Historical Fiction
Bud, not Buddy
Christopher Paul Curtis
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Read Woke, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Classics
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
One crazy summer
Rita Williams-Garcia
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Read Woke, Historical Fiction
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
Added by Casey
The Watsons go to Birmingham-- 1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
eBOOK
Black Lives Matter, Black History, Historical Fiction, Classics
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Added by Casey
Inside out & back again
Thanhha Lai
eAUDIO
Read Woke, Poetry, Diverse Characters, Historical Fiction
Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
Achingly beautiful poetry combined with a powerful immigration story make this a Middle Grade novel not to miss. Great for reading aloud as a family as well. -Casey
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street : a novel
Susan Jane Gilman
FICTION Gilman Susan
Fiction, Historical Fiction
In 1913, little Malka Treynovsky flees Russia with her family. Bedazzled by tales of gold and movie stardom, she tricks them into buying tickets for America. Yet no sooner do they land on the squalid Lower East Side of Manhattan, than Malka is crippled and abandoned in the street. Taken in by a tough-loving Italian ices peddler, she manages to survive through cunning and inventiveness. As she learns the secrets of his trade, she begins to shape her own destiny. She falls in love with a gorgeous, illiterate radical named Albert, and they set off across America in an ice cream truck. Slowly, she transforms herself into Lillian Dunkle, "The Ice Cream Queen" -- doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises and a celebrated television personality. Lillian's rise to fame and fortune spans seventy years and is inextricably linked to the course of American history itself, from Prohibition to the disco days of Studio 54. Yet Lillian Dunkle is nothing like the whimsical motherly persona she crafts for herself in the media. Conniving, profane, and irreverent, she is a supremely complex woman who prefers a good stiff drink to an ice cream cone. And when her past begins to catch up with her, everything she has spent her life building is at stake.
Loved this book! Highly entertaining story surrounding a highly entertaining lady. She's like a more endearing Scarlett O'Hara of the 20th century. We follow her rags-to-riches story, learn of her scrapes and sorrows, her triumphs and bouts of luck. This woman has chutzpah and I love it. She's an antihero, but entirely loveable. Plus, it's shades of Forrest Gump, as this woman claims her touch on many small points of American history. Definitely give it a whirl! -Amanda
The animals at Lockwood Manor
Jane Healey
FICTION Healey Jane
Historical Fiction, Suspense
"A debut novel for fans of Sarah Perry and Kate Morton: when a young woman is tasked with safeguarding a natural history collection as it is spirited out of London during World War II, she discovers her new manor home is a place of secrets and terror instead of protection"--
Set during World War II, Hetty Cartwright works for a natural history museum in London and is tasked to oversee the move and storage of the mammal collection (and some birds) to a country manor house. The house is as those houses were during the middle of the 20th century. It is in disrepair and has a limited number of servants trying to keep up the property as best they can. There is the lord of the manor, Major Lockwood, who is a little mean and scary and used to getting his way. Although he signs up to house the collection, he isn't happy having his space invaded and overseen by a woman. There is also Major Lockwood's daughter, who is beautiful and kind. She captivates Hetty's imagination. The house has secrets. At least something isn't right. Hetty tries to ignore it until it starts affecting her work--and herself. If you liked "Jane Eyre" or "The Little Stranger" or "Rebecca," this would be a good summer read for you. -Anne M
Rust & stardust
T. (Tammy) Greenwood
FICTION Greenwoo T
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth's, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he's an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute, unless she does as he says. This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way. Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.
The author handled this story well, not giving graphic detail of Sally’s ordeal but giving enough for the reader to understand how horrible it was and how frightened Sally was of her captor. I loved the portrayal of all the other people affected by Sally’s kidnapping getting their perspective told. That added an element to the story as a whole that made the entirety of it more relatable. Maybe not a story for everyone, but certainly a well-done story of a resilient young woman who faced a despicable situation. -Amanda
Daisy Jones & the Six : a novel
Taylor Jenkins Reid
FICTION Reid Taylor
Fiction, Historical Fiction
"Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she's pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend. The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice"--
This, to me, was a pretty great portrayal of a band and its musicians during the classic rock period. What really got me into the book was the oral history aspect of it - that it’s the band and those around them reminiscing years later. Their memories differ. They’ve had a couple of decades change their perspective. I enjoyed these characters and their personalities. I could almost hear their music as I read the story and see them interact on stage. If you are a fan of Behind the Music, this is a book you have to try! -Amanda
The remains of the day
Kazuo Ishiguro
FICTION Ishiguro, Kazuo
Fiction, Historical Fiction
The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking, pitch-perfect novel -- namely, Stevens' own ability to allow some bit of life-affirming love into his tightly repressed existence.
The writing is superb, and for those who enjoy Downton Abbey this book provides a comfortable amount of upstairs/downstairs intrigue. I did enjoy the main character's development over his car trip, reflecting on his life and coming to recognize the faults in choices he made. This is an excellent choice for those interested in midcentury Britain. -Amanda
A high five for Glenn Burke
Phil Bildner
jFICTION/Bildner Phil
Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+, Kids
After researching Glenn Burke, the first major league baseball player to come out as gay, sixth-grader Silas Wade slowly comes out to his best friend Zoey, then his coach, with unexpected consequences.
Added by Anne W
This won the Newbery Award when I was about the same age as Bud. It's just as meaningful now as I remember it being at 11. -Casey