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Historical Fiction January 2025 |
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| The Jewel of the Blues by Monica Chenault-KilgoreLucille Love, who as a child performed with her parents in churches, now leads a touring blues group and dreams of stardom, but an incident from her father's past put her in danger. Fans of Diane Richards' Ella will appreciate this suspenseful novel's depiction of being a Black musician in segregated America. |
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| The Starlets by Lee Kelly and Jennifer ThorneIn the summer of 1958, actress Vivienne Rhodes arrives on a small Italian island to shoot a Hollywood epic only to learn her nemesis Lottie Lawrence has the bigger role. But after they discover criminal goings-on, the women team up to deliver evidence to Interpol in this fun historical thriller. "Pass the popcorn and settle in for a terrific time," raves Library Journal.
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| Those Opulent Days by Jacquie PhamIn 1917 Vietnam, 11-year-old boarding school friends Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond visit a fortune teller, who predicts that one will lose his mind, one will pay, one will agonize, and one will die. Then, when they are 24, the four reunite and one is murdered. Shifting time periods and perspectives, this "heady, character-driven historical novel embedded with a mystery" (Kirkus Reviews) examines French colonialism, loyalty, and classism. |
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| Sweet Vidalia by Lisa SandlinWhen her husband of three decades dies suddenly, 57-year-old housewife Eliza Kratke is stunned to discover their finances are a mess and he has another wife. Moving into an apartment at the Sweet Vidalia Residence Inn, she finds new friends, a career, and herself in this heartwarming character-driven tale set in 1964 Texas. Read-alikes: Anne Tyler's Clock Dance; Ruth Hogan's The Phoenix Ballroom. |
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| The Rest Is Memory by Lily TuckInspired by haunting images of Czeslawa Kwoka, the young Catholic farm girl on the book's cover, this moving short novel introduces her as she dreams of a future with a local boy. Then Nazi Germany invades Poland, and she's sent to Auschwitz. This unforgettable blend of facts and imagination is by the National Book Award-winning author of The News from Paraguay. |
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| Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian CantorThis intricately plotted adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby gives that novel's female characters a chance to tell their own stories as they navigate a world of money, power, parties, sex, death, and love. Readers who appreciate Jazz Age tales will be interested in this richly rendered retelling. Try this next: The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. |
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| The Heiress by Molly GreeleyThis smart, entertaining tale follows Anne de Bourgh, who was supposed to marry Fitzwilliam Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. After Anne's father dies, leaving her a wealthy woman, she dares to rebel against her domineering mother, stops taking her doctor-prescribed laudanum, and heads to London in this lyrical novel that will "win over readers who are skeptical of Austen reimaginings" (Booklist). |
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| Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoyEngagingly portraying the youth and early adulthood of Marilla Cuthbert on her family's Prince Edward Island farm long before the arrival of spirited orphan Anne Shirley, this richly detailed and sympathetic portrait of Marilla doesn't shy away from her flaws but does much to humanize her as well. Keep an eye out for winks at later events described in the beloved Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery. |
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| The Song of Achilles by Madeline MillerBanished from his father's kingdom, 10-year-old prince Patroclus finds sanctuary in Phthia as a foster child of King Peleus and becomes friends with Peleus' demigod son, Achilles. The two boys become devoted to each other, but it's only a matter of time before Achilles must confront his fate on the plains of Troy in this retelling of The Iliad. Try this next: Pat Barker's Women of Troy trilogy. |
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| Marmee by Sarah MillerSet in 1860s Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., this heartwarming, leisurely paced novel reimagines Little Women from the perspective of Marmee, the March family matriarch, and offers a deeper understanding of the complexities of her life beyond the supporting role she played in the stories of her daughters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Try this next: Allison Pataki's Finding Margaret Fuller. |
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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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