New Books in Historical Fiction
Episodes
Marian O'Shea Wernicke, "Out of Ireland" (She Writes Press, 2023)
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Marian O’Shea Wernicke about her new novel Out of Ireland (She Writes Press, 2023). Most people have heard of the Irish fam...
Aleksandar Hemon, "The World and All That It Holds" (MCD, 2023)
07 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Aleksandar Hemon about his new novel The World and All That It Holds (MCD, 2023). As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sara...
Rachel Heng, "The Great Reclamation" (Riverhead Books, 2023)
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1940s, Singapore was controlled by the British occupied by the Japanese and comprised of rubber plantations and decrepit fishing villages. A ti...
C. S. Harris, "Who Cries for the Lost" (Berkley Books, 2023)
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fans of Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, know that the individual tales that form his saga combine complex, fast-paced, often political mysteries ...
Ronald Niezen, "The Memory Seeker" (Black Rose Writing, 2023)
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Memory Seeker is a novel that, drawing upon Professor Ronald Niezen's background in researching human rights, takes on the experiences of war vi...
Jacqueline Winspear, "The White Lady" (Harper, 2023)
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s just after World War II, and Elinor White (born Elinor de Witt, which also means “white”), a single woman in her mid-forties, lives as a re...
Patricia L. Hudson, "Traces" (Fireside Industries, 2022)
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An early American adage proclaimed, "The frontier was heaven for men and dogs―hell for women and mules." Since the 1700s, when his name first appear...
Omer Bartov, "The Butterfly and the Axe" (Amsterdam Publishers, 2023)
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Spring 1944. A Jewish family is murdered in a remote Ukrainian village. Who were they? Who were the killers? Three generations later, an Israeli woman...
Molly Greeley, "Marvelous" (William Morrow, 2023)
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Once in a while, a novel comes along that is both different and special. Marvelous (William Morrow, 2023) is such a book. Retellings of fairy tales ...
Joanna Higgins, "In the Fall They Leave: A Novel of the First World War" (Regal House Publishing, 2023)
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Joanna Higgins about her new book In the Fall They Leave: a Novel of the First World War (Regal House Publishing, 2023). Nineteen-...
Lynn Cullen, "The Woman with the Cure" (Berkley Books, 2023)
19 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The essential contribution of The Woman with the Cure (Berkley Books, 2023) can be summarized in one sentence: like most of its future readers (I as...
C. P. Lesley, "Song of the Storyteller" (Five Directions Press, 2023)
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to C. P. Lesley about Song of the Storyteller (Five Directions Press, 2023). It’s 1546, and Ivan the Terrible is about to be co...
Susan Stokes-Chapman, "Pandora" (Harper Perennial, 2023)
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is the very end of the eighteenth century, and Pandora Blake—known as Dora—lives at the edge of London society. Despite the opposition of her o...
Michael X. Wang, "Lost in the Long March" (Overlook Press, 2022)
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1934, tens of thousands of Communist guerillas fled Jiangxi, in an extended retreat through hazardous terrain to Shaanxi in the north, while under ...
C. W. Gortner, "The American Adventuress" (William Morrow, 2022)
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From Lucrezia Borgia to Marlene Dietrich, Empress Marie Fyodorovna of Russia, and most recently the actress Sarah Bernhardt, C. W. Gortner has made a...
Nicola Cornick, "The Winter Garden" (Graydon House Books, 2022)
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In her novels, Nicola Cornick blends a modern perspective with a historical mystery and a paranormal connection between the two. The Winter Garden (...
Mariah Fredericks, "The Lindbergh Nanny" (Minotaur Books, 2022)
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Mariah Fredericks about her new novel The Lindbergh Nanny (Minotaur Books, 2022). The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr in 1932 ...
Karen Odden, "Under a Veiled Moon" (Crooked Lane Books, 2022)
06 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Karen Odden about her new book Under a Veiled Moon (Crooked Lane Books, 2022). When the Princess Alice pleasure boat collides with...
Robert J. Lloyd, "The Poison Machine" (Melville House, 2022)
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
London, 1679. Combining the color and adventure of Alexandre Dumas and the thrills of Frederick Forsyth, early scientists Harry Hunt and Robert Hooke ...
Kimberly Garrett Brown, "Cora's Kitchen" (Inanna Publications, 2022)
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cora’s Kitchen by Kimberly Garrett Brown (Inanna Publications 2022) is a striking novel told in letters, journal entries, and a series of stories w...
