Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan
by Robert Kanigel

In 1913, a young, unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G.H.Hardy,begging the pre-eminent English Mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers.Realizing the letter was the work of a genius,Hardy arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England.Thus began one of the most improbable and productive collaborations ever chronicled....

With a passion for rich and evocative detail,Robert Kanigel takes us from the teeming slums of Madras to the courts and chapels of Cambridge University,where the Devout Hindu Ramanujan,"The Prince of Intuition," tested his brilliant theories alongside the sophisticated and eccentric Hardy,"the Apostle of Proof."In time, Ramanujan's creative intensity took its toll:he died at the age of thirty-two and left behind a magical and inspired legacy that is still being plumbed for its secrets today.

More Than Friends
by Barbara Delinsky

The Maxwells and the Popes have been friends forever. The women were college roommates, their husbands are partners in the same law firm, their kids have grown up next door to each other, and the two families share both vacations and holidays.All is beautiful and serene until an accident forces these close neighbors to look beneath the surface. And when their idyllic lives are unexpectedly shattered by a moment that can never be erased or forgotten, their faith in one another and in themselves is put to the supreme test.

Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
by Boris Akunin

In a remote Russian province in the late nineteenth century, Bishop Mitrofanii must deal with a family crisis. After learning that one of his great aunts beloved and rare white bulldogs has been poisoned, the Orthodox bishop knows there is only one detective clever enough to investigate the murder: Sister Pelagia.

The bespectacled, freckled Pelagia is lively, curious, extraordinarily clumsy, and persistent. At the estate in question, she finds a whole host of suspects, any one of whom might have benefited if the old lady (who changes her will at whim) had expired of grief at the pooch's demise. There's Pyotr, the matron?' grandson, a nihilist with a grudge who has fallen for the maid; Stepan, the penniless caretaker, who has sacrificed his youth to the care of the estate; Miss Wrigley, a mysterious Englishwoman who has recently been named sole heiress to the fortune; Poggio, an opportunistic and freeloading artistic photographer; and, most intriguingly, Naina, the old lady's granddaughter, a girl so beautiful she could drive any man to do almost anything.

As Pelagia bumbles and intuits her way to the heart of a mystery among people with faith only in greed and desire, she must bear in mind the words of Saint Paul:Beware of dogs and beware of evil-doers.