Skip to main content

History class making you think the past is dusty and dull? Make history come alive with a little help from the historical fiction reading lists!

In Historical Fiction: 20th Century and Onward, explore the Turn of the Century, the Great Depression, WWII, the Civil Rights Movement, plus much more!

Chasing Charity: Texas Fortunes Trilogy, Book 2 by Marcia Gruver

In this second book of the Texas Fortunes series, Charity Bloom is left stranded at the altar after her best friend takes off with her fiance. How will she ever show her face in town again? After Buddy Pierce discovers oil on the Bloom property, he realizes the real treasure may be above ground-in the form of Charity Bloom. Can he strike it rich in Charity? When her ex-fiance decides he wants her back, whom will Charity choose--the handsome roughneck or the deceitful rogue?

Courting Trouble by Deeanne Gist

It's 1894, the year of Essie's thirtieth birthday, and she decides the Lord has more important things to do than provide her a husband. If she wants one, she needs to catch him herself. So, she writes down the names of all the eligible bachelors in her small Texas town, makes a list of their attributes and drawbacks, closes her eyes, twirls her finger, and...picks one.

Kaspar the Titanic Cat written by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman

When Kaspar the cat first arrived at London’s Savoy Hotel, it was Johnny Trott who carried him in. But when tragedy befalls the Countess during her stay, Kaspar becomes more than Johnny’s responsibility: Kaspar is Johnny’s new cat, and his new best friend.

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Living in Germany during World War II, young Liesel Meminger scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist --- books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids.

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

It's 1962, and it seems everyone is living in fear. Twelve-year-old Franny Chapman lives with her family in Washington, DC, during the days surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Amidst the pervasive threat of nuclear war, Franny must face the tension between herself and her younger brother, figure out where she fits in with her family, and look beyond outward appearances.

Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood

As much as Glory wants to turn 12, sometimes she wishes she could turn back the clock a year. Her sister Jesslyn no longer has the time of day for her now that she’s entering high school. Things have always been so easy with her best friend Frankie, but now suddenly they aren’t. And then there’s the debate about whether or not the town should keep the segregated public pool open.

More books like the ones on this list »

History class making you think the past is dusty and dull? Make history come alive with a little help from the historical fiction reading lists!

In Historical Fiction: Before the 20th Century, explore the Medieval age, Salem Witch Trials, moving to the Western Frontier and the Civil War, plus much more!

To see historical fiction books from the 20th century and onward, click here.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

As the Revolutionary War begins, 13-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

More books like the ones on this list »

Lisa See, author of Daughters of the Sun and Moon

In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain --- America --- where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, but her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined.

Editorial Content for Alan Opts Out

Teaser

In this timely and comedic take on ambition, consumerism and the sticker price of privilege, an ad exec who bombs the biggest pitch of his career decides to forgo capitalism and live off the land of his suburban Connecticut home.

Promo

In this timely and comedic take on ambition, consumerism and the sticker price of privilege, an ad exec who bombs the biggest pitch of his career decides to forgo capitalism and live off the land of his suburban Connecticut home.

About the Book

In this timely and comedic take on ambition, consumerism and the sticker price of privilege, an ad exec who bombs the biggest pitch of his career decides to forgo capitalism and live off the land of his suburban Connecticut home. Perfect for readers of Rufi Thorpe and Taffy Brodesser-Akner.

Alan Anderson is a powerful advertising executive who has built a successful life and thriving business by making people buy stuff they don’t actually need. He’s up for the biggest pitch of his career and the account everyone wants: US Dairy. Cow’s milk sales are plummeting, and the C-Suite wants to see trendy oat milk kicked to the curb. But when an anarchist farmer tanks Alan’s presentation, Alan bombs the pitch but ends the day with an epiphany. No longer will he exploit the insecurities of others in the service of capitalism. Alan is opting out. 

This development is anathema to his wife, Vivian. She’s just a few positive affirmations, a swimming pool and an exacting series of social tests away from finally becoming part of the elite women’s club, the Queen Annes, in their adopted town of Greenwich, Connecticut. As if contending with a daughter who wants to write plays (!) and another who has an unnatural empathy with animals isn’t enough to manage, she can only watch as Alan moves into their backyard playhouse to live off the land and --- worse --- spend time with the family. But instead of shocking the neighbors, Alan’s commitment to a less-is-more lifestyle seems to be catching on. Could everyone want what Alan is not selling? 

Funny, sexy, intelligent and poignant, ALAN OPTS OUT is the most ambitious novel to date by celebrated author Courtney Maum, acclaimed for her stories that tackle big, chewy subjects of our post-modern America with wit and heart.

