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Historical Fiction July 2024
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| Rednecks by Taylor BrownSet in 1920-1921 against the backdrop of the West Virginia Mine Wars, Rednecks follows a group of coal miners donning red bandanas and fighting back against unfair labor practices. The compelling story focuses on a variety of characters, including a Black World War I veteran, a Lebanese American doctor, and Ireland-born labor organizer Mother Jones. Read-alikes: Émile Zola's classic novel Germinal; Wiley Cash's The Last Ballad. |
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The Phoenix Crown
by Kate Quinn
Offered patronage by Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate, in 1906, Gemma, a silver-voiced soprano, and Suling, a Chinatown embroideress, when Henry disappears, along with the fabled Phoenix Crown, are brought together five years later in one last desperate quest for justice. Original.
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All we were promised : a novel
by Ashton Lattimore
"The paths of three young Black women in pre-Civil War Philadelphia unexpectedly-and dangerously-collide in this dramatic debut novel inspired by the explosive history of a city at war with itself. Philadelphia, 1837. When nineteen-year-old Charlotte escaped from the deteriorating White Oaks plantation four years ago, she'd expected freedom to look completely different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. Instead, she's locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, hiding their past and identities to protect themselves from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives. Charlotte longs to break away, but outside the walls of their townhouse, the City of Brotherly Love is up in arms. Pennsylvania is a free state, yet abolitionists are struggling to establish a permanent home for the anti-slavery movement, as southern sympathizers incite violence against free Black people and white vigilantes stalk the streets. Undeterred, Charlotte sneaks out and forges an unlikely friendship with Nell, a member of one of Philadelphia's wealthiest Black families. Nell is under so much pressure from her parents to settle down and marry Alex, a close family friend, that the two pretend to get engaged, just to take the heat off. Meanwhile Nell and Charlotte grow close over their mutual commitment to abolition, so when Evie, Charlotte's enslaved friend from White Oaks, shows up in the city, they conspire to help her flee North. Charlotte and her father's freedom is threatened as she and Nell navigate the abolitionist world's racial and class politics and ever-present dangers, struggling to forge a plan to free Evie from slavery before it's too late. Inspired by the untold history of Pennsylvania Hall, one of Philadelphia's landmarks lost to violence, All We Were Promised is the story of three young Black women-the rebel, the socialite, and the fugitive-fighting for each other in an American city straining to live up to its loftiest ideals"
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| Spitting Gold by Carmella LowkisTwenty-something Baroness Sylvie Devereux agrees to help her estranged younger sister with one last spiritualist con in 1866 Paris. They target the de Jacquinots, who believe they are being haunted by an ancestor...and they just might be right. This "twisty debut plays with the conventions of the gothic novel" (Kirkus Reviews) and depicts intriguing relationships and compelling characters. Read-alikes: The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner; The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas. |
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| Ella by Diane RichardsThis "electrifying" (Publishers Weekly) first novel focuses on three pivotal years in the life of legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald. In 1932, at the age of 15, Ella begins working for the mob after her mother dies. Later, she ends up at an infamous reform school for girls. Then in 1934, she's on stage for the Apollo Theatre's famed amateur night, preparing to dance. Read-alikes: Can’t We Be Friends by Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight; On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. |
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| The Library Thief by Kuchenga ShenjéIn Victorian England, white-passing Florence Granger, who her father brought home from Jamaica as a baby, is kicked out after a scandal. Having learned bookbinding from him, she cleverly acquires a position restoring rare books in the forbidding Rose Hall. But events lead her to believe that Lord Belfield's late wife was murdered. For fans of: The Fraud by Zadie Smith; The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. |
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The London bookshop affair : a novel
by Louise Fein
"A new historical drama from Daughter of the Reich bestselling author Louise Fein, about a London bookshop involved in an espionage network, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis, perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff"
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| The Safekeep by Yael van der WoudenIn this "brilliant debut" (Kirkus Review), 30-year-old Isabel lives by routine and discipline in the Dutch countryside in 1961, carefully minding the home she grew up in. Then her older brother brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva to stay with her while he travels. For fans of: gripping, deftly plotted sensual stories. |
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| Familiaris by David WroblewskiIn this sweeping saga, the prequel to the bestseller The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, John Sawtelle and his new wife Mary travel with their friends and dogs to rural Wisconsin in 1919 to make new lives. John and Mary raise two boys (and a lot of dogs) as the novel follows the family over the next three decades in this 2024 Oprah Book Club pick. Read-alikes: North Woods by Daniel Mason; French Braid by Anne Tyler; Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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