by Tiya Miles A rerelease of a previously published book following a substantial revision, The Cherokee Rose is a work of fiction written by a historian at the top of her field. Miles is a professor at Harvard University and the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study, and if you haven’t read her fantastic works ofContinue reading “The Cherokee Rose”
Category Archives: Historical Fiction
The Radcliffe Ladies Reading Club
by Julia Bryan Thomas Overall: I was attracted to this book as I went to Harvard, and I looked forward to getting to know more about my predecessors at Radcliffe College. Radcliffe was the women’s college adjacent to Harvard founded in the late 19th century; the two merged completely in 1999. The Radcliffe Ladies’ ReadingContinue reading “The Radcliffe Ladies Reading Club”
The Sweetness of Water
by Nathan Harris Overall: Lyrical and introspective, The Sweetness of Water tells the story of two families in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War. Prentiss and Landry are brothers, formerly enslaved Black men, who have decided to leave Georgia but don’t yet know where they’re going or how they’ll get there. Meanwhile, GeorgeContinue reading “The Sweetness of Water”
Hungry Ghosts
By Kevin Jared Hosein Overall: A tragic novel set in Trinidad in the 1940s, Hungry Ghosts introduces us to a small but complicated corner of the Caribbean. The reader meets the residents of a sugar cane barracks, once home to indentured servants on the nearby plantation but now home to entire impoverished families doing theirContinue reading “Hungry Ghosts”
The Mitford Affair
by Marie Benedict Overall: I’m fascinated by the Mitford sisters and have read several biographies about them as well as many of Nancy Mitford’s books. This work of historical fiction looks at the lives of three of the sisters, Nancy, Diana, and Unity, in the years leading up to World War II. Diana famously divorcesContinue reading “The Mitford Affair”
Yellow Wife
by Sadeqa Johnson Overall: Yellow Wife takes on one of the most thorny and difficult topics of slavery, forced marriage between an enslaved woman and her master. Pheby Delores Brown may have grown up as a favored child on an isolated plantation, illegally taught to read by her master’s sister, given piano lessons, and allowedContinue reading “Yellow Wife”
I Must Betray You
by Ruta Sepetys Overall: I knew almost nothing about Romania going into this book, which fortunately is the presumed starting place for the reader. Cristian Florescu, the teenage narrator, is an able guide, showing how a typical teenager (unsure about girls, trying to do well in school, figuring himself out through diary entries) attempted toContinue reading “I Must Betray You”
Even As We Breathe
by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle Overall: I found this book featured in my library and was intrigued. A murder set in a fancy inn in Asheville, NC, while it was serving as an upscale prison for Axis diplomats and their families during WWII? With a disabled man of Cherokee heritage as the main character? Sounded compelling!Continue reading “Even As We Breathe”
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Overall: This incredible family saga reaches back through history. In stories that intertwine, the reader moves back and forth from the modern-day experiences of Ailey Pearl Garfield all the way back to the earliest interactions of her ancestors, the Creek people of what is now Georgia and the first Black andContinue reading “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois”
Mustique Island
by Sarah McCoy Overall: Willy May Michael moves to Mustique Island in the early 1970s, joining a motley crew of wealthy British socialites looking for an escape. Born in Texas, Willy May married a British pilot at age 16 and had two daughters. After her divorce, she decided to sail around the world on herContinue reading “Mustique Island”
Liz Helfrich 