August 2020 list by Katherine N.
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Above the Bay of Angels
by Rhys Bowen
When a twist of fate lands her in Queen Victoria’s kitchen, a talented young chef is selected to accompany a royal retinue to Nice. But everything goes wrong when a member of the queen’s retinue falls ill and dies. Having prepared the royal guest’s last meal, Bella is suspected of the poisonous crime. An investigation is sure to follow. Her charade will be over. And her new life will come crashing down—if it doesn’t send her to the gallows.
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The Amalgamation Polka
by Stephen Wright
Born in 1844, Liberty Fish is the descendant of both Carolina slaveholders and New York abolitionists. In hopes of reconciling the warring strands of his heritage, he escapes his home in the North -- first into the cauldron of the Civil War, and then into the even more disturbing bedlam that follows.
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The Black Swan of Paris
by Karen Robards
In Paris, 1944, singer Genevieve Dumont is both a star and a smokescreen. An unwilling darling of the Nazis, the chanteuse’s privileged position allows her to go undetected as an ally to the resistance. When her estranged mother, Lillian, is captured by Nazis, Genevieve fears the Gestapo will torture information out of Lillian that will derail the upcoming allied invasion. The resistance movement is tasked with silencing her by any means necessary. But Genevieve refuses to let her mother become yet one more victim of the war.
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Blame the Dead
by Ed Ruggero
Stationed in Sicily, 1943, Eddie Harkins, former Philadelphia cop turned Military Police lieutenant, finds himself navigating an advancing battle line to investigate the murder of a field-hospital doctor, before rumors of internal assaults expose deep corruption within the unit.
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The Deep
by Alma Katsu
Annie Hebley survived the sinking of the Titanic, and years later is working as a nurse on the hospital ship Britannic during World War I. On the ship she happens upon a wounded soldier and recognizes him as Mark Fletcher, another survivor of the Titanic disaster. But soon Mark's presence awakens deep-buried feelings and secrets, forcing her to reckon with the demons of her past--as they both discover that the terror may not yet be over.
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Fast Girls : A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team
by Elise Hooper
Three female american track athletes, Betty Robinson, Louise Stokes and Helen Stephens, defy society’s expectations of what women can achieve and become the first integrated women's Olympic team at the Nazi-sponsored 1936 games in Berlin.
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For Love and Country
by Candace Waters
When Lottie Palmer runs away the day before her wedding to join the Navy WAVES, she is determined to become the best airplane mechanic in the division, working harder than she’s ever worked before. Her grit impresses her instructor, Captain Luke Woodward. But when the war ramps up and she is assigned to Pearl Harbor she must fight her growing feelings for Luke and navigate her role as one of the only female mechanics among a group of men.
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The Gimmicks
by Chris McCormick
Told through alternating perspectives, The Gimmicks is a novel set in the waning years of the Cold War. It follows a trio of young Armenians from the Soviet Union, across Europe, to Southern California, looking at the Armenian Genocide, whose traumatic reverberations will have unexpected consequences on all three lives, challenging the reader to confront the spectacle of violence and its aftermath.
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Her Last Flight
by Beatriz Williams
In 1947, photographer and war correspondent Janey Everett arrives at a remote surfing village on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to research a planned biography of forgotten aviation pioneer Sam Mallory. Obsessed with Sam's story, Janey tracks down the pilot’s former student before learning the remarkable story of their complicated and passionate relationship.
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The House at the End of the Moor
by Michelle Griep
Opera star Maggie Lee escapes her opulent lifestyle when threatened by a powerful politician who aims to ruin her life. She runs off to the wilds of the moors to live in anonymity. All that changes the day she discovers a half-dead man near her house. Escaped convict Oliver Ward is on the run to prove his innocence, until he gets hurt and is taken in by Maggie. He discovers some jewels in her possession—the very same jewels that got him convicted. Together they hatch a plan to return the jewels, clearing Oliver’s name and hopefully maintaining Maggie’s anonymity.
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The King at the Edge of the World
by Arthur Phillips
A secret Muslim warrior from the height of England’s religious battles is sent to Scotland to uncover the true nature of James VI’s actual religious beliefs while an heirless Elizabeth I lies on her deathbed.
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Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters
by Jennifer Chiaverini
In 1875, Elizabeth Todd Edwards reels from news that her younger sister Mary, widow of President Abraham Lincoln, has attempted suicide. Mary’s shocking act followed legal proceedings arranged by her only surviving son that declared her insane. Although long estranged, Elizabeth knows Mary’s tenuous mental health has deteriorated through decades of trauma and loss. Yet is her suicide attempt truly the impulse of a deranged mind, or the desperate act of a sane woman terrified to be committed to an asylum? And—if her sisters can put past grievances aside—is their love powerful enough to save her?
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Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook
by Celia Rees
Recruited by the OSS as a spy in post World War II Germany, Edith Graham poses as a cookbook author, embeding crucial intelligence within the recipes she collects. But occupied Germany is awash with other spies, collaborators and opportunists and she is pulled into their dangerous world, where no one is what they seem to be.
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Raphael, Painter in Rome
by Stephanie Storey
Orphaned at age eleven, Raphael is determined to keep the deathbed promise he made to his father: become the greatest artist in history. But to be the best, he must beat the best, the legendary sculptor of the David, Michelangelo Buonarroti. When Pope Julius II calls both artists down to Rome, they are pitted against each other: Michelangelo painting the Sistine Ceiling, while Raphael decorates the pope's private apartments. As Raphael strives toward perfection in paint, he battles internal demons: his desperate ambition, crippling fear of imperfection, and unshakable loneliness.
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The Tea Chest
by Heidi Chiavaroli
In 1773 Boston, Emma Malcolm’s father is loyal to the crown, but Emma’s heart belongs to Noah Winslow, a lowly printer’s assistant and Patriot. But her father has promised her hand to Samuel Clarke, a rapacious and sadistic man. When Emma is drawn into the treasonous Boston Tea Party, Samuel blackmails her with evidence that condemns each participant, including Noah. Emma realizes she must do whatever it takes to protect those she loves, even if it means giving up the life she desires and becoming Samuel’s wife.
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Utopia Avenue
by David Mitchell
Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, the band embarks on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, to a TV debut, chart success and an American sojourn to Laural Canyon and '68 San Francisco. This kaleidoscopic novel explores stardom's wobbly ladder, and the truths and lies of music, madness, and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?
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The Vineyards of Champagne
by Juliet Blackwell
Deep within the labyrinth of caves that lies below the vineyards of the Champagne region, an underground city of women and children hums with life. Forced to take shelter from the unrelenting onslaught of German shellfire above, the bravest and most defiant women venture out to pluck sweet grapes for the harvest. In present day, Rosalyn Acosta,newly widowed, travels to Champagne to select vintages for her Napa-based employer. Rosalyn doesn't much care for champagne--or anything since the death of her husband. But as she reads through a cache of WWI letters and retraces the lives lived in the limestone tunnels, Rosalyn unravels a mystery hidden for decades...and finds a way to savor her own life again.
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The Yellow Bird Sings
by Jennifer Rosner
As Nazi soldiers round up the Jews in their town, Róza and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbor’s barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róza tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden. In this make-believe world, Róza can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Róza must make an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.
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