Colleen Cambridge, "A Trace of Poison" (Kensington Publishing, 2022)
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Agatha Christie hardly needs an introduction. The Queen of Mystery has reigned since the 1920s, and the recent release of films based on her books sho...
Mally Becker, "The Counterfeit Wife: A Revolutionary War Mystery" (Level Best Books, 2022)
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Mally Becker about her new book The Counterfeit Wife: A Revolutionary War Mystery (Level Best Books, 2022). Philadelphia, June 178...
Clay Vagrant, "The Empire's Bladesmen: Forbidden Relics" (Armored History, 2021)
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Set during the Ming Dynasty that ruled over China, The Empire's Bladesmen: Forbidden Relics (Amored History, 2021) by Clay Vagrant is a gripping st...
Karen Heenan, "Coming Apart: A Novel of the Great Depression" (2022)
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Karen Heenan about Coming Apart: A Novel of the Great Depression (2022). Ava has always been poor, so she doesn't think the Great ...
Bárbara Mujica, "Miss Del Río: A Novel of Dolores del Río, the First Major Latina Star in Hollywood" (Graydon House Books, 2022)
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Miss del Río (Graydon House Books, 2022) explores the biography of a real-life actress, Dolores del Río, who became a silent movie star in Hollywo...
Martha Anne Toll, "Three Muses" (Regal House Publishing, 2022)
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Three Muses (Regal House Publishing, 2022) by Martha Toll, John Curtin survives the Holocaust by singing for the entertainment of the kommendant...
Paul Doherty, "The Hanging Tree" (Severn House, 2022)
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
London, 1382. The Crown's treasury, the most secure chamber in the kingdom, has been robbed, and the five guards killed. Brother Athelstan is set to i...
Laurie R. King, "Back to the Garden: A Novel" (Bantam, 2022)
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Laurie R. King about her new novel Back to the Garden: A Novel (Bantam, 2022). Inspector Raquel Liang of the San Francisco Police ...
Larry F. Sommers, "Price of Passage: A Tale of Immigration and Liberation" (DX Varos, 2022)
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Price of Passage: A Tale of Immigration and Liberation (DX Varos, 2022), Larry Sommers opens in 1853 in Norway, where only firstborn sons inherited t...
R. F. Kuang, "Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution" (Harper Voyager, 2022)
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In R. F. Kuang’s Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (Harper Voyager in 2022), we meet Ro...
Adele Holmes, "Winter's Reckoning" (She Writes Press, 2022)
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Madeline (Maddie) Fairbanks has created a satisfying life for herself in Jamesville since the death of her husband, Samuel, one of the town’s leadin...
Judith Berlowitz, "Home So Far Away: A Novel" (She Writes Press, 2022)
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After author Judith Berlowitz found both Gestapo and Soviet records about a relative named Klara Philpsborn, she began thinking about writing Home So...
Francesca Stanfill, "The Falcon's Eyes: A Novel" (Harper, 2022)
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Twelfth-century Europe was not a good time or place to be born female. Even queens had few rights, garnered little respect, and were tolerated largely...
Bhaswati Ghosh, "Victory Colony, 1950" (Yoda Press, 2020)
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Victory Colony, 1950 (Yoda Press, 2020) by Bhaswati Ghosh is a story of resilience about East Pakistani refugees who were forced to leave their homes...
Anne Louise Bannon, "Death of an Heiress" (Healcroft House, 2022)
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Los Angeles in the 1870s is not the sprawling city we know today. A rapidly growing pueblo of perhaps 7,000 residents, it features vineyards and ranch...
Jade Beer, "The Last Dress from Paris" (Berkley Books, 2022)
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
London, 2017. Lucille will do anything for her beloved grandmother. So when Granny Sylvie volunteers to send her to Paris to retrieve a beloved Dior ...
Tracy Lawson, "Answering Liberty's Call: Anna Stone's Daring Ride to Valley Forge" (Gray Lion Books, 2021)
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Tracy Lawson about her novel Answering Liberty's Call: Anna Stone's Daring Ride to Valley Forge (Gray Lion Books, 2021). In 1778,...
David Wright Faladé, "Black Cloud Rising" (Grove Press, 2022)
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Black Cloud Rising (Grove Press 2022), author and scholar David Wright Faladé tells the story of Richard Etheridge, who towards the end of the ...
Catherine Lloyd, "Miss Morton and the English House Party Murder" (Kensington, 2022)
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As we soon find out in this opener to a new series set in 1830s London, Lady Caroline Morton’s illustrious heritage has been tarnished by the financ...
