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Historical Fiction March 2018
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| The Atomic City Girls by Janet BeardWhat it's about: Although the young women employed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, are told that their work will help the U.S. win World War II, they have no idea that they're involved in building an atomic bomb.
You might also like: Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City, a nonfiction account of the military installation at Oak Ridge and it's predominantly female workforce; TaraShea Nesbit's The Wives of Los Alamos, a novel about the spouses of Manhattan Project scientists and the close-knit community they form. |
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Chicago : a novel
by David Mamet
The Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Untouchables and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Glengarry Glen Ross presents a novel set against a backdrop of the 1920s Chicago mob scene and follows the experiences of a World War I veteran who seeks vigilante justice against the man responsible for killing the woman he loved. 150,000 first printing.
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A conspiracy in Belgravia
by Sherry Thomas
When Lady Ingram, the wife of her benefactor, asks for her help tracking down a missing former love, Charlotte Holmes, a brilliant Victorian-era detective operating under a male alias, is shocked to learn that the man in question is her own illegitimate half-brother, Myron Finch. By the best-selling author of the Heart of Blade duology. Original.
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Armistice : the Hot War
by Harry Turtledove
A conclusion to the trilogy set in a mid-20th-century alternate universe reimagines humanity's attempts to rebuild in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war. By the Hugo Award-winning author of the War That Came Early series.
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| Winter Sisters by Robin OliveiraWhat it's about: When two young girls disappear during a blizzard, physician Mary Stipp continues to search for them long after everyone else gives up.
Read it for: an intriguing mystery, stirring courtroom drama, and a well-researched and richly detailed depiction of 1870s Albany, New York.
Crossover alert: Though not, strictly speaking, a sequel to My Name is Mary Sutter, this novel reunites readers with some familiar characters. |
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| Half-Blood Blues by Esi EdugyanWhat it's about: In 1940, biracial trumpet player Hieronymus Falk is taken by the Gestapo, leaving the remaining members of the Hot-Time Swingers jazz ensemble to wonder about his fate. Decades later, they discover the truth.
Try this next: Nicole Mones' Night in Shanghai, a dramatic novel about an African-American jazz musician who flees racial discrimination at home only to confront the looming threat of WWII. |
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| The Girl from the Savoy by Hazel GaynorWhat it's about: A chance meeting with an actress and her songwriter brother draws Dolly Lane, a hotel chambermaid with dreams of becoming a chorus girl, into a world of glitz and glamour.
Why you might like it: Beneath the glittering facade of this novel's Jazz Age London setting is a poignant, character-driven story of people attempting to reinvent themselves in the wake of tragedy.
You might also like: D.J. Taylor's Ask Alice, about a London socialite with big ambitions and a scandalous past. |
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Saint Mazie: A Novel
by Jami Attenberg
After a childhood spent running wild on the sidewalks of New York, Mazie Phillips becomes the proprietress of 1920s Manhattan's popular Venice movie theater. However, Mazie finds her true calling in life once the Great Depression hits and she opens her doors to the homeless. Fans of the popular blog Humans of New York will appreciate the tough-talking, big-hearted "Saint Mazie, Queen of the Bowery," a real person first introduced to the reading public in a 1940 New Yorker profile by Joseph Mitchell. This novel builds on that foundation by interweaving the facts of Mazie's life with well-researched fictional elements, including diary entries and interviews with friends and neighbors.
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Z : a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
by Therese Fowler
A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father's opposition and her abandonment of the provincial finery of her upbringing in favor of a scandalous flapper identity that gains her entry into the literary party scenes of New York, Paris and the French Riviera. 150,000 first printing.
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| The Wicked City by Beatriz WilliamsWhat it's about: Flapper girl Geneva "Gin" Kelly teams up with Prohibition agent Oliver Anson to track down her abusive stepfather, a notoriously ruthless bootlegger.
About the author: Beatriz Williams is known for her use of parallel, past-and-present narratives that unravel historical and romantic intrigue.
For fans of: Kate Morton's atmospheric and intricately plotted novels in which modern-day protagonists delve into long-buried family secrets. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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