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Historical Fiction April 2024
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| All Our Yesterdays by Joel H. MorrisScotland, 11th Century: Born in a noble household and granddaughter of a forgotten Scottish king, a young girl carries the guilt of her mother’s death and the weight of an unknowable prophecy. When she is married, at fifteen, to the Mormaer of Moray, she experiences firsthand the violence of a sadistic husband and a kingdom constantly at war. To survive with her young son in a superstitious realm, she must rely on her own cunning and wit, especially when her husband’s downfall inadvertently sets them free.
Suspicious of the dark devices that may have led to his father’s death: Her son watches as his mother falls in love with the enigmatic thane Macbeth. Now a woman of stature, Lady Macbeth confronts a world of masculine power and secures the protection of her family. But the coronation of King Duncan and the political maneuvering of her cousin Macduff set her on a tragic course, one where her own success might mean embracing the very curse that haunts her and risking the child she loves. |
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| Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison PatakiNortheast U.S., 1810-1850: Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated Sage of Concord, to meet his coterie of enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to a young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures out to Walden Pond . . . and a muse to Emerson.
Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama: Her restless soul needs new challenges and adventures, so she charts a singular course against a backdrop of dizzying historical drama: From Boston, where she hosts a salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton; to the editorial meetings of The Dial magazine, where she hones her pen as its co-founder; to Harvard’s library, where she is the first woman permitted entry; to the gritty New York streets where she spars with Edgar Allan Poe and reports on Frederick Douglass. Margaret defies conventions, time and again, as an activist for women and an advocate for humanity, earning admirers and critics alike. |
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The Last Kingdom
by Steve Berry
Bavaria, 1886: King Ludwig II was an enigmatic figure, who was deposed, and mysteriously drowned three days later. Eccentric to the point of madness, in the years before he died Ludwig engaged in a worldwide search for a new kingdom. One separate from Bavaria, a place he could retreat to and rule as he wished. But a question remains: Did he succeed?
Enter Cotton Malone, Today: Luke Daniels, Malone’s Magellan Billet protégé, has managed to infiltrate a renegade group on the trail of a 19th century deed, that proves Ludwig’s long-rumored search bore fruit. A document that could not only secure Bavaria’s independence, but also change the balance of power in the modern world. The United States, China, and Germany all want it. In a race across Bavaria for clues hidden inside Ludwig’s three fairytale castles, Cotton and Luke battle an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries all intent on finding the last kingdom.
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| The Lost Dresses of Italy by M.A. McLaughlinVerona, 1947. Textile historian Marianne Baxter comes to post-war Italy with one thing on her mind: three pristine Victorian dresses once owned by the famous poet Christina Rossetti. Hidden away in a trunk for nearly a century, they were recently discovered at the Fondazione Museo Menigatti and Marianne’s expertise is needed before they go on exhibit. But when she arrives, she discovers an unsupportive but handsome museum owner, a superstitious local community, and a mysterious letter with a scribbled warning hidden among the dresses.
Verona, 1864. Christina Rossetti returns to her family’s homeland in hopes of leaving her unfulfilled personal life and poetry career in England and beginning a new chapter. After a chance encounter with an old family friend, she finds a gift her father once gave her: a small ornate box with the three Muses carved into the lid. When she stumbles across a secret compartment, Christina finds a letter from her father with an urgent and personal request.
Inspired by the real-life mysteries surrounding poet Christina Rossetti. |
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| Neferura by Malayna EvansAncient Egypt, 18th Dynasty (1300 BC): Neferura, princess and high priestess of Kemet, knows her duty is to her people. When your mother is the great Pharaoh, Hatshepsut, it is hard to forget. But Neferura's unique position at court comes with high stakes for her country, especially when she's forced to serve her vile half-brother, a man determined to stop Neferura's potential rise. Peace, it seems, never lasts for women who wield power in the open. Especially when they cross a vengeful man: When Neferura overhears Thutmose's plot to end her mother's rule, she knows he must be stopped, no matter the cost. The discovery of a mysterious tattooed wisewoman and her shadowy network of spies offers an uneasy alliance. But the wisewoman wields more power than Neferura knew possible -- power with the potential to rival her own. Neferura must decide where her loyalties lie and how much she's willing to sacrifice to protect the people she loves before everything crumbles at the hands of a tyrant. |
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The Unsettled
by Ayana Mathis
Bonaparte, Alabama, 1980's: Once 10,000 glorious Black-owned acres, Bonaparte is now a ghost town vanishing to depopulation, crooked developers, and an eerie mist closing in on its shoreline. Dutchess Carson, Bonaparte's fiery, tough-talking protector, fights to keep its remaining one thousand acres in the hands of the last five residents.
Philadelphia, 1980s: From the moment Ava Carson and her ten-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at the Glenn Avenue family shelter Ava is already plotting a way out. She is repulsed by the shelter's squalid conditions: their cockroach-infested room, the barely edible food, and the shifty night security guard. She is determined to rescue her son from the perils and indignities of that place, and to save herself from the complicated past that led them there. Ava has been estranged from her own mother, Dutchess, since she left her Alabama home as a young woman barely out of her teens. Despite their estrangement and the thousand miles between them, mother and daughter are deeply entwined.
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Wild Beautiful and Free: A Novel
by Sophfronia Scott
Mississippi, 1849: Born the daughter of an enslaved woman and a Louisiana plantation owner, Jeannette Bâebinn is raised alongside her white half sister--until her father suddenly dies. His vindictive wife refuses twelve-year-old Jeannette her inheritance and sells her into slavery.
Now on her own: Jeannette must fight the injustices she faces because of her mixed race. She escapes enslavement and travels from Mississippi to Philadelphia to New York to Ohio, all while searching for purpose, love, and her place in a country torn asunder by the burgeoning Civil War. Everything seems to fall into place when she meets Christian Robichaud Colchester, the white proprietor of Fortitude Mansion, a safe haven for escaped slaves where Jeannette teaches. But despite their instant connection, Jeannette isn't convinced she belongs in his circle.
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Contact your librarian 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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