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Historical Fiction August 2025
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| Typewriter Beach by Meg Waite ClaytonAmid McCarthyism in 1957, Isabella Giori dreams of being Alfred Hitchcock's favorite blonde actress. But while temporarily staying at a Carmel-by-the-Sea cottage, she becomes friends with blacklisted writer Leo, changing both of their lives. In 2018, Leo's granddaughter clears out his cottage after his death, meeting his neighbor Isabella and finding secrets in his safe. Read-alikes: Susan Meissner's A Map to Paradise; Sarah Jane Stratford's Red Letter Days. |
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The magician of Tiger Castle
by Louis Sachar
"The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us. Long ago and faraway (and somewhere south of France), lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance with Oxatania, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and the odious Oxatanian Prince. However, one month before the "Wedding of the Century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess--or risk ruin?"
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| The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin HarmelIn Nazi-occupied France, Colette Marceau's mother is executed while her four-year-old sister disappears and is later found dead. Trained by her mother, Colette becomes a jewel thief, targeting the bad to give to the good, and in 2018 Boston, she's still working when a special bracelet linked to her sister appears in a museum. Elderly Colette seeks answers, hoping to finally learn what happened decades ago in this sweeping dual-timeline tale. Read-alike: Pam Jenoff's Last Twilight in Paris. |
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Strangers in time
by David Baldacci
"Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he's old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there's no telling when a falling bomb might end his life. Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via "Operation Pied Piper," Molly has been away from her parents--from her home--for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she'd hoped for as she's confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there, only her old nanny, Mrs. Pride. Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where A book a day keeps the bombs away. Mourning the recent loss of hiswife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other--over the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seen--they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.
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Bury our bones in the midnight soil
by Victoria Schwab
From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue comes a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.
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The Stolen Queen
by Fiona Davis
In 1937, Charlotte Cross studies anthropology in the Valley of the Kings, but there are odd goings-on. In 1978 New York, she's a Met curator when a priceless artifact disappears during the Met Gala. Along with 18-year-old Annie Jenkins, Gala organizer Diana Vreeland's assistant, Charlotte goes to Egypt to face her past and retrieve the item. Read-alikes: Bryn Turnbull's The Paris Deception; Gill Paul's The Collector's Daughter.
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| The Great Mann by Kyra Davis LurieThis evocative take on The Great Gatsby set in 1945 Los Angeles finds Charlie Trammell back from the war and trying out a place that he hopes won't judge people by the color of their skin as much as the South. Pulled into the glamourous neighborhood of Sugar Hill where his married cousin Margie lives, Charlie meets an enigmatic man. Meanwhile, the wealthy Black enclave is threatened by a lawsuit by white homeowners. Read-alikes: Gayl Jones' The Unicorn Woman; Percival Everett's James.
electronic format LIBBY AUDIOBOOK |
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The Paper Birds
by Jeanette Lynes
Jemma Sullivan is pulled deeper in wartime intelligence work. She becomes an integral part of the codebreakers circle. The Cottage Codebreaking circle is small but determined, but in order to become successful they must learn to work together. But when Gemmma begins fraternnizing with a handsome POW, who later disappears, she risks losing everything.
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| Wayward Girls by Susan WiggsThis moving novel of survival, friendship, and redemption follows six teenage girls at an abusive Catholic reform school in 1968 Buffalo, New York, who have been sent there due to pregnancy, lesbianism, or to protect them from family members. Based on a real place, this character-driven novel also revisits the girls in later years. For fans of: Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These; Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys; V.S. Alexander's The Magdalen Girls. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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