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Historical Fiction February 2015
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"If you want to live with wolves, howl like them." ~ from Eva Stachniak's Empress of the Night
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New and Recently Released!
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| Searching for Grace Kelly by Michael CallahanSet in Manhattan's storied Barbizon Hotel for Women during the summer of 1955, this "deliciously stylish, retro" (Booklist) debut follows a trio of young women as they pursue their personal and professional goals. Smith College student Laura is a summer intern at Mademoiselle; working girl Dolly attends secretarial school while husband-hunting; and vivacious British import Vivian, an aspiring singer, peddles cigarettes at New York's famed Stork Club. Their bond, intensified by their shared living situation, is also tested by romantic complications involving men both eligible and unsuitable. If you enjoyed the period detail and heady atmosphere of Amor Towles' Rules of Civility, try Searching for Grace Kelly. |
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| The Barefoot Queen: A Novel by Ildefonso Falcones; translated by Mara Faye LethemWhen her Spanish master dies during the long shipboard journey from Havana, Afro-Cuban slave Caridad disembarks -- homeless, penniless, but free -- in Cádiz. Making her way to Seville, she befriends Milagros Carmona, a member of the city's Caló-speaking Romani (gypsy) community. As marginalized, vulnerable women living in male dominated societies, the women find common ground and friendship -- until a royal mandate decrees Milagros and her people outlaws and calls for their expulsion. With its dramatic plot and vivid depictions of both Iberian Romani culture and slavery in the Caribbean, The Barefoot Queen brings to life lesser-known aspects of 18th-century Spanish history. However, sensitive readers should be aware that the novel contains depictions of physical and sexual violence against women. |
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| Mr. Mac and Me by Esther FreudIn 1914, 13-year-old Tom Maggs meets Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist wife Margaret when the couple moves to the seaside village of Dunwich. Tom, born with a twisted foot and a natural talent for painting, quickly befriends the newcomers, especially Charles -- a.k.a. 'Mac.' However, in the wake of Britain's Defence of the Realm Act, Mac's eccentric behavior arouses suspicion among the locals and soon rumors spread that he is an enemy spy. With its layered storytelling, nuanced characterization, and strong sense of place, Mr. Mac and Me serves as both a meditation on art and a powerful coming-of-age story. |
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| Driving the King: A Novel by Ravi HowardLoosely based on historical events, this is the story of two men -- one real, one fictional -- who share a name and a history, though not a destiny. Nat King Cole is a famous singer; Nat Weary, his boyhood friend, is the audience member who intervenes when a white man attacks Cole during a show in Montgomery, Alabama. For his bravery, Weary is charged with inciting a riot and sentenced to ten years in prison. Shortly before Weary's release, Cole offers him a job as his chauffeur and bodyguard. Eager to escape the Jim Crow South, Weary accepts and accompanies the singer to Los Angeles, where Cole will host a groundbreaking television variety program but where even the bright lights of stardom can't banish the shadows of racism. |
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| West of Sunset by Stewart O'NanWith his wife Zelda confined to a North Carolina asylum, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald spends his final years in Hollywood battling poverty, obscurity, and alcoholism. (Under)employed as a script doctor, Fitzgerald embarks on an affair with a much-younger gossip columnist, works on a novel (The Love of the Last Tycoon) and slowly drinks himself to death. Despite lively cameo appearances by luminaries such as Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, and Dorothy Parker, West of Sunset is a melancholy, leisurely paced character study of a flawed man striving to create great art. |
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| Shadow on the Crown by Patricia BracewellTreachery, forbidden love, and Viking raids fuel this dramatic, atmospheric novel, set in 1002 CE and based on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Wed to the aged English king Æthelred II, 15-year-old Emma of Normandy, a noblewoman of Danish descent, must win the hearts of her new subjects, despite their distrust of both Normans and Danes. However, for better or worse, one heart is already hers -- that of Æthelred's grown son, Athelstan. For another book about Emma of Normandy, who would eventually become Queen Consort of England, Denmark, and Norway, try Helen Hollick's The Forever Queen. |
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| The Summer Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Elizabeth ChadwickAt the behest of her dying father, 13-year-old Eleanor, daughter of Duke William of Aquitaine, weds Louis, Crown Prince of France, in order to ensure the duchy's safety. When their union proves disastrous, Eleanor negotiates an annulment and wins her freedom -- just in time to meet the dashing Henry, Duke of Normandy and future King of England. Inspired by Eleanor of Aquitaine? Margaret Ball's Duchess of Aquitaine covers Eleanor's early years, Sharon Kay Penman's Time and Chance examines her tumultuous marriage to Henry II, and Alison Weir's Captive Queen recounts her later life, including her long imprisonment. |
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| Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund"Like everyone, I am born naked," confesses Marie Antoinette. Unlike everyone, however, her "birth" occurs at age 14 when Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, Archduchess of Austria, becomes engaged to the future King Louis XVI of France and sheds her former identity to reinvent herself as a queen. Despite her beauty and charm, Marie Antoinette struggles to win over the French court, not to mention the French people, who have become increasingly dissatisfied with their extravagant, dissolute rulers. For more about "L'Autrichienne," try Juliet Grey's Marie Antoinette Trilogy (which begins with Becoming Marie Antoinette) or Carolly Erickson's The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette. |
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| Empress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva StachniakIn this sequel to The Winter Palace, Catherine the Great looks back over her eventful life. No longer Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, Catherine has taken the necessary steps to ensure that she's not encumbered by her hostile mother-in-law or her diffident husband when she claims the throne in a coup d'etat in 1762. Her reign, marked by territorial expansion, educational reform, and the introduction of Western European culture as well as war, political intrigue, and a succession of love affairs, lasts until her death and changes the course of Russian history. |
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| The Feast of Roses by Indu SundaresanThis follow-up to The Twentieth Wife continues the story of Mehrunnisa, dubbed Nur Jahan ("Light of the World"). Now that Emperor Jahangir of India has elevated her to the status of chief consort, Mehrunnisa enjoys freedoms afforded to few, if any, women in her society. Moreover, her new role gives her unprecedented power and influence over affairs of state, which results in plots against her by rivals. Based on the life of Nur Jahan, the 17th-century Empress of the Mughal Empire, this saga of love and political intrigue concludes with Shadow Princess. |
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