This narrative biography tells the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into Empress of Russia by sheer determination. Possessing a brilliant mind and an insatiable curiosity as a young woman, she devoured the works of Enlightenment philosophers...

Her name is Barbara - in Russian, Varvara. Nimble-witted and attentive, she's allowed into the employ of the Empress Elizabeth amid the glitter and cruelty of the world's most eminent court. Under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will learn to listen and to wait for opportunity. That opportunity arrives in a slender young princess from Zerbst named Sophie, a playful teenager destined to become the indomitable Catherine...

After receiving her PhD in biology, Raven lived in an isolated cottage in Montana, teaching remotely and leading field classes in Yellowstone National Park. Her only regular visitor was a fox, with whom she developed a friendship and from whom she learned about growth, loss, and belonging.

As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink of oblivion, Russia towered as a vast imperial power, and France plunged into revolution. But in contrast to the way conventional histories tell it, none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation. Acclaimed historian Jay Winik masterfully illuminates how their fates combined in one extraordinary moment to change the course of civilization.

A memoir about life in small-town America takes readers to Lewiston, New York--a small village near Niagara Falls--in the 1950s as the author describes her various adventures working in her father's pharmacy.

An intimate portrait of Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of John Quincy Adams, who witnessed firsthand the greatest transformations of her time.

When his initiation into the Lightning Club takes a murderous turn, Charles Dickens is accused of the crime and is locked away in Newgate Prison where he must rely on his fiancée and her sleuthing skills to save him from the hangman's noose.

A portrait of the eighteenth-century Russian empress documents her rise from a little-known German princess to become one of Europe's most celebrated monarchs, in an account that offers insight into her public and private achievements.

"Kate Middleton's life's story seems like a modern-day fairy-tale. An attractive, clever, and ambitious girl from unexceptional beginnings meets and falls in love with a wealthy prince when they are both college undergraduates. Now, with the British monarchy in transition, Catherine is destined to become the first "commoner Queen" in British history since Anne Hyde, wife of James II. Since her wedding on April 29th, 2011--and since becoming the Duchess...

"Acclaimed author and historian Alison Weir continues her epic Six Tudor Queens series with this third captivating novel, which brings to life Jane Seymour, King Henry VIII's most cherished bride and mother of his only legitimate male heir. Ever since she was a child, Jane has longed for a cloistered life as a nun. But her large noble family has other plans, and as an adult, Jane is invited to the King's court to serve as lady-in-waiting to Queen...