THE WINTER PALACE By Eva Stachniak Bantam. 444 pp. $26 Catherine the Great, the much-mythologized empress of 18th-century Russia, has long been a popular subject for biographers, starring most recently in Robert K. Massie ’s magnificently readable “Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman” (2011). She has also enjoyed strong representation on film, having been opulently portrayed by Marlene Dietrich and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Yet in historical fiction, there have been curiously few portraits of the long-reigning tsarina, with the exception of a few offerings that include a Romanov trilogy by British author Evelyn Anthony, published in the 1950s. Read full article > >

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“The Winter Palace,” a novel about Catherine the Great, by Eva Stachniak

As her father catnapped at her side, Deanna Torstenson’s heart pounded and her body trembled. She fixed her eyes on the tiny airplane moving across a video screen on the seat back in front of her. Slowly it approached Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Soon, for the first time, she would set eyes on the woman who had given birth to her. Read full article > >

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Born abroad, adopted teens find home in multiple lands

How To Be A Woman by Times journalist Caitlin Moran is named Galaxy book of the year, beating titles by Dawn French and Claire Tomalin.

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Moran wins book of the year prize

Sharon Bialek, a Chicago woman who worked at the National Restaurant Association in the mid1990s has come forward to say that Herman Cain sexually harassed her while she was looking for a job. In graphic detail, Bialek described an encounter with Cain that happened in July of 1997 in Washington D.C. that left the woman shaken and embarrassed. Read full article > >

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Sharon Bialek accuses Herman Cain of sexual harassment as she sought help getting a job

Paula Radcliffe’s mark of 2:15:25, set in April 2003, remains nearly three minutes faster than any other woman’s best time.

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Radcliffe’s Women’s Record for Marathon Looks Unbreakable

The 21-year-old soldier was accused of breaking into the woman’s motel room near Seoul on Sept. 24, repeatedly raping her and stealing 5,000 won, or $4.50.

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American Soldier Sentenced for Raping a South Korean Woman

Interpretations are everything. I’d like to think mine are always right. So when my grandfather tried to put a stop to my 9 year old defiance against having to wear a hijab by arguing that “That is what the Quran dictates,” I threw off the headdress forever. “It is to keep the woman modest and away from the unwanted glances of men,” my grandfather told me.

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Uncovering the Hijab

Three days exploring the restaurant scene in Boston last month turned up a surprise accompaniment everywhere I visited: stellar service. Distinguished hospitality flowed at the enticing new Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square, where the hostess cheerfully found space at the bar for a dozen walk-ins (!) and the server explained the local oysters as if she had harvested them herself. A sense of generosity marked my interaction with Drink in South Boston, where the woman answering the phone took five minutes to explain to a stranger that the menu at the lounge consisted of “finger food a friend would serve if you came over for cocktails” — and then went on to provide a party’s worth of examples. Read full article > >

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Postcard from Tom: A trio of welcoming Boston eateries

In an ad that has blanketed radio airwaves in the Washington region, a woman’s voice gently intones, “Imagine . . . one million new jobs.” “One million new American jobs,” echoes a man. “One million new opportunities to build a career,” says the woman. “Support a family.” “Follow your dreams.” Read full article > >

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Companies use fuzzy math in job claims; candidates still buy in

Dominique Strauss-Kahn met face to face on Thursday with the French writer who has accused him of attempted rape as part of an investigation into the woman’s accusations, the police said.

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Strauss-Kahn Faces French Accuser in Paris

BERLIN — As Greece heads toward a financial precipice, the woman who holds the purse strings for any bailout, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is trapped between markets, which demand she does more, and fractious politics at home, which pressures her to do less. The physicist-turned-politician is engaged in an experiment whose outcome is unclear. Once hesitant about committing any money to troubled countries that use the euro, she now preaches how Germany profited from the currency and needs to give something back. Euro politics has consumed her life so thoroughly that she emerged from an audience with Pope Benedict XVI last week and announced that they had chatted about the financial crisis. Read full article > >

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Germany’s Angela Merkel, key to Greek bailout, caught between opposing forces

Zoran Drvenkar’s “Sorry,” a German bestseller that now invades our unsuspecting homeland, opens with a horrific crime: A man whose name we do not know knocks on the door of a woman who also remains anonymous. She recognizes the visitor and invites him in. After a bit of small talk, he renders her unconscious and drives her to another location, an apartment, where he nails her hands to the wall. (“The third blow wakes her, your eyes are level now and she screams into your face.”) Then with a hammer and a 16-inch nail, he kills her. As she dies, he reflects that “everything is right” and the scene ends with the reader having no idea who these people are or what, if anything, the woman did to be awarded such a fate. Read full article > >

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Zoran Drvenkar’s ‘Sorry’: Frustratingly confusing story of revenge

Aimee Smart was volunteering at a Studio Theatre gala in 2006 when she spotted a man in trouble. “He had gotten caught in a conversation with someone who is very dominant,” recalls Smart, who noticed the woman’s blue cocktail sloshing perilously close to his white tuxedo shirt. “So I just kind of swept in and said, ‘Hey, do you want to dance?’ and pulled him away. You can tell when someone is in desperate need of rescuing.” Read full article > >

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On Love: ‘I think something shifted that night’

Aimee Smart was volunteering at a Studio Theatre gala in 2006 when she spotted a man in trouble. “He had gotten caught in a conversation with someone who is very dominant,” recalls Smart, who noticed the woman’s blue cocktail sloshing perilously close to his white tuxedo shirt. “So I just kind of swept in and said, ‘Hey, do you want to dance?’ and pulled him away. You can tell when someone is in desperate need of rescuing.” Read full article > >

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On Love: ‘I think something shifted that night’

Police say the woman who died in an accident while climbing cliffs at Stackpole Head in Pembrokeshire on Sunday was a 32-year-old from Pembrokeshire.

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Tributes to cliff fall climber