Posts tagged with fiction in Blog Lost in the Stacks

Signora da Vinci is an imaginative retelling, more fantasy than historical fiction, of the life of Leonardo da Vinci's mother, Caterina. In Robin Maxwell's novel, Caterina is the daughter of an alchemist/apothecary in a small town near Florence. After a brief romance with Piero da Vinci, a young man from a much wealthier family, she gives birth to Leonardo, who is taken away by his father's family the day after his birth. In order to be near her son, Caterina disguises herself as a man and goes to Florence, where she has many adventures and takes delight in her brilliant son's art and inventions.

In Roman Blood, the first of a mystery series by Steven Saylor, Gordianus the Finder, an ancient Roman detective, helps Cicero defend a man accused of killing his father. But he finds evidence that might lead to trouble with a cruel dictator. The series is rich with details of the daily life, the political intrigues, and the legal system of Rome.

Suspense and Sensibility is part of a mystery series where Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy from Pride and Prejudice meet characters from Jane Austen's other novels. Kitty Bennet from Pride and Prejudice becomes engaged to Harry Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, but he begins acting strangely as soon as they announce their engagement. Do an antique mirror and a portrait of a roguish ancestor have to do with it?

The Flamethrowers is an immersive novel about art and motorcycles. Fans of Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids will be drawn to this story of an emerging artist in a scene that swallows the reader whole.

Tasha Alexander's mystery series features an unconventional Victorian widow, Lady Emily Ashton. In this, the third book in the series, a murder investigation leads Emily to the cafes and glittering ballrooms of 1890s Vienna.

The Nation Book Award Shortlist, announced today, recognizes the year's top 20 works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young adult literature.

A beautifully-written historical novel, with some fantasy elements, about a young man, born in the bell tower of a Swiss mountain village in the eighteenth century, who grows up with a beautiful singing voice and an extraordinary sense of hearing. He falls in love with a young woman from a wealthy family, but he has a secret he keeps from the woman he loves.

In the first of a new mystery series set in ancient Rome, Flavia Albia, adopted daughter of author Lindsey Davis' popular series detective Marcus Didius Falco, investigates a series of random poisonings.

The Cornish Trilogy by Canadian author Robertson Davies are three stories that cover Canadian academic life, World War II spy-craft, and the world of arts funding all beautifully woven together. The three separate books included in this trilogy are The Rebel Angels (1981), What's Bred in the Bone (1985), and The Lyre of Orpheus (1988).

The Witch Hunter's Tale is the third in a mystery series featuring midwife Bridget Hodgson in York, England, during the English Civil War of the 1640s. A bitterly cold winter is blamed on witches. Will Bridget be able to stop the witch hunt before she, or someone close to her, is accused of witchcraft?