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Historical Fiction August 2016
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"Now there were moving pictures, and audiences could not get enough of them." ~ from Adriana Trigiani's All the Stars in the Heavens
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| The Whale: A Love Story by Mark BeauregardThe summer of 1850 finds Herman Melville at the end of his rope: deep in debt and struggling to complete his latest novel, he retreats to the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, where he encounters a soulmate in the form of fellow writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a result of their passionate connection, Melville's work-in-progress is transformed from a picaresque seafaring adventure into the masterpiece we now know as Moby-Dick. Drawing on real-life correspondence between two titans of 19th-century American literature, The Whale presents a compelling, if unconventional, love story that explores the creative process. |
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| The Muse by Jessie BurtonAn aspiring writer, Odelle Bastien arrives in London from Trinidad in the 1960s. Though literary success eludes her, she finds a job as a typist in a posh art gallery, where she becomes the protégée of eccentric Marjorie Quick. Thirty years earlier, painter Olive Schloss is living in Spain with her Viennese art dealer parents when she meets Teresa and Isaac Robles, half-siblings who will change her life forever. Connecting their stories is a mysterious painting, whose secrets are gradually revealed in this intricately plotted novel of intrigue by the author of The Miniaturist. The Muse's complex female characters, strong atmosphere, and sparkling prose may appeal to fans of Dominic Smith's The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. |
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| The Devils of Cardona by Matthew CarrWhen the priest of Belamar de la Sierra, a tiny village in Aragon, is murdered in his church, King Philip II sends magistrate Bernardo Mendoza to investigate and defuse a tense situation. Not only are most of Belamar's inhabitants Moriscos -- Muslims converted to Catholicism -- they're also being stirred to revolt against the Crown by a religious reformer known as the Redeemer. Set in 16th-century Spain, this atmospheric and richly detailed novel presents a dramatic tale of murder and vengeance, while exploring the thorny political, religious, and cultural issues of the period. |
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| Champion of the World by Chad DundasIn 1921, there's so little money in professional wrestling that former lightweight champion Pepper Van Dean makes his living on the carnival circuit, performing the dangerous "Hangman's Drop" stunt for crowds who'd probably enjoy seeing him die in the ring. No wonder Pepper leaps at the chance to slip the noose and train Garfield Taft, a once-great African-American heavyweight contender seeking to reclaim his title. But while these men may be (mostly) honest strivers looking to better their lot in life, the fight promoters holding the purse strings are not. Fighters and bootleggers, gamblers and gangsters all add color and grit to this compelling underdog story. |
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| A Certain Age by Beatriz WilliamsThough smitten with her much-younger paramour, aviator Octavian Rofrano, socialite Theresa Marshall can't divorce her wealthy, philandering husband: it's simply not the done thing in 1922. Further complications arise when Theresa's playboy brother "Ox" becomes engaged to Sophie Fortescue, an heiress whose family connections are suspect. Theresa sends Octavian to investigate the situation -- whereupon he falls for Sophie as well. Inspired by Richard Strauss' comic opera Der Rosenkavalier, this atmospheric novel infuses a timeless love story with sparkling Jazz Age glamour. |
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| A Touch of Stardust: A Novel by Kate AlcottIn 1938, as (fake) Atlanta burns, Julie Crawford gets fired by film director David O. Selznick on the set of Gone with the Wind. Soon after, Julie, an aspiring screenwriter from Indiana, becomes the personal assistant of movie star (and fellow Fort Wayne native) Carole Lombard. Julie's backstage access gives her a front row seat to the blossoming love affair between Lombard and Clark Gable, recently cast as Rhett Butler. Witnessing a burgeoning scandal (Gable's married) that could derail the stars' careers as well as a troubled shoot that's constantly over-budget and behind schedule, Julie quickly discovers the chaos and heartbreak beneath Hollywood's glittering facade. |
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| Platinum Doll: A Novel About Jean Harlow by Anne GirardIn 1927, 16-year-old Harlean Harlow Carpenter elopes with her high school sweetheart and heads to Calfornia to start a new life far from the Midwestern town where she grew up. Predictably, things don't go as expected, and after her marriage crashes and burns, she rises from the ashes as Jean Harlow, star of the silver screen. Although her career was brief (she dies at age 26), she left a lasting impression, and fans of Hollywood's Golden Age and its iconic leading ladies won't want to miss this enchanting novel, which follows a vibrant young woman as she pursues her dreams. |
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| Stardust: A Novel by Joseph KanonReturning to the United States in 1945 to make a film about the Nazi death camps, Army Signal Corps veteran Ben Collier learns that his brother Danny has died under suspicious circumstances. The official verdict is suicide, but Ben has his doubts: in addition to being a war hero, Danny was a successful film director and a happily married man. Could his involvement in an anti-communist movement have played a role in his untimely death? As Ben pursues leads within Hollywood's secretive studio system as well as Los Angeles' German Jewish expatriate community, he discovers the grime beneath the glamour of Tinseltown. |
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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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| All the Stars in the Heavens: A Novel by Adriana TrigianiForced to leave the convent, novice nun Alda Ducci becomes the personal secretary of Hollywood star-on-the-rise Loretta Young. Despite different personalities, Alda and Loretta find common ground in their devout Catholic faith and become friends -- a bond tested by Young's scandalous personal life, which involves affairs with her leading men and an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that must be concealed from the public eye. Fans of this lush, richly detailed novel may also enjoy Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone, in which a Midwestern housewife takes a job supervising young Louise Brooks in the summer of 1922. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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