Arcadia Public Library

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be--until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father's past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion...

"Abandoned by her parents, Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees women as second-best. When Olga falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with gaining all the power, glory and greatness the modern age can provide, her life is irremediably changed....

"The sequel to the international best-selling novel The Art of Hearing Heartbeats."-- "Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father's native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend has recently left her and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted. One day, in the middle of an important business meeting,...

Way up in the Swiss mountains, there's an old grand hotel steeped in tradition and faded splendor. Once a year, when the famous New Year's Eve Ball takes place, and guests from all over the world arrive, excitement returns to the vast hallways. Sophie, who works at the hotel as an intern, is busy making sure that everything goes according to plan. But unexpected problems keep arising, and some of the guests are not who they pretend to be. Very soon,...

Augsburgo, 1916. La mansión de la familia Melzer pasa a ser, por necesidad, un hospital militar. Las hijas de la casa, ayudadas por el servicio, se convierten en enfermeras que curan, cuidan y escuchan a los heridos en combate. Entretanto, Marie, la joven esposa de Paul Melzer, se hace cargo de la fábrica de telas en ausencia de su marido. Sin embargo, recibe una terrible noticia: su cuñado ha caído en el frente y Paul es ahora un prisionero de...

"When all seemed lost, a mysterious letter has awakened a ray of hope in Sophia: the son she thought was dead may still be alive in Paris. But when she arrives in town for confirm this, Sophia runs into an unforgiving wall of silence. She then decides to accept a job offer from Elizabeth Arden, the great rival of Helena Rubinstein, her former boss. A glamorous ambiance greets the young chemist but when Madame Rubinstein unexpectedly returns to her...

Augsburgo, 1930. Marie y Paul Melzer son felices y su amor es más fuerte que nunca. Su hijo menor, el pequeño Kurti, que ahora tiene cuatro años, es un rayo de sol que rápidamente se gana el cariño de todos y los gemelos Dodo y Leo han crecido espléndidamente. Dodo ha descubierto su amor por los sistemas y métodos y sueña con convertirse en aviador, mientras que Leo demuestra un gran talento para tocar el piano, que se ha convertido en su...