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Historical Fiction March 2024
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| The Fox Wife by Yangsze ChooSteeped in Japanese folklore, this lush and intricately plotted novel is set in 1908 Manchuria, where teacher-turned-P.I. Bao Gong investigates the identity of a local woman found dead in the snow, while rumors spread in the community about shape-shifting fox spirits. The story of a mysterious, vengeance-seeking young woman named Snow unfolds in parallel, until the narratives converge in unanticipated and historically significant ways. |
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| Wolves of Winter by Dan JonesIn this sequel to Essex Dogs, which first introduced readers to the titular mercenary crew, the Dogs are still licking their wounds after the battle of Crécy when the siege of Calais begins. King Edward is determined to take the city no matter the cost, plunging the Dogs and their comrades into a long, cold, bitter fight to survive the winter. |
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| The Road from Belhaven by Margot LiveseyGrowing up on her grandparents' poor but picturesque farm in 19th-century Scotland, orphan Lizzie Craig discovers she has the second sight. When, at age 16, she follows her suitor Louis to Glasglow, her life grows complex in ways that her gift, inexplicably, failed to warn her about. For fans of: the heroines in Edith Wharton novels. |
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| The American Queen by Vanessa MillerIn 1865, formerly enslaved Louella Bobo and her pastor husband, William, leave Mississippi with a group of other newly free people and settle in North Carolina, where they found a utopian community known as The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Inspired by true events, this novel by Vanessa Miller (The Light on Halsey Street) illuminates a fascinating chapter of Black history. |
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| Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane OliverPosthumously published after the author's untimely death at age 22, this lyrical and incisive story collection is filled with indelible African American characters navigating pivotal moments where their personal anxieties intersect with the difficulties of surviving segregation and poverty in the 1950s and 60s. |
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| Twilight Territory by Andrew X. PhamIn World War II-era Vietnam, Le Tuyet is a single mother living in a remote fishing village after her divorce, which ended the life of luxury she once had in Saigon. With the arrival of the Japanese occupation force comes conflicted officer Yamazaki Takeshi, whose immediate connection with Tuyet will change both of their lives forever, for better or worse. |
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| Medea by Eilish QuinIn this character-driven and moving mythological retelling, Medea shares her perspective on the events that made her so notorious. Born to a cruel father and a distant mother and losing her brother to prophecy, Medea's early life is mired in tragedy long before meeting Jason and bringing her doomed children into the world. |
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| The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos RuffinAfter her mother dies of a fever, Ady, a young enslaved woman in antebellum New Orleans, keeps the family dream of freedom alive despite her grief. Ady finds a mother figure in Lenore, a free woman of color, and through her is introduced to an underground network known only as "the Daughters," who work to undermine the nascent Confederacy from the inside. |
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| The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate BillingsleyThis heartwrenching and well-researched biographical novel tells the moving story of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar (for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind). For fans of Victoria Christopher Murray (The Personal Librarian) and Sherry Jones (Josephine Baker's Last Dance). |
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| Ours by Phillip B. WilliamsIn this sweeping and atmospheric debut novel by poet Phillip B. Williams, formerly enslaved people find refuge in the titular Missouri town, created in the 1830s by a remarkable free Black woman and hidden from outsiders. As time goes by, residents begin to question the rules they must follow to keep Ours safe (especially the prohibition on leaving town), and wonder if they are truly free. |
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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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