Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/08/2013
ISBN-13: 9780385351232
ISBN-10: 0385351232

In a story that runs parallel to the events of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Longbourn examines the lives of the Bennet family's household servants, whose days are spent laying fires, cooking meals, emptying chamber pots, changing linens, and performing other domestic tasks. All are content with (or at least resigned to) their lot in life -- save for housemaid Sarah, whose restlessness is exacerbated by the unexpected arrival of mysterious new manservant, James Smith. Providing an intimate glimpse into daily life in Regency England, both above and below stairs, this "vivid reimagining" (Publishers Weekly) of a classic is a must-read for Austen fans, but will also captivate readers who enjoy well-drawn characters, richly detailed settings, and moving love stories.

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Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/15/2013
ISBN-13: 9780547898049
ISBN-10: 0547898045

Growing up in 1930s Johannesburg, Isaac Helger, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, is a born fighter in need of a cause worth fighting for. A headstrong, passionate young man with a powerful sense of justice, Isaac is neverthless blind to the evils of apartheid -- despite the fact that the entire course of his life has been dictated by persecution (his parents moved to South Africa to escape European anti-Semitism) -- just as he initially fails to grasp the significance of Hitler's rise to power. Vividly described settings and sympathetic characters (as well as authentic period language that blends English, Afrikaans, Yiddish, and Zulu) bring this emotionally charged coming-of-age story to life.

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Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/28/2013
ISBN-13: 9780871403766
ISBN-10: 0871403765

In 1916, Nova Scotia artist Angus MacGrath becomes Lieutenant MacGrath of the 17th Royal Nova Scotia Highlanders by defying his pacifist family, enlisting in the army, and leaving the tiny fishing village of Snag Harbor. His goal is not to fight, but to find his brother-in-law, missing in action somewhere in France. However, Angus, promised a job in London as a cartographer, instead finds himself sent to the front lines. Meanwhile, Angus' 13-year-old son Simon Peter must learn to survive without his father, who may or may not return. For other Canadian historical novels set during World War I that unfold from the perspective of both soldiers and those on the home front, check out Frances Itani's Deafening or Joseph Boyden's Three-Day Road.

Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062069184
ISBN-10: 0062069187

When two of their colleagues disappear without a trace in the Mississippi Delta, federal revenue agents Ted Ingersoll and Ham Johnson are dispatched to Hobnob Landing, where a seemingly straightforward missing-persons investigation draws them deeper into a tangled web of murder, bootlegging, and betrayal. As in Bill Cheng's Southern Cross the Dog, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 serves as the catalyst for the dramatic events -- including environmental devastation, violent crime and forbidden love -- that fill the pages of this atmospheric historical novel.

Publisher: Workman
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/15/2013
ISBN-13: 9781616202538
ISBN-10: 161620253X

Although she's not mentally ill, 13-year-old musical prodigy Evalina Toussaint ends up at an asylum in Asheville, North Carolina following her mother's suicide. As the ward of Highland Hospital's directors, Dr. and Mrs. Carroll, Evalina grows up at the facility, where she bonds with patients -- particularly the mysterious, mercurial Zelda Fitzgerald. Although it's set in a different time period, Kathy Hepinstall's Blue Asylum may also appeal to readers interested in the historical treatment of mental health issues in women. Those curious about Zelda Fitzgerald's life, both before and after Scott, should check out Therese Fowler's Z or R. Clifton Spargo's Beautiful Fools.

Publisher: Riverhead Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2012
ISBN-13: 9781594488139
ISBN-10: 1594488134

While wandering the Bois de Bolougne, 1927 Paris' notorious red-light district, glamorous Polish-Russian art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka discovers her latest muse in the form of recent expatriate Rafaela Fano. The 17-year-old American prostitute becomes Tamara's model, and subsequently her lover, while inspiring some of the artist's most iconic paintings. Like author Ellis Avery's previous novel, The Teahouse Fire, The Last Nude skillfully employs period detail to recreate a bygone era while exploring the complicated emotional ties that bind women.

Publisher: Riverhead Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/10/2013
ISBN-13: 9781594486241
ISBN-10: 1594486247

With a dead father and an absinthe-addicted mother, the van Goethem sisters must do whatever they can to survive. Seventeen-year-old Antoinette lands a role in the stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s controversial L'Assommoir, while 14-year-old Marie becomes a pupil (or "petit rat") at the ballet school of the Paris Opera. As Antoinette falls in love with soon-to-be-notorious criminal Émile Abadie, Marie catches the eye of artist Edgar Degas, who hires her as a model before introducing her to a wealthy patron. Based on the real-life inspiration for Degas' iconic sculpture La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans ("Little Dancer of Fourteen Years"), this atmospheric, richly detailed novel artfully captures the demimonde of belle époque France.

Publisher: Broadway Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/09/2007
ISBN-13: 9780767923064
ISBN-10: 0767923065

The d'Este sisters, Isabella and Beatrice, born only a year apart, are complete opposites: Isabella is beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious, while Beatrice is tomboyish, naïve, and desperate to be loved. They're also rivals. Isabella, though married to handsome soldier Francesco Gonzaga, has set her sights on Beatrice's husband, Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan and the patron of Leonardo da Vinci. Desirous of higher social status and recognizing Leonardo's genius as a tool to achieve her ambitions, Isabella attempts to get the artist to immortalize her in a painting -- no matter the cost. This novel artfully reconstructs the events behind the creation of some of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous works.

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Publisher: Washington Square Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/07/2006
ISBN-13: 9780743492614
ISBN-10: 0743492617

Only 12 years old when she meets controversial painter Gustav Klimt in 1886, Emilie Flöge, the youngest daughter of a wealthy Viennese businessman, becomes his art pupil and, later, his mistress -- a relationship that will last until his death while transforming her life. Although Emilie makes a name for herself as a sought-after fashion designer, she achieves immortality when she poses for Klimt's masterpiece, The Kiss. Narrated in flashbacks by Emilie as she attempts to escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna and protect her lover's paintings from the Germans, The Painted Kiss charts the intertwined artistic journeys of creative kindred spirits.

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Publisher: Harper Perennial
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2006
ISBN-13: 9780060778019
ISBN-10: 0060778016

Both muse and artist, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was in many ways herself a work of art -- and a true original. Born Else Hildegard Plötz, she fled her abusive family while still in her teens, becoming a celebrated performer in Berlin's Wintergarten Cabaret. In 1913, after several marriages and many more affairs, she arrives in New York's Greenwich Village and quickly establishes herself in Dadaist circles, gaining fame as a provocative poet, ground-breaking performance artist, and flamboyant fashion icon, creating wearable art from found objects even as she poses nude for Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. If you enjoy this novel, be sure to read Irene Gammell's biography, Baroness Elsa, or the Baroness' own posthumously published poetry, compiled in Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.

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