Lady in Ermine

Bookseller recommendation

“For fun and bc I'm currently teaching a course on the Renaissance, I listened to my first libro.fm audiobook, a novel/quasi documentary style book on the painter Sofonisba Anguissola...one of the greatest Renaissance painters you never heard of! Too bad they didn't include a female Ninja Turtle, because she is a fantastic candidate to offer a name. I was able to listen while working and it was really delightful! I learned a lot--and she had a long, very interesting artist's life spent in all the right places - Cremona, Madrid, Florence, Palermo, Genoa... - to introduce you to important folks like Isabel Valois, Phillip II, Michaelangelo, Catherine di Medici, and so on. And her paintings are still around to see, online even for most of them! The reading was done by an actor, Nicol Zanzarella, with a great voice and some funky and fun accent work. So much fun. Nicol was phenomenal--and was even fluent reading Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French at points. So impressive--and very dramatic when called for.”

— Jerise • Word Up Community Bookshop