… Follow Katie’s hilarious journey as she learns that sometimes those little white lies really can come back and bite you on the butt. This standalone romantic comedy has a happy ending and no cliff hanger. It is best suited for readers over the age of eighteen due to sexual themes and mature content.

Cowboy


Frank Roderus - 1981
    He had been saving the pay he sweated so hard for, and he reckoned there was enough to set himself up with a spread of his own. He thought he might look into the Triple X Ranch, the one they called the Whiskey Brand. It had prime cattle land and was a bargain... or so it seemed.

The Lost Painting


Jonathan Harr - 2005
    Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries.The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn't alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances.Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many others -- no one knows the precise number -- have been lost to time. Somewhere, surely, a masterpiece lies forgotten in a storeroom, or in a small parish church, or hanging above a fireplace, mistaken for a mere copy.Jonathan Harr embarks on a journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ -- its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance have captivated Caravaggio devotees for years. After Francesca Cappelletti stumbles across a clue in that dusty archive, she tracks the painting across a continent and hundreds of years of history. But it is not until she meets Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer working in Ireland, that she finally manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.