This adorable music notebook is perfect for staffs, kids and musicians. The high-quality manuscript book includes 110 pages of 12 staves. Let exercise your composing skills with this well-designed music sketchbook! Enjoy!

'The Abbess of Castro' is a novella by Stendhal which recounts the untimely tragic romance between the daughter of the wealthiest man in Lazio and a penniless gangster. It may be a tale of star-crossed lovers set in Italy, but this novella is so much more than an alternative Romeo and Juliet. Beneath the surface lies an eye-opening tale of political machinations that Machiavelli would be proud of, violent family feuds and swashbuckling adventures. Claimed to be translated from 16th Century manuscripts, 'The Abbess of Castro' packs an extra punch with its extremely unsympathetic view on warfare and an acute critique on ardent individuals undone by passion. Stendhal is widely regarded to be an eminent example of Romantic Realism throughout his work and directly influenced the world-famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy in his depictions of war, especially in Tolstoy's works 'Sevastopol Sketchers', 'The Invaders', 'The Cossacks' and 'Youth and Childhood'. Stendhal (1783-1842), the pseudonym of Marie-Henry Beyle, was a French writer. A pioneer of literary realism and master of the psychological portrayals of his characters, he is best known for his novels 'The Red and the Black' (1830) and 'The Charterhouse of Parma' (1839).

The superb historian and biographer Antonia Fraser, author of Marie Antoinette, casts new light on the splendor and the scandals of the reign of Louis XIV in this dramatic, illuminating look at the women in his life. The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The king’s mother, Anne of Austria, had been in a childless marriage for twenty-two years before she gave birth to Louis XIV. A devout Catholic, she instilled in her son a strong sense of piety and fought successfully for his right to absolute power. In 1660, Louis married his first cousin, Marie-Thérèse, in a political arrangement. While unfailingly kind to the official Queen of Versailles, Louis sought others to satisfy his romantic and sexual desires. After a flirtation with his sister-in-law, his first important mistress was Louise de La Vallière, who bore him several children before being replaced by the tempestuous and brilliant Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. Later, when Athénaïs’s reputation was tarnished, the King continued to support her publicly as Athénaïs left court for a life of repentance. Meanwhile her children’s governess, the intelligent and seemingly puritanical Françoise de Maintenon, had already won the King’s affections; in a relationship in complete contrast to his physical obsession with Athénaïs, Louis XIV lived happily with Madame de Maintenon for the rest of his life, very probably marrying her in secret. When his grandson’s child bride, the enchanting Adelaide of Savoy, came to Versaille she lightened the King’s last years – until tragedy struck. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women’s religious lives – as well as such practical matters as contraception – into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies.

In Nancy Huston’s new novel the charactersparticipate in a legal hearing of a highly singular variety, unfolding outsideof real time and place. They each give testimony in front of a mysteriousmagistrate who turns out to be none other than the reader herself or himself,presenting their respective and often contradictory version of the death—andlife—of a certain Cosmo. Among the witnesses are a number of deadpeople, the novelist, a Lebanese cedar, a wisteria, a footbridge, and agorgeous Algerian knife (probably the murder weapon). Cosmo is the onlycharacter whose voice is never heard, but his portrait is gradually sketched outand coloured in by the stories and memories of others in his village. Vivid and original, Nancy Huston’s AnAdorationis a tour de forcecertain to resonate with fans of Chocolat and Amélie.