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Historical Fiction July 2024 |
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| Rednecks by Taylor BrownSet in 1920-1921 against the backdrop of the West Virginia Mine Wars, Rednecks follows a group of coal miners donning red bandanas and fighting back against unfair labor practices. The compelling story focuses on a variety of characters, including a Black World War I veteran, a Lebanese American doctor, and Ireland-born labor organizer Mother Jones. Read-alikes: Émile Zola's classic novel Germinal; Wiley Cash's The Last Ballad. |
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| Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. ChungUsing her family history, debut novelist Eve J. Chung depicts an aristocratic mother and three daughters in 1948 China after the men of the family flee the communists, leaving them behind. But the quartet fight for survival, traveling from the country to British Hong Kong and finally Taiwan, as the middle daughter dreams of more. Read-alikes: Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah; The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. |
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| 1795: The Order of the Furies by Niklas Natt och DagIn a Sweden roiled by revolution, amputee war veteran Mikel Cardell and investigator Cecil Winge search for a depraved killer and try to find their missing friend Anna. The final book in the Bellman Noir trilogy, this is "a brutal, satisfying end to a superior series" (Publishers Weekly). To best appreciate the history of the books, newcomers should start with the 1st entry, 1793: The Wolf and the Watchman. Read-alikes: The Alienist by Caleb Carr; the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries by C.S. Harris. |
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| Spitting Gold by Carmella LowkisTwenty-something Baroness Sylvie Devereux agrees to help her estranged younger sister with one last spiritualist con in 1866 Paris. They target the de Jacquinots, who believe they are being haunted by an ancestor...and they just might be right. This "twisty debut plays with the conventions of the gothic novel" (Kirkus Reviews) and depicts intriguing relationships and compelling characters. Read-alikes: The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner; The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas. |
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| Ella by Diane RichardsThis "electrifying" (Publishers Weekly) first novel focuses on three pivotal years in the life of legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald. In 1932, at the age of 15, Ella begins working for the mob after her mother dies. Later, she ends up at an infamous reform school for girls. Then in 1934, she's on stage for the Apollo Theatre's famed amateur night, preparing to dance. Read-alikes: Can’t We Be Friends by Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight; On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. |
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| The Library Thief by Kuchenga ShenjéIn Victorian England, white-passing Florence Granger, who her father brought home from Jamaica as a baby, is kicked out after a scandal. Having learned bookbinding from him, she cleverly acquires a position restoring rare books in the forbidding Rose Hall. But events lead her to believe that Lord Belfield's late wife was murdered. For fans of: The Fraud by Zadie Smith; The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. |
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| The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda SkenandoreDr. Tucia Hatherley, who gave up medicine after a fatal mistake, works in a factory and raises her disabled son in 1900. Desperate for more money, she joins a traveling medicine show, taking her across Texas where she forms something of a family with the performers. But there are still dangers to face in this compelling, well-researched novel peopled with complex, believable characters. |
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| The Safekeep by Yael van der WoudenIn this "brilliant debut" (Kirkus Review), 30-year-old Isabel lives by routine and discipline in the Dutch countryside in 1961, carefully minding the home she grew up in. Then her older brother brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva to stay with her while he travels. For fans of: gripping, deftly plotted sensual stories. |
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| Familiaris by David WroblewskiIn this sweeping saga, the prequel to the bestseller The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, John Sawtelle and his new wife Mary travel with their friends and dogs to rural Wisconsin in 1919 to make new lives. John and Mary raise two boys (and a lot of dogs) as the novel follows the family over the next three decades in this 2024 Oprah Book Club pick. Read-alikes: North Woods by Daniel Mason; French Braid by Anne Tyler; Lies and Sorcery by Elsa Morante. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Atlantic County Library System | 40 Farragut Avenue, Mays Landing, NJ 08330
Phone: (609) 625-2776 | www.atlanticlibrary.org
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|  | Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson
Atlantic County Board of Commissioners, Maureen Kern, Chairwoman |
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