|
|
Historical Fiction August 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
Miss Batesby Catherine CliffMiss Bates, creepy, funny, and heartbreaking, is a daring reimagining of the world of Jane Austen's Emma. But make no mistake, this is no marriage plot; it is a spinster plot. Or maybe, it is the spinster's plot. Henrietta Bates, the iconic bore of Emma, is the opposite of handsome, clever, and rich Emma: she is plain, ill-educated, and impoverished. An unmarried woman of quite a different order from that novel's proudly single heroine, she is an object of scorn and pity, whose survival depends upon the generosity of her neighbors which she barters for with an unrelenting shower of banal and grateful chatter. But what if the woman we see in Emma were actually deliberately assuming a role, donning a mask, as a means of managing an untenable situation? Miss Bates turns Austen's poignant and ridiculous side character into a feminist force who understands innately the life she has been dealt and how to slyly play it to her advantage. For another reimagining of an Austen character, try The Other Bennet Sister by Janet Hadlow.
|
|
| 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. You might also like: The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. |
|
|
|
Lost in the Summer of '69 by Eliza KnightSummer, 1969. Eleanor Bell doesn't have anything to lose. According to her doctors, she might not remember how to sing or play guitar soon, so why not head west now? Why not join the music festivals sweeping the country and lose herself in the music again in a swan song of her own?Eleanor forgets, maybe on purpose, to tell anyone where she's going. When her daughter, Leanne, discovers her mother missing, she enlists the help of her own daughter, Nora, to help her find Eleanor. When Nora hears her grandmother on the radio singing, she and Leanne hop in their Lincoln Continental for a cross-country road trip, always one step behind Eleanor, who has been dubbed the Dame of Rock n' Roll by none other than Johnny Carson. Full of nostalgia and awash with the warmth of summer, Lost in the Summer of '69 is an epic celebration of savoring the encore, no matter what the next act may bring.
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
|
Meet the Newmans by Jennifer NivenFor over ten years, the Newmans have starred in a hit TV show based on their lives. In 1964, when dad Del is in a mysterious car accident, his wife Dinah suddenly needs to write a script for the season finale or risk their show being canceled. Meanwhile, rock star son Shep gets a girl pregnant, and steady Guy hides the truth about his love life. Funny, big-hearted, and deeply moving, Meet the Newmans is a rich family story about the dual lives we lead. Because even when our lives aren't televised weekly, we all have a behind-the-scenes. For fans of: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
|
|
| 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. |
|
| 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). For more information about Helen Gurley Brown, try Gerri Hirshey's biography, Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown. |
|
|
|
Cool Machine by Colson WhiteheadAn exuberantly entertaining novel that brings to life 1980s New York in the magnificent final volume of Colson Whitehead's Harlem Trilogy. With his usual pitch-perfect prose, Whitehead paints a portrait of a city in transition, where shimmering skyscrapers rise to the heavens as displaced people huddle in abandoned tunnels below. In a dazzling display of protean imagination, Cool Machine roves all over the city, from Windows on the World to the Meadowlands, to show that in New York, and in the lives of Whitehead's vivid characters, it's what's below the surface that reveals the truth.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|