[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Historical Fiction August 2009
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:23:37 -0400
New and Recently Released!
Gifts of War - by Mackenzie Ford
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/07/2009
ISBN-13: 9780385528955
ISBN-10: 0385528957
During the "Christmas Truce" of 1914, as British and German troops temporarily
cease fighting to celebrate the holiday, Henry "Hal" Montgomery meets Wilhelm
Wetzlar, a German soldier engaged to English schoolteacher Samantha Ross.
Wilhelm gives Hal a picture of himself to give to Sam, knowing that Hal will
have a better chance of getting in touch with her. When Hal is wounded and sent
home, he remembers the photograph and seeks Sam out. But Hal, falling in
love with the woman, chooses not to pass on Wilhelm's message--a decision that
has far-reaching consequences. This pseudonymous debut novel by a British
historian is "faithful to historical fact and romantic to its core" (Booklist).
Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters - by Denise Giardina
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/27/2009
ISBN-13: 9780393069150
ISBN-10: 039306915X
For the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Anne, and Emily, the small village of
Haworth on the Yorkshire moors is dreary, isolated, and unable to contain
their powerful imaginations. When attractive clergyman William Weightman
arrives at the parish, all three women are drawn to his good looks and his
passion
for reform--but it's intelligent, independent Emily who forms a special bond
with him that will later provide the inspiration for her novel Wuthering
Heights.
There's no shortage of books--fiction or nonfiction--about these famous
sisters; if you'd like to read more, try Glyn Hughes' novel Brontë or Lucasta
Miller's
The Brontë Myth, which seeks to reveal the real women behind the literary
legends.
The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici - by Jeanne Kalogridis
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/21/2009
ISBN-13: 9780312368432
ISBN-10: 0312368437
They say that behind every great man is a woman. That's certainly true in the
case of Catherine de' Medici, the controversial 16th-century French queen
who became a powerful political figure in her own right. After a privileged
upbringing in Florence, Catherine is married off to King Henry II of France.
Her duty is to produce heirs, which she must do while competing with her
husband's scheming mistress and holding on to power in a period of religious
war.
Author Jeanne Kalogridis brings to life one of the most notorious women of the
Renaissance in a novel that Booklist says "puts a human face on one of the
most reviled women in history."
The Earth Hums in B Flat - by Mari Strachan
Publisher: Canongate
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/19/2009
ISBN-13: 9781847671929
ISBN-10: 1847671926
In a small seaside town in North Wales in the 1950s, 12-year-old Gwenni Morgan
has curiosity and imagination to spare: at night, she dreams about flying.
But her strict mother disapproves of Gwenni's flights of fancy and the only
sympathetic person in the girl's world is her teacher Elin Evans. But when
Mrs. Evans' husband, Ifan, is found dead, rumors start to fly. Was Ifan abusing
his wife and their daughters? Did Gwenni's mother have an affair with him
while Gwenni's father was away fighting in the war? Family secrets and the loss
of childhood innocence inform this lyrical book by Welsh novelist Mari
Strachan, which will appeal to fans of Caradog Prichard's One Moonlit Night.
WWI: The Home Front
Regeneration - by Pat Barker
Publisher: Plume
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/01/1993
ISBN-13: 9780452270077
ISBN-10: 0452270073
At Craiglockhart War Hospital outside Edinburgh, eminent neurologist and army
captain Dr. W.H.R. Rivers spends the summer of 1917 tending to the shell-shocked
soldiers of Great Britain. Among his patients are mute working-class officer
Billy Prior, traumatized soldier David Burns, pacifist writer Siegfried Sassoon,
and aspiring poet Wilfred Owen, whose friendship with Sassoon exerts a powerful
influence on his poetry. Regeneration is the 1st volume in Pat Barker's
critically acclaimed trilogy of the same name, followed by The Eye in the Door
and the Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road.
The Hearts of Horses - by Molly Gloss
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/06/2007
ISBN-13: 9780618799909
ISBN-10: 0618799907
In 1917, while many of America's young men are away fighting in the Great War,
Oregon rancher George Bliss hires 19-year-old horse breaker Martha Lessen
to take the place of one of his enlisted ranch hands. Initially skeptical,
Bliss is soon won over by Martha's gift for handling damaged horses and coaxing
them into their saddles with songs and gentle words. And while it's Martha's
intention to keep moving, George and his wife Louise convince her to stay
on, offering her a home and the chance to become part of a community. Told in
"a delightfully down-home, matter-of-fact voice," The Hearts of Horses is
an absorbing story that will appeal to horse lovers and readers who love
spirited heroines.
