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Historical Fiction September 2019
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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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A Single Thread
by Tracy Chevalier
1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiance, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled eggs and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's place and into the town of Winchester, home to one of England's grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers--women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshippers.
Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow.
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| Costalegre by Courtney MaumWhat it is: 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 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.
For fans of: Paul Goldberg's The Yid, which similarly unspools a madcap scheme to thwart fascists by a group of marginalized intellectuals. |
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| The Women of the Copper Country: A Novel by Mary Doria RussellStarring: Labor activist Annie Clements, who in 1913 led a strike against a Montana copper-mining company.
Is it for you? Closer in tone to Doc than The Sparrow, this well-researched historical novel unfolds from multiple perspectives, all rendered in lyrical prose.
Want a taste? "Running lengthwise down the peninsula's center, like the blood gutter of a bayonet, are the richest copper desposits on earth." |
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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 CashWhy you might like it: Set in 1929 North Carolina, this novel follows millworker and single mother Ella May Wiggins as she risks everything to join a union.
About the author: CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning author Wiley Cash is best known for his rural noir, including A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy.
For fans of: Ron Rash, Daniel Woodrell, or Doug Marlette. |
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| The Widows by Jess MontgomeryThe setting: 1924, Kinship, Ohio, 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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| Swimming in the Moon by Pamela SchoenewaldtIntroducing: Lucia Esposito and her mother Teresa, Italian immigrants who arrive in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904.
What happens: Amid the hardships of their new life, Teresa's untreated mental illness undermines her vaudeville career, while Lucia becomes a labor activist and participates in a garment workers' strike.
About the author: Pamela Schoenewaldt's previous novel, When We Were Strangers, also examined the American immigrant experience. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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