Susan Westhafer Furukawa, "The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan" (Harvard UP, 2022)
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Popular representations of the past are everywhere in Japan, from cell phone charms to manga, from television dramas to video games to young people dr...
Ariela Freedman, "Lea" (Linda Leith Publishing, 2022)
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lea Roback was a feminist and labor activist who was raised in a large Jewish family in Quebec, Canada. In the novel Lea (Linda Leith Publishing, 20...
W. Jeff Barnes, "Mingo" (Little Star, 2021)
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Set against the backdrop of coal-rich, hard-scrabble West Virginia and "civilized," segregated Virginia, W. Jeff Barnes' Mingo (Little Star, 2021) ...
Irina Shapiro, "Murder on the Sea Witch: A Redmond and Haze Mystery Book 7" (2022)
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jason Redmond, a US Civil War surgeon, never expected to step into his father’s shoes as the heir to an English earldom. When he first shows up to c...
Bede Scott, "Too Far from Antibes" (Penguin, 2022)
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jean-Luc Guéry is a man down on his luck. Middling journalist, gambling addict, alcoholic. Yet when news of his brother’s murder in Saigon reach hi...
79* Madeline Miller on Circe (GT, JP)
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this rebroadcast, John and Brandeis neuroscientist Gina Turrigiano (an occasional host and perennial friend of Recall this Book) speak with Made...
Edith Saavedra, "The Lamps of Albarracin" (2018)
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Lamps of Albarracin tells the story of Sarita, who looks back on her life before and after the Inquisition arrived in her town. It’s 15th cent...
Book Talk 51: Ardythe Ashley on Oscar Wilde
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Secretly his unconscious body, still flickering with life, is spirited away by to an island monastery in the Venetian lagoon where he recovers his hea...
Erica Ruth Neubauer, "Danger on the Atlantic" (Kensington, 2022)
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the years leading up to and into the French Revolution, we move forward in time to 1926. In Danger on the Atlantic (Kensington Publishing, 2022...
Joan Schweighardt, "River Aria" (Five Directions Press, 2020)
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Joan Schweighardt about her novel River Aria (Five Directions Press, 2020). It’s 1928 and Estela Euquério Hopper, of Manaus, B...
Ed Davis, "The Last Professional" (Artemesia Publishing, 2022)
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is a story of America! Lynden Hoover, a young man on the brink of a new beginning, cannot embrace it without confronting the traumas of his past....
Leslie T. Grover, "The Benefits of Eating White Folks" (Jaded Ibis Press, 2022)
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Leslie T. Grover about her book The Benefits of Eating White Folks (Jaded Ibis Press, 2022). The Sickness, a disease with unknown...
Eva Stachniak, "The School of Mirrors" (William Morrow, 2022)
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
France in 1755 is a country of extremes. The streets of Paris are filled with the poor and downtrodden, whereas just a few miles away lies the Palace ...
Ruta Sepetys, "I Must Betray You" (Philomel Books, 2022)
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ruta Sepetys is an acclaimed “crossover” author (read by both young people and adults) of historical novels. In her latest novel I Must Betray Y...
Tania Bayard, "Murder in the Cloister" (Severn House Publishers, 2021)
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There is a great temptation, when writing about the past, to sanitize its circumstances and attitudes to make the characters more palatable to present...
Bryn Turnbull, "The Last Grand Duchess: A Novel" (Mira, 2022)
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Interest in the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 has only increased since the centenary of the Romanovs’ assassination in 1918. ...
3.2 Promises Unkept: Damon Galgut with Andrew van der Vlies
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Chris Holmes sits down with Booker Prize winning novelist Damon Galgut and Andrew van der Vlies, distinguished scholar of South Afric...
Deanna Raybourn, "An Impossible Impostor" (Berkley Books, 2022)
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Starting a new historical mystery series is always fun, but summarizing one at book 7 creates a certain conundrum: how to convey the essence of a char...
Patrick Hicks, "In the Shadow of Dora: A Novel of the Holocaust and the Apollo Program" (Stephen F. Austin UP, 2020)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the Shadow of Dora by Patrick Hicks (Stephen F. Austin University Press 2020) explores the space program’s path from the Dora Mittelbau concent...
3.1 On Being Unmoored: Chang-rae Lee Charts Fiction with Anne Anlin Cheng
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Season three of Novel Dialogue launches in partnership with Public Books and introduces some fresh new voices into the mix. John and Aarthi welcome ...
