Yolo County Library
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Historical FictionJanuary 2016
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"After breakfast, I read from the Song of Solomon for a while. It is my favorite book in the Bible. There are no murders in it. No beheadings. No godly fury. There is only a boy and a girl, and it reminds of the soap operas on the radio, and of other, sweeter days of my life." ~ from Chantel Acevedo's The Distant Marvels
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| Beatrice and Benedick by Marina FioratoSparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick take center stage in this lively prequel to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Revealing the origins of their "merry war," this witty, yet heartfelt, novel shifts back and forth between its protagonists' perspectives as the couple meets, flirts, fights, and -- after a dramatic separation -- reunites. Looking for more fiction inspired by Shakespeare? Check out Lois Leveen's Juliet's Nurse, a poignant retelling of Romeo and Juliet, or Kathryn Johnson's The Gentleman Poet, which pays clever homage to The Tempest. |
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| Médicis Daughter: A Novel of Marguerite de Valois by Sophie PerinotFor certain 16th-century French noblewomen, the personal is political. The daughter of Queen consort Catherine de Médicis, sensitive Princess Marguerite de Valois ("Margot") is quite unlike her manipulative mama (dubbed La Serpente). With France gripped by religious warfare, Margot's fate, like that of her homeland, depends on not one, but three, powerful men named Henri: her brother, the Duc of Anjou; her betrothed, Henri of Bourbon, Prince of Navarre; and her lover, the Duc of Guise, who's got his eye on the throne. Like author Sophie Perinot's debut, The Sister Queens, this dramatic novel blends family drama and dynastic politics for a riveting read. |
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| American Copper by Shann RaySet in 1920s Montana, this sweeping, atmospheric saga explores the intertwined lives of three fully realized characters: Evelynne Lowry, the privileged daughter of a ruthless copper baron; Zion, the sharecropper's son who becomes a rodeo star; and William Black Kettle, a Cheyenne team roper and the descendant of a peace chief who died in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. If you want more haunting, lyrical stories of the ever-changing landscape of the American West, check out Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, or Annie Proulx's Wyoming Stories, beginning with Close Range. |
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Sisters of Shiloh: A Novel
by Kathy and Becky Hepinstall
When Libby's husband Arden dies on the battlefield at Antietam, she vows vengeance on the Yankees who killed him and joins the Confederate Army, accompanied by her devoted sister, Josephine, who fears that Libby won't survive without her protection (and nursing skills). Disguised as "Thomas" and "Joseph," the sisters join Arden's former unit, the famed Stonewall Brigade, and experience the American Civil War firsthand. As grief-stricken Libby drifts into madness, Josephine endeavors to keep her sister alive without revealing their secret, while simultaneously concealing her love for a fellow soldier.
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Books You May Have Missed
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| The Distant Marvels by Chantel AcevedoAs Hurricane Flora makes landfall in 1963 Cuba, 82-year-old Maria Sirena is forcibly evacuated to the historic mansion of the island's first governor, now a museum. Once Maria was employed as a lettora, paid to read aloud to cigar factory workers (while frequently embellishing the texts with her own commentary). Now she uses her storytelling talents to entertain her fellow evacuees with an unofficial, deeply personal history of Cuba starting with her birth in 1881 aboard a Spanish ship and encompassing her time in a military reconcentrado during the Cuban War of Independence, the upheavals of the Spanish-American War, and the events leading up to Cuba's revolution and Castro's rise to power. |
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| The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen"I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces," declares the sardonic narrator of this novel, a Viet Cong agent known as "the Captain." The orphaned child of a French Catholic priest and his Vietnamese lover, the Captain has spent his young life moving seamlessly between different worlds. After traveling abroad for a university education funded by the CIA, he returned to his homeland to fight for the Communist cause. Now, in 1975, he poses as a refugee in Los Angeles to infiltrate the household of a former South Vietnamese army general. However, disillusionment and doubt has begun to creep into his thoughts. Framed as a confession, this moving, introspective novel depicts complex geopolitical conflicts while reflecting on the nature of identity. |
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Landfalls: A Novel
by Naomi J. Williams
Intended to rival Captain Cook's famous voyages of exploration, the 1785 Lapérouse expedition aims to circumnavigate the globe. Setting off in two retrofitted naval storeships, fancifully renamed the Boussole and the Astrolabe, the captain and crew follow an itinerary that includes stops in Tenerife, Chile, Alaska, California, Russia, and the South Seas islands. Armchair travelers as well as fans of detailed and descriptive sea stories will enjoy the vividly rendered settings, well-drawn characters, and gripping maritime adventure.
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The last bookaneer
by Matthew Pearl
A tale inspired by the century-long legal loophole that allowed books to be published without the permission or compensation of authors traces the battle over a dying Robert Louis Stevenson's final manuscript.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Yolo County Library
226 Buckeye St. Woodland, California 95695 530-666-8005
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