Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Jana at Reviews from the Stacks. This month’s theme is your favorite genre. I decided to share historical fiction. Each of these are books I highly recommend.
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Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan: I read this book because it was on the Women’s Prize Longlist this year. It’s a story about a troubled family of Irish immigrants living in London in 1990. Carmel is a young and seemingly uncaring mother to her ten year old daughter Lucy. When a young girl is found dead in the neighborhood, Lucy is the last one to be seen with her, and a journalist thinks this story about a child murderer will make his career.
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Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon: This is one of my favorite books (and a fantastic audiobook) about the French Resistance during World War II. Even better, it’s a mostly true story about a heroic woman.
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Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez: This is a moving story of a young black nurse in the 1970s, about a real-life class action suit to address the coerced or forced sterilizations of young women of color in hospitals and institutions across the United States. I highly recommend it.
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Old Baggage by Lissa Evans: In 1928, Mattie is a woman with a thrilling past and a chafingly uneventful present. During the Women’s Suffrage Campaign she was a militant, and nothing since then has had the same excitement. Now in middle age, she’s looking for a a way to energize the next generation.
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Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: Another mostly true story, Burial Rites takes place in Iceland around 1828. It tells the story of the last execution in Iceland, where three people were accused and convicted of murdering two men. Agnes Magnussdottir is one of two women convicted of the crime, sent to live in the home of a public official and receive spiritual guidance to help her prepare for her execution.
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Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey: Maud is an elderly woman who is suffering from severe dementia, and this book is written from her point of view. Maud is concerned that her close friend Elizabeth is missing, and she’s frustrated when the people who care for her don’t take her pleas seriously. As her past and present gets more confused, we learn that Elizabeth isn’t the only mystery in Maud’s life. Her older sister Sukey disappeared after World War II, when Maud was a teenager, and was never seen again.
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Rules of Civility by Amor Towles: Set on the last night of 1937, Katie, a 25-year-old secretary, is out for New Year’s with her friend Eve, when they meet rich gentleman Tinker Gray in a club. I loved the complexity of Towle’s characters and the immersion into the sights and sounds of 1930s New York.
These were some of my favorite historical fiction reads. Please see Reviews from the Stacks for more Spell the Month posts. Have you read any of these books, or do you have other suggestions for this month’s topic?
