LibraryAware October 2025

Recent Releases

A Bomb Placed Close To the Heart : a Novel
by Nishant Batsha

An expansive and poignant novel of love, radical ambition, and intellectual rebirth set at the dawn of World War I.

Six Weeks by the Sea
by Paula Byrne

Before moving to Bath, England, Jane Austen, her sister Cassandra, and her parents stay at coastal Sidmouth for several weeks during the summer of 1801. Jane relishes the views, sea bathing, and visiting with her brother Frank, who’s temporarily home from the Navy with a handsome friend in tow. But there are other intriguing men with whom Jane spends time in this delightful novel. Read-alikes: Natalie Jenner's Austen at Sea; Gill Hornby’s Godmersham Park.

One of Us
by Dan Chaon

In 1915, 13-year-old orphaned twins Bolt and Eleanor, who share a psychic connection, run away from a murderous man claiming to be their uncle. They end up with Mr. Jengling’s Emporium of Wonders, which includes a death-foretelling woman and a dog-faced boy. While Bolt settles in, Eleanor doesn’t, and they still have their “uncle” on their trail in this “mesmerizing and macabre historical adventure.” (Booklist).

The Girls of the Glimmer Factory
by Jennifer Coburn

From the author of Cradles of the Reich comes a story of childhood friends forced onto opposite sides of a propaganda war in a "model" ghetto in World War II Czechoslovakia, Hitler's "gift to the Jews."

Before Dorothy
by Hazel Gaynor

Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have made a life in the warmth of the community of Liberal, Kansas, and among the harsh beauty of the prairie. Their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep. The wide-eyed child isn't the only thing to disrupt Emily's world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and their much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy.

Boleyn Traitor
by Philippa Gregory

The author of The Other Boleyn Girl returns to the court of Henry VIII with a novel about the high cost of loyalty, love and betrayal.

Picasso's Lovers
by Jeanne Mackin

In the 1950s, aspiring journalist Alana Olson seeks out one of the women in Picasso's life, who paints a vibrant, yet tragic, picture of his once-vibrant social circle, forcing Alana to contend with her own reality in the male-dominated world of art journalism and the rising threat to civil rights in America.

World Pacific : a Novel
by Peter Mann

As the second world war looms, vanished writer Richard Halifax's secrets ripple through the lives of émigré painter Hildegard Rauch and intelligence officer Simon Faulk, whose intertwined quests reveal betrayal, espionage and the fragile narratives that keep them afloat amid global upheaval.

Dear Miss Lake : a Novel
by A. J. Pearce

During wartime, advice columnist Emmy Lake and the Woman's Friend staff relocate to the countryside, where Emmy balances rural life, a looming wedding and the possibility of war correspondence, in the fourth novel of the series following Mrs. Porter Calling.

This Here Is Love
by Princess Joy L. Perry

In the 1690s, three young people come of age in Virginia: enslaved Bless, who’s all her mother has left; enslaved David, whose father is a free Black man; and Scots Irish indentured servant Jack, who’s an orphan. As they grapple with survival, love, and tough decisions, their lives eventually converge. This evocative, accomplished debut uses multiple voices to tell a powerful story. For fans of: Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher; Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

The Hounding
by Xenobe Purvis

In 18th-century Oxfordshire, a ferryman claims he saw one of the Mansfield girls turn into a dog. Soon villagers blame the girl and her four sisters, aged between six and 19, for the terrible heat, failing crops, and the dead body at the edge of the Thames River. Menacing and atmospheric, this timely Gothic-tinged debut explores misogyny, herd mentality, and resentment. For fans of: Chris Bohjalian’s Hour of the Witch; Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

Buckeye
by Patrick Ryan

On Victory in Europe Day, 1945, while her husband is away in the Pacific, beautiful Margaret shares a celebratory kiss with married hardware store clerk Cal Jenkins, whose physical disability kept him from enlisting. This leads to a connection between their small-town Ohio families for decades, where their sons grow up together but take different paths in the Vietnam era. For fans of: Read with Jenna books; vivid, heartfelt novels about families and war.

So Far Gone : a Novel
by Jess Walter

A reclusive man living off the grid in a remote cabin is forced back into the world when his estranged daughter disappears, leading him, his sharp-tongued ex, and an unstable retired detective on a chaotic search that pits them against a dangerous militia.

One of Them : a Novel
by Kitty Zeldis

No one knows that typical Vassar sophomore Anne is Jewish, or that her real name is Miriam, and she ignores the casual anti-Semitism at Vassar; her secret life is threatened by her friendship with unashamedly Jewish Delia.

Contact your librarian for more great books!