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Historical Fiction October 2018
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| Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird“Here’s the first thing you need to know about Miss Cathy Williams: I am the daughter of a daughter of a queen and my mama never let me forget it.”
Though born into bondage on a “miserable tobacco farm” in Little Dixie, Missouri, Cathy Williams was never allowed to consider herself a slave. According to her mother, she was a captive, destined by her noble warrior blood to escape the enemy. Her chance at freedom presents itself with the arrival of Union general Phillip Henry “Smash ‘em Up” Sheridan, the outcast of West Point who takes the rawboned, prideful young woman into service. At war’s end, having tasted freedom, Cathy refuses to return to servitude and makes the monumental decision to disguise herself as a man and join the Army’s legendary Buffalo Soldiers.
Alone now in the ultimate man’s world, Cathy must fight not only for her survival and freedom, but she also vows to never give up on finding her mother, her little sister, and the love of the only man strong enough to win her heart. |
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| The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes GowarOne September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah’s trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah’s ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid. Jonah is stunned—the object the captain presents him is brown and wizened, as small as an infant, with vicious teeth and claws, and a torso that ends in the tail of a fish. It is also dead.
As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlors and brothels, all of London is curious to see this marvel in Jonah Hancock’s possession. Thrust from his ordinary existence, somber Jonah finds himself moving from the city’s seedy underbelly to the finest drawing rooms of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of the coquettish Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on—and a shrewd courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting sparks a perilous liaison that steers both their lives onto a dangerous new course as they come to realize that priceless things often come at the greatest cost. |
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| The Air You Breathe by Frances de Pontes PeeblesSome friendships, like romance, have the feeling of fate.
Skinny, nine-year-old orphaned Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when in walks a girl who changes everything. Graça, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, is clever, well fed, pretty, and thrillingly ill behaved. Born to wildly different worlds, Dores and Graça quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music.
One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become their shared passion, the source of their partnership and their rivalry, and for each, the only way out of the life to which each was born. But only one of the two is destined to be a star. Their intimate, volatile bond will determine each of their fortunes--and haunt their memories. |
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A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts
by Therese Anne Fowler
Alva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement.
With a nod to Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, in A Well-Behaved Woman Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted against desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules―and how to break them.
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| Fools and Mortals by Bernard CornwellStarring: Richard Shakespeare, younger brother of playwright William.
A junior member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Richard leaps at the chance to prove himself when the company's scripts are stolen by a rival playhouse. Meanwhile, Puritans would shut down every theater in London if they could.
Known for fast-paced, action-packed series about soldiers (Sharpe) and warriors (Saxon Stories), Bernard Cornwell shifts gears in this stand-alone, which brings to life the world of Elizabethan theater. |
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| The Tumbling Turner Sisters by Juliette FayFeaturing: Kit, Gert, Winnie, and Nell Turner, sisters who -- under the direction of their overbearing mother -- form an acrobatic troupe after their father loses his job.
Set in 1919, this upbeat novel offers an authentic depiction of Vaudeville shortly before the nascent motion picture industry transforms American entertainment.
Did you know? Author Juliette Fay is the great-granddaughter of a Vaudeville performer. |
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| Church of Marvels by Leslie ParryShortly after a fire consumes the Church of Marvels, their mother's Coney Island sideshow, teen sword-swallower Belle Church disappears, prompting her twin sister, Odile, to search for her.
This richly detailed novel, set in a gritty 1895 New York City, takes place within a 24-hour period and contains four interwoven storylines.
You might also like: Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things. |
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| The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie WisemanLilly Blackwood, a nine-year-old with albinism, becomes a sideshow attraction after her mother sells her to a traveling circus. In a parallel narrative, set 25 years later in the 1950s, 19-year-old Julia Blackwood investigates her family history.
The Life She Was Given introduces resilient young protagonists thrust into difficult circumstances and provides a well-researched depiction of circus life during the Great Depression. |
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Contact the Library for more great titles! |
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