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Historical Fiction July 2025 |
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The Book Club for Troublesome Women
by Marie Bostwick
In 1963 suburban Virginia, four married women form a book club: arty newcomer Charlotte; former Army nurse Vivian, now pregnant with her seventh child; Ohio transplant and mom-to-three Margaret; and newlywed Bitsy, who'd dreamed of being a veterinarian. Starting with Betty Friedan's controversial The Feminine Mystique, the women read, change, and draw closer over the course of a year. For fans of: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
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The Lies They Told
by Ellen Marie Wiseman
In 1930s Virginia, Lena Conti, a young immigrant mother separated from her family at Ellis Island, builds a new life in the Blue Ridge Mountains but must resist a brutal eugenics campaign that targets her community and threatens to take her daughter.
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| The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorrisFacing anti-Chinese sentiment in 1880s Oregon, biracial Celia hides her heritage and works as a maid for Portland's mayor. His son, who knows Celia’s secret, loves her and proposes. But with him away at school, her father murdered, and her unexpectedly pregnant, Celia ends up housekeeping at a brothel, before other dangers surface. Recipes and an author's note add to this compelling tale. Read-alike: Jenny Tinghui Zhang's Four Treasures of the Sky. |
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| Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice MonroeIndependent Eliza Rivers, who was born in South Carolina's Lowcountry in 1900, lives through wars, family turmoil, sexism, business growth, and more. At 88, she draws two young women close, sharing her past and hoping they can keep her beloved land safe from her selfish son in this multigenerational novel, the 1st in the Mayfield duology. Read-alikes: Michael Christie's Greenwood; Dolen Perkins-Valdez's Happy Land. |
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The Letter Carrier
by Francesca Giannone
A woman arrives at a small Italian town in the 1930s, with her husband and baby, and is the permanent outsider. She decides to become the town postmistress, the first female to hold that position. An epic novel that spans decades.
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| Blonde Dust by Tatiana de RosnayAt Reno, Nevada's legendary Mapes Hotel, young maid Pauline is assigned to Suite 614 and it changes her life. A single mom with little free time, it takes her a bit to realize the sweet, fragile woman in 614 is Marilyn Monroe, in town filming The Misfits as her marriage to Arthur Miller is dying. Serving up a moving look at the Hollywood icon, Blonde Dust is also an ode to female friendship. Read-alike: Can't We Be Friends by Denny S. Bryce & Eliza Knight. |
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| The Listeners by Maggie StiefvaterIn January 1942, war comes to West Virginia when the United States government orders the luxury Avallon Hotel to house Axis Power diplomats. Balancing work, worry, and ethical questions, hotel manager June Porter Hudson also gets to know a handsome FBI agent. This atmospheric adult fiction debut by a bestselling YA fantasy novelist has hints of magic and is a "must-read for all historical fiction fans" (Library Journal). Read-alike: Melanie Benjamin's Mistress of the Ritz. |
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| The Cardinal by Alison WeirTracing Thomas Wolsey's rise from the young son of a village butcher to a wealthy cardinal and Henry VIII's closest advisor, this well-researched tale also depicts his falling in love and becoming a father to several children, despite church rules. But everything, including his life, is at risk when the king decides to divorce Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Read this next: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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