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Historical Fiction August 2022 |
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| Dr. B. by Daniel BirnbaumWhat it is: a fast-paced, richly detailed debut novel about a German Jewish journalist who escapes to Sweden at the beginning of World War II and gets involved in anti-Nazi expat espionage.
About the author: Dr. B. is the debut novel by Daniel Birnbaum, former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm and is based on his grandfather's wartime experiences.
Reviewers say: "A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Grand Design by Joy CallawayWhat it's about: In 1946, interior designer Dorothy Draper is renovating the scenic West Virginia Greenbrier resort after it was used as a hospital during the war. As she works, she reminisces about a formative summer she spent there in her youth.
1908: Under pressure from her parents to choose a suitable husband from among the other blue-blooded families who summer at the Greenbrier, Dorothy instead falls for the glamorous race car driver nephew of a visiting Italian diplomat. |
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| Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel CleetonWhat it is: the intricately plotted follow-up to The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, which first introduced readers to the women of the Perez family of Cuban exiles.
This time: It's 1964 and Isabel goes to Barcelona, where impulsive Beatriz has vanished after getting mixed up in anti-Franco espionage. In flashback sequences, the story also explores their mother's life in the 1930s, during the Spanish Civil War. |
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| On Gin Lane by Brooke Lea FosterThe setup: It's the summer of 1957 and NY socialite Everleigh "Lee" Farrows is looking forward to traveling to the Hamptons, even more so after her fiancé Roland surprises her with a hotel built and named in her honor.
What goes wrong: A shocking event on the hotel's opening weekend leaves the building in rubble and her relationship with Roland changed forever. As he grows increasingly distant and secretive, Lee starts questioning not just the future they'd planned together, but everything she's been taught about her place in the world. |
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| The Twilight World by Werner HerzogAuthor alert: Yep, that Werner Herzog.
What it's about: the harrowing true story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who arrived in the Philippines during World War II and was the second to last known "holdout" until he surrendered in 1974.
Read it for: the atmospheric tone of this character-driven narrative, which is all the more moving for the spare, poetic writing style Herzog deploys. |
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| By Her Own Design by Piper HuguleyWho it's about: fashion designer Ann Lowe, who is best known for designing the dress Jacqueline Bouvier wore for her wedding to John F. Kennedy.
How it begins: Several days before the Bouvier-Kennedy wedding a burst pipe in her shop ruins Jackie's dress. Lowe, who has risen from Jim Crow Alabama to become the designer of choice to the society register, reflects on her life while working tirelessly with her staff to create a replacement.
You might also like: Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini, the story of Elizabeth Keckley, another Black woman who dressed a First Lady. To hear from Keckley herself, try her autobiography Behind the Scenes. |
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| December '41 by William MartinWhat it's about: Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nazi agent Martin Browning, who has been working in Los Angeles, plots to assassinate President Roosevelt during the lighting of the National Christmas Tree.
What makes it unique: the people in a position to stop Browning's plan from coming to fruition include some unlikely candidates, including a low-ranking Hollywood script reader and a former aspiring actress who has decided to return home to Maryland. |
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| A Trail of Crab Tracks by Patrice NganangSeries alert: A Trail of Crab Tracks is the final entry in Patrice Nganang's well-received trilogy about Cameroon's journey to independence from France, which began with Mount Pleasant and its follow-up When the Plums Are Ripe.
This time: After Mount Pleasant took readers to the period before World War II and Plums was set during it, readers will now be taken to the violent, chaotic revolution of the 1960s and the subsequent civil war that tore the country apart.
Reviewers say: "Both intimate and sweeping, this epic brings a satisfying and profound closure to historic events" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele RichardsonWhat it is: the engaging sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which followed Cussy, a woman with a medical condition that made her skin appear blue, who brought books to remote parts of Kentucky working for the New Deal Pack Horse Library Project.
Starring: the new book woman in the holler, Cussy's plucky 16-year-old daughter Honey, who in 1953 is left to fend for herself after anti-miscegenation laws land her parents in prison.
For fans of: The Last Blue by Isla Morley; All the Forgiveness by Elizabeth Hardinger. |
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| Daughters of the Occupation by Shelly SandersWhat it's about: In 1970s Chicago, a young Jewish woman learns a devastating family secret tied to the Nazi and Soviet occupations of her grandmother's native Latvia.
Read it for: the compelling, moving examination of issues like wartime trauma, family separation, estrangement, and the sacrifices sometimes required to survive.
Try these next: Shadows of Berlin by David R. Gillham; Stella's Carpet by Lucy E.M. Black. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Atlantic County Library System | 40 Farragut Avenue, Mays Landing, NJ 08330
Phone: (609) 625-2776 | www.atlanticlibrary.org
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|  | Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson
Atlantic County Board of Commissioners, Maureen Kern, Chairwoman |
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