Best Historical Fiction

  John Brown’s Women reimagines the lives of an abolitionist family of John Brown. The family prizes actions over words, along the way affecting three courageous women and the nation. Pennsylvania, 1833. Mary Day accepts John Brown’s proposal of marriage. He is a widower with five children - man twice her age - but Mary is a practical person, looking for certain qualities in a person and letting love find its way in later. His father was strong anti-slavery and he taught his children to think likewise - another quality that appeals to Mary. Whatever has befallen the family over the years, including financial hardship and losing children to pestilence, they remain steadfast in their convictions, with their home a stop on what is now called the Underground Railroad. Wealthy (married to John Brown Jr) knows if her husband catches a fever, there is no way of changing his mind. He has just caught the Kansas fever, and Kansas is a place where you can find rich land and strike a blow for ...

  The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter brings a story of Grace Darling who became a national hero of England after a shipwreck rescue. Ireland, 1938. Matilda, daughter of a local politician is four months pregnant and unmarried. Thus, she is sent across the world to Rhode Island to spend the remaining five months with a reclusive relative, who is an assistant lighthouse keeper in Newport. Farne Islands, England, 1838. Grace, daughter of the lighthouse keeper, has patience and a keen eye, which is essential for keeping watch over the sea. When a storm crashes a ship, she notices survivors on the rocks. With her father, risking their lives, they rescue those who survived the shipwreck; among them Sarah, who was on the way to visit her brother, George Emmerson, in Scotland. News of brave Grace spread across England, making her the national hero as she continues to insist she only did her duty, emphasizing her father’s bravery. Artists are sent to capture Grace’s likeness as everyone wants...

  American Duchess brings a story of a remarkable woman, Consuelo Vanderbilt, who came from a privileged life but inspired to find meaning behind “the glitter and the gold.” 1893. While vacationing in Europe, Alva Vanderbilt uses her time wisely in Europe by hatching a plan to marry her daughter, Consuelo, to the Duke of Marlborough. While Consuelo dreams of marrying in America to an American, her mother dreams of titles, to be linked with someone serene and high. As a newlywed, Consuelo’s life in England is filled with rules and restrictions, which some are quite new to her, including domestic status among household which was her biggest surprise. She longs for her husband’s sentiment or emotion; instead she is expected to care for his people when she is yet get to know him. And it’s not any easier when her husband is not helpful in this transition, rather judgmental. She finds consolation and meaning in her life by spending time with the villagers and helping those in need. For t...

    A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship This story brings true figures of Eliza Acton, poet and pioneering cookery writer, and Ann Kirby, her assistant. They both worked on a cookery book which is known as “the greatest British cookbook of all time.” It was an international bestseller and her books had a profound influence on later cookery writers. England, 1837. Eliza, at thirty-six, dreams to publish her poems with an international publisher, but she is asked to write a cookery book instead, more fit for women. A bit appalled by this suggestion, she returns home humiliated, only to find out that her father has just become a bankrupt. But then, when seeing badly written recipes and sounding unappetizing, after all writing a cookery book might not be a bad idea. And for that she needs a scullery maid. Ann, at seventeen, cares for her parents and dreams about being a cook. A vicar suggests to Ann a position of underhousemaid that might be available with a new family tak...

  Brigid of Kildare is she just a legend or historical figure? Nonetheless, this novel brings a fascinating figure of Saint Brigid who was presumably Ireland’s first and only female priest and bishop. Gael, Ireland, A.D. 456. Brigid, daughter of Dubtach – king of the Fothairt people of southern Gael, at young age questions the lack of prominent women in Jesus’s earthly world. She questions women as passive vessels for the doings of men. She questions a world without women leaders. It is during a time when the infiltration of Roman Church reaches the Gaelic people. Dubtach refuses to be baptized or to force his people to do it. Nevertheless, he allows his daughter to be baptized in secret. Brigid is of age that she must choose a life path. She chooses a Christian path with singular devotion. Thus, rejecting marriage against her father’s choosing. To appease her parents, she is guided to blend Gaels customs with Christianity. She doesn’t preach. With patience and by listening, she gu...

  Inspired by the true story of Ann Trow Lohman, also known as Madame Restell, this is a brilliant depiction of a woman who rises from grim beginnings to the splendor of New York City as a “female physician” for roughly forty years and becoming one of the most controversial women of her time. NYC, 1860. Axie Muldoon comes from an impoverished Irish family, after being separated from her family, she is provided a roof over her head in exchange for doing household chores. It is a house belonging to the doctor and his wife. She quickly advances from household chores to assisting in the clinic set at the house, arranging the vials, following formulas, using the pill press and the scales. She is told that a specific dosage brings relief, but a bit more might turn fatal. The library at the house serves as her schoolroom where she learns details of anatomy, of afflictions and the procedures to cure them. Soon after, at fourteen, she is apprenticed as assistant to midwife. Once married, he...

 Beryl Markham (1902-1986) was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1936. She was the first female horse trainer in the world, producing one of the greatest victories in the history of racing. She was a free-spirited character. She may not be someone you identify with, but she was full of passion and worth of attention. “A woman who lived by her own code instead of society’s.” Beryl is brought to Kenya as a child. But the rough kind of life isn’t meant for her mother and brother, who go back to England. Beryl stays with her father, who falls in love with the wild side of Africa. At sixteen, she is forced to start making decisions for herself as her father is moving south to Cape Town. Against her better judgement, she marries Jock, a landowner, who isn’t “afraid to dirty his hands” as her father puts it. As she suffers “an illness of the spirit,” she lifts herself up by becoming a horse trainer. Something that comes naturally to her. She also experiences more than o...