72 Caryl Phillips Speaks with Corina Stan
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our second January Novel Dialogue conversation is with Caryl Phillips, professor of English at Yale and world-renowned for novels ranging from The...
Catherine Gentile, "Sunday's Orphan" (Booklocker.com, 2021)
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Even for someone trained from birth to manage a farm, stepping into an inheritance at the age of twenty is not easy. Yet this is the situation facing ...
C. K. McDonough, "Stoking Hope" (D. X. Varos, 2021)
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stoking Hope (D.X. Varos, 2021), C.K. McDonough’s debut novel, opens in an early 1900’s southwest Pennsylvania coal town. Nineteen-year-old Marth...
Simon Van Booy, "Night Came With Many Stars" (Godine, 2021)
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Night Came With Many Stars (Godine 2021) ebbs and flows with people who only take or destroy, balanced by those who give or heal. And everything cent...
Jinny Webber, "Bedtrick" (Cuidono Press, 2021)
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As Jinny Webber explains in this interview, a “bedtrick” is a literary device through which a character is deceived into spending the night with...
Karla FC Holloway, "Gone Missing in Harlem: A Novel" (Northwestern UP, 2021)
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gone Missing in Harlem by Karla FC Holloway (TriQuarterly 2021) tells the story of an African American family trying to survive the early decades of ...
Dina Greenberg, "Nermina's Chance" (Atmosphere Press, 2021)
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Dina Greenberg about her new novel Nermina's Chance (Atmosphere Press, 2021). Nermina is a medical student in Sarajevo. She’s be...
Andrea Penrose, "Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens" (Kensington, 2021)
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Great Britain’s Regency Era (1811–1820) has long been wildly popular as a subject of historical fiction yet overly focused on the romance genre. T...
Dana Mack, "All Things That Deserve to Perish: A Novel of Wilhelmine Germany" (2020)
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Despite all the attention paid to the two world wars of the twentieth century, not a great deal of historical fiction focuses on the period that prece...
Susannah Calkins, "Cry of the Hangman" (Severn House, 2021)
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s December 1667 and London is still recovering both from the Plague and the Great Fire. Lucy Campion visits retired judge Master Hargrave and dis...
Sherry Thomas, "Miss Moriarty, I Presume?" (Penguin, 2021)
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since Arthur Conan Doyle first created Sherlock Holmes, the great detective has gone through many permutations and been the subject of much study. As ...
Joanna Fitzpatrick, "The Artist Colony" (She Writes Press, 2021)
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By 1924, Sarah Cunningham has spent years in France establishing her own artistic style, more contemporary than the landscapes that have made her olde...
Rhys Bowen, "God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen" (Penguin, 2021)
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the days when brick-and-mortar bookstores were common in suburban America, I was browsing the shelves at my local Borders when a title caught ...
Garrett Hutson, "No Accidental Death" (Warfleigh Publishing, 2021)
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the deluge of novels about World War II that has characterized the last few years, the period leading up to the war on the Pacific Front has r...
Gill Paul, "The Collector's Daughter: A Novel of the Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb" (William Morrow, 2021)
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings almost a century ago revolutionized the study of ancient Egypt and its pharaohs...
Trisha R. Thomas, "What Passes as Love" (Lake Union Publishing, 2021)
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Trisha R. Thomas about her new novel What Passes as Love (Lake Union Publishing, 2021). In 1850, at age six, Dahlia Holt is taken...
Jeanne Matthews, "Devil by the Tail" (D.X. Varos, 2021)
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Jeanne Matthews about her new novel Devil by the Tail (D.X. Varos, 2021) It’s 1867, and a 20-something civil war widow has just...
Mary Martin Devlin, "The La Motte Woman" (Cuidono Press, 2021)
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jeanne de St.-Rémy has a grudge against the world. Born into the French royal family—if admittedly by a somewhat labyrinthine route—she spends ye...
Ron Nyren, "The Book of Lost Light" (Black Lawrence Press, 2019)
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ron Nyren’s The Book of Lost Light—winner of Black Lawrence Press’s 2019 Big Moose Prize and finalist in the 2020 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in...
Jessica Barksdale Inclán, "The Play's the Thing" (TouchPoint Press, 2021)
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a sense, those of us who love historical fiction live vicariously in the past. Many of us also fantasize about traveling in time—meeting our favo...
