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Historical Fiction June 2024
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Becoming Madam Secretary
by Stephanie Dray
New York City, 1901: New to the city, Frances Perkins, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference, works with children in the crowded tenements of Hell's Kitchen, In her free time, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.
A new direction: Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, and sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he's a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she's a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.
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| The Book of Thorns by Hester FoxBelgium, 1815: Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and out of options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon’s Grande Armée. As a naturalist, her mysterious ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers…and suspicion. Her secret - the flowers speak to her through a mystical connection she has felt since childhood.
A message: As Napoleon’s army descends on Waterloo, the flowers sing to Cornelia of her sister, lost long ago, who is now a Belgian servant girl. Determined to reunite with Lijsbeth despite being on opposite sides of the war, Cornelia is drawn into a whirlwind of betrayal, secrets, and lies. Brought together by fate and magic at the peak of the war, the sisters must uncover the key to the source of the power that connects them, as accusations of witchcraft swirl and threaten to destroy their very lives. |
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Clear: A Novel
by Carys Davies
Scotland, 1840s: In the final years of the Scottish Clearances, John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
The accident: Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. A bond develops between the two men-- John begins to learn Ivar’s language, and Ivar sees himself reflected through the eyes of another person for the first time in decades.
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Empire: A Novel of the Golden Age
by Conn Iggulden
Athens, 430 BC: Pericles, returns home more than a hero: he's the leader of Athens, the lion of Athens, the empire's beacon of light. But even during times of peace, the threat of Sparta—Athens's legendary rival—looms large on the horizon.
A sudden catastrophe: Sparta is brought to its knees, and Pericles sees a golden opportunity to forever shift the balance of power in his city's favor. Sparta may be weak, but it's power is far from extinguished. Soon a ruthless young boy steps forward to lead the Spartans back to greatness. As the drums of battle draw closer, can Pericles rise to victory once more—or will the world's greatest empire fall under his watch?
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The Great Divide: A Novel
by Cristina Henrâiquez
Panama, 1907: The canal will be the greatest feat of engineering history. It will take activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers to complete the project. This novel explores how their lives intersected.
Some of the characters: Omar, a local boy, hopes this job as a digger will offer a chance to finally find connection. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in a single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria.
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The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club: A Novel
by Helen Simonson
England, 1919: Constance Haverhill is without prospects now that all the men have returned from the front. She has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. There she meets Poppy Wirrall, who wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle.
Changes: As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
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Time's Undoing: A Novel
by Cheryl A. Head
Alabama, 1929: Robert Lee Harrington, a master carpenter, has just moved to Birmingham to pursue a job opportunity, bringing along his pregnant wife and young daughter. Birmingham is in its heyday, known as the “Magic City” for its booming steel industry, and while Robert and his family find much to enjoy in the city’s busy markets and vibrant nightlife, it’s also a stronghold for the Klan. And with his beautiful, light-skinned wife and snazzy car, Robert begins to worry that he might be drawing the wrong kind of attention. 2019: Meghan McKenzie, the youngest reporter at the Detroit Free Press, has grown up hearing family lore about her great-grandfather’s murder—but no one knows the full story of what really happened back then, and his body was never found. Determined to find answers to her family’s long-buried tragedy, and spurred by the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Meghan travels to Birmingham. But as her investigation begins to uncover dark secrets that spider across both the city and time, her life may be in danger. Inspired by true events.
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Evergreen
by Naomi Hirahara
California, 1947: It's been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California--but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles. Aki is working as a nurse's aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries.
Mystery: When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband's best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse? Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki's home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in a murder investigation?
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The Keeper of Hidden Books: A Novel
by Madeline Martin
Poland, 1939-1945: All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things: books and her best friend, Janina. But no one could have imagined the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. As the bombs rain down and Hitler's forces loot and destroy the city, Zofia finds that now books are also in need of saving.
Brave solutions: With the death count rising, Zofia jumps to action to save her friend and salvage whatever books she can from the wreckage, hiding them away and even starting a clandestine book club. She and her dearest friend never surrender their love of reading, even when Janina is forced into the newly formed ghetto. As Warsaw creeps closer toward liberation, Zofia must fight to save her friend and preserve her culture and community using the only weapon they have left: literature.
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Contact your library for more great books!
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Longwood Public Library800 Middle Country RoadMiddle Island, New York 11953 (631) 924-6400
longwoodlibrary.org |
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