Showing results for "jay smith"

A Love Affair Inspiring the World's Most Unforgettable OperasExperience the intense, lifelong love affair between Giuseppe Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi, the brilliant and seductive soprano who shaped his legacy. As his muse, lover, and wife, Strepponi was the inspiration behind Verdi's most iconic works, including La Traviata and Aida. Her influence was pivotal, as she became the architect of his creative triumphs and the heart of his operatic genius.Set ...

A man. A leash. A second chance.When Sarah hires a dog walker, she’s expecting someone quiet, invisible, forgettable. She’s not expecting a man who seems to understand her grief without words.The Dog Walker is a quiet, emotionally resonant novel about the people who enter our lives when we stop expecting anyone to stay. It explores the fragile beauty of connection, the complicated strength of men who choose gentleness, and the kind of love that doe...

In a brilliant, original rendition, Monsters of the Gévaudan revisits a spellbinding French tale that has captivated imaginations for over two hundred years, and offers the definitive explanation of the strange events that underlie this timeless story.In 1764 a peasant girl was killed and partially eaten while tending a flock of sheep. Eventually, over a hundred victims fell prey to a mysterious creature, or creatures, whose cunning and deadly efficiency terrorized the reg...

A girl walks home from school. She's tall for her age. She's wearing her winter coat. Her headphones are in. She's hurrying. She never makes it home. In the aftermath, while law enforcement tries to justify the response, one fact remains: a police officer has shot and killed an unarmed thirteen-year-old girl. The community is thrown into upheaval, leading to unrest, a growing movement to protest the senseless taking of black lives, and the arrival of white supremacist counter demonstrators...

Navigating constantly changing social and familial relationships, the characters in M. Jay Smith’s stories strive to hold everything together and stay true to their convictions in the process.Cantaloupe! brings us nine juicy stories about trying (and failing) to do the right thing – about yearning to stay true to yourself in a culture that demands compromise. With razor-sharp prose and a bit of slapstick humour, M. Jay Smith contemplates how identities smudge into each oth...

**** "Sharply drawn characters, rich dialogue, and a clever conclusion bode well for any sequel." —Publishers Weekly **** “Smith skillfully bridges police procedural and espionage fiction, crafting a show-stealing sense of place** and realistically pairing the threats of underworld crime and destabilized regimes.” -- Booklist **For International Espionage Fans of Alan Furst and Daniel Silva, a new thriller set in post-Soviet era Po...

Give yourself the gift of time—and learn how to utilize it.More and more Americans are choosing to take time off from work to relax or re-examine their priorities, so they can ultimately return to work energized. Some companies offer formal sabbatical programs, but how can the average person take enough time off to evaluate their direction, explore their passions, and make time for the things that are really important?Whether you're burned out in your career,...

Long ago, before shimmering cities and humming machines, there was water. It flowed in rivers, danced in the rain, and filled the oceans—a silent, steady force that carried life in every droplet. For centuries, humanity has respected this precious gift, but as time passed, it was forgotten. The rivers grew polluted, the lakes dried up, and the rain became a rare visitor. Then, one day, something unimaginable happened: the water began to disappear. In "The Day Water Vanished: A Drop of Life...

"Ever since the release of Amadeus, the concept of writing historical fiction based on the golden age of classical music has flourished… Frankly speaking, many of them are outstripped by this new riveting book. 5 out of 5 Stars"—ManhattanBookReview.comMeeting Mozart: A Novel Drawn From the Secret Diaries of Lorenzo Da Ponte is a deftly plotted and richly detailed historical novel that spans generations and involves Mozart, mysteries, masquerades, opera, and spies. It brings to ligh...

In the Bay Area, 2020, a strange event occurs—the sun fails to rise with its usual warmth, leaving the sky a dull, smoky gray. Birds don't sing, flowers don't bloom, and a heavy silence hangs in the air. This is not a simple anomaly but a poignant message from a hurting Earth. "The Day the Sun Slept" is a powerful fable about the delicate balance between humanity and nature. The Sun is hiding, not out of malice, but because the Earth is weary, wounded by years of carelessness and neglect. ...

Platitudes, cliches and adages are pervasive in almost every part of our everyday lives and in every part of our culture. Every day we either hear them or use them ourselves, often without thinking about them. These "words of wisdom" express our feelings about love, time, money, health, wealth, humor and every aspect of life in general. Usually, they are a shorthand way of expressing an idea. The words used, in most cases, are not meant to be taken literally. Because of their common usage ...

Set against the very real refugee crisis on the beautiful, sun-drenched Greek islands, Fire on the Island paints a nuanced and loving portrait of a community in crisis while shedding light on the challenges of life in contemporary Greece.After a string of mysterious fires breaks out on a small Greek island, undercover FBI agent Nick Damigos arrives to investigate, showing up just in time to save a beloved truffle-sniffing dog from the most recent inferno. ...