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Historical Fiction August 2026 |
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| The Daffodil Days by Helen BainIn 1961, pregnant Sylvia Plath, her husband Ted Hughes, and their baby Frieda move to an English village. In December 1962, Plath returns to London with her children after the breakup of her marriage. This quiet, well-researched debut is told in reverse chronological order via those in Plath's orbit during |
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| The Top of the World by Ethan JoellaChip Bishop is 18 years old and dying of leukemia in the summer of 1974. Without telling his family his plans, he leaves home and finds work at a Poconos resort before returning to his family in the autumn
for his final weeks of life. In 1975, Chip's sister Maggie gets a job at the same resort to try to understand why Chip left and what he did while he was gone. The story alternates between these two summers. This novel is a heartfelt look at grief, friendship, family, and hope. |
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| Summer of Love by Kerri MaherPoet Winnie Hartley and her musician boyfriend live together in the midst of 1967 San Francisco's counterculture, but their union is volatile. Further up the coast, Winnie's sister Miranda dedicates herself to the family vineyard and wine business. Forty years later, Miranda's newly sober daughter discovers some children's books that perfectly describe her family vineyard, so she sets out to find the famously anonymous author. Read-alikes include Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz and California Golden by Melanie Benjamin. |
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| The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-GarciaIn 1940s Mexico, handsome Ulises charms lonely women in a scheme to get their money. His newest mark, middle-aged Perla, is the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But things don't go as Ulises planned: Perla has a niece who wants in on his scheme. The two team up, but they still run into trouble since Perla isn't the needy spinster Ulises thought she was. This book is perfect for fans of atmospheric, pulp-inspired historical noirs. |
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| There's Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed NewsonIn the 1950s, married Hollywood fixer Aaron Touissant has an anonymous sexual encounter with up-and-coming actor Xavier C. Barlow in a bathroom. Later the two are reunited on a biopic of a famous World War II hero with whom Aaron had a romantic relationship with when he was in the Navy. This gritty character-driven novel chronicling the lives of three queer Black men in 1950s and '60s Tinseltown via a 1971 letter. You may also like Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. |
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| The Queen's Coronation by Jennifer RyanIn 1953, Buckingham Palace staff prepare for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation while navigating their own lives. Caroline, assistant dresser to the queen, married for convenience and regrets it. Beautiful wardrobe assistant Lucy dreams of singing stardom and captures the attention of a deceitful man. And American Miranda, a temporary secretary, secretly writes about the coronation for her sexist boss in New York. As the women's friendship grows, they help each other forge new paths. You may also like Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. |
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| Single Girls by John SearlesAfter the success of her book Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown is named editor of the failing Cosmopolitan magazine in 1965. She assembles a team of smart, savvy women, and their lives become the stuff of magazine cover lines---Champagne hot tubs! Clashes with Joan Crawford! Also covering Gurley's childhood and her later years,
this fun read by former Cosmopolitan editor John Searles "sparkles" (Library Journal). You may also like Gill Paul's Scandalous Women. |
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| What Came West by Josh WeilFrom his childhood, Silas Hall has been an outsider. When he finds life in 1840s Pittsburgh unbearable, he heads west to California's Sierra Nevada mountains. He survives the dangerous journey and (mostly) gets along with the Indigenous people. Soon gold is discovered, people flow in, and Silas kills someone and runs. Told in third person and via Silas' letter to his son, this is a "lush masterpiece" (Publishers Weekly). This book is great for fans of Cormac McCarthy and Paulette Jiles' Chenneville. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Forsyth County Public Library
585 Dahlonega Street, Cumming, Georgia 30040
770-781-9840ForsythPL.org |
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