Category Archives: historical
The Book of Lies
There are lots of different kinds of lies–half lies, lies of omission, living a lie, lying to yourself, downright lying through your teeth and everything in between. Every lie contains a secret, every secret is a burden, and when you … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, Coming of age, historical
The Night Train
I really wish I knew more about music–not only about playing music, but also about the recent history of jazz, R&B and rock. I would have really enjoyed this novel by Clyde Edgerton more if I’d had some background knowledge; … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical, music
The Paris Wife
In The Paris Wife, the fictional account through the eyes of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first of four wives, of their life together, author Paula McClain evokes post-World War I Paris “full of ghosts and the walking wounded.” The story … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical, relationships
The Surrendered [Ebook]
The story begins in 1950′s war-torn Korea. Eleven year-old June Han is deperately trying to save her own life, as well as that of her twin siblings, part of a trek of motley refugees struggling to reach American-occupied territory. Only … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, ebooks, historical
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet [ebook]
Dejima was a small man-made island in Nagasaki Bay, formed from a peninsula and used by the Japanese in the 17th-19th centuries as a trading post with Dutch ships. At that time, Japan had a strict isolationist policy which forbade … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical
Rainwater
Ella Barron runs a boarding house in the small Texas town of Gilead, Texas, in 1934. She is the single mother of an autistic young boy, Solly. Like many small towns of those days, prejudice, racial and otherwise, and small-mindedness are very … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical, Romance
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
When young Lieutenant Waino Mellas arrives at Bravo company in the middle of the Vietnam jungle, he is concerned with being accepted as a leader by the more experienced Marines in his platoon. Little does he know that the horrors of … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical, military
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
This classic novel by Don Robertson about life in 1940′s America, as seen through the eyes of a young boy, was first published in 1965. It is also cited as one of very few works that deals with the tragic … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical
Four Freedoms
There are a lot of novels about the heroes of the Second World War, but John Crowley gives us a fascinating glimpse at those brave women who took over the necessary jobs at home while their husbands and lovers went off … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, historical
Homer & Langley : a novel
E. L. Doctorow has written a sensitive portrayal of the Collyer brothers, New Yorkers of the early 20th Century who became almost legendary for their eccentric reclusiveness and hoarding behavior. Langley and Homer were the only children in a well-to-do family, college-educated and … Continue reading
Filed under Adult fiction, Family, historical