First Chapter
Deafening - by Frances Itani
Publisher: Grove Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780802141651
ISBN-10: 080214165X
Deaf since childhood after surviving a bout with scarlet fever, Grania O'Neill
attends the Ontario School for the Deaf, where she learns to communicate
before finding professional success working in a hospital. More happiness
enters her life when she meets Jim Lloyd, and, despite the fact that he can hear
and she cannot, they marry. But when Jim goes to war, Grania must contend with
her own battles on the home front. With Jim on the front lines and Grania
caught in the middle of the the Spanish flu pandemic, will they and their love
survive? Don't miss this "psychologically rich, impeccably crafted debut
novel" (Publishers Weekly) by Canadian author Frances Itani.
First Chapter
Charity Girl - by Michael Lowenthal
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 01/08/2008
ISBN-13: 9780618919789
ISBN-10: 0618919783
Rebelling against the strictures of her traditional Jewish family, 17-year-old
Boston shop assistant Frieda Mintz becomes a "charity girl," one of the many
young women who frequent the city's dance halls in order to meet enlisted men
who will show them a good time. On one such night out, she sleeps with an
attractive soldier--who gives her venereal disease. Sent to a federal detention
facility, Frieda meets and bonds with other women in her position. This
novel is based on a little-known incident in U.S. history: the WWI-era
internment of more than 20,000 American women suspected of having "social
diseases."
Women in Disguise
Pope Joan - by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/02/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307452368
ISBN-10: 0307452360
This fiction debut, a blend of historical fact and medieval legend, tells the
story of Joan, a German-born Englishwoman who allegedly became pope for a
short time in the 9th century. After a Viking raid leaves her family dead, Joan
assumes her brother's identity, calling herself John Anglicus and entering
the monastery at Fulda. There, Joan proves to be a gifted scholar, but as her
intellectual prowess begins to attract unwanted attention, she fears that
her true identity will be discovered. Fleeing to Rome, Joan becomes a cardinal,
and shortly thereafter, pope. But can her secret stay hidden? A bestseller
when it was published, Pope Joan is is currently being made into a film. For
another tale of a woman disguised as clergy, try Louise Erdrich's The Last
Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse.
First Chapter
The Queen's Fool: A Novel - by Philippa Gregory
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 02/03/2004
ISBN-13: 9780743246071
ISBN-10: 0743246071
Fourteen-year-old Hannah Green is accustomed to disguises. In addition to
donning boys' clothes while she helps in her father's printing shop, Hannah also
hides her true identity: she and her family are Sephardic Jews who fled Spain
to escape the Inquisition, a dangerous thing to be in Catholic England in
1553. After a chance meeting with Lord Robert Dudley, who recruits her as a
spy, she enters the royal court in the guise of the Queen's fool. Philippa
Gregory returns to the pomp and political intrigue of Tudor England, the
setting of her bestselling novel The Other Boleyn Girl, in this "intelligent and
engrossing tale" (Kirkus Reviews).
First Chapter
Shield of Three Lions - by Pamela Kaufman
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/01/2002
ISBN-13: 9780609809464
ISBN-10: 0609809466
Lady Alix Wanthwaite is a bright and resourceful 12-year-old--but she doesn't
realize just how resourceful she is until her family is brutally murdered
and their estate on the Scottish border seized. In an attempt to win back her
family's land, Alix becomes "Alex," dressing as a boy and taking to the road
in order to petition the King. Along the way, she meets Scotsman Enoch (who's
on a quest of his own) and a traveling theater troupe whose performance for
recently-crowned Richard the Lionheart leads to Alix becoming the King's
page--and accompanying him to the Holy Land on crusade. If you enjoy this
rollicking
novel of the Middle Ages, you'll want to read its sequels, Banners of Gold and
The Prince of Poison.
Brave Enemies: A Novel - by Robert Morgan
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/25/2003
ISBN-13: 9781565123564
ISBN-10: 1565123565
After her abusive stepfather rapes her, 16-year-old Josie Summers puts an axe
in his head and flees the scene of the crime. But in 1780 North Carolina,
a young woman can't just go wherever she pleases, so she disguises herself as
"Joseph." In her travels, she meets and falls in love with the Reverend John
Trethman, who marries her when he discovers her true identity. But when
Trethman is captured by British soldiers who accuse him of spying,
Josie--believing
him dead--once again becomes Joseph in order to join the army. This novel of
the American Revolution by the author of Gap Creek features a tough, resourceful
heroine and will appeal to those who enjoy war stories set in the American
South, such as Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain.
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