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Historical FictionNovember 2015
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"I want to run. I want to run and run and go far away, back to the Territory or off to some foreign land where there is no more sorrow." ~ from Nancy E. Turner's These Is My Words
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Early one morning : a novel
by Ginny Baily
Chiara Ravello is about to flee occupied Rome when she locks eyes with a woman being herded on to a truck with her family. Claiming the woman's son, Daniele, as her own nephew, Chiara demands his return; only as the trucks depart does she realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge. Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.
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| Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay by William BoydTowards the end of a long and eventful life, Amory Clay recounts how the gift of a camera ignited her passion for photography. Paired with Amory's vivid, nostalgic narrative is a series of period photographs that trace her career from London, where she works as an assistant in her uncle's studio, to Weimar Germany, where she documents Berlin's decadent demimonde, to her involvement in the magazine industry of 1930s New York City, and then across Europe as a photojournalist during World War II. A composite portrait of the many talented woman photographers who made their mark on 20th-century photojournalism, Sweet Caress should appeal to Genie Chipps' A Woman of the World or Meg Waite Clayton's The Race for Paris. |
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| We That Are Left by Clare ClarkThroughout their childhood at Ellinghurst, one of Edwardian England's splendid manor houses, sisters Phyllis and Jessica Melville are as different as siblings can be: bookish Phyllis dreams of a university education, while glamorous Jessica longs for the life of a London socialite. Alas, the Great War, which claims the life of older brother (and heir to the estate) Theo, also shatters their hopes for the future. Meanwhile, the return of childhood friend Oskar Grunewald, a mathematical prodigy whose ambitions of becoming a scientist are thwarted by his German heritage, deepens the rift between the sisters. Downton Abbey fans will be swept up in this tale of a wealthy family's reversal of fortune in a rapidly modernizing world. |
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| Twain's End: A Novel by Lynn Cullen"I kill the people I love with words," Samuel Clemens confesses to Isabel Lyon, his secretary and confidant. Although his many fans know him as Mark Twain, to Isabel (his "Lioness") the famous author is "The King," with whom she is emotionally, though not physically, intimate. Although she's effectively been the lady of the house ever since the death of Clemens' wife, he won't marry her. And when Isabel accepts a marriage proposal from another man, The King turns on her with stunning ferocity, causing her to question their entire relationship. Based on Isabel Lyon's personal diaries as well as Clemens' epic 429-page diatribe against her perceived perfidy, Twain's End illuminates the darker side of an American literary icon. |
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| A Poet of the Invisible World: A Novel by Michael GoldingBorn with two pairs of ears, Nouri Ahmad Mohammad ibn Masoud al Morad is destined to live an extraordinary life. Targeted by those who view his unusual anatomy as an ill omen, he's rescued from imminent death by one-handed Habbib al-Adib, who raises him within the sanctuary of a Sufi lodge. Among the dervishes, Nouri pursues knowledge and enlightenment alongside his friend and lover Vishpar Izad al Hassan al Ibrahim. Fans of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha should appreciate this mystical tale of spiritual awakening set in 13th-century Persia. Readers interested in Sufism will find a concise and useful primer in Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr's The Garden of Truth. |
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| Cleopatra's Shadows: A Novel by Emily HollemanDysfunction, disorder, and debauchery are the hallmarks of the Ptolemies, the last royal dynasty to rule Egypt. Although Cleopatra is perhaps the best known member of her infamous family, this descriptive and richly detailed novel demonstrates that her sisters, Berenice and Arsinoe, are also forces to be reckoned with. Beginning when Berenice stages a palace coup that sends Cleopatra and their father fleeing to Rome, the story of her brief, troubled reign unfolds alongside Arsinoe's desperate attempts to escape from captivity. Readers interested in this period of history may want to check out Stacy Schiff's biography Cleopatra, which gives ample historical context. Those specifically intrigued by Ptolemaic Egypt may like Duncan Sprott's novel The Ptolemies, a multi-generational chronicle of international politics, internecine bloodshed, and incest. |
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Alice in bed : a novel
by Judith Hooper
"Arm yourself against my dawn, which may at any moment cast you and Harry into obscurity," Alice James writes her brother William in 1891. In Judith Hooper's magnificent book, zingers such as this fly back and forth between the endlessly articulate and letter-writing Jameses, all of whom are geniuses at gossiping. And the James family did, in fact, know everyone intellectually important on both sides of the Atlantic, but by the time we meet her in 1889, Alice has been sidelined and is lying in bed in Leamington, England, after taking London by storm. We don't know what's wrong with Alice -- no one does, though her brothers have inventive theories -- even the best of medical science offers no help. Her legs no longer support her. She cannot travel home and so is separated from her beloved Katherine. She also suffers fits each day at noon sending her into swooning dreams in which she not so much remembers her life as relives it. So, with Alice in bed, we travel to London and Paris, where the James children spent parts of their unusual childhoods. We sit with her around the James family's dinner table, as she - the youngest and the only girl - listens to the intellectual elite of Boston, missing nothing. We meet her mercurial father, given to visions of angels and firing each governess he hires for her in turn.
