Renowned historian Stephen Greenblatt's works shoot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. With The Swerve, Greenblatt transports listeners to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion.

"Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing. Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn't one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she's the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they're long-stemmed roses, she's a dandelion: an adorable bloom that's actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that...

"The Renaissance Faire is on the move, and Lulu and Dex are happily along for the ride, in the next utterly charming rom-com from Jen DeLuca. A high-powered attorney from a success-oriented family, Louisa "Lulu" Malone lives to work, and everything seems to be going right, until the day she realizes it's all wrong. Lulu's cousin Mitch introduced her to the world of Ren Faires, and when she spies one at a time when she needs an escape, she leaps into...

Provides background information on major works of Renaissance art, the artists who produced them, and the times in which they were created.

Reimaging the "Bonfire of the Vanities" through a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century, this modern take on a fascinating historical story follows Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar who, railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, was instrumental in their removal from power.

Life is never quiet at the Homestead. First it was disappearing animals, then a power-hungry dairy queen. Now it's a Renaissance Faire--a noisy, stinky spectacle that drives Horace to distraction. Bunwinkle, on the other hand, can't get enough of the festivities. She loves the thrilling jousts, the court intrigue... and especially the pickles on a stick. But when Eleanor and Clary's icecream buckets are stolen and several of the food stalls are vandalized,...

"One of The Seattle Times 8 Books to Put under a Bird-Lover's Tree 2014" "One of the StarTribune/Lifestyle's Best Birding Books of 2014" "One of the Birder's Library Best Bird Books of 2014" "One of the Birdbooker Report's Best Bird Books of 2014" Steve N. G. Howell is a research associate at PRBO Conservation Science and a staff leader with WINGS, an international bird tour company. His books include Petrels, Albatrosses, and Storm-Petrels of North...