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Historical Fiction May 2026* |
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| The Moonshine Women by Michelle Collins AndersonThe Strong family farm, hunt, and make moonshine in the Ozark Mountains during Prohibition, but when tragedy strikes, the three Strong sisters move to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Because the youngest has a talent for moonshine, they try to keep the family business going despite all odds in this richly detailed novel. Try this next: Jess Montgomery's Kinship novels, starting with The Widows; Jeannette Walls' Hang the Moon. |
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Westward Women
by Alice Martin
For fans of Emma Cline and Emily St. John Mandel, Westward Women is a hypnotic and hopeful debut--part fever dream, part dystopian road trip that claws its way towards a jaw-dropping finale. An audacious first novel to set beside Margaret Atwood. - Joyce Carol Oates It starts with an itch. In homes across the country, women ages eighteen to thirty-five begin to slow down. Tired. Blank. Restless. Drawn to the Pacific Ocean like it's calling them home. They abandon their lives--jobs, families, their very selves. And once they reach the West, they vanish forever. At the center of the story are three young women caught in the pull of something unstoppable. Aimee follows the trail of her missing best friend to a man called the Piper--known for leading infected women West. Teenie, afflicted and unraveling, clings to a single memory as she looks out the window of the Piper's van. And Eve, a former journalist, is chasing the story that might just consume her. Each on the edge of transformation. Drawn toward the unknown. In search of a way forward.
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| A Bad, Bad Place by Frances CrawfordIn 1979 Glasgow, orphaned 12-year-old Janey Devine, who lives with her nana, is out walking her dog Sid Vicious when she finds the body of college-aged Samantha Watson, daughter of the local crime boss. Janey's traumatized and there's something she can't share with anyone, though the cops keep questioning her and Samantha's grieving dad also visits. This evocative, leisurely paced debut is gritty but has threads of humor throughout. Read-alikes: Marie Tierney's Deadly Animals; Jennie Godfrey's The List of Suspicious Things. |
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| The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis HallWorld War II separates tight-knit twins Theo and Tessa when Theo joins the Royal Air Force and French-speaking Tessa trains as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) operative. Afterwards, a wounded Theo mourns war casualties, hides his homosexuality since it's still illegal, and wonders about his still-missing sister. Decades later, PhD candidate Edie researches women in the SOE, leading her and Theo to team up and investigate what happened to Tessa. Try this next: Lucy Caldwell's These Days. |
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Elegy in Blue by Mark HelprinHigh in a subsidized studio apartment, the unnamed 82-year-old narrator of Elegy in Blue looks out across the rooftops of Brooklyn all the way to the sea. His distinguished career on Wall Street is in ruins, his mansion in Brooklyn Heights has been burned to the ground, and most of all, his father, his son, and his wife--the stunningly beautiful and equally kind Clare--have been taken from him, one by one, over the decades, by war and an act of violence.Now his allegiance is to his ghosts. He's almost lost to memory, reflection, and a purposeful letting go of life. But when violence threatens to destroy another family, he takes drastic action in hope of restoring a portion of justice to the world. Can he fashion his life into an elegy, one that heals a broken heart and relieves the sting of death?Told in an exceptional literary voice, mixing comedy and tragedy, Elegy in Blue is a hymn to New York, memory, loyalty, and love.
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| The Sisters of Book Row by Shelley NobleIn 1915 New York, the three Applebaum sisters live together and run the rare bookshop they inherited from their dad. Olivia handles repairs, while friendly Daphne and youngest Celia run the store. But they each have secrets, including Celia's distribution of banned women's health articles. With classic literature and art also at risk due to the censorious Comstock Laws, New York's Book Row shopkeepers work together. For fans of: timely historical tales; well-researched, slow-burn novels. |
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| Evil Genius by Claire OshetskyIn 1970s San Francisco, 19-year-old Celia works at the telephone company, where an adulterous coworker has been murdered by her husband. Unhappily married to a controlling man 11 years her senior, Celia finds the sex and violence of the story tantalizing, and begins to dream of freedom and killing her spouse in this slightly surreal and darkly humorous novel. Try this next: Alex Kadis' Big Nobody. |
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Wolf Worm by T. KingfisherSonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator--but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father's reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects, or hope. So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use. Once there though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light, like what happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about blood thiefs? With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder's entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road. His ground-breaking discoveries come with a cost--one that Halder is paying with human flesh. If Sonia can't find a way to stop the monstrosity, she may be next under the knife.
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| Fatherland by Victoria ShorrA family is broken apart when feckless physician Martin leaves to be with his pregnant mistress. Dealing with her pain and the embarrassment of divorce in a well-to-do 1950s Ohio suburb, Martin's beautiful wife Lora adjusts to life as a single mom while her eldest, seven-year-old Josie, especially misses her dad. Focusing on Martin, Lora, and Josie over several decades, this layered novel is great for book clubs. For fans of: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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