The Roaring ’20s is a rich period to draw inspiration from for truly amazing literature. We’ve put together this long list of some of the best books set in the 1920s, so get ready to add too many books to your reading list!
You’ll find a couple of nonfiction reads, plenty of flappers, and some interwar drama. Do you know a book we missed? comment below.
You are reading: Books set in the 1920s
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over 30 outstanding books set in the 1920s
paula mclain’s parisian wife
chicago, 1920: hadley richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old girl who has almost given up on love and happiness, until she meets ernest hemingway and her life changes forever. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the couple set sail for Paris, where they became the golden couple in a lively and volatile group, the legendary “Lost Generation,” which includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. scott and zelda fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are unprepared for the fast-paced, binge-drinking life of the Parisian Jazz Age, which barely values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also. laugh. Hadley, meanwhile, struggles to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest become costly and her roles as wife, friend and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis in their marriage, a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A harrowing portrait of love and torn loyalty, The Wife of Paris is all the more poignant because we know that, at the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fall in love with someone other than Hadley.
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kate moore’s radio girls
non-fiction: The Curies’ newly discovered radium element is making glowing headlines across the country as the new face of beauty and the medical community’s wonder drug. From body lotion to tonic water, the hot new item shines brightly in the dark years of World War I.
Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil in the glowing dust of radium sphere factories. the shimmering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they illuminate the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “bright girls” are the luckiest in the world, until they start getting mysteriously sick.
But factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of horrific side effects and cries of corruption from women. And as the fatal poison of radium gathers steam, the plucky Bright Girls find themselves embroiled in one of America’s biggest scandals of early 20th century America, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will resonate for centuries to come. .
Written with a sparkling voice and a breakneck pace, Radium Girls shines a light on inspiring young women exposed to the “wonderful” substance of radium and its awesome strength in the face of near-impossible circumstances. his courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, nuclear bombing investigations, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives…
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flower moon killers by david grann
nonfiction: In the 1920s, the world’s wealthiest people per capita were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered under their land, the Osage traveled in chauffeur-driven cars, built mansions, and sent their children to Europe to study.
then, one by one, they began to be killed. An Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, saw her family murdered. her older sister was shot. then her mother was slowly poisoned. And it was only the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.
In this last remnant of the wild west, where tankers like j. p. Getty made his fortune and where outlaws like Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed, virtually everyone who dared to investigate the murders was killed. As the death toll topped more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. but the office was then notoriously corrupt and initially botched the case. eventually the young director, j. Edgar Hoover turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the office. they infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern detection techniques. along with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.
A real-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
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the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald
the great gatsby, f. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book stands as the crowning achievement of his career. this exemplary novel of the jazz age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story is of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his newfound love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when the New York Times noted that “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession.” is an exquisitely crafted tale of america in the 1920s.
The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of 20th century literature.
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call your daughter at home for deb rough
It’s 1924 in Branchville, South Carolina and three women have come to a crossroads. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an inordinate decision to save her daughters. Retta, a first-generation freed slave, comes to Gertrude’s aid by caring for her children, despite the gossip she provokes in her community. Annie, the matriarch of the influential Coles family, offers Gertrude a job in her sewing circle, while she deals with her own problems at home.
These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet when they come together to stand up to the injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that binds the women together. Told with the perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta, and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is a timeless and emotional story about the power of family, community, and the ferocity of motherhood.
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the other typist by suzanne rindell
confessions are the work of a rose baker. A typist for the New York City Police Department, she judges like a high priestess. criminals come before her to admit her transgressions and, with a few bangs of keys before her, she seals her fate. but while she may hear of shootings, stabbings, and crimes of passion, as soon as she leaves the room, she’s back to being a dignified and proper lady. until she odalie she joins the typing group.
As Rose quickly falls under the spell of the elegant and flirtatious Odalie, she finds herself drawn into a sparkling underworld of speakeasies and jazz. and what begins as a simple fascination turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.
