Gabrielle Kimm wrote "His Last Duchess" after reading Robert
Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess" in college. The backdrop is a castle in 16th-century Italy. Duke of Ferrara, Alfronso d'Este, marries a young, teenage virgin named Lucrezia de' Medici. The Duke's dark and handsome and a dangerously mysterious, amoral character. The Duchess's pureness renders the Duke impotent, spite the fact that he already has twin girls by his long-suffering mistress Francesca Felizzi. Alfronso wed the beautiful Lucrezia to produce an heir for his estate. He immediately blames his sexual ineptness on his wife; love turns to hate; and he plots her murder. In the meantime, being left alone for long periods of time, Lucrezia befriends servants, such as: cooks, maids, painters. The Duke hires a wall-painting of Lucrezia and after what he thinks is her demise, he remarries again and again, but is constantly looking at the painting and remarking how she's "His Last Duchess." The Robert Browning poem is included in the end of the book, this being the novel's 8th or 9th major revision.

As for Joyce Meyer's "Knowing God Intimately," I'm about 1/2 halfway through. The most impressive thing, which I missed the first time I read it a few years ago, is that The Holy Spirit has seven characteristics, which are: Grace, Glory, Life, Truth, Supplication aka Prayer, Adoption and Holiness. Don't know how I didn't grasp this before. God loves the number 7 and His Holy Spirit has Seven Spirits. Cool. Right! The overall theme of this book is asking for and receiving the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

P.S. It may appear that I gave the "His Last Duchess" plot totally away. But I didn't. I left a lot out in case someone gets the itch to read it. What happens to the duchess is fun and interesting.