| Villa E by Jane AlisonA 1920s modernist masterpiece house in the French Riviera connects two architects: Irish designer Eileen Gray, who created it, and famed Swiss artist Le Grand (based on Le Corbusier), who's obsessed with it. Taking place over a week in the 1960s and told from the perspectives of both artists, this complex novelization of real events explores art, envy, arrogance, and more. |
|
| The Most by Jessica AnthonyOn a warm November Sunday in 1957, Kathleen Beckett, who gave up going pro in tennis to get married and have kids, enters her Delaware apartment complex pool and refuses to come out. As she ponders her past and her options, her husband does the same while trying to get her to leave the water. Alternating viewpoints as the hours progress, this atmospheric novella examines a marriage awash with secrets. |
|
| The Instrumentalist by Harriet ConstableIn the early 1700s, real-life composer and musician Anna Maria della Pietà grows up in a Venetian orphanage where music is paramount. Taking up the violin, the determined young prodigy studies under famed composer Antonio Vivaldi, who takes credit for some of her work in this immersive debut with a feminist flourish. Read-alikes: Tracy Chevalier's The Glassmaker; Alyssa Palombo's The Assassin of Venice. |
|
| The Naturalist's Daughter by Tea CooperIn 1808 Australia, Rose Winton assists her naturalist father who's studying the platypus. When he's injured, Rose goes to England to present his work and is stunned by something she learns. In 1908, Sydney librarian Tamsin Alleyn digs into the history behind a donated sketchbook that might change her own life. This evocative novel effectively mixes science and history with bits of romance and mystery. Read-alike: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. |
|
| The Unicorn Woman by Gayl JonesIn the early 1950s, Black World War II veteran Buddy Ray Guy has trouble readjusting to life in the Jim Crow South and ponders his past, including his time in France. While traveling around, he also meets a fascinating array of people and looks for the carnival performer known as the Unicorn Woman, whom he saw once and has never forgotten. Read-alike: Mudbound by Hillary Jordan; Home by Toni Morrison. |
|
| Maria by Michelle MoranIn 1950s New York, Oscar Hammerstein works on what will be his last musical, based on the life of Maria von Trapp. But when Maria sees the script, she's so unhappy she goes to his office. With Hammerstein unavailable, she tells his secretary her real story, and they become unlikely friends in this immersive novel based on the creation of The Sound of Music. Read-alike: A Tender Thing by Emily Neuberger. |
|
| 54 Miles by Leonard Pitts, Jr.Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement in March 1965, biracial Adam leaves college to go to his parents' home state of Alabama and take part in the march from Selma to Montgomery. After Adam is injured, his uncle comes to check on him, as does his mother, but each are ravaged by horrible memories. Fans of Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s The Last Thing You Surrender, set 20 years earlier, will recognize some characters, but newcomers can still start here. |
|
| The Paris Gown by Christine WellsThree young women meet in 1950 Paris: Claire, a Parisian who dreams of being a chef; Gina, a wealthy American who wants to write a novel; and Margot, a bubbly Australian whose family has sent her to Europe for refinement. Circumstances find them all in Paris again in 1956, and a Christian Dior gown draws them together in this charming novel about friendship and fashion. Read-alikes: The Last Dress from Paris by Jade Beer; The Ball at Versailles at Danielle Steel. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|