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Historical Fiction September 2018
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Ontario Public Library Week
Sunday, October 14 to Saturday October 20,
Food for Fines (All Week) -- "The Desk Set" (Monday movie) -- Guess the bookworms (Tuesday) -- Superhero Day (Wednesday) -- "Pop" into the Library (Thursday) -- Spin the Wheel for Prizes (Friday) -- Book Sale and Silent Auction (Saturday 10am to 2pm) Check our online calendar for more details!
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Someone to care
by Mary Balogh
Defying convention and running off together, Viola Kingsley, once the Countess of Riverdale, and the Marquess of Dorchester embark on a grand adventure, but soon discover that severing the ties of respectability is no easy task and that pleasure can ensnare you when you least expect it. By a New York Times best-selling author. Simultaneous
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Beirut Hellfire Society
by Rawi Hage
Our protagonist, Pavlov, is the twenty-something son of an undertaker and as such has watched funeral processions pass below his window throughout his childhood. When his father dies, Pavlov is summoned by his former teacher, Mr. Tarraff, and tasked with providing burials that, for a variety of reasons--because the deceased is homosexual, or an outcast, or abandoned by their family, or an atheist--must happen in secret. The society that arranges such burials is a hidden anti-religious sect called the Beirut Hellfire Society. Pavlov accepts this assignment, and over the course of the novel acts as a survivor-chronicler of his torn and fading community, bearing witness to both its enduring rituals and its inevitable decline.
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The Hour of the Fox
by Kurt Palka
Margaret Bradley is the most senior associate at a prestigious law firm, and she is on track to make partner. It is the 1970s; her climb up the career ladder in this male-dominated profession has been difficult, but with hard work she has made herself one of the best in it. She is dedicated to her work and is happily married until one day her entire world is shattered by the sudden death of her son Andrew, a military pilot. Now, Margaret lives with a heavy, all-encompassing sense of loss and regret that is pushing her further and further away from the person she once knew herself to be, and from her husband, Jack, a successful geologist and a loving and loyal partner. Consumed by her sorrows Margaret is drawn back to the family summer home in Sweetbarry, a small town off the coast of the North Atlantic, where she spent much of her childhood. Her lifelong best friend, Aileen, is close by. When Aileen's adult son, Danny, is questioned by local police in connection with a violent crime that shocks the community, Margaret provides legal and moral support. And it is while doing so that an opportunity presents itself for her to confront her sorrow. She sees "a door opening. A way forward," and she boldly reaches out with an act of courage and humility that has profound consequences. Set against the backdrops of the rugged Atlantic coast, Toronto, and Paris, The Hour of the Fox is emotionally resonant, atmospheric, and unforgettable in its depiction of motherhood and loss.Book Annotation
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| Bellewether by Susanna KearsleyWhat it's about: The Wilde House Museum is said to be haunted by the ghost of a French Canadian soldier who fell in love with the daughter of the house during the Seven Years' War. As curator Charley Van Hoek investigates in the present day, a parallel narrative set in 1759 reveals the star-crossed love story from the perspectives of the couple.
Is it for you? if you don't mind a hint of the supernatural in otherwise realistic fiction, Bellewether offers well-drawn characters, a romantic narrative that bridges two timelines, and plenty of gothic atmosphere. |
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Cape Cod
by William Martin
The story of the Bigelow and Hilyard clans, who journeyed to America together aboard the Mayflower, follows their descendants through four centuries of American history, personal conflict, success and failure, love, and tragedy, from their first years in the New World, through multiple wars, to the present. Reprint.
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| Manhattan Beach by Jennifer EganWhat it is: a lyrical, character-driven novel that follows Anna Kerrigan from adolescence, when her mob-connected father disappears, to adulthood, when she becomes the first female diver at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.
Read it for: a complex protagonist, a vivid recreation of New York City during the Great Depression and World War II, and meticulously researched details of a diver's life during this period. |
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| Lilac Girls by Martha Hall KellyWhat it's about: the Ravensbrück concentration camp, as seen from the perspectives of three women from very different backgrounds.
Featuring: American socialite and charity worker Caroline, Polish resistance fighter Kasia, and German physician Herta, who supports the Nazi regime.
Want a taste? "If I'd known I was about to meet the man who'd shatter me like bone china on terra-cotta, I would have slept in." |
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Muddy boots and silk stockings
by Julia Stoneham
It is England, 1943. The country is at war with so many men away fighting, it is the women left behind who must keep the country going, and when Alice Todd is abandoned by her husband, she must find a means to provide for herself and her young son.
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| The Fire by Night by Teresa MessineoWhat it's about: Best friends in the Army Nurse Corps experience World War II from different vantage points: Giuseppina "Jo" McMahon in a bombed-out field hospital in France, Kay Elliot in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines.
Is it for you? Unfolding amid the chaos of war, this moving and well-researched debut contains harrowing descriptions of the hardships experienced by the protagonists and their patients. |
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| China Dolls: A Novel by Lisa SeeWhat it's about: three Asian American nightclub performers navigating the "Chop Suey Circuit" of San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1930s.
Starring: Grace Lee, who flees her Midwestern hometown for a life on the stage; Helen Fong, who rebels against her traditional Chinese family; and Ruby Tom, who conceals her Japanese heritage as hostilities between the U.S. and Japan escalate.
Further reading: Graham Russell Hodges' Anna May Wong, a biography of Hollywood's first Chinese American actress, whose career ambitions were stymied by racial prejudice. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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