BLOOD & BEAUTY: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant. English author Dunant is
best known for her bestselling historical novel Birth of Venus, as well as two others, In the Company of the Courtesan and Sacred Hearts - a Renaissance trilogy that examines the lives of three different women in three different historical  contexts. Now she turns her keen eye on one of history's most infamous families because, as she puts it, "I have been writing novels set in the Italian Renaissance for over twelve years now and one family name has been echoing loudly in my ears... Borgia."
This is not the Borgias of television, where a slim, movie-star handsome Jeremy Irons portrays Rodrigo Borgia with petulance and enervation. He bears little resemblance to the real-life corpulent but ebullient Rodrigo, whose life Dunant faithfully chronicles, along with that of his eldest son, Cesare, and daughter Lucrezia.
It is a turbulent time in Italy at the end of the 15th century - beauty and creativity is matched by brutality and corruption, nowhere more than in Rome and inside the Church. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy as Alexander VI, he is defined not just by his wealth or his passionate love for his illegitimate children, but by his blood: He is a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If the Borgias are to triumph, this charismatic, consummate politician with a huge appetite for life, women, and power must use papacy and family in order to succeed.
Stripping away the myths around the Borgias, Dunant offers up a majestic novel that breathes life into this astonishing family and celebrates the raw power of history itself: compelling, complex, and relentless. No wonder it made bestseller lists after just a week out on shelves.
LIGHT OF THE WORLD by James Lee Burke. You wouldn't blame James Lee Burke if he had abandoned his writing career in the the early 1980s. His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of
nine years before finally being published in 1985 by Louisiana State  University Press - whereupon it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
One assumes that was a motivating factor for Burke to continue writing, and mystery fans are the better for it. In 1987, Burke introduced Louisiana Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux in The Neon Rain, the first
in an evocative, gritty series that currently numbers 20 installments with the publication of Light of the World. Now in his early 80's, Burke still tells as good a story as any crime writer.
In Light of the World, Robicheaux and his longtime friend and partner Clete Purcel are vacationing in Montana's spectacular Big Sky country when a series of suspicious events leads them to believe their lives and the lives of their families are in danger. First, Alafair Robicheaux is nearly killed by an arrow while hiking alone on a trail. Then Clete 's daughter, Gretchen Horowitz, whom readers met in Burke's previous bestseller Creole Belle, runs afoul of a local cop, with dire consequences. Next, Alafair thinks she sees a familiar face following her around town but how could convicted sadist and serial killer Asa Surette be loose on the streets of Montana? | 
months has been a pocket-sized hardcover humor book titled I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems. The book has a simple formula but one that has resonated with feline fans everywhere - cute pictures of cats and accompanying poems that capture their activities and idiosyncrasies. One example:
Dogs by Francesco Marciuliano, author of the first volume as well.