Robert Hellenga's The Sixteen Pleasures
Somehow I never knew this book existed, and I am so grateful to Sara (the convener of my lady doctor book group) for suggesting it to me! It's 1969, and a 29 year old woman whose plans to attend Radcliffe and have life adventures were altered by her mother's lung cancer is now working as book restoration expert at the Newberry Library. When she hears about the flood in Florence, she's determined to go to Italy and rescue some books--but isn't given the respect she deserves because she's a woman. She somehow ends up in a convent to help save their amazing library and discovers the nuns aren't what she expected at all--and then they find an extremely rare book of Renaissance erotica. And so it seems she may have some life adventures after all. A.
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