June 2020 list by Katherine N.
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All the Ways We Said Goodbye
by Beatriz Williams
An heiress, a Resistance fighter and a widow find their lives intertwined by their wartime experiences and the turbulent 1960s when they seek refuge at Paris’ legendary Ritz hotel.
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Children of the Stars
by Mario Escobar
August 1942. Jacob and Moses Stein, two young Jewish brothers, are staying with their aunt in Paris amid the Nazi occupation. The boys’ parents, well-known German playwrights, have left the brothers in their aunt’s care until they can find safe harbor for their family. But before the Steins can reunite, the Nazi's arrest the boys. Jacob and Moses know they must flee in order to survive, but they only have a set of letters sent from the South of France to guide them to their parents. They undertake the dangerous trek across occupied France, often aided by brave souls who take risks to protect the boys.
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Deacon King Kong
by James McBride
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of this novel.
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The Grace Kelly Dress
by Brenda Janowitz
The iconic wedding dress of Grace Kelly inspires three generations of women to forge their own paths, including a Parisian atelier who is hired to sew a look-alike gown before confronting an impossible choice.
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Hannah's War
by Jan Eliasberg
A young military investigator at Leavenworth Prison interrogates a Los Alamos National Lab scientist to uncover her involvement in Berlin’s infamous Kaiser Wilhelm Institute a decade earlier before becoming seduced by her intelligence and quiet confidence.
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The Light After the War
by Anita Abriel
Two Jewish girls who escaped a train headed to Auschwitz to hide on an Austrian farm embark on a quest for a better life that takes them to Naples, New York and Caracas.
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A Long Petal of the Sea
by Isabel Allende
In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco succeeds in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee, including Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
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The Mirror & the Light
by Hilary Mantel
A tale inspired by the final years of Thomas Cromwell describes how after the execution of Anne Boleyn and childbed death of Queen Jane, the former blacksmith’s son orchestrates a desperate plot to fortify England and save his own life.
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The Night Watchman
by Louise Erdrich
In 1953, Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at a jewel bearing plant on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to fight the U.S. Congress over a new “emancipation” bill passed by the U.S. that threatens to violate the Chippewa Treaty. Thomas lives in this impoverished reservation community along with many other colorful characters in this novel based on the author's grandfather's life.
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The Operator
by Gretchen Berg
Vivan is a switchboard operator in 1950s Ohio, and -- even though she's not supposed to -- often listens in on the conversations of her neighbors. Then one cold night, Vivian listens in on a call between that snob Betty Miller and someone whose voice she can’t quite place and hears something shocking. Betty Miller’s mystery friend has news that, if true, will shatter Vivian’s tidy life, making her the laughingstock of the town. Vivian may be mortified, but she plans to get to the bottom of that rumor. But as Vivian is about to find out, in a small town, one secret usually leads to another.
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And They Called it Camelot
by Stephanie Thornton
Using her charm and intelligence to carve a place for herself among the men of history, Jackie Kennedy is forced to reassemble the fragments of her life after her husband’s assassination.
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The Traitor
by V. S. Alexander
In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a a secret resistance group is formed called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl. Despite the risk, Natalya, a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, willing joins the group -- and when danger strikes, she must take an extraordinary gamble in her own personal struggle to survive.
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Veiled in Smoke
by Jocelyn Green
Meg and Sylvie Townsend manage the family bookshop and care for their father, Stephen, a veteran still suffering in mind and spirit from his time as a POW during the Civil War. But when the Great Fire sweeps through Chicago's business district, they lose much more than just their store.Their father is accused of murder and committed to an insane asylum. The sisters, now homeless and unemployed, must now prove their father's innocence.
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