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Historical Fiction March 2021
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Welcome to the March Historical Fiction Newsletter! This month we have 4 novels from the WWII era, two from the gilded age, two from 19th century England, and one each from: the Oregon Trail, 1902 New England, 1930s West Virginia and Nevada, 1940s New York, and 1950s Iran. Have you tried our “Book Match” service? Based on your input we provide recommendations. The next “Brown Bag with Books “Book Club” will be on April 7th. It features: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (featured in the October issue of the Historical Fiction Newsletter.) |
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| Aria by Nazanine HozarWhat it's about: the difficult childhood of Iranian orphan Aria and her own journey into motherhood as the 1979 Revolution unfolds around her.
Try this next: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, another sweeping novel that features a woman navigating complex personal circumstances against a backdrop of major social upheaval.
Reviewers say: Aria is a "vibrant, unsettling portrait" of "a nation's fraught history" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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The children's train : a novel by Viola ArdoneA tale based on true events follows the experiences of a boy in post-World War II Italy, who joins thousands of other children from the south to live with adoptive families in the less-desperate north.
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Germania : A Novel of Nazi Berlin by Harald GilbersReactivated against his will by the Gestapo in the bombed-out capital of the Reich in 1944, Jewish detective Richard Oppenheimer investigates a serial killer who has been leaving Nazi-connected victims at war memorials.
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V2 : a novel of World War II by Robert HarrisA World War II German rocket engineer under orders to launch V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland and an actress-turned-English Intelligence officer who would neutralize the bombings land on opposite sides in a desperate hunt for a saboteur.
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Murder on Millionaires' Row by Erin LindseyA housemaid from Five Points who works in a ritzy Fifth Avenue brownstone during the Gilded Age of Manhattan takes it upon herself to investigate after her employer, who she is certain is in trouble, suddenly and mysteriously disappears.
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Nick by Michael F. SmithA tale inspired by Fitzgerald’s famous narrator imagines the life of Nick Carraway before Gatsby, depicting a war-traumatized, heavily drinking man who embarks on a doomed journey of redemption from Paris to New Orleans.
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The heiress : the revelations of Anne de Bourgh by Molly GreeleyA reimagining of the story of Jane Austen’s mysterious character depicts a rejected young heiress who fights a life-long addiction before discovering health and passion in the London home of her cousin, Colonel John Fitzwilliam.
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Where the lost wander : a novel by Amy HarmonSet on Overland Trail in 1853, a young widow sets off with her family for a life out West – a journey fraught with hardship, fear, death and terrible sacrifice that leads her into the arms of a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds.
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Plain bad heroines : a novel by Emily M. DanforthA highly anticipated adult debut from the award-winning author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post follows the release of a best-selling book about an early 20th-century New England boarding school where gender-diverse students died under suspicious circumstances.
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Fortune favors the dead : a novel by Stephen Spotswood"A detective novel set in 1945, about two female private investigators trying to solve the locked-room murder of a society widow". A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of the hardboiled classics, Fortune Favors the Dead introduces Pentecost and Parker, an audacious new detective duo for the ages.
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The mystery of Mrs. Christie : a novel by Marie BenedictClaiming amnesia after going missing for more than a week in late 1926, up-and-coming mystery author Agatha Christie pens a chilling story that brashly implicates her war-hero husband. By the author of The Other Einstein.
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Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne JohnsonWhat it is: an amusing and dramatic story set in 1930s Nevada as Reno becomes the center of a burgeoning industry in quickie divorces.
Starring: Yale dropout Ward Bennett, who takes a desperately needed job at a dude ranch that hosts soon-to-be-divorcées; guest Emily Sommer, who shares an undeniable spark with Ward despite her cool veneer of patrician superiority; larger-than-life aviatrix Nina O'Malley, a guest who is on divorce number 3.
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The right kind of fool by Sarah Loudin Thomas"Thirteen-year-old Loyal Raines is supposed to stay close to home on a hot summer day in 1934. When he slips away for a quick swim in the river and finds a dead body, the ripples caused by his discovery will impact the town in ways no one could have imagined."
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Silent in the grave by Deanna RaybournA British aristocrat with an eccentric family and a husband she does not love, Lady Julia Grey is stunned by the sudden death of her husband and enlists the help of private sleuth Nicholas Brisbane to unravel the mystery of his death and the threats that he had been receiving, all the while taking on an unconventional role in London society.
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Mr. Churchill's Secretary : A Maggie Hope Novel by Susan Elia MacnealAfter German Luftwaffe bomb London, Maggie Hope--trained in math and code breaking, but only able to find a job as Winston Churchill's secretary--uses the unfettered access her position demands to try to unravel a plot to assassinate Churchill himself. A first novel.
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The sweetness at the bottom of the pie : a Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan BradleyEleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, begins her adventure when a dead bird is found on the doorstep of her family's mansion in the summer of 1950, thus propelling her into a mystery that involves an investigation into a man's murder where her father is the main suspect. An international best-seller.
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