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Historical Fiction September 2019
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The Darwin affair : a novel
by Timothy Mason
Unsettling connections between an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria and the gruesome murder of a petty thief lead Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field to a shocking conspiracy related to the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species
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The woman who spoke to spirits
by Alys Clare
London, 1880. When accounts clerk Ernest Stibbins approaches the World's End investigation bureau with wild claims that his wife Albertina has been warned by her spirit guides that someone is out to harm her, the bureau's owner Lily Raynor and her new employee Felix Wilbraham are initially skeptical. But after she attends a seĢance at the Stibbins family home, Lily comes to realize that Albertina is in terrible danger. And very soon, so too is Lily herself. |
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Someone to honor : a Westcott novel
by Mary Balogh
Abigail Westcott must contend with the infuriating charms of Gilbert Bennington, the lieutenant colonel and superior officer who has escorted her wounded brother, Harry, home from the wars with Napoleon. By the New York Times best-selling author of Someone to Care
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| The Ventriloquists: A Novel by E.R. RamzipoorBelgium, 1943: Ordered to produce pro-Nazi propaganda, a group of journalists and resistance fighters instead publish a parody newspaper mocking the Fuhrer, knowing full well it will be the last thing they ever do.
Why you might like it: Inspired by true events, this well-researched novel boasts a briskly paced storyline, a balanced blend of humor and suspense, and an LBGTQIA-diverse cast that takes turns narrating.
For fans of: Paul Goldberg's The Yid, which similarly unspools a madcap scheme to thwart fascists by a group of marginalized intellectuals. |
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| The Daring Ladies of Lowell by Kate AlcottWhat it's about: In 1832, Alice Barrow leaves her family's New Hampshire farm to find work at a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Complications ensue: While Alice finds camaraderie with her fellow "mill girls," she's troubled by the dangerous working conditions and conflicted by her feelings for Samuel Fiske, the mill owner's son.
Reviewers say: a "spirited story of young working women making hard choices" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Last Ballad by Wiley CashWhy you might like it: Set in 1929 North Carolina, this novel follows millworker and single mother Ella May Wiggins as she risks everything to join a union.
About the author: CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning author Wiley Cash is best known for his rural noir, including A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy.
For fans of: Ron Rash, Daniel Woodrell, or Doug Marlette. |
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| Work Song by Ivan DoigWhat happens: First introduced in The Whistling Season, itinerant scapegrace Morrie Morgan arrives in Butte, Montana, where he becomes the town's librarian and gets caught up in a labor dispute between the Anaconda Copper Company and its workers.
For fans of: warmhearted tales of the American West featuring compelling characters and a strong sense of place.
Want a taste? "I happily stepped into that role of librarian as bartender of information. Presiding over shelves of intoxicating items, dispensing whatever brand of knowledge was ordered up, I am sure I poured generously." |
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| The Widows by Jess MontgomeryThe setting: 1924, Kinship, Ohio, a hardscrabble coal-mining town in the throes of worker unrest.
Starring: Lily Ross, the new acting sheriff of Bronwyn County, and Marvena Whitcomb, a miner's widow turned union organizer.
What happens: After Lily's husband, the sheriff, is murdered and Marvena's daughter goes missing, the two women team up to discover what happened -- and unearth layer upon layer of secrets and lies. |
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| Swimming in the Moon by Pamela SchoenewaldtIntroducing: Lucia Esposito and her mother Teresa, Italian immigrants who arrive in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904.
What happens: Amid the hardships of their new life, Teresa's untreated mental illness undermines her vaudeville career, while Lucia becomes a labor activist and participates in a garment workers' strike.
About the author: Pamela Schoenewaldt's previous novel, When We Were Strangers, also examined the American immigrant experience. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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