Whether it's for a birthday, Christmas, or any other special occasion, historical fiction and nonfiction lovers always enjoy the gift of a good read! Here are some historical fiction novels and nonfiction books worth checking out and giving as gifts!
Facing the horrors of slavery, she triumphs by gaining freedom papers for her maid Emma's enslaved husband and son. Brianna and Edward escape with them to San Francisco. There she becomes one of the most sought after madams in the gold rush parlor house trade. But will her fame and pluck be enough to save Edward from the Vigilante noose? This is the first book in the American Madams series.
His boring and uninteresting life is transported into a magical life of excitement and adventure through explorations of rural ranch life, fishing in remote lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. A Scout Master provides the opportunity of a life time for these wonderful new experiences, but is there too big of a price to pay? Only the boy can answer this question as he seeks the truth.
What is lost when identity is concealed? What price is paid? Tom’s emotional story unfolds against the backdrop of the Cincinnati race riots of 1836 and 1841 and the oncoming Civil War. In a place and time beset with racism, hate, jealousy and violence, the novel’s characters forge deep evolving loves, friendships, and loyalties as they move towards freedom, their ultimate goal.
This is the author’s imagined story of her own maternal ancestry.
Centuries before Iniki struck, the land belonged to Kauai's royal family. The lush coconut grove along the Wailua River was home to Queen Deborah, the last reigning monarch, whose remains have never been found. Rumor has it that she walks the halls of the resort.
After more than two decades, corporate New York lawyer, Abby Parker has been hired to acquire the property for a wealthy land developer. Abby soon discovers that the Heritage and Cultural Association is not the biggest obstacle to stand in her way. Within hours of arriving on the island, Abby finds herself on a gurney, in the back of an ambulance. Abby may have bitten off more than she can chew.
The Cold War is raging. Mendel falls for Sara Cavanaugh, the engineer responsible for a controversial tower under construction on a sacred site. If completed, the tower will communicate globally with the American nuclear submarine fleet. The Binyan patriarch and his brilliant son are in a generational conflict over the tower and the son’s future.
Spiced with magical realism and mysticism, The Seed Apple (a follow up to Greene’s Lost and Found) is a mysterious, funny, moving novel by a critically acclaimed author.
The grieving, confused son can no longer keep this apparition from his wife and kids—and opens the door. The Marine finally declares why he is there: to straighten out his stray son—and bum a ride to see his dying mother in a 1942 Sioux City, Iowa hospital. The son needs to take his family to Sioux City in the year 2000 to attend his father’s funeral. So the young father and the old son take their battles back to World War II on a trip across a wartime America towards death and an elusive reconciliation.
An emotional journey through paranormal realms, Expect Deception is a fast-paced, suspenseful tale of what happens when US Navy psychics pit themselves against their Nazi counterparts.
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The threat of an EMP attack on a major United States city is a real one. Michael Kravitz brings the consequences of an electromagnetic pulse bomb attack to life in his short thriller, Boston Darkens. As the title would suggest, the setting revolves around Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding cities and towns in nearby Rhode Island and Connecticut. The tale is told by Ben, originally from Nebraska, who fortunately knows a thing or two about survival and being self-sufficient. What's particularly good about Ben’s first person narrative is that it's believable. As someone who is from southern New England myself, I can verify many of the details that Kravitz weaves into Ben's picture of the highly disordered post-EMP attack chaos in the region. The characters he creates are believable and the situations realistic. Kravitz thought this world out well, clearly depicting just how a world without electricity well could be. Even the electrical components of most vehicles are fried too, leaving the streets and highways an auto graveyard. There is plenty of detail, and it draws you into the new reality of a world thrown into disarray. Even with the detail, the narrative flows well and Ben's own personality is reflected throughout. He is honest and tells the story just as if this was really happening here and now. Without giving too much away, I can say the greatest strength of Boston Darkens is showing both the good and bad sides of human nature with equal treatment. I have many other good things to say about this short novel. But being as brief as it is, too many spoilers would be given away if I go any more in-depth. Despite being such a quick read, Boston Darkens is enjoyable and exciting. It’s worth the price of admission. There's plenty of action and drama, with just enough reflection on the state of things to give you a break. I daresay that this story has blockbuster film potential. It's well-told, and while there is a conclusion, it's open-ended. This is intentional, as this book is the first in a series. I look forward to seeing what becomes of Ben, his family, and friends in sequels to Boston Darkens. You can buy “Boston Darkens” as an ebook, paperback, or hardcover at Amazon. *I received a free review copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. This review is in no way influenced by any outside sources. No other compensation was received for this review. This is an expanded version of a book review I submitted to Amazon. I will warn you: spoilers follow… “Unless” is a novel that has received mixed reviews. Some call it boring. Some say the ending is too predictable. I actually have to say I didn’t pick up on it until the last few pages. But I suppose I wasn’t reading the book for the ending. Perhaps the way in which you read this book is most important. Some might say that it doesn’t have enough action, and that there isn’t a coherent storyline. Some complain that the book is about a writer writing about writing a book about a woman writer. There are complaints that the book is extremely feminist; that is something I have no problem with. All the points Shields makes in the book are perfectly valid. I think that this book is about how to deal with an extremely difficult situation: someone you love dearly has suddenly fallen out of life. As we find out, this actually is not as crazy as it first appears. Life does not stop while you are dealing with a situation; you have to learn to cope. There are a lot of undertones about how women are made to feel powerless in our society; this does seem to be a major theme in contemporary Canadian literature and I think