Best Historical Fiction

 This book is a phenomenal pick for YA, introducing them to both the French Revolution, inspired by the American Revolution, and also to a young heroine born into privilege, torn by the revolution and inspired by women voicing their opinions and putting words into action. Paris, 1792. From the prison cell, nineteen-year-old aristocrat Helene d’Aubign reveals her story. 1783. Ten-year-old Helene receives lessons from a female governess, who also introduces her to a world she’s being sheltered from. A world of science and reason, but this part is their secret. The governess leads Helene to socializing and formal conversation, where she meets Hugo. He talks about slavery in Saint Dominique and who “advocates for the freedom of Blacks in the Caribbean.” She is also introduced to the talks about “starving Parisian children and the Declaration of the Rights of Man.” She learns the word revolutionary and questions - could the daughter of a marquis be a revolutionary? 1789. Powers are sh...

 Set in late 18th century London. This story brings a time when the British Empire was a dominating colonial power, bringing exotic animals from around the world for the first time to the amusement of the public. The animals are out of place as much as its protagonist, a six-feet tall woman, who prefers short hair and wearing pants. So much out of place that they create a special bond. Lillian has been working as a maid for almost twenty years and feels her life dull and her being so out of place. When she sees an advertisement for Grady’s Menagerie, something inside her stirs. The world gains colors all of a sudden. Grady, the owner of the menagerie, needs help. When he sees a very tall woman visiting his menagerie every Sunday afternoon, he sees the right person to help him out. She says yes and becomes his help. He also suggests for her to cut her hair and wear pants. Henry Featherstone, the animal doctor, holds a fascination for the cockfight. At one such event, he notices a ...

  It is our choice “to be a small pebble on the path to the peaceful existence among people of different races and socioeconomic status.” And that’s what this story explores. NYC, Tuesday, October 29, 1929 – the stock market has crashed. Nashville, Tennessee. Eight hours earlier. Lorena ‘Rena’ Leland is celebrating her sixteenth-birthday today. An aspiring writer with a diary in her hand, she dreams of writing for one of the major magazines in NYC after college. 1936. Her family is broke and broken as many others. Many are homeless and starving. The government creates projects to provide jobs to those in most dire situations. The irony of those who govern at the state capitol is that their windows overlook the Hell’s Half Acre, where the poorest have lived for decades. After seven years, without a degree and with lack of jobs, Rena takes a position as a writer interviewing former slaves to preserve their stories. She is assigned to Mrs. Washington, who lives at the Hell’s Half Acre...

 Mary Mallon (1869-1938), so called Typhoid Mary, was an Irish immigrant who came to New York. “She began as a laundress, but with an innate talent for cooking, Mary ascended the domestic-service ladder and worked as a cook for upper-class families.” However, in 1907 it was discovered that she was the first “healthy carrier” of Typhoid Fever in America. “To prevent Mary from further spreading the disease, the New York Department of Health isolated her on North Brother Island for three years. A condition of her release was that she never cook professionally again.” Had she used her second chance wisely? New York, 1907. Mary Mallon, a cook for a prominent NYC family is removed from her employment and quarantined. It is “alleged that she has been passing Typhoid Fever through her cooking, though she manifests no signs of the disease herself.” She truly believes that there is nothing wrong with her and she is having a hard time reconciling with the injustice done to her. “She’d gone ...

 Temperance Flowerdew (1590-1628) was an early settler of the Jamestown Colony and its significant member. She was wife of two Governors of Virginia. However, this story is mostly concentrated on two years 1609-1610. She was one of the few survivors of the brutal winter of those two years, known as the Starving Time, which killed almost ninety percent of Jamestown’s inhabitants. This book is a dedication to such historical figures forgotten by history. “For all the women gone missing from history.” 1609, Lily, Temperance’s maid, has premonition of storm coming their ship’s way, which sails for Jamestown. Temperance is well-read and she prepared for the voyage by “consuming all the maps, books, and pamphlets about the New World…” With her knowledge and Lily’s help, she charts the path of the storm. Only to be dismissed by a narrow-minded and opinionated Master of the ship. Two of the nine ships survived the storm. “The utopia they had nursed in their imaginations for months, e...

  Saint Augustine’s writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity. But before he became the bishop of Hippo Regius, North Africa, as a young man he fell in love with a peasant girl. And as a man of aristocratic blood, together they defied social norms and traditions. Thagaste, North Africa, 371 AD. Leona, a goat shepherd’s daughter, helps at weaver’s shop. She catches an eye of Aurelius Augustine. At seventeen-years-old, he looks for students to practice his skills. He offers to teach Leona read. But this goes beyond teaching; their attraction to each other is mutual. When she gets pregnant, Aurelius is about to leave for Carthage to study rhetoric there. Defying norms as he is from a noble class and can't marry a peasant by Roman law or he'd have to forfeit all of his property. And with a help of a wealthy patron, they make Carthage their home for the next few years. With the Roman Empire losing its grip in North Africa and the rise of Chr...

 This is a story of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece, perhaps better known as Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. It brings a time when Philip is courting Elizabeth and fighting an uphill battle of monarchy’s disapproval of him. Windsor Castle, 1943. Seventeen-year-old Princess Elizabeth is eager to see Prince Philip. They’ve met a few years earlier in London and she’s been smitten with him ever since. Philip is a handsome lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Elizabeth is ready for a change in her life. Philip has that rough-edged charm which is very attractive to her. She doesn’t want safe. It’s too stagnant. To Philip’s surprise, there is something about Elizabeth that he likes. His restless spirit actually enjoys her serious side and being reserved. His cousin, David, objects to his current love interest, announcing that Philip would “rub everyone up the wrong way.” Elizabeth is patient, dutiful, “careful not to rock the boat,” but now she is ready to act, to ...