Editorial Content for The Burning Side

Teaser

A family saga suffused with humor, longing and heartbreak, THE BURNING SIDE is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

Promo

A family saga suffused with humor, longing and heartbreak, THE BURNING SIDE is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

About the Book

From the author of THE BRIGHT YEARS, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging.

When April and Leo’s house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April’s childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication.

As the family reckons with the aftermath --- grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact --- the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo’s marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April’s generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo’s relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here.

A family saga suffused with humor, longing and heartbreak, THE BURNING SIDE is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

Editorial Content for Chasing the Clouds Away

Teaser

An unforgettable chance encounter between a successful yet jaded businessman and a woman who sees --- but also expects --- the best in everyone sparks an unlikely romance that challenges their assumptions about generosity, trust and the gifts of unforeseen love.

Promo

An unforgettable chance encounter between a successful yet jaded businessman and a woman who sees --- but also expects --- the best in everyone sparks an unlikely romance that challenges their assumptions about generosity, trust and the gifts of unforeseen love.

About the Book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber comes an uplifting story of an unforgettable chance encounter between a successful yet jaded businessman and a woman who sees --- but also expects --- the best in everyone, sparking an unlikely romance that challenges their assumptions about generosity, trust and the gifts of unforeseen love.

Maisy Gallagher has her own dreams, but when her father passes away, she selflessly sets them aside to help her family. Despite knowing it was the right thing to do, she can’t help but wish for the road not taken.

Chase Furst, the hardened heir to a financial empire, is primarily focused on his own life and on his work as a bank executive. His childhood was marred by his mother’s struggle with addiction, and it left him cynical and emotionally distant.

But then Chase meets Maisy, a beautiful woman full of optimism and kindness who can see past his defenses. To his surprise and annoyance, she offers to help him during a time of need and declines his offer of payment. Instead, she asks him to pay it forward --- and not with money or a quick fix, but through an act of true selflessness. At a loss, Chase doesn’t know where to begin.

Editorial Content for Daughters of the Sun and Moon

Teaser

From beloved New York Times bestselling author Lisa See comes the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive in the turmoil of post-Civil War Los Angeles.

Promo

From beloved New York Times bestselling author Lisa See comes the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive in the turmoil of post-Civil War Los Angeles.

About the Book

From beloved New York Times bestselling author Lisa See comes the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive in the turmoil of post-Civil War Los Angeles.

In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty and violent pueblo of Los Angeles.

Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain --- America --- where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English, and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many.

Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom, and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined.

Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance and ability to “eat bitterness” to discover their voices, find freedom, and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.

Editorial Content for Dolly All the Time

Teaser

A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion.

Promo

A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion.

About the Book

A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT.

If they start by pretending, can they end with something real?

Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was 12, and not at 39 when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.

So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield --- the annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family --- with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for.

As public dinners and high-society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself. Can she really start now?

Editorial Content for A Fortune of Sand

Teaser

The daughter of a powerful tycoon escapes to a glamorous artists’ retreat --- where dark secrets and dangerous temptations await --- in this gripping Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of SALT TO THE SEA.

Promo

The daughter of a powerful tycoon escapes to a glamorous artists’ retreat --- where dark secrets and dangerous temptations await --- in this gripping Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of SALT TO THE SEA.

About the Book

The daughter of a powerful tycoon escapes to a glamorous artists’ retreat --- where dark secrets and dangerous temptations await --- in this gripping Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of SALT TO THE SEA.

Detroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where glittering wealth conceals a graveyard of secrets.

Marjorie Lennox is the youngest daughter of a powerful Detroit dynasty --- a family rich in money and poor in charm. Creative, reckless and never quite what they wanted, Marjorie has spent her life overlooked by her controlling father and self-absorbed siblings. But when she secretly applies to an elite arts program backed by a mysterious patron, she grabs the chance to finally step out of her family’s shadow.

The building is grand.

The talent is extraordinary.

And something is deeply wrong.

The program is strict in ways that feel sinister. Doors lock at strange hours. Rumors spread about women going missing. And the handsome benefactor behind it all is as magnetic as he is unsettling. As Marjorie gets pulled deeper into his world, she must fight to discover the truth before she loses herself completely.

Set in the fading splendor of 1920s Detroit and inspired by real, long-buried events, A FORTUNE OF SAND is a glittering, gothic page-turner about power, control, and the price women pay when they demand to be seen.

Editorial Content for The Foursome

Teaser

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in 19th-century North Carolina --- Kline’s own distant relatives --- who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

Promo

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in 19th-century North Carolina --- Kline’s own distant relatives --- who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

About the Book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in 19th-century North Carolina --- Kline’s own distant relatives --- who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity --- they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives --- and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.

Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing and identity in a world where everything --- including race, class and gender --- is rigidly defined.

Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, THE FOURSOME is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.