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Historical Fiction August 2025 |
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The boxcar librarian : a novel
by Brianna Labuskes
During the Great Depression, Works Progress Administration editor Millie Lang is sent to Montana to investigate sabotage at her project and uncovers a mystery surrounding Alice Monroe, her Boxcar Library, and the disappearance of librarian Colette Durand years earlier.
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Daikon : a novel
by Samuel Jay Hawley
"A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific-not two-and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this strange new device"
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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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| How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard DayleVolunteering for the Union Army to escape his abusive mother, wily 15-year-old flag bearer Anders changes sides when he's captured. But after surviving the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, the white teen passes as biracial and joins an all-Black Union regiment. Satirical and offbeat, this debut novel is "an American Candide...[and] channels the absurdity of Catch-22" (Publishers Weekly). For fans of: The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. |
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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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| Days of Light by Megan HunterOn Easter Sunday, 1938, 19-year-old Ivy is questioning her path in life when her older brother goes missing while swimming at their English estate, reshaping her world. Taking place on this and five other significant days in Ivy's life, this thoughtful novel follows her as she grows close to her brother's fiancée, marries, has children, and makes changes in her later years. Read-alikes: Yael van der Wouden's The Safekeep; Virginia Woolf's novels. |
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| Angel Down by Daniel KrausAfter intense fighting in France's Argonne Forest during World War I, American Cyril Bagger is ordered along with four other misfits to "silence" the soldier stuck in No Man's Land producing unearthly screams -- but what they find is an injured angel wrapped in barbed wire, whom they agree to protect. Compelling and innovative in both structure and story, this is the buzzy latest by the author of Whalefall. Try this next: Chigozie Obioma's The Road to the Country. |
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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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