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Historical Fiction January 2018
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| Mrs. Osmond: A Novel by John BanvilleStarring: Isabel Archer, heroine of The Portrait of a Lady, in a sequel to Henry James' classic novel.
Book buzz: Critics are raving about this "superb Henry James pastiche" (The Guardian), an "epochal act of imitation, salutation, and imagination" (NPR) that evokes "James's limpid prose, deft plotting, and finely limned characterization" (Library Journal, starred review).
You might also like: Colm Tóibín's The Master, an introspective novel that examines Henry James' personal life. |
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| Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace by Jennifer ChiaveriniIntroducing: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace: the mathematician (and daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron) who's widely considered to be the first computer programmer.
Why you might like it: This fictional memoir illuminates Ada's complicated personal life as well as her professional partnerships with Charles Babbage and Mary Somerville.
Try this next: Joan Spicci's Beyond the Limit, about Sofya Kovalevskaya, stars another unconventional 19th-century woman mathematician. |
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The Underground River
by Martha Conway
In an effort to pay back a debt, a young seamstress becomes involved saving runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad in 1838, ferrying them on a small flatboat posing as a floating theatre where her actress cousin performs.
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The Last Town on Earth
by Thomas Mullen
Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a mill town called Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself in the wake of the 1918 flu pandemic, setting up guards to prevent anyone from coming in or out, but a violent confrontation with a tired, hungry, and cold soldier will have devastating repercussions for the entire town. Reader's Guide included.
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| A Piece of the World: A Novel by Christina Baker KlineFeaturing: Christina Olson, a disabled woman who lives a solitary life on her family's farm in rural Maine before befriending artist Andrew Wyeth and becoming the subject of his iconic painting, "Christina's World."
For fans of: engaging and richly detailed historical novels that imagine the creation of famous artworks, such as Gloria Goldreich's The Bridal Chair or Maureen Gibbon's Paris Red. |
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| The Wind Is Not a River: A Novel by Brian PaytonWhat it's about: In 1943, journalist John Easley embeds with a bomber crew headed for the Japanese-occupied Aleutian Islands. Shot down over the island of Attu, John and aviator Karl Bitburg must survive while evading enemy soldiers.
Why you might like it: Focusing on the only World War II battle to be fought on North American soil, this compelling novel movingly recreates a little-known historical event through the eyes of its sympathetic characters. |
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| The Light Between Oceans: A Novel by M.L. StedmanWhat it's about: An emotionally scarred World War I veteran becomes a lighthouse keeper on a small island off the coast of Australia. When a boat washes ashore carrying an infant girl, he and his wife decide to keep the baby -- a decision with far-reaching consequences.
You might also like: Karen Viggers' The Lightkeeper's Wife, another moving novel about a lighthouse keeper who starts an unconventional family on an isolated island off the coast of Australia. |
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The Orchardist : A Novel
by Amanda Coplin
When two feral girls--one of which is very pregnant--appear on his homestead, solitary orchardist Talmadge, who carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century, vows to save and protect them while trying to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.
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The Pearl Diver : A Novel
by Jeff Talarigo
Her expectations about living out her life as a Japanese pearl diver shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy, a nineteen-year-old girl is rejected by her family and exiled to a leprosarium on the island of Nagashima, where she forges a new identity among fellow patients and rediscovers her love for the sea. A first novel.
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The Madonna on the Moon
by Rolf Bauerdick
Living in a tiny 1950s Carpathian mountains village isolated from the communism of Eastern Europe, 15-year-old Pavel Botev attends a school taught by an exiled alcoholic who quietly orders him to kill the new Party Secretary before mysteriously vanishing, an event that changes the course of the boy's life. A first novel.
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The Cove
by Ron Rash
Living deep within a cove in the Appalachians of North Carolina during World War I, Laurel Shelton, a lonely young woman branded as a witch, finally finds the happiness she deserves in Walter, a mysterious stranger who is mute, but their love might not be enough to protect them from a devastating secret.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street
Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100
http://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us
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