SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Less than $3 per week View Profile The Explainer Talking Points The Week Recommends Newsletters From the Magazine The Week Junior Food & Drink Personal Finance All Categories Newsletter sign up Culture & Life the week recommends Sarah Dunant shares her favourite books The British novelist picks works by Sergeanne Golon, Jill Burke and Natalie Zemon Newsletter sign up The historian's latest book is a vibrant exploration of the Italian Renaissance (Image credit: Gary Doak / Alamy) The Week UK 1 August 2025 The author, historian and broadcaster chooses her favourite books. Her latest book is "The Marchesa", a biographical novel that tells the story of Isabella d'Este, the first female art collector of the Renaissance. Nuns Behaving Badly Craig A. Monson, 2010 The erudite musicologist unearthed these delicious stories from 16th and 17th century court records. My favourite concerns a Venetian abbess who sneaks out to the opera with a local priest. Subscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Dangerous Liaisons Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 1782 Written in decadent pre-revolutionary France, this erotically charged epistolary novel features a manipulative woman working under the surface of polite society. It occasioned a brilliant stage adaptation and two substantial movies. What writer could ask for more? How to be a Renaissance Woman Jill Burke, 2023 Burke delivers an equally entertaining and serious analysis of the business of Renaissance beauty. From early bras and disgusting skin-whitening concoctions to primitive cosmetic surgery, it delivers a warning to the future that whatever the gains of feminism, our obsession with "beauty" remains as defining as who we are. The Return of Martin Guerre Natalie Zemon Davis, 1982 Long before photos and fingerprints, "knowing" someone depended largely on memory. This majestically close reading of court records by the great micro historian tells a tale of contested identity in a 16th century French village, and gave the now disgraced Gérard Depardieu one of his most beguiling roles. A quiet masterpiece in print and on film. Sergeanne Golon, 1957-1985 Everyone has a guilty secret in their literary past. Mine is a set of bodice rippers featuring an irresistible heroine in the court of Louis XIV. As ravished as she was ravishing, Angèlique was no proto feminist. But inside the romantic tosh was a scintillating picture of French history. At 13 I was hooked and never looked back. 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The Week UK Social Links Navigation Sudoku medium: August 1, 2025 The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle Crossword: August 1, 2025 The Week's daily crossword Sudoku hard: August 1, 2025 The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle You might also like Inter Alia: Rosamund Pike is 'electric' in gut-wrenching legal drama The Week Recommends Australian playwright Suzie Miller is back with a follow up to her critically-acclaimed hit play Prima Facie Unforgivable: harrowing drama about abuse and rehabilitation The Week Recommends 'Catastrophic impact' of abuse is explored in 'thought-provoking' series The Bad Guys 2: 'kids will lap up' crime caper sequel starring Sam Rockwell and Awkwafina The Week Recommends 'Wittier and more energetic', this film 'wipes the floor' with the original I Am Giorgia: 'self-serving' yet 'amazing story' of Italy's first female prime minister The Week Recommends Giorgia Meloni, once a 'short, fat, sullen, bullied girl', explains how she became one of the most powerful people in politics The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939 Wrightwood 659, Chicago, through Aug. 2 6 classic homes built in the 1950s Featuring a firehouse-turned-home in Indiana and an award-winning house in Maryland Critics' choice: Delights from the African diaspora Mahari in Chicago, Kabawa in New York City and Elmina in Washington, D.C. 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