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The Girls of Good Fortune
by Kristina McMorris
Facing anti-Chinese sentiment in 1880s Oregon, biracial Celia hides her heritage and works as a maid for Portland's mayor. His son, who knows Celia’s secret, loves her and proposes. But with him away at school, her father murdered, and her unexpectedly pregnant, Celia ends up housekeeping at a brothel, before other dangers surface. Recipes and an author's note add to this compelling tale. Read-alike: Jenny Tinghui Zhang's Four Treasures of the Sky.
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The Cardinal: A Novel of Love and Power
by Alison Weir
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey rises from humble origins to become Henry VIII's closest advisor, but his loyalty and efforts to maintain peace unravel when the king's desire to divorce Katherine of Aragon for Anne Boleyn pits Wolsey against powerful enemies and personal tragedy.
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The Remembered Soldier
by Anjet Daanje
Flanders, 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One day a woman, Julienne, appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, the photographer Amand Coppens, and takes him home against medical advice. But their miraculous reunion doesn't turn out the way that Julienne wants her envious friends to believe. Only gradually do the two grow close, and Amand's biography is pieced together on the basis of Julienne's stories about him. But how can he be certain that she's telling the truth?
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Daikon
by Samuel Jay Hawley
"A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific—not two—and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this strange new device."
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This Here is Love
by Princess Joy L. Perry
Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother's only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love. David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother's shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father's dream of emancipation for the entire family. Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain's colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person's life.
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World Pacific
by Peter Mann
In 1939, as war looms, Richard Halifax mysteriously vanishes while attempting to sail a Chinese junk from Hong Kong to San Francisco for the World's Fair. His disappearance impacts those at home—notably Hildegard Rauch, who is searching for the truth about her twin brother's suicide attempt and his connection to the missing Halifax. Meanwhile, Simon Faulk, a British intelligence officer, investigates Nazi spies in California and uncovers a joint German-Japanese operation. The narratives of Hildegard and Faulk intertwine as they seek the lost Halifax amidst the backdrop of rising global tensions and the World's Fair, combining to create a moving exploration of exile and survival.
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| The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin HarmelIn Nazi-occupied France, Colette Marceau's mother is executed while her four-year-old sister disappears and is later found dead. Trained by her mother, Colette becomes a jewel thief, targeting the bad to give to the good, and in 2018 Boston, she's still working when a special bracelet linked to her sister appears in a museum. Elderly Colette seeks answers, hoping to finally learn what happened decades ago in this sweeping dual-timeline tale. Read-alike: Pam Jenoff's Last Twilight in Paris. |
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| Days of Light by Megan HunterOn Easter Sunday, 1938, 19-year-old Ivy is questioning her path in life when her older brother goes missing while swimming at their English estate, reshaping her world. Taking place on this and five other significant days in Ivy's life, this thoughtful novel follows her as she grows close to her brother's fiancée, marries, has children, and makes changes in her later years. Read-alikes: Yael van der Wouden's The Safekeep; Virginia Woolf's novels. |
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| Tyrant by Conn IgguldenIn 50 CE Rome, Agrippina has skillfully maneuvered her way to power by becoming Emperor Claudius' fourth wife and now works to ensure her position and that of her son, Nero, by manipulating Claudius into adopting him. This cinematic, action-packed 2nd in a trilogy follows last year's Nero; the final book, Inferno, is due April 2026. Read-alike: Margaret George's Nero novels; Steven Saylor's historical fiction. |
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| Angel Down by Daniel KrausAfter intense fighting in France's Argonne Forest during World War I, American Cyril Bagger is ordered along with four other misfits to "silence" the soldier stuck in No Man's Land producing unearthly screams -- but what they find is an injured angel wrapped in barbed wire, whom they agree to protect. Compelling and innovative in both structure and story, this is the buzzy latest by the author of Whalefall. Try this next: Chigozie Obioma's The Road to the Country. |
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| The Great Mann by Kyra Davis LurieThis evocative take on The Great Gatsby set in 1945 Los Angeles finds Charlie Trammell back from the war and trying out a place that he hopes won't judge people by the color of their skin as much as the South. Pulled into the glamourous neighborhood of Sugar Hill where his married cousin Margie lives, Charlie meets an enigmatic man. Meanwhile, the wealthy Black enclave is threatened by a lawsuit by white homeowners. Read-alikes: Gayl Jones' The Unicorn Woman; Percival Everett's James. |
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| The Lost Masterpiece by B.A. ShapiroIn late 1800s France, painters Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot meet and become lovers, resulting in Party on the Seine, a work featuring Berthe. In modern-day Boston, Morisot's lone descendent, executive Tamara Rubin, learns the Nazi-stolen work has been found, leading to legal challenges and romance in this suspenseful multi-timeline novel with hints of the supernatural. For fans of: Maureen Gibbon's The Lost Notebook of Édouard Manet; Robin Oliveira's I Always Loved You. |
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Our next discussion:
Tuesday, September 16, 6:30 pm
Library Meeting Room on Lower Level
If you're a regular reader of contemporary and historical fiction, consider joining our Fiction Book Club! The club usually meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30, but we do recommend confirming details on our events calendar in case of changes. Copies of our next book are on reserve at the Circulation Desk. We hope to see you there!
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Trust
by Hernán Díaz
Told from the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction, this unrivaled novel about money, power, intimacy and perception is centered around the mystery of how the Rask family acquired their immense fortune in 1920s-1930's New York City.
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Our next discussion:
Tuesday, September 30, 6:30 pm
Library Conference Room on the Lower Level
If you're a history buff and enjoy reading non-fiction, you might enjoy our new History Book Club! The club plans to meet on the last Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm, but we do recommend confirming details on our events calendar in case of changes. Copies of our next book are on reserve at the Circulation Desk. We hope to see you there!
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The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
by David G. McCullough
The National Book Award-winning epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal, a first-rate drama of the bold and brilliant engineering feat that transformed global trade routes and shaped modern American history, as told by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and master historian David McCullough. A national bestseller and testament to human determination, The Path Between the Seas tells the stories of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing a maritime passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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