English Renaissance

In the best-selling Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston Jr. limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar.

In 1565 a young maid of honour named Helena von Snakenborg arrives at the English court from Sweden. Her meeting with Queen Elizabeth I changes her life forever when she is invited to remain in her service. Helena becomes the established favourite and closest companion of the mercurial queen. After her marriage to Lord Northampton she rises to become the third highest lady in the land. But queens and fortunes can be fickle friends and Helena must overcome tragedy and exile in order to achieve happiness.

Rivalry and battle abound in this action-packed historical adventure of the English Civil War. 1643: Sir William Wallers army has been defeated on Roundway Down, his infantry left stranded on the bleak slopes at the mercy of the Royalist cavalry. Sir Ralph Hopton is now free to turn his attention to Parliaments bastion in the West Bristol. The city walls are strong enough, but Bristol has precious few men and even fewer guns with which to defend them.

When stylish young bibliophile Julia Kydd returns to 1920s New York, she’s determined to launch her own private press. Julia’s aspirations take her into the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement unlike any she’s known - where notions of race, sexuality, and power are slippery, and identities can be deceptively fluid.

Two impossible love stories are fatefully connected by one artistic legacy in a stunning debut that leaps between the mysteries of late-Renaissance Venice and the dramas of present-day America. “Enchanting from the first page.”—Sarah Jio, New York Times bestselling author of All the...

Explores the role of magic and the occult in art and culture from ancient times to today Examines key figures behind esoteric cultural developments, such as Carl Jung, Anton LaVey, Paul Bowles, Aleister Crowley, and Rudolf Steiner Explores the history of magic as a source of genuine...

Today, we take for granted that a telescope allows us to see galaxies millions of light years away. But before its invention, people used nothing more than their naked eye to fathom what took place in the visible sky. So how did four men in the 1500s - of different nationality, age, religion, and class - collaborate to discover that the Earth revolved around the Sun? With this radical discovery that went against the Church, they created our contemporary world. Heaven on Earth is an intimate examination of this scientific family.

Centralization is failing us—waste piles up, dreams fade, and society’s stuck in a tarpit of complacency. From the food we eat to the money we earn, modern systems are broken, draining our health, families, and futures. But a revolution is brewing. In The Second Renaissance, Mike Hobart unveils how Bitcoin and a radical reimagining of energy can spark a global rebirth. By fixing the money, we free the mind—unleashing creativity, strengthening families, and empowering communities to thrive. By harnessing power through innovation, we fuel progress, slashing costs and building resilience for all.

Ramie Targoff's Renaissance Woman tells of the most remarkable woman of the Italian Renaissance: Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara. Vittoria has long been celebrated by scholars of Michelangelo as the artist's best friend - the two of them exchanged beautiful letters, poems, and works of art that bear witness to their intimacy - but she also had close ties to Charles V, Pope Clement VII and Pope Paul III, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Pietro Aretino, Queen Marguerite de Navarre, Reginald Pole, and Isabella d'Este, among others.

In 1503, Pope Julius II had succeeded the notorious Alexander VI, and Julius II brought an appreciation for the arts to the papacy. After Michelangelo finished the flurry of works that he had worked on during the previous four years, he was commissioned by Pope Julius II to complete a tomb in the Pope's honor. The project was to be massive in scope, and the tomb was to be placed inside of St. Peter's Basilica, the construction of which was intended to take place while Michelangelo designed the tomb.

After her husband of 15 years comes out of the closet, a blindsided, 40-year-old Amanda Lewis is forced to salvage what remains of her shattered heart and navigate a new life for herself and her teenage daughter. But will a sizzling secret romance with a famous young NFL quarterback lead her to winning the life she deserves or set her up for her biggest loss yet?

“Johnson’s lively delivery keeps listeners interested…Each chapter is delightfully introduced with music from the period that highlights the timeframe…Both teens and adults will enjoy listening to Johnson's masterful performance in this vivid production.” — AudioFile This program is...

Eric Walrond was a singular voice of the Harlem Renaissance, and Tropic Death is his most famous work - a collection that highlights his particular strength as a writer of short fiction. Over the course of these ten stories, Walrond vividly details the punishing realities of life and labor across the Caribbean, and yet the overall effect is far from grim. These are unsentimental yet startlingly beautiful portraits of the migrant experience, full of distinctive voices striving for an audience in a seemingly implacable world.

On May 30, 1593, London's most popular playwright was stabbed to death. The royal coroner ruled that Christopher Marlowe was killed in self-defense, but historians have long suspected otherwise, given his role as an "intelligencer" in the queen's secret service.

Susanna Shakespeare finds the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon much too quiet and provincial. She yearns to travel to London to see her father's world of players and poets, and to follow a secret dream of her own. Once Susanna arrives in London, nothing is quite as she expected it to be - least of all her relationship with her famous father. But propelled by her love for Thomas Cole, a Catholic chorister, and her desire to sing, Susanna discovers that it is only with the support of those who love her that she has the strength to succeed.

Here, National Book Award winner Richard Winston explores life in the Middle Ages - from the fifth to the 15th centuries - beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire and ending with the dawn of the Renaissance. In both countryside and cities, from the peasants to the bourgeoisie to the nobility, no aspect of life in this era is left unexplored.

A bold new history of Europe, from ancient Greece to the Russian invasion of Ukraine What do we talk about when we talk about Europe? Is it defined by geography? Or is it politics, or shared culture? In Europe, award-winning historian Roderick Beaton tells the story of Europe as never...

In the fall of 1985, five freshmen from the Cleveland area - two young men from Cleveland's Woodhill Park neighborhood and three from Warrensville Heights - began their high school experience at Hawken School, a private school on the outskirts of Cleveland in Gates Mills. In the three years that they attended, the “Juice Crew” changed the way that people looked at the school as a whole - athletically and socially.

In this powerful sequel to Reconstructed—where Abraham Lincoln survives his assassination and successfully rebuilds the nation—President Martin Luther King Jr. now leads a transformed America. Following JFK’s tragic death, King steps into the presidency, determined to end the Vietnam War and redefine America’s role on the global stage. Pressured by Cold War fears and inner opposition, he dares to challenge traditional power with his unwavering commitment to nonviolence and diplomacy.

The United States endured a bitter civil war and embarked on the complex process of Reconstruction, aiming to eliminate slavery and secure civil rights for African Americans in the South. Despite the ratification of constitutional amendments guaranteeing these rights, their full realization would not come for another century. Johnson, who assumed the presidency only after Lincoln's assassination, bears significant responsibility for this delay. His actions enabled the growth of Jim Crow laws and entrenched racial inequality throughout the South in Reconstruction's aftermath.