| Carnegie's Maid by Marie BenedictWhat it's about: Hired as a lady's maid to Margaret Carnegie, Irish immigrant Clara Kelly becomes the confidant of her mistress' son, wealthy industrialist Andrew Carnegie. However, their differences in station may doom their budding relationship.
Why you might like it: Carnegie's Maid offers a chaste love story and plenty of upstairs/downstairs drama, as well as a nuanced depiction of the immigrant experience in the rapidly industrializing 1860s United States. |
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| The Girls in the Picture by Melanie BenjaminStarring: Silent film actress Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion, whose (complicated) friendship underpins their enduring creative partnership.
Read it for: an engaging story anchored by strong female characters, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the early years of America's film industry.
For fans of: Karina Longworth's podcast You Must Remember This, which focuses on both famous and lesser-known figures in Hollywood history. |
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| Red Sky at Noon by Simon Sebag MontefioreWhat it's about: Sprung from the gulag and assigned to one of Stalin's penal battalions, middle-aged Jewish writer Benya Golden becomes an unwilling combatant in the Eastern Front of World War II. His situation goes from bad to worse when a disastrous battle leaves him trapped behind enemy lines.
Series alert: Benya first appeared as a supporting character in author Simon Sebag Montefiore's novel Sashenka, which also makes use of complex characters and meticulous research to illuminate Soviet history. |
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The Widows of Malabar Hill
by Sujata Massey
What it's about: Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women's legal rights.
What Reviewers are saying: "Inspired in part by a real woman who made history by becoming India's first female lawyer, The Widows of Malabar Hill is a richly wrought story of multicultural 1920s Bombay as well as the debut of a sharp and promising new sleuth, Perveen Mistry." (Publisher)
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Imperial Vengeance
by Ian Ross
What it's about: Aurelius Castus is one of the leading military commanders of an empire riven by civil war. As the emperor Constantine grows ever more ruthless in his pursuit of power, Castus fears that the world he knows is slipping away. On the eve of the war's final campaign, Castus discovers that the emperor's son, Crispus, aims to depose his father and restore the old ways of Rome. Castus must choose between honour and survival and face a final confrontation with the most powerful man in the Roman world, the ruler he has sworn loyally to serve: the emperor Constantine himself.
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| The Hours Count by Jillian CantorWhat it's about: In 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and executed. Friends and neighbors are shocked: could this ordinary middle-class Jewish-American couple really have sold atomic secrets to the Soviets?
Why you should read it: This haunting novel reveals a dark chapter of 20th-century American history in which anti-Semitism and Cold War paranoia collide with tragic results. |
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The mermaid and Mrs Hancock : a history in three volumes
by Imogen Hermes Gowar
What it's about: One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah's ship for what appears to be a mermaid. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock's marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society.
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The history of bees
by Maja Lunde
What it's about: England, 1852. William is a biologist and seed merchant, who sets out to build a new type of beehive -- one that will give both him and his children honor and fame. United States, 2007. George is a beekeeper and fights an uphill battle against modern farming, but hopes that his son can be their salvation. China, 2098. Tao hand paints pollen onto the fruit trees now that the bees have long since disappeared.
What Reviewers Say: "In the spirit of Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go, this dazzling and ambitious literary debut follows three generations of beekeepers from the past, present, and future, weaving a spellbinding story of their relationship to the bees--and to their children and one another--against the backdrop of an urgent, global crisis." (Publisher)
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A secret history of witches
by Louisa Morgan
What it's about: From early 19th century Brittany to London during the Second World War, five generations of witches fight the battles of their time, deciding how far they are willing to go to protect their family, their heritage, and ultimately, all of our futures.
What Reviewers Say: "A poignant tale of mothers and daughters struggling to survive and preserve their craft in a hostile world. A tale full of love and betrayal, happiness and terror, it will keep you reading long into the night."-- Melissa Lenhardt
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Half Wild
by Pip Smith
What it's about: Sydney, 1938. After being hit by a car on Oxford Street, sixty-three-year-old Jean Ford lies in a coma in Sydney Hospital. Doctors talk across her body, nurses jab her in the arm with morphine, detectives arrive to take her fingerprints. She has £100 in her pocket, but no identification. Memories come back to her - a murder trial, a life in prison - but with each prick of the needle her memories begin to shift.
What Reviewers Say: 'Pip Smith has always been an agent of change. With her powerful debut novel, Half Wild, she will surely change the way we read, write, think and talk about Australian fiction.' Sam Twyford-Moore, host of The Rereaders podcast and former director of the Emerging Writers' Festival
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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