Larry Feign, "The Flower Boat Girl: A Novel Based on a True Story" (Top Floor Books, 2021)
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for bandit...
Diana Stevan, "Lilacs in the Dust Bowl" (Peregrin Publishing, 2015)
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Author Diana Stevan's sequel to the award-winning Sunflowers Under Fire. Lukia's story continues in Lilacs in the Dust Bowl (Peregrin Publishing, ...
Pamela Hamilton, "Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale" (Koehler Books, 2021)
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The name of Dorothy Hale is not well known these days. In the 1920s, she enjoyed a career on Broadway as a dancer, including in a leading role with Fr...
Rebecca D’Harlingue, "The Lines Between Us" (She Write Press, 2020)
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Rebecca D’Harlingue about her novel The Lines Between Us (She Writes Press, 2020). A widow in 17th century Spain discovers th...
Bonnie Macbird, "Three Locks: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure" (Collins Crime Club, 2021)
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sherlock Holmes is one of the rare literary characters who has achieved a kind of cultural immortality. As Bonnie MacBird notes in this interview, d...
F. M. Deemyad, "The Sky Worshipers" (History through Fiction, 2021)
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There have been more than a few contenders for the title of “World Conqueror,” but eight hundred years after the fact, Genghis Khan’s claim to t...
Wendy Voorsanger, "Prospects of a Woman" (She Writes Press, 2020)
23 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Elisabeth Parker and her husband leave Massachusetts and arrive in California to join her father, she quickly learns that her father is not who s...
Vanessa R. Sasson, "Yasodhara and the Buddha" (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020)
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By combining the spirit of fiction with the fabulism of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research, Vanessa R. Sasson shares the evocative stor...
Lauren Willig, "Band of Sisters" (William Morrow, 2021)
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Moran, a graduate of Smith College, has been making her living tutoring students in French when her college friend Emmie Van Alden appears out of...
Max Gross, "The Lost Shtetl" (HarperCollins, 2020)
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I spoke with Max Gross about his book The Lost Shtetl (HarperCollins, 2020). Imagine a Jewish village hidden in the forests of Poland that so...
Kathleen Williams Renk, "Vindicated: A Novel of Mary Shelley" (Cuidono Press, 2020)
09 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Godwin Shelley had yet to reach her nineteenth birthday when she had the dream that gave rise to the classic Gothic horror tale Frankenstein. Th...
C. P. Lesley, "Song of the Sisters: Songs of Steppe and Forest 3" (Five Directions Press, 2021)
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Everywhere young Russian noblewoman Darya Sheremeteva turns, someone in her circle of family and friends reminds her that she exists to serve a single...
Molly Greeley, "The Heiress: The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh" (William Morrow, 2021)
04 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The world created by Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice has established a place for itself in contemporary culture that few other novels can match, ...
Finola Austin, "Bronte's Mistress" (Atria Books, 2020)
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It seems likely that most of our listeners have at least heard of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and her sister Emily’s Wuthering Heights. Many ...
Michelle Cameron, "Beyond the Ghetto Gates" (She Writes Press, 2020)
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The intense interest in the horrors of World War II that has characterized the last few years has tended to overshadow other aspects of the long histo...
Jennie Fields, "Atomic Love" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2020)
13 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by Leona Woods, the only woman who worked on the Manhattan Project, Atomic Love (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2020) tells the story of Rosalind Port...
P. K. Adams, "Midnight Fire" (Iron Knight Press, 2020)
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Most novels about the sixteenth century written in English take place in Italy, France, or England—with the occasional foray into Spain or Portugal....
Linda Stewart Henley, "Estelle" (She Writes Press, 2020)
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Most people think of Edgar Degas as a French painter of ballerinas. But few have heard that his mother came from New Orleans or that he spent five mon...
Bryn Turnbull, "The Woman before Wallis" (Mira Books, 2020)
26 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Most modern Americans can identify the names Wallace Simpson and Gloria Vanderbilt. But Simpson was not the first divorced American to win the heart o...
John DeSimone, "Road to Delano" (Rare Bird Books, 2020)
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In John DeSimone's Road to Delano (Rare Bird Books, 2020), it's 1968, and Cesar Chavez is organizing the United Farm Workers to fight for decent worki...
Elsa Hart, "The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne" (Minotaur Books, 2020)
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lady Cecily Kay has just returned to England when she encounters Sir Barnaby Mayne. It’s 1703, Queen Anne is on the throne, and London’s coffee ho...