New Books in Historical Fiction

Maya Rodale, “An Heiress to Remember” (Avon Books, 2020)

Maya Rodale
An Heiress to Remember
The Gilded Age Girls Club
Avon, 2020

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature March 12, 2020 C. P. Lesley

As Maya Rodale notes early in this interview, romance novels tend not to get the same respect as other categories of fiction, historical or otherwise. Here, and in her Dangerous Books for Girls, she argues persuasively that this bad reputation is an attempt by life’s insiders to undermine the central message... Read More

Laura Waterman, “Starvation Shore” (U Wisconsin Press, 2019)

Laura Waterman
Starvation Shore

University of Wisconsin Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature New Books Network February 28, 2020 Michael F. Robinson

Laura Waterman talks about her novel, Starvation Shore (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019), which relies upon memoirs, letters, and diaries to reconstruct the life of the Greely Party as it attempted to survive impossible conditions. Waterman is a climber, conservationist, and author who has written many books with her husband Guy Waterman about... Read More

Emily Strelow
The Wild Birds

Rare Bird Books, 2018

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Environmental Studies New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature New Books in Science & Technology New Books Network February 26, 2020 GP Gottlieb

An orphaned young woman disguises herself as a boy in order to escape the dangers of being alone in 1870’s San Francisco. A group of castoffs destroy the bird population of the Farallon Island by stealing and selling their eggs. A young woman raped in the 1980’s struggles to raise... Read More

Gabrielle Mathieu
Girl of Fire

Five Directions Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Fantasy New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature February 20, 2020 C. P. Lesley

In the fantasy medieval land of Trea—a conservative society that despite its worship of the goddess Amur respects her human daughters only as wives and mothers—eighteen-year-old Berona has limited expectations for her future. Securing a handsome husband who will win her heart and teach her to dance seems like enough... Read More

Joan Schweighardt
Gifts for the Dead

Five Directions Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature February 6, 2020 C. P. Lesley

Last summer, massive fires in the Amazon rain forest provoked environmental concerns around the world. But the history of exploitation—of the natural world of the rain forest and the people living in it—goes back at least to the rubber boom of the early twentieth century. This setting forms the backdrop... Read More

Serena Burdick
The Girls with No Names

Park Row Books, 2020

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature New Books Network January 9, 2020 C. P. Lesley

Effie Tildon loves her older sister, Luella. Sixteen to Effie’s thirteen, Luella has long taken the leading role in deciding what the two sisters do, even when it leads them in directions their parents would not approve of. Those three extra years are one reason that Luella directs Effie rather... Read More

Katherine Kayne
Bound in Flame

Passionflower Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Historical Fiction New Books in Literature New Books Network December 20, 2019 C. P. Lesley

Leticia Liliuokalani Lang, better known as Letty, has good intentions, but her strong will and quick temper tend to get in her way. Banished from her Hawaiian home due to a conflict with her stepmother, Letty winds up in a California boarding school, where she decides to devote her career... Read More