Allison Pataki

Presidents have come and gone, but Marjorie Merriweather Post has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie had an insatiable drive to live and love and to give more than she got. Her journey began gluing cereal boxes in her father's barn as a young girl. As the General Foods empire grew and reshaped the American way of life, Marjorie became its heiress and leading lady. But she dared to demand more, becoming...

"As the French revolution ravages the country, Desiree Clary is faced with the life-altering truth that the world she has known and loved is gone and it's fallen on her to save her family from the guillotine. A chance encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and charismatic young military prodigy, provides her answer. But her fortunes shift once again when she meets Napoleon's confidant and star general, the indomitable Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte....

"In imperial Vienna, where the court halls buzzed with waltzes and champagne, as well as temptation, rivals, and cutthroat intrigue, the intensely personal tale of Empress Sisi unraveled. Infamously beautiful, a mother of four, and wife of Emperor Franz Joseph - whom she unintentionally stole away from her sister - Sisi's reign was anything but simple. Against the backdrop of a rich, romantic, and volatile time period--marked by pivotal events such...

The best-selling author of The Accidental Empress describes how, while on a vacation during her pregnancy, her healthy 35-year-old surgical resident husband suffered a rare and life-threatening stroke that placed everything they had worked for in jeopardy, a struggle she navigated by writing daily letters to her husband that helped her make sense of challenges and fall in love with him all over again.

"Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold's age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride's beauty and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the handsome British spy John André. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies,...

Essays by authors who have appeared on the podcast "Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books" explore the ever-increasing demands on mothers' time and topics inspired by things moms don't have time to do, including sleep, get sick, write, lose weight, and see friends.