Category Archives: Historical Fiction

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

03 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction, suspense

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A new writer to follow. I looked forward to every reading moment with this book.  Two gripping narratives unfold – Boris Pasternak’s (Dr. Zhivago) mistress (Olga in life, the inspiration for Lara, the literary heroine for the ages) suffers years in the Gulag rather than betray her married lover.  Second story: 1950’s in D.C and the story of two intrepid women CIA spies (masquerading as typing pool secretaries) who risk their lives to smuggle this manuscript out of Russia believing that one book could change the course of history.

“Through lucid images and vibrant storytelling, Prescott creates an edgy postfeminist vision of the Cold War, encompassing Sputnik to glasnost, typing pool to gulag, for a smart, lively page-turner. This debut shines as spy story, publication thriller, and historical romance with a twist.”—Publishers Weekly (starredreview)

“A whirlwind of storytelling. In Prescott’s supremely talented hands, the result is no less than endlessly fascinating, often deliciously fun as well as heartbreaking.
The Secrets We Kept is a dazzling, beguiling debut.”—BookPage (starred review)

“Delightful… An intriguing and little-known chapter of literary history is brought to life with brio.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

16 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Moving, intimate, and beautifully written –  a novel that at once reminds us that the most peaceful and ordinary lives can be utterly upended in unimaginable ways. Travel  beneath today’s news headlines with this couple. Their journey is unforgettable.

“Nuri’s story rings with authenticity, from the vast, impersonal cruelties of war to the tiny kindnesses that help people survive it. . . . A well-crafted structure and a troubled but engaging narrator power this moving story of Syrian refugees.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 “A haunting and resonant story of Syrian war refugees undertaking a treacherous journey . . . Readers will find this deeply affecting for both its psychological intensity and emotional acuity.”—Publishers Weekly

“Great for book club…Christy Lefteri, who volunteered at a refugee center in Athens, tells a powerful story about the refugee experience, hope, and love.” —Real Simple

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The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

02 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, United States

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Number one New York Times best seller

Oprah’s Book Club Pick

From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom.

“The most surprising thing about The Water Dancer may be its unambiguous narrative ambition. This isn’t a typical first novel. . . . The Water Dancer is a jeroboam of a book, a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler. . . . It is flecked with forms of wonder-working that push at the boundaries of what we still seem to be calling magical realism.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“An experience in taking [Toni] Morrison’s ‘chances for liberation’ literally: What if memory had the power to transport enslaved people to freedom?’ . . . The most moving part of The Water Dancer [is] the possibility it offers of an alternate history. . . The book’s most poignant and painful gift is the temporary fantasy that all the people who leaped off slave ships and into the Atlantic were not drowning themselves in terror and anguish, but going home.”—NPR

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The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

28 Monday Oct 2019

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Can a house/a childhood home dominate the grown-up lives of a brother and sister who grew up with a father and caring staff in a fairy-tale huge house in Pennsylvania? A quiet read, a re-examining of childhood loss and forgiveness, but two indelible characters you won’t forget long after the book is finished.

“Patchett’s splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“…you won’t want to put down this engrossing, warmhearted book even after you’ve read the last page.” (NPR)

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The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer

06 Friday Sep 2019

Posted by in Biographical fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Her previous novel, The Invisible Bridge, is one of my all-time favorites. This one is based on the diaries of Varian Fry and again Orringer brings to light another WWII inspiring episode of history where Fry attempts to save the works and lives of Jewish artists.  Part history, part love story drenched in the glorious backdrop of 1940’s Marseille – superb.

“No book this year could possibly compare with The Flight Portfolio: ambitious, meticulous, big-hearted, gorgeous, historical, suspenseful, everything you want a novel to be.”
—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less

“Sympathetic and prodigiously ambitious…scrupulous… Her landscapes regularly rise to a Keatsian sensuousness.  Her Marseille breathes as a city breathes…a thriller.”
—New York Times Book Review, cover review

“Varian Fry lit a small, bright lamp in a world of darkness, and in the deft hands of Julie Orringer—under the spell of her masterful prose, her feeling portraiture, her classic spy-thriller plotting and her vivid recreation of that beautiful and terrible world—I found the radiance of Fry’s courage, flawed humanity, and steadfast resistance shedding an inexhaustible light on our own ever-darkening time.”—Michael Chabon

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Daisy Jones & the Six: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid

22 Monday Jul 2019

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An episode of the (sadly, defunct) VH1’s Behind the Music in book form.  Reid’s descriptions will make you wish this fictional band’s songs were real.  The gossipy, often conflicting input from multiple narrators makes it a perfect, juicy summer read.  I enjoyed it even more than Reid’s previous hit – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

