Dancing With Eva

In April 1945 Hitler's bunker in Berlin was the last place Edith Mecklenburg wanted to be. But Edith had no choice: as secretary to Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress and -- for a few final, desperate hours -- his wife, Edith had to see it through to the bitter end. Edith was one of the lucky few. She not only got out alive but made a new life for herself in England. Sixty years on, now a widow and grandmother, the Bunker is almost forgotten. But the past has not forgotten her. Hans, a soldier she knew from those dark days, has written asking if he may visit. Obsessed with the war, he has spent the intervening decades tracking down all who were there, and who survived. In her reluctant raking-over of old coals, Edith finds embers that still burn, and in the act of remembrance a very current threat . . .

This poetic and uplifting picture book illustrated by the #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator of We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines follows a young girl born with cerebral palsy as she pursues her dream of becoming a dancer. Like many young girls, Eva longs to dance. But unlike many would-be dancers, Eva has cerebral palsy. She doesn’t know what dance looks like for someone who uses a wheelchair. Then Eva learns of a place that has created a class for dancers of all abilities. Her first movements in the studio are tentative, but with the encouragement of her instructor and fellow students, Eva becomes more confident. Eva knows she’s found a place where she belongs. At last her dream of dancing has come true.

This novel, set in the late 18th century, is based on the life of the famous and much-painted courtesan, La Belle Phanariote. Dying and surrounded by her family, Sophie Glavani relives her life's dance - her journey from fallen woman to Countess, the men she has captivated, the hearts she has broken.

An alluring, exotic novel set in the late eighteenth century, based on the life of the famous and much-painted courtesan, La Belle Phanariote.

Dolly married her high school sweetheart and spent the next forty years as one part of a couple. When she suddenly lost her husband, she embarked on a search for a companion or new mate to fill the empty place in her heart. Her adventure took her to some bad and some good places, for which she was totally unprepared. The story was written in the hope that it might help some other widow to be prepared for the pitfalls and failures a single woman may face in a world heavily weighted in favor of men, where the rules of conduct are so different for men than for women. Woven throughout her story, hopefully, are some lessons, lessons she learned too late; and because of that, she may have lost the one and only perfect mate in the whole world for her.

Eva Hemming, the Finnish Operas solo dancer and prima ballerina, grew up in Helsinki in the 1920s. In her captivating memoirs starting with the early childhood years, she describes the stages of her dance career, the hard work and the performing tours abroad, the joy of dancing, and also the competition and intrigues behind the scenes. With humor and warmth, she describes the dramatic and difficult wartimes and entertainment tours in which she herself took part in. The performances at the front lines in East Karelia and the Karelian Isthmus during the Continuation War became unforgettable experiences. During her career, she shared the stage with many internationally renowned dance artists. Eva Hemming and Leif Wagers romance forms a central part of the memoirs. The young ballerina and Finnish cinemas applauded star seemed destined to each other already after the very first meeting, but there were many hurdles to overcome before they could come together.

This is the first biography to tell the fascinating story of Eva Palmer Sikelianos (1874-1952), an American actor, director, composer, and weaver best known for reviving the Delphic Festivals. Yet, as Artemis Leontis reveals, Palmer's most spectacular performance was her daily revival of ancient Greek life. For almost half a century, dressed in handmade Greek tunics and sandals, she sought to make modern life freer and more beautiful through a creative engagement with the ancients. Along the way, she crossed paths with other seminal modern artists such as Natalie Clifford Barney, Renée Vivien, Isadora Duncan, Susan Glaspell, George Cram Cook, Richard Strauss, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Nikos Kazantzakis, George Seferis, Henry Miller, Paul Robeson, and Ted Shawn. 0Brilliant and gorgeous, with floor-length auburn hair, Palmer was a wealthy New York debutante who studied Greek at Bryn Mawr College before turning her back on conventional society to live a lesbian life in Paris. She later followed Raymond Duncan (brother of Isadora) and his wife to Greece and married the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos in 1907. With single-minded purpose, Palmer re-created ancient art forms, staging Greek tragedy with her own choreography, costumes, and even music. Having exhausted her inheritance, she returned to the United States in 1933, was blacklisted for criticizing American imperialism during the Cold War, and was barred from returning to Greece until just before her death. 0Drawing on hundreds of newly discovered letters and featuring many previously unpublished photographs, this biography vividly re-creates the unforgettable story of a remarkable nonconformist whom one contemporary described as "the only ancient Greek I ever knew."