| 33 Place Brugmann by Alice AustenSet just prior to and during the Nazi occupation of Brussels, Belgium,
this thought-provoking debut examines the challenges and choices of
an apartment building's residents who take turns narrating. The
residents include an architect, his art student daughter, an art dealer,
his 18-year-old son, a seamstress, a maid, a widowed colonel, and others. You may also like The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli. |
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| Broken Country by Clare Leslie HallIn 1955 Dorset, England, teenage Beth falls for wealthy Gabriel, who leaves town. In 1968, Beth, who is now married to sheep farmer Frank,
is still mourning the death of her young son two years earlier when Gabriel reappears with his own son. His return sets in motion events
that lead to a courtroom trial. This emotionally intense Reese's Book Club pick will please fans of Chris Whitaker's All the Colors of the Dark and Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace. |
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| The Pretender by Jo HarkinLambert Simnel, a ten-year-old peasant in 1480s England, is tutored
and trained and then declared the hidden heir to the throne. Amid court politics, Lambert becomes part of the Yorkist cause in this witty and "wildly entertaining" (Booklist) novel based on a little-known true story. For fans of Maggie O'Farrell, Alison Weir, and Hilary Mantel. |
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| The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna LabuskesInspired by real events, this slow-burn novel combines romance,
murder, and mystery as it follows three women whose lives eventually connect. The women include a Works Progress Administration editor sent from Washington, D.C. to Montana in 1936, a librarian who delivers books to areas around Missoula in 1924, and an avid reader in rural 1914 Montana. You may also enjoy Janet Skeslien Charles' Miss Morgan's Book Brigade. |
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| A Map to Paradise by Susan MeissnerIn 1956 California, actress Melanie Cole is blacklisted by association, which reduces her circle to her European maid Eva, her agoraphobic screenwriter neighbor Elwood, and his sister-in-law caregiver, June. When Elwood disappears, Melanie enlists Eva get to close to June and to find Elwood as wildfires draw close. Also try Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne's The Starlets. |
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| Let Us March On by Shara MoonBased on real people, this "fascinating" (Booklist) debut focuses on White House maid Lizzie McDuffie, who advocates for the Black community with her valet husband. Eventually Lizzie becomes an unofficial advisor to Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt. You may also
like Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray's The First Ladies and Jennifer Chiaverini's Mrs. Lincoln's Rival. |
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| The Lost Passenger by Frances QuinnTeenage Elinor marries an earl and finds out afterwards he only wants her money. Belittled and given little access to her young son by his family, she looks forward to the Titanic voyage with no governess. When disaster strikes, her father, husband, and servants die, so Elinor takes her maid's identity to keep her son from her in-laws. "Impressively well-executed and fast-paced," raves Kirkus Reviews. |
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| The Antidote by Karen RussellA severe dust storm devastates a 1930s Nebraska town already
suffering from the burdens of its dark past and from current Great Depression. The story is narrated by a teen basketball star, a Polish farmer, a scarecrow, a prairie witch who keeps memories, and a New Deal photographer with a time-bending camera in turns. This buzzy
latest book by a Pulitzer finalist weds the supernatural to the historical. Read-alikes include Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Woman of Light; William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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