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Historical Fiction September 2019
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All the forgivenesses
by Elizabeth Hardinger
Appalachia and the Midwest, turn of the 20th century: 15-year-old Albertina “Bertie” Winslow leads her farm family through a series of challenges and hard-won triumphs.
What you might like: A strong female protagonist with family loyalty and resilience, who develops emotionally.
Inspired by stories told by the author’s mother and aunts.
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The Chelsea girls : a novel
by Fiona Davis
New York City, 1940-1960: The Chelsea Hotel has long been New York City's creative oasis for the many artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and poets who have called it home. Two women, scene playwright Hazel Riley, and actress Maxine Mead, are determined to use this to their advantage.
What conspires: Their Broadway ambitions are complicated by the impact of McCarthy-era witch hunts involving the hotel's creative residents.
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The Chocolate Maker's Wife
by Karen Brooks
London, 1666: This story begins in the year of the the Plague and the Great Fire of London. "The Restoration, was a naughty, violent, politically and religiously fraught, dangerous, cruel, exhilarating, and incredibly sensual time". (Author's note)
Plot: An illegitimate nobleman’s daughter is rescued from abuse and drudgery by a chocolate proprietor in 17th-century London, where her high-society popularity is unknowingly threatened by her employer’s secret past.
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| Costalegre by Courtney Maum1939: 15-year-old Lara's recounting of her heiress mother's scheme to smuggle a group of Surrealist artists out of Nazi Germany and install them at Mexico's posh Costalegre resort.
Inspired by: the complicated mother-daughter relationship of American socialite Peggy and painter Pegeen Guggenheim.
Why you might like it: Structured as a series of diary entries, this novel juxtaposes keen observations of Costalegre's bohemian guests with a lonely girl's quest to become an artist in her own right. |
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The lost daughter : a novel
by Gill Paul
Russia, 1918: Pretty, vivacious Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, the nineteen-year-old sister of Anastasia, lives with her family, now imprisoned. Her days are a combination of endless boredom and paralyzing fear; her only respite are clandestine flirtations with a few of the guards imprisoning the family—never realizing her innocent actions could mean the difference between life and death.
Australia, 1973: Val Doyle, a housewife investigates her father’s deathbed confession, leading to a startling discovery about the true fate of Maria, the lost Romanov daughter.
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| Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly's Royal Wedding by Hazel Gaynor and Heather WebbWhat it's about: American actress Grace Kelly's romance with and marriage to Prince Rainer III of Monaco.
As seen through the eyes of: Provençal parfumeur Sophie Duval, who becomes Kelly's confidante, and British press photographer James Henderson, with whom Sophie falls in love.
For fans of: royal weddings, old Hollywood glamour, atmospheric settings, and bittersweet love stories. |
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Nottingham
by Nathan Makaryk
England, 1191: No king. No rules. King Richard is half a world away, fighting for God and his own ambition. Back home, his country languishes, bankrupt and on the verge of anarchy. People with power are running unchecked. People without are growing angry. And in Nottingham, one of the largest shires in England, the sheriff seems intent on doing nothing about it.
What conspires: As the leaves turn gold in the Sherwood Forest, the lives of six people become intertwined. And a strange story begins to spread . . .
Enjoy this fresh, modern & complex retelling of the legend of Robin Hood.
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Tidelands
by Philippa Gregory
England, mid-17th-century: The country is in the grip of civil war and the struggle reaches to every corner of the kingdom, even the remote Tidelands.
Plot: Alinor, a woman without a husband and skilled with herbs, is targeted by witchcraft mania. When she helps a young man on the run she unwittingly brings disaster into the heart of her life.
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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. |
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The winemaker's wife
by Kristin Harmel
Champagne, France, 1940: Inès has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade. As the danger mounts, Michel turns his back on his marriage to begin hiding munitions for the Résistance. Inès fears they’ll be exposed, but for Céline, half-Jewish wife of Chauveau’s chef de cave, the risk is even greater—rumors abound of Jews being shipped east to an unspeakable fate.
New York, 2019: Liv Kent has just lost everything when her eccentric French grandmother shows up unannounced, insisting on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive—and a tragic, decades-old story to share. When past and present finally collide, Liv finds herself on a road to salvation that leads right to the caves of the Maison Chauveau.
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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 CashNorth Carolina, 1929: Inspired by true events, this is the story of millworker, Ella May, a 28 year old mother of four, who risks everything to join a union. Seventy-five years later, Ella May’s daughter Lilly, now an elderly woman, tells her nephew about his grandmother and the events that transformed their family.
Why you might like it: Intertwining myriad voices, Wiley Cash brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the labor movement in early twentieth-century America—and pays tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. |
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| The Widows by Jess MontgomeryKinship, Ohio, 1924: 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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| Work Song by Ivan DoigButte, Montana, 1919: Lured like so many others by "the richest hill on earth," Morrie steps off the train in Butte, copper-mining capital of the world, in its jittery heyday. First introduced in The Whistling Season, itinerant scapegrace Morrie Morgan 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. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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