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| A Bend in the Stars by Rachel BarenbaumRussia, 1914: When her physicist brother, Vanya, goes missing en route to observe a solar eclipse, Jewish surgeon Miri Abramov embarks on a desperate rescue mission, accompanied by a charming army deserter.
What's at stake: Vanya believes that photographing the eclipse will verify or disprove Einstein's general theory of relativity, while Miri fears that if the coming war doesn't kill them both, the Czar's pogroms will.
Reviewers say: "exhilarating" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara CollinsIntroducing: Frannie Langton, a Jamaican servant languishing in Newgate Prison as she awaits trial for the murders of her employers.
Why you might like it: Framed as Frannie's confession, this debut offers Gothic atmosphere, vivid recreations of both West Indian sugar plantations and Georgian London, and a penetrating exploration of Enlightenment-era scientific racism.
Want a taste? "The cold seemed to carry its own smell, like raw meat, and came on me sudden as a cutpurse.” |
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Montauk
by Nicola Harrison
Montauk, Long Island, 1938: Beatrice Bordeaux is looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and her husband, Harry.
Bea finds herself sequestered with the high society wives at The Montauk Manor--a two-hundred room seaside hotel--while Harry pursues other interests in the city.
Soon she drifts further from the society women and their preoccupations and closer toward Montauk's natural beauty and community spirit.
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Prairie fever : a novel
by Michael Parker
Setting: The hardscrabble prairie town of Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, in the early 1900s
What Happens: Two sisters find their special bond tested when they both fall for a newly-arrived teacher in the town’s one-room schoolhouse.
Why you'd like it: It tells the story of characters tested as much by life on the prairie as they are by their own churning hearts.
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The Summer Country
by Lauren Willig
Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan.Then she Inherits the ruins of a Barbados sugar plantation. Emily is seduced by the region's dark tropical beauty.
Plot Twist: Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills?
A brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, The Summer Country will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds..
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Time after time : a novel
by Lisa Grunwald
1937, Grand Central Terminal: Trapped by magical rules she cannot understand, an aspiring artist forges a romantic relationship with a hardworking railroad man before a landmark construction threatens their future together.
With infinite love in a finite space, they take full advantage of the "Terminal City" within a city, dining at the Oyster Bar, visiting the Whispering Gallery, and making a home at the Biltmore Hotel.
Delving into Grand Central's rich past, Lisa Grunwald crafts a masterful historical novel about a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time.
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The Tubman Command
by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman
What it's about: iconic abolitionist Harriet Tubman and her role in the 1863 Raid on Combahee Ferry, in which black soldiers from the 2nd South Carolina Infantry raided lowcountry plantations, destroying Confederate supplies and liberating 750 enslaved men and women.
What sets it apart: This well-researched novel by the author of The Hamilton Affair focuses on Tubman's lesser-known deeds as a scout and spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Further reading: Catherine Clinton's biography Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom.
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The woman in the white kimono
by Ana Johns
1950's Japan: A novel inspired by true events traces the intertwined stories of a young woman from 1950s Japan and a journalist in modern America who discovers her father's long-buried secrets.
Characters Conflicts: A searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.
Sample: “The ground beneath my feet shifts, causing outward tremors in all directions. We stand on a cultural fault line, the fracture running miles deep, and the potential aftermath catastrophic. My intent may displace sides, but this baby connects us all like a bridge...”
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The Flight Portfolio
by Julie Orringer
Vichy, France 1940: Varian Fry--a Harvard educated American journalist--traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to rescue within a few weeks.
Instead, he ended up staying in France for thirteen months, working as a volunteer for the Emergency Rescue Committee, to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and set up an underground railroad.
Is it for you? Although it takes some liberties with the biographical details of Fry's life, The Flight Portfolio offers a well-researched depiction of the ERC's activities in assisting refugees during WWII.
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Mistress of the Ritz : a novel
by Melanie Benjamin
Hotel Ritz, Paris 1940: The hotel, legendary for its unprecedented luxury and for its fabled residents, becomes a headquarters used by the Nazis to rule over a paralyzed city.
The director of the luxurious hotel, Claude and his wife American actress Blanche Auzello, risk their marriage and lives to support the French Resistance during World War II.
Why you will like it: Intimate, fearless, and moving, it spins a brilliantly and unforgettably vivid human portrait at a time of unimaginable crisis and sacrifice.
By the best-selling author of The Aviator's Wife
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The spies of Shilling Lane : a novel
by Jennifer Ryan
WWII London: Scandalous divorcee and village busybody, Mrs. Braithwaite, travels to London in search of her missing daughter - an effort that is complicated by a difficult secret.
What ensues: Mrs. Braithwaite and her daughter's landlord, the reluctant Mr. Norris as her unwitting sidekick, storm into the London Blitz, as they piece together Betty’s unexpectedly chaotic life.
What you will enjoy: The charming and unforgettable Mrs. Braithwaite and her plucky, ruthless optimism. A novel with surprising twists and turns, quiet humor, and a poignant examination of mothers and daughters and the secrets we keep.
A follow-up to The Chilbury Ladies' Choir.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! Published June 2019 |
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