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Sword of honor : or, Hours of the dog
by David Kirk
Great samurai Musashi Miyamoto travels to Kyoto for a reckoning after a price is put on his head and falls in love with a blind witch.
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The gold eaters
by Ronald Wright
Based on actual historical events, a novel of exploration and invasion in 16th-century Peru follows young Waman, the epitome of an everyman, as he, captured by the conquistadors looking to plunder gold, becomes an indispensible translator between cultures and must learn political gamesmanship in order to survive.
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Focus on: Historical Westerns
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| The Color of Lightning by Paulette JilesBased on a true story, this novel follows freed slave Britt Johnson as he and his family travel to Texas shortly after the end of the American Civil War. Britt is eager to start his own freight business, while his wife intends to be a schoolteacher. Those plans are derailed when a group of Comanche-Kiowa kidnap Britt's wife and children. Now Britt must come up with a plan to get them back before it's too late. Don't miss this "rousing, character-driven tale" (Kirkus Reviews) by Paulette Jiles, author of the bestselling Stormy Weather and Enemy Women. |
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| Little Century by Anna KeeseyAt the invitation of her cousin, cattle rancher Ferris "Pick" Pickett, 18-year-old Esther Chambers arrives in Century, Oregon, to take up residence in an abandoned homesteader's cabin. If Esther works the claim for five years, she becomes its rightful owner -- at which point Pick plans to purchase the property and add it to his own extensive land holdings. However, neither he nor his kinswoman count on Esther falling in love with Oregon, not to mention a budding romance with local shepherd Ben Cruff. As conflict over grazing rights erupts into a range war between cattlemen and sheep ranchers, Esther must choose between love and family loyalty. |
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| The Son: A Novel by Philipp MeyerKidnapped during a Comanche raid that leaves his mother and sister dead, 13-year-old Eli McCullough, the first white child born in the brand-new Republic of Texas, spends three years living with his captors. At 16, Eli regains his freedom and returns to a world that's nothing like the one he left behind. Nevertheless, he's determined to carve out a place for himself in this lawless land. Throughout Eli's restless, adventurous life, he'll join the Texas Rangers, become a cattle rancher, and fight for the Confederate Army during the Civil War -- not to mention fall in love (more than once) and found a dynasty. Don't miss this sweeping family saga set against a vivid backdrop of Texas history. |
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| These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901: Arizona Territories by Nancy E. TurnerIn 1881, as her family joins a wagon train heading to the Arizona Territories, 17-year-old Sarah Prine records her experiences in a diary, vividly chronicling the hardships of frontier life in an authentic vernacular that reflects both her lack of formal education and her indomitable spirit. Based on the life of author Nancy E. Turner's great-grandmother, These Is My Words comprises the first part of a family saga that continues with Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden. For another historical Western narrated by a plucky young pioneer woman, try Sandra Dallas' The Diary of Mattie Spenser. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Prince George's County Memorial Library System 6532 Adelphi Rd. Hyattsville, Maryland 20782 301-699-3500http://www.pgcmls.info/ |
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