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Historical Fiction

The Spymistress

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The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini
Format: Book
Who’s It For: Teens and Adults

Elizabeth Van Lew is true to her southern roots. Yet when delegates in Richmond, Virginia vote to secede from the Union, Elizabeth cannot bear to contribute a stitch to Confederate sewing circles. How can Lizzie aid President Lincoln?

After hearing of bloodied battles, Lizzie discovers that local prisoners of war live in squalid conditions. The food is inadequate. Blankets are nearly nonexistent. Wounds are often left to fester and worsen. Intrepid and creative, Lizzie and her mother bake their way into the prison, bribing guards to reach those behind bars. Soon Lizzie is smuggling messages to and from imprisoned leaders.

As the war continues, Lizzie must protect her family from possible deadly repercussions.  She holds dinner parties for Confederate leaders to obscure her true allegiance.  She enlists the help of a freed black woman to ferret out military secrets within the Confederate president’s home. Lizzie and her mother have a secret room built in their mansion.  They temporarily house runaway prisoners and slaves. Also, Elizabeth is introduced to a network of other spies in Richmond.  Together, they smuggle, confound, and plot for the sake of the Union.

Although this is a fictionalized account, Elizabeth Van Lew was an actual person in history. Through her eyes, the reader experiences this unique time in which our country was fiercely divided in its loyalties and devastatingly bloody in its consequences.

And look!  It’s in our catalog!

The English Patient

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The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Format: Book
Who’s it for: Adults

Ondaatje’s novel is a poetic intersection of four stranger’s lives during their stay in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. There is Hana–the nurse, Caravaggio–the handless thief, Kip–the bomb defuser, and the English patient–the mysterious, bedridden man with severe burns covering the entirety of his body. With a slow and eloquent pace, the book gives each character the time to recount and process their lives and identities during the war. All the while, the mystery of the English patient unravels in the form of fragmented and feverish memories that conclude in a tragic tale of love and loss. What is revealed through their stories speaks to the complexity of identity, “otherness,” and the global consequences of war on cultural and geographical borders.

What I love about this book is how four perfect strangers come to realize that they, as people of the world, share “communal histories” and those cultural borders that suggest otherwise are meaningless in the face of loss. Their self identities, which were previously described in terms of nationalities, become blurred and then reactualized in the presence of the English patient–who is both literally and figuratively someone whose identity has been burned away from his very being. Ondaatje’s book is a deep reflection of the shared human experience and the tragedies of war.

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The House of Special Purpose

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The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne
Format: Audiobook
Who it’s for:  Adults

The House of Special Purpose is an historical novel set in the early to mid-20th century.  Georgy Jachmenev is an old man reminiscing on his former life when he was a youth in Russia.  He lives with his wife Zoya in England.  Georgy’s father, a tenant farmer, is inexplicably abusive to him.  As a teen, Georgy is witness to an event that takes place which precipitates his move to Saint Petersburg, the palace of the czar.  Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Empress Alexandra, have four daughters and a son.  Georgy is brought to the palace to live with the royal family as a companion to the son, young Alexei who was born with hemophilia.  He requires strict governance to prevent injury that could cause internal bleeding.  The story is set in the 1970’s but flashes back to the early 1900’s in Russia.  In the end, the true meaning of the house of special purpose is revealed.

The story is narrated by award-winning Stephan Rudnicki who does an excellent job speaking with a Russian accent.

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The Nightingale

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults & Teens

Vianne and Isabelle are estranged sisters living through their new reality of a Nazi occupied France during World War II.  Isabelle is the younger, impulsive, defiant sister who speaks her mind about any injustice while Vianne is the older, cautious, and practical sister trying to manage the household and keep her own daughter safe under rapidly worsening conditions.  With the men in their lives taken away by the war, they both find themselves in roles they never imagined and have to reach deep inside themselves to decide which risks are truly worth taking.
This is a wonderfully told story about love, war, sisters, friendship, and true heroism.  It makes you ask yourself ‘What would I do?’

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Walk on Earth a Stranger

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Title: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Format: Book

Who’s it For: Teens and Adults

Leah Westfall is able to sense the location of gold. In 1847, Leah’s secret ability is a blessing for her family. However, when her parents are murdered for their stash of gold, it becomes a curse. What is an orphaned fifteen-year old to do? Hacking off her long braid and donning men’s clothes, Leah, now “Lee,” flees on her trusty horse, Peony. Her best friend, Jefferson, who is half Irish and half Indian, has already headed off for the Gold Rush. Will Lee be able to catch up with Jeff? And will the murderer catch up with her?

I enjoyed this historical fiction with a fantasy twist.  Although it is a work of fiction, this story was true to its setting.  Through Lee, the reader experiences travel in the Old West, from flatboat to covered wagon.  Socially, the story is also accurate.  Lee is frustrated when she realizes that on the trail, she is allowed to hunt for food and wrangle cattle as a man but is relegated to washing the family laundry as a woman.  Also on the wagon trail, Jeff, as a “half breed,”  often suffers snide racial comments from fellow travelers.  The varied characters in this tale, from feisty Lee to the German immigrant Hoffmans, to the rough wagon train cowboys, enhance the rich tapestry of the tale as well as the time period.

The good news is that this is just the first book in the Gold Seer series!

Are you intrigued? Please check out this enjoyable tale of family, friends, budding romance, and life in the Old West!

 

Finding Langston

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Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Format: Book
Who it’s for:  Kids

In 1946, Langston and his Dad move to Chicago from rural Alabama.  His mother recently passed away and he is feeling a little lost in this big city.   The city is so noisy and everyone calls him “Country boy” because he has an accent and wears overalls.  He hasn’t made any friends and is experiencing bullying from a few kids in his class.  In order to avoid the bullies, one day he goes a different way home from school and discovers the George Cleveland Hall Branch Library.

The library becomes his home away from home.  He never imagined such a wonderful place and they allow colored folks!  The first book he finds is by Langston Hughes and he wonders if he was named after him?  He finds he has a lot in common with Mr. Hughes and soon discovers more poetry and writings by other Negro writers.

Langston’s journey to discovering himself is beautifully written by Ms. Cline-Ransome.  This is truly a lovely book.  It’s a love story for libraries and writers.  And, it’s a story about the Great Migration when many blacks from the South migrated to the North after World War II.

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