Ruby Sisson Library

"Henry VIII, anxious about the consequences of dying without a male heir, is denied permission to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn, but the power struggle between the Church and the Crown is mediated by astute politician Thomas Cromwell, who manages to get the king what he wants while keeping his eye on the prize of a free England"--Provided by publisher.

In March of 1603, as she helps to nurse the dying Queen Elizabeth of England, Frances Gorges dreams of her parents' country estate, where she has learned to use flowers and herbs to become a much-loved healer. She is happy to stay at home when King James of Scotland succeeds to the throne. His court may be shockingly decadent, but his intolerant Puritanism sees witchcraft in many of the old customs-punishable by death. But when her ambitious uncle...

"When a French archaeologist arrives in 1830s Istanbul determined to track down a lost Byzantine treasure, the local Greek communities are uncertain how to react; the man seems dangerously well-informed. Yashim Togalu, who so brilliantly solved the mysterious murders in The Janissary Tree, is once again enlisted to investigate. But when the archaeologist's mutilated body is discovered outside the French embassy, it turns out there is only one suspect:...

A brief biography of the adventurous Englishman who explored America, attempted to establish a colony on Roanoke Island, and searched for gold in South America.

Biography of the African princess saved from execution and taken to England where Queen Victoria oversaw her upbringing and where she lived for a time before marrying an African missionary.

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin -- drinker, thief, womanizer -- arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 as if from the medieval past ... tattered, black-clad, muttering. By the time of his sensational murder thirteen years later, the peasant had become the "beloved friend" of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, with a seemingly supernatural power to stop the bleeding attacks of their hemophiliac son, Alexis. Drawing on confidential police reports, cabinet meeting...

In the third Friarsgate Inheritance novel, New York Times bestselling author Bertrice Small takes us back to the sensuality, drama, and intrigue of King Henry's sixteenth-century court to tell the story of the daughter of one of her most beloved characters. The eldest child of Rosamund Bolton and heiress to the Friarsgate manor, Philippa Meredith is devastated when she discovers that the man she sought to marry has rebuffed her. But it is this sudden...

A five-century history of royal courtesan life offers insight into the motivations and experiences of some of Europe's most famous and influential royal mistresses, including the Marquise de Pompadour, Madame du Barry, and Camilla Parker-Bowles.