Posts tagged with fiction in Blog Lost in the Stacks

Showing 31 - 40 of 147 items
Cover of The Glass-Blowers by Daphne Du Maurier
  • Vicki J Kondelik
This is the story of a family of glass-blowers, particularly five siblings, during the French Revolution, by Daphne Du Maurier, author of Rebecca. It is based on her own family. The novel focuses on family relationships, not major historical events, even though many of the events of the French Revolution are discussed as various members of the family learn about them. The five siblings are divided by political beliefs, as each responds to the revolution in different ways.
Cover of The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse
  • Vicki J Kondelik
The Burning Chambers is an epic historical novel set in 16th century France during the wars between the Catholics and the Huguenots. The daughter of a Catholic bookseller falls in love with a Huguenot soldier who wants peace between the two sides. But too many people wish to continue the fighting, and the lives of the hero and heroine are endangered. There is also a mystery about the heroine's origins, and a murderous noblewoman wants to have her killed. Author Kate Mosse has a great love for the area of southern France where the novel takes place, and it shows through in her writing.
Cover of Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • Vicki J Kondelik
This young adult novel, set during a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793, seems especially timely today. Young Mattie Cook struggles to survive in the fever-stricken city after her mother gets sick. With the help of Eliza, a freed slave, Mattie learns to nurse the sick and help the children orphaned by the fever, and becomes a stronger person. The novel is filled with details of life during the epidemic, some of them quite similar to today's pandemic.
Cover of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  • Vicki J Kondelik
The Shadow of the Wind is a complex, multi-layered novel set in Barcelona in the 1940s and 1950s. A young boy, Daniel, the son of a bookseller, visits the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, an enormous labyrinthine building filled with books. His father tells him to choose one book and adopt it. Daniel becomes so fascinated by the book that he decides to read everything by the author, Julián Carax, only to find out that someone is systematically destroying every copy of Carax's books. Daniel decides to learn as much about the author as possible, and the story of Julián Carax's life becomes a second narrative, with parallels to Daniel's own life. This is a book for all book-lovers!
Cover of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  • Vicki J Kondelik
If your only experience with A Tale of Two Cities was of being forced to read it in high school, it's definitely worth re-reading. It's a wonderful novel set during the French Revolution (unusual for Dickens), with unforgettable characters such as the good-natured rogue Sydney Carton and the bloodthirsty, villainous Madame Defarge.
Cover of A Rose for Virtue by Norah Lofts
  • Vicki J Kondelik
This historical novel tells the story of Napoleon's stepdaughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, her disastrous marriage to Napoleon's brother Louis, and her love for another man. It provides an unusual perspective on the major events of Napoleon's reign.
Cover of The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
  • Vicki J Kondelik
The Long Call is an outstanding mystery by Ann Cleeves, best known for the Shetland and Vera series. This is the beginning of a new series, featuring Matthew Venn, a gay police officer in the seaside resort area of North Devon, England. Matthew lives with his husband, Jonathan, who runs the community center. He has left the strict evangelical Christian community in which he grew up. As he is standing outside the church during his father's funeral, Matthew receives a call about a dead body on the beach. It turns out the dead man was a cook at the community center, and Jonathan may be a suspect.
Cover of Murder on the Champ de Mars by Cara Black
  • Vicki J Kondelik
Murder on the Champ de Mars is part of a long-running mystery series set in Paris. A young Romany man approaches detective Aimée Leduc and says he has information about the murder of her father. As fans of the series know, Aimée has been searching for her father's murderer since the first book in the series. When Aimée goes to meet the young man, he is murdered in front of her eyes, but she never gets a good look at the killer. This book also tells of the tragic history of the Romany people in France.
Cover of The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
  • Vicki J Kondelik
The Whiskey Rebels is a historical thriller set in the years following the American Revolution, told by two main characters in alternating chapters. Ethan Saunders was a spy during the Revolutionary War, but his career was ruined after he was falsely accused of treason. Seeking to redeem his reputation, he attempts to foil a plot against Alexander Hamilton's Bank of the United States. Joan Maycott is the widow of a man who discovered a new method of distilling whiskey, only to have her life ruined by Hamilton's whiskey task. Now she is determined to get her revenge on Hamilton by bringing down his bank.
Cover of I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira
  • Vicki J Kondelik
I Always Loved You is a beautifully-written historical novel about the American Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt and her complex relationship with Edgar Degas in Paris in the late 19th century. She suffers from self-doubt and receives devastating reviews from the critics before her art finally gains recognition.