A deeply evocative novel of the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, a daring visionary who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city of Boston itself. By the time Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum in 1903 to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d'art, she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston's polite society. But when Isabella first arrived in Boston in 1861, she was twenty years old, newly married to a wealthy trader, and unsure of herself. Puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods, she strived to fit in. After two devastating tragedies and rejection from upper-society, Isabella discovered her spirit and cast off expectations. Freed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas, and letters, meeting such kindred spirits as Henry James and Oscar Wilde. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform nineteenth century thinking in the twentieth century. Isabella becomes an eccentric trailblazer, painted by John Singer Sargent in a portrait of daring decolletage, and fond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions in the Boston Public Garden. The Lioness of Boston is a portrait of what society expected a woman's life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and determined to live on her own terms.

"The Girls' Almanac" chronicles the lives of Jenna and Lucy--two thirty-something women who desperately long for a true friend--as well as the lives of the women and men who have touched them: friends, lovers, parents, and neighbors. Set across the Northeast--through suburban neighborhoods, preppy camps, island resorts, and Ivy League colleges--as well as far flung locales like Ecuador and Iceland, "The Girls' Almanac" traces the friendships of women willing to risk both self-consciousness and intimacy, loss and betrayal, in pursuit of a proper best friend. Exploring the fascinating closeness and distance that female friendships encompass, "The Girls' Almanac" reveals the map of Jenna and Lucy's interconnected lives, and ultimately their pathways to each other.