THE DARING LADIES OF LOWELL by Kate Alcott

In the nineteenth century, New England farm girls sought independence by laboring in

cotton mills.  This atmospheric story is built around a real-life murder and the sensational trial that followed.

BURIAL RITES by Hannah Kent

 

Iceland, 1878:  a woman convicted of murder is sent to live with a farm family while awaiting execution.  A pageturner, and it's a true story.

FROG MUSIC by Emma Donoghue

 

In 1876 San Francisco, the unlikely friendship of a burlesque dancer and a cross-dressing frog catcher anchors

this earthy, colorful, wildly entertaining historical fiction.

RUSTICATION by Charles Palliser

England, 1863:  young Richard has been sent down - expelled - "rusticated" - from Cambridge.  But why?  He returns to the dank, moldy home shared by his less than welcoming mother and sister.  As a narrator, he is wildly unreliable.  As a novel, this is pure delight.

THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS by Claire Messud

 

Nora, her dreams all broken, lives an unobtrusive life until an irresistible family befriends and betrays her.  A story of rage told with wit and insight.

TRANSATLANTIC by Colum McCann

 

 

Three historic crossings between Ireland and the United States, at different times, are connected by generations of fictional women whose lives were changed as a result.

BIO WARD: Ward, Jesmyn: MEN WE REAPED

 

The award-winning author of SALVAGE THE BONES describes the violent deaths of five young men in this searing

memoir about race and rural American poverty.