““I devoured Daisy Jones & The Six in a day, falling head over heels for it. Taylor Jenkins Reid transported me into the magic of the ’70s music scene in a way I’ll never forget. The characters are beautifully layered and complex. Daisy and the band captured my heart, and they’re sure to capture yours, too.”—Reese Witherspoon

Reid’s novel so resembles a memoir of a real band and conjures such true-to-life images of the seventies music scene that readers will think they’re listening to Fleetwood Mac or Led Zeppelin. Reid is unsurpassed in her ability to create complex characters working through emotions that will make your toes curl.”—Booklist (starred review)

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The Widows of Malabar Hill (A Perveen Mistry Novel) by Sujata Massey

04 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by in detective, Fiction, Historical Fiction, murder

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2019 American Library Association Reading List for Mystery: Winner and Top Pick
Winner of the 2019 Mary Higgins Clark Award
Winner of the 2019 Lefty Award for Best Historical Novel
Winner of the the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018
An ABA IndieNext Selection
A Washington Post Best Audiobook of 2018
A WBUR On Point Best Book of 2018

1920s Bombay,India: Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female lawyer, is investigating a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in full purdah when the case takes a turn toward the murderous.  Inspired in part by the woman who made history as India’s first female attorney, Perveen has experienced how women are silenced and following her sharp sleuthing instincts races to ensure that no innocent women or children are in danger. I can’t wait to read her next novel in the series,The Satapur Moonstone, available May 2019.

“A sneaky feminist masterpiece wrapped up in a cozy whodunit . . . just genius.”
—WBUR’s On Point

“I’ve been complaining for several years now that we don’t have enough competent female leads in mystery series, and Sujata Massey has delivered with The Widows of Malabar Hill. I was taken in by this Law and Order-esque tale set in lush, swing-era Bombay, and I loved seeing Perveen proceed with a cool head and a fiery heart. Readers looking for a strong female heroine, a vivid setting and a strange mystery will find it here.” —The News Tribune

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A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington

13 Saturday Apr 2019

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What makes a life worth living?  In these 259 pages, I dropped into upstate NY in the 70’s where small town life is simple and close to nature.  When the larger world rips a family and community apart, the author with sheer fierceness permits us to see and share the impossible.  “A marvel of a novel.”

“Stunning natural descriptions provide a rich backdrop for Harrington’s beautifully articulated coming-of-age story, which captures the pain of loved ones grappling with the after effects of war.”—Booklist (Starred)

“ … one of the great pleasures of reading A Catalog of Birds is that it’s as impossible to categorize as it is to put down. The smooth path of Nell’s life is interrupted by tragedy. Her best friend, Megan, disappears mysteriously, and her beloved brother, Billy, comes home from Vietnam severely injured. At once, the novel becomes a searing war story and a page-turning thriller.”
—The Washington Post

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American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

11 Monday Mar 2019

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As a black woman working for the FBI in the 1980s, Marie is somewhat of an outsider, until she is offered an assignment to get close to the leader of Burkino Faso. The novel shifts through different time periods in Marie’s life to show how her parents, sister, and sons have all shaped her life. This is well written and engaging.

“[This] unflinching, incendiary debut combines the espionage novels of John le Carré with the racial complexity of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Echoing the stoic cynicism of Hurston and Ellison, and the verve of Conan Doyle, American Spy lays our complicities—political, racial, and sexual—bare. Packed with unforgettable characters, it’s a stunning book, timely as it is timeless.”—Paul Beatty, Man Booker Prizewinning author of The Sellout

“Suspenseful . . . This story of espionage, told from the perspective of a woman of color, doesn’t gloss over how family and personal relationships, as well as institutional racism and chauvinism, complicate a career in secret intelligence, raising questions about U.S. involvement in developing countries and the obstacles faced by women and minorities in law enforcement. Should be a popular book club selection.”—Library Journal (starred review)

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The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

01 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, murder

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Yangsze Choo’s The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible. (Amazon)  I dedicated one weekend to this lovely escape and I loved every reading minute.

“A sumptuous garden maze of a novel that immerses readers in a complex, vanished world.” ―Kirkus (starred review)

“Mythical creatures, conversations with the dead, lucky numbers, Confucian virtues, and forbidden love provide the backdrop to Choo’s superb murder mystery. Mining the rich setting of colonial Malaysia, Choo wonderfully combines a Holmes-esque plot with Chinese lore.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)

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