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Historical Fiction August 2026 |
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The Secret Society of Librarians
by Kate Thompson
The Secret Society of Librarians is a heartbreaking yet heartwarming wartime library-set novel, inspired by real people, real stories, and extensive research. Meeting through real-life Secret Society of Librarians in London, two women form a close bond. When WW2 hits, they take their libraries underground, creating create a roaming underground library. But when one of them is taken to Poland and a concentration camp, they think there is no chance of ever being reunited again...
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| The Top of the World by Ethan JoellaChip Bishop is 18 years old and dying of leukemia in the summer of 1974. Not telling his family his plans, he leaves home, finding work at a Poconos resort before returning to his family in the autumn for his final weeks of life. In 1975, his sister Maggie gets a job at the same resort, trying to understand why Chip left and what he did while he was gone. Alternating between the two summers, this is a heartfelt look at grief, friendship, family, and hope. |
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| Summer of Love by Kerri MaherPoet Winnie Hartley and her musician boyfriend live together in the midst of 1967 San Francisco's counterculture, but their union is volatile. Further up the coast, Winnie's sister Miranda dedicates herself to the family vineyard and wine business. Forty years later, Miranda's newly sober daughter discovers children's books that perfectly describe her family vineyard and sets out to find the famously anonymous author. Read-alikes: Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz; California Golden by Melanie Benjamin. |
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| The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-GarciaIn 1940s Mexico, handsome Ulises charms lonely women to get their money. His newest mark, middle-aged Perla, is the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But things don't go as Ulises planned: Perla has a niece who wants in on his scheme. The two team up, but there's still trouble since Perla isn't the needy spinster Ulises thought she was. For fans of: atmospheric, pulp-inspired historical noirs. |
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| There's Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed NewsonIn the 1950s, married Hollywood fixer Aaron Touissant has an anonymous sexual encounter with up-and-coming actor Xavier C. Barlow in a bathroom. Then they're reunited on a biopic of a famous World War II hero, whom Aaron had a romantic relationship with when he was in the Navy. Chronicling the lives of three queer Black men in 1950s and '60s Tinseltown, this gritty character-driven novel is told via a 1971 letter. Try this next: Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. |
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| The Queen's Coronation by Jennifer RyanIn 1953, Buckingham Palace staff prepare for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation while navigating their own lives: Caroline, assistant dresser to the queen, married for convenience and regrets it; beautiful wardrobe assistant Lucy dreams of singing stardom, capturing the attention of a deceitful man; and American Miranda, a temporary secretary, secretly writes about the coronation for her sexist boss in New York. But with new friends, the women might find new paths. Try this next: Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. |
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| Single Girls by John SearlesAfter the success of Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown is named editor of failing Cosmopolitan magazine in 1965. She assembles a team of smart, savvy women, and their lives become the stuff of magazine cover lines (Champagne hot tubs! Clashes with Joan Crawford!). Also covering Gurley's childhood and her later years, this fun read by former Cosmopolitan editor John Searles "sparkles" (Library Journal). Read-alike: Gill Paul's Scandalous Women. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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