 Supporting COMMUNITY. Inspiring DISCOVERY. Promoting LITERACY. |
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Historical Fiction July 2026 |
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| The Forgotten Midwife by Laura AnthonyAfter her grandmother with dementia shows her a strange 1950s Irish birth certificate, orphaned Riley goes to Ireland to investigate. Back in 1954 Tipperary, Margaret Lannigan is happily engaged, but after her older sister dies, she's forced to become a nun to fulfill the family's commitment to the Catholic Church. Sent to work in a home for fallen girls, she sees terrible things and tries her best to help the pregnant young women. For fans of: Susan Wiggs' The Wayward Girls. |
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| The Fire Agent by David BaerwaldA gifted linguist and musician, aristocratic German Jew Ernst Baerwald is recruited to be a spy in 1900. From working for a chemical company in Japan to adventures in Italy and other locales, he travels, falls in love, watches fascism rise, experiences world wars, and makes difficult choices again and again. This timely, intricately plotted historical spy saga is the debut of acclaimed songwriter and musician David Baerwald and is based on his grandfather's life. Try this next: Joseph O'Connor's My Father's House. |
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| A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher MurrayIn 1930s Manhattan, the city's first Black woman prosecutor, Eunice Carter, interviews Polly Adler, who owns the city's best brothel, and the two women from vastly different worlds realize they can help each other. None of Eunice's male colleagues have been able to touch gangster Lucky Luciano, who's recently put Polly's workers in danger, so the pair utilize a network of women to assemble evidence in this Reese's Book Club pick. Read-alike: Diane Richards' Ella. |
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| The Windsor Affair by Melanie BenjaminWhen King Edward VIII decides to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, it causes his abdication and kindles conflict between Wallis and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, whose husband must now become king. Using the voices of both women, this fun, gossipy read follows Edward and Wallis, who love a good party, as well as Elizabeth and King George VI, who are faced with World War II and rebuilding in the postwar years. For fans of: The Windsor Conspiracy by Georgie Blalock; The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams. |
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| The Young Will Remember by Eve J. ChungIn 1950, Chinese American journalist Ellie Chang is on a military flight over North Korea when the plane goes down. Emma, a lonely local woman, saves Ellie by claiming she is her missing daughter, and they take refuge with Emma's pastor's family. But as the war rages on, the entire household heads south, seeking safety and the older woman's actual missing daughter in this “riveting story” (Library Journal). Try this next: Bora Lee Reed's Song for Another Home. |
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The Daffodil Days
by Helen Bain
A stunningly inventive and poignant historical novel that follows Sylvia Plath through the final year of her life, told through the eyes of the people who knew her during her time in the English countryside. For fans of literary and historical fiction, The Daffodil Days offers a poignant glimpse of a life reimagined. The lasting impression is not of what breaks us but what binds us: resilience, creativity, and love.
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| Land by Maggie O'FarrellMapping Ireland in 1865 for the British, cartographer Tomás, who survived the Great Hunger, makes sure to record the scars the famine left on the land. But after finding a magical spring, he's a changed man who relocates his reluctant family from Dublin to the remote coastal area. Weaving together several points-of-view and various times and places, this is the lyrical latest from Maggie O'Farrell (Hamnet). Read-alikes: Anna North's Bog Queen; Daniel Mason's North Woods. |
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Children of the Wild
by Kevin Powers
A gorgeous, haunting love story set in the Virginia mountains and on the battlefields of World War I France. Ewer's Rock, Virginia, 1917. Roy Young is restless, eager to leave this isolated rural valley for university and return with the technical knowledge to modernize his family's farm and bring them properly into the twentieth century.Samantha Hatton, the minister's daughter and Roy's best friend since childhood, knows that both Roy and the town expect them to marry. But Samantha, a daring and ambitious young woman, hungers for more.Above them on the mountain, tending to a lost herd of cattle, is silent Ennis Duke, the mysterious wild boy whose arrival in the valley will upend Ewer's Rock's understanding of itself and its place in the world.Within a year, the lives of these three young people will be dramatically transformed. America has joined the Great War, and Roy and Ennis feel duty-bound to join the fight. In the crucible of conflict, thousands of miles from the familiarity of home, the two men forge a fierce bond. Meanwhile, back in Virginia, Samantha's love and courage endure unthinkable sacrifice in a corner of the world fractured by violence.With the spare and exquisite prose and the profound insight that made The Yellow Birds a landmark work of American fiction, Kevin Powers illuminates the savage, complex, and timeless bonds of loyalty, honor, and heroism.
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| A Fortune of Sand by Ruta SepetysIn 1920s Detroit, Marjorie Lennox, the youngest daughter in an automotive glass dynasty, secretly joins an elite artist residency, but something feels off about the place, which is backed by a mysterious patron. When rumors spread about missing women, Marjorie investigates. Inspired by real events, A Fortune of Sand is the immersive, well-researched adult fiction debut of a popular YA author. For fans of: Crucible by John Sayles. |
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The Queen's Coronation
by Jennifer Ryan
As a young Queen Elizabeth II prepares to take the throne, three women in her employ will discover where they belong in a rapidly changing world in this heartwarming novel from the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Mary Riley Styles Public Library
120 N. Virginia Ave, Falls Church, Virginia 22046 703-248-5030 (TTY 711) mrspl.org
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