Helen's Reads » Italy

One Divine Tale by Sarah Dunant

helen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:10:27 +0000

I was lucky enough to snag an ARC (advanced readers copy) of Sarah Dunant’s latest novel Sacred Hearts to take with me on vacation last week. This is the third in this historical fiction trilogy (The Birth of Venus, In The Company of the Courtesan) that revolves around the different lives and fates of women of the Renaissance period. With still a 100 pages to go, Sacred Hearts is turning out to be my favorite. The plot is seductive (parents of a love struck 16 year old girl sell her to the church against her will) and the setting is divine (the convent of Santa Caterina). The below trailer is part of a promotional interview with the author where she sets up the story line. Historical fiction fan or not…get ready to be hooked.

Click here to purchase this book from your favorite independent bookseller.

Crime Writer Douglas Preston, The Amanda Knox Case & The Judge That Binds

helen — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:09:53 +0000

Best selling author Douglas Preston has written and in some ways become a character in his own non-fiction account of a serial killer that stalked the hills of Florence, Italy in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Preston’s investigation of the murders with co-writer Mario Spezi and the making of the book, “The Monster of Florence”, was profiled on Dateline in 2007. What makes this so interesting now is that the same judge, Giuliano Mignini, that threatened Preston with jail time and ordered him out of Italy is now the officiating prosecutor in the Amanda Knox case which went to trial last Friday in Perugia, Italy. Preston has previously expressed his views on this case, but unlike his crime fiction, the outcome of this murder is out of his control.