Historical Fiction
January 2026

Recent Releases
The Eights by Joanna Miller
The Eights
by Joanna Miller

In 1920, Oxford University admits degree-seeking women for the first time. On Corridor Eight, insecure Beatrice, socialite Otto, scholarship student Marianne, and grieving Dora bond as they navigate sexism, personal loss, societal expectations, and the lingering trauma of World War I. This well-researched, character-driven debut will please fans of Natalie Jenner's Bloomsbury Girls and Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night.
Helm
by Sarah Hall

The Helm, a ferocious, mischievous wind in Northwest England, occasionally makes its way down the highest mountain in the Pennines. Narrated by a personified Helm, this intriguing, inventive novel covers the wind's beginnings when the world was new and on through time via the stories of various humans, including Neolithic tribe members, a medieval mathematician, early balloonists, a Victorian child, meteorologists, Royal Air Force pilots, and more.
The Book of Lost Hours: A GMA Book Club Pick (a Novel) by Hayley Gelfuso
The Book of Lost Hours: A GMA Book Club Pick (a Novel)
by Hayley Gelfuso

A spectacular historical and speculative novel about a WWII-era girl who grows up trapped in the time space, a cavernous library featuring books that house memories--but while government agents burn memories they wish to erase, she saves them, until an affair with an American CIA agent as a young woman changes the course of her life--
The Cost of a Hostage: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw
The Cost of a Hostage: A Lane Winslow Mystery
by Iona Whishaw

It's a slow August morning in King's Cove. Lane has a book to read and, at the Nelson Police Station, her husband, Inspector Darling, and his team are experiencing a rare lull. Then Lane receives news that Darling's brother Bob has gone missing in Mexico and, at the same time, the police station is visited by the frantic mother of a boy kidnapped from his bedroom. From bustling Mexico City, through the desert and into the mountain range beyond, Darling and Lane's search for Bob puts them out of the realm of the law and at the mercy of a local bandido. Meanwhile Ames and Terrell's case becomes even more puzzling when a body is found mangled in the paddlewheel of a ferry boat, and Terrell's favourite soon-to-be police officer April has a chance to prove her mettle. The latest Winslow mystery questions the roles of men and women, husbands and wives, and of course a certain police inspector and King's Cove's resident sleuth--
Books You May Have Missed
Strangers in Time
by David Baldacci

Navigating life in London as World War II rages, Ignatius Oliver (a widowed bookseller with secrets), Charlie Matters (an orphaned 14-year-old who steals for food), and Molly Wakefield (a well-to-do 15-year-old whose parents are missing), create a safe haven with each other even as bombs fall. Read-alike: The Lilac People by Milo Todd; The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli.
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
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.
I Survived the Dust Bowl, 1935 (I Survived #25) by Lauren Tarshis
I Survived the Dust Bowl, 1935 (I Survived #25)
by Lauren Tarshis

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was the worst environmental disaster in American history, a time when black blizzards of dust, some hundreds of miles wide, swept across the southern plains. Hundreds of people were killed. Thousands of farms were buried. Millions of refugees fled starvation and sickness in the plains only to face hatred and prejudice in California. ... he thrilling story of an eleven-year-old boy who risks his life to save his family and friends during the worst dust storm of all, an event that would become known as Black Sunday. Includes a section of nonfiction back matter with more facts and photos about the real-life event.--Provided by publisher.
Before Dorothy
by Hazel Gaynor

Emily Gale and her new husband Henry move to Kansas to start a farm, leaving Emily's dear sister Annie and her newborn Dorothy behind in the city. Just a few years later, in 1932, Annie dies and the couple adopt Dorothy. But the youngster isn't the only big change in the couple's world -- drought and devastating dust storms threaten everything. For other Oz retellings, try: After Oz by Gordon McAlpine; Toto by A.J. Hackwith, or Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts.
On Isabella Street by Genevieve Graham
On Isabella Street
by Genevieve Graham

Instant Bestseller From #1 bestselling author Genevieve Graham comes a gripping novel set in Toronto and Vietnam during the turbulent sixties about two women caught up in powerful social movements and the tragedy that will bring them together--perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah's The Women. Toronto, 1967. Two young women with different backgrounds, attitudes, and aptitudes are living in an exciting but confusing time, the most extreme counter-culture movement the modern world has ever seen. They have little in common except for the place they both call home: an apartment building on Isabella Street. The strength of their unlikely friendship means that when one grapples with a catastrophic event, the other must do all she can to make it right. Inspired by the unfettered optimism and crushing disillusionment of the sixties, On Isabella Street is an extraordinary novel about the enduring bonds of friendship and family and the devastating cost of war.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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