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.