this ruins the book for some people. But when you take it from the perspective of the character of Reta, an extremely well-written first-person narrative, it’s actually pretty easy to get caught up into thinking these words could be taken from a real woman’s diary. In fact, I actually found myself wondering about the actuality of certain aspects of the plot. I will refrain from giving away too many spoilers, but I really felt after reading this book that there were real people involved in the story of this book. I felt these were real people being written about. Reta, our protagonist, is a writer, but mainly has been the personal translator for a legendary French/Canadian author Danielle Westerman. This character of Westerman was so interesting to me that I actually turned to Almighty Google to see what I could dig up. I found a musician, quite a lovely musician/model at that, and a link to an interview with Carol Shields, which basically said that Westerman was totally made up and not based on anyone in particular – this to me makes the character even more fascinating. Danielle Westerman, at the telling of this story, is eighty-five going on eighty-six years old. She is a major feminist writer who lived through the Holocaust, who’s always written in French. Reta has translated three out of five volumes of Westerman’s memoirs, and she has received great praise from them all. Shields makes this woman so interesting that I wanted to read these memoirs for myself. They obviously, alas, do not exist for our enjoyment. But now, Reta has taken a shot at novel writing. Her first was a modest success, so naturally, she is now pursuing her second. Being a writer of sorts, I found this sort-of “inside analysis” of the writing process of her novel most interesting; I think a lot of people were not too entertained by this aspect of the story. I must say that I’m not fond of the sort of “light fiction” she was working on, or the very annoying editor character introduced towards the end, but what she writes about character development was very interesting. Shields makes Reta a very thoughtful and observant person. People may say this detracts from the story-telling, but I think Shields wrote this book exactly this way for a reason; she’s a writer writing about a writer and how she writes. It does seem to me, however, that someone as eloquent in her letters and her diary/journal entries would be much better served publishing such musings rather than some contrived silly work of “light” fiction. Apologies for this being a major spoiler, but I understand exactly why Reta’s daughter, Norah, falls out in the way that she does. There’s actually quite a traumatic event, as you may infer is the case from something noted earlier in the book, involved in Norah’s sudden abandonment of her “normal life.” This concept of “goodness” I must say, that Norah becomes a silent spokesman for on a Toronto street corner, is never really dealt with in the pages of the book as I sort of hoped it would be. It is actually an act of “goodness” that has Norah end up in this apparently catatonic state, an act of goodness that does not go unpunished; she is scarred in more ways than one. I honestly can’t blame her. But all the while everyone is trying to psychologically deconstruct her; “what the hell went wrong?” people ask. I am relieved that in the end there was a perfectly understandable reason behind it. But it seems what Shields was trying to do here was make people ask themselves, what is “goodness” really? This was a book designed to make you think. Unfortunately, for as much as I liked this book, I felt it lacked something. But for me, that something it was missing was made up for by my own experience. But again, maybe that was the point. This book is written from quite a feminist perspective, yes, and those “underpinnings” are not at all subtle; so it would be improper to refer to these obvious messages as underpinnings, then. It's true that women are extremely under-represented in many areas of society. As I'll say again, it seems to be still an extremely polarizing issue in Canada. Also, the marginalization of women in literature also becomes a major theme in the book. This is something that I think greatly distracts from the main plot with Norah. That is one major criticism I have with the book – even though it is one thing Norah does make clear she was rather displeased with a certain college literature professor about. But this story is about a lot more than that. What touched me so much about this book is that it is about a mother doing everything possible to continue living a “normal” life while her daughter has totally abandoned any sort of “normality.” One of these coping mechanisms is writing the “light” fiction novel I mentioned before. But that is only one such mechanism: reading, “club” meetings, daily routines, etc. This novel is about a “real” person coping with harsh “reality” by immersing herself in something “light.” So while people may think this is a weakness of the book, I feel it is a strength. I really “got to know” Reta. I want to have tea with her. I want to help Norah in trying to get her life back together. Not being one for reading novels, honestly, I found this book to be a fantastic read. I read it in an evening, actually, and I couldn’t put it down. It made me reflect on the concept of “goodness” and how Reta’s daughter’s sudden falling out of “normal” life, trying to understand things that you just can’t explain, and having that overwhelm you to the point where “normality” seems irrelevant – that aspect of the story to me was very moving. Whether this is Carol Shields’ greatest work I cannot say, for it’s the only work of hers, so far, I’ve read. But I will say that it is a tremendous bookend to a marvelous literary career. by Joshua Packard, Fullness of Happy I cannot recommend enough the reading of the Old English heroic epic tale of “Beowulf”. When I was very young, my Uncle Nathaniel told a paraphrased version to myself and my brother of this epic poem. Sometimes, I think he gave me the best version, even though later in high school, and again a few weeks ago, I read the superb Seamus Heaney verse translation. “Beowulf” is possibly the oldest surviving English story that we have today. It fills the need we have as human beings to long for virtuous and strong heroes who put their own safety and survival on the line to save and protect the innocent and vulnerable. The epic poem is really in three parts, where the hero Beowulf fights against three monsters who prey on the people in the party hall called the Hall of Hearts. Beowulf fights grotesque monsters and is rewarded greatly. I cannot do very much justice to the quality of the writing, but I recommend everyone at least read this once, if not for enjoyment than at least for historical literacy, as this is a very crucial piece of literature and has a very heroic and exciting tale to tell. Seamus Heaney's translation can be purchased at Amazon here. |
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