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the light between oceans by m.l. stedman
australia, 1926. after four harrowing years fighting on the western front, tom sherbourne returns home to work as a lighthouse keeper at janus rock, nearly a half day’s drive from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply ship arrives once a season and shore permits are issued every two years at best, Tom brings a bold and loving young wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and a stillbirth, the distraught Isabel hears a baby crying in the wind. A ship has washed ashore with a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a terrible war, wants to report the man and boy immediately. but isabel has carried the little baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and call her Lucy. When she is two years old, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. his choice has devastated one of them.
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toni morrison jazz
In the winter of 1926, when everyone everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, a middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At her funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse. This passionate and profound story of love and obsession takes us back and forth in time as it weaves a narrative out of the deep emotions, hopes, fears and realities of black urban life.
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dreamland on fire by jennifer latham
When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead her into a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present and herself.
One hundred years earlier, a single violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old will tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country plagued by anti-black violence and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Ella Will must make tough decisions on a painful journey of self-discovery and confront her inner demons to make it right the night Ella Tulsa burns.
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the aviator’s wife by melanie benjamin
When Anne Morrow, a shy college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family, she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh from his famous 1927 solo flight. across the Atlantic. Captivated by Charles’s confidence and fame, Anne is sure the aviator has barely noticed her. but she is wrong. Charles sees in Anne a soulmate, a companion in adventures, and her world will change forever. the two marry in a headline-grabbing wedding. In the years that follow, Anne becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States. but despite this and other significant achievements, she is seen simply as the aviator’s wife. the fairytale life she once longed for will bring heartache and hardship, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s endless possibilities for change and happiness.
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sarah waters paying guests
See Also: Joshua Dalzelle – Book Series In Order
It’s 1922 and London is tense. ex-military are disillusioned; the unemployed and the hungry demand change. And in South London, in an elegant Camberwell mansion, a large, quiet house now devoid of siblings, husband, and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as the impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are required to entertain.
With the arrival of lilian and leonard barber, a hip young couple from the “class of employees”, the routines of the house will be shaken in unexpected ways. Little do the Wray know how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life, or, as passions and frustration run high, how widespread and devastating the riots will be.
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libba bray’s diviners
something dark and evil has awakened… evie o’neill has been exiled from her dull hometown and sent to the bustling streets of new york city, and she’s post-i-tu-mentally ecstatic. It’s 1926 and New York is full of speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls and libertine pickpockets. the only drawback is that she has to live with her will’s uncle and her unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries that her uncle will discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has gotten her only trouble so far. But when police find a murdered girl marked with a cryptic symbol and call Will to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headfirst into a dance with a killer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. a young man named memphis is caught between two worlds. a showgirl named theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. and unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened…
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z: a zelda fitzgerald novel by therese anne fowler
When the beautiful and reckless southern belle zelda sayre meets f. scott fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen and he is a young lieutenant in the army stationed in alabama. Before long, the “unattainable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his inadequacy: Scott isn’t rich or prominent or even a Southerner, and he continues to absurdly insist that his writing will bring him fortune and fame.
Her father is not deeply impressed. But after Scott sells her first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Ella Zelda optimistically boards a train north to marry him in the vestry of St. patrick’s cathedral and she takes the rest as it comes.
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doll face by renee rosen
Vera Abramowitz is determined to put her harsh childhood behind her and live a more exciting life, one her mother never dreamed of. Moving her hair and showing her knees, the lipstick-painted beauty dazzles, doing the Charleston in nightclubs and earning the nickname “doll face.”
As the ultimate young girl, Vera catches the attention of two high rollers, a handsome nightclub owner and a sexy gamer. in her arms, she gains entrance to a world filled with bootleg bourbon, jazz wailing, and money to burn. she thinks her biggest problem is choosing between them until the truth is found out. Hers Two lovers of hers are actually mobsters from rival gangs during the infamous Chicago Beer Wars, a battle Al Capone refuses to lose.
The heady life he leads is an illusion resting on a foundation of crime and violence unlike anything the country has seen before. When the good times come to an end, Vera becomes entangled in everything from smuggling to murder. And as men from both gangs fall around him, Vera must piece together his shattered life as Chicago hurtles toward one of the most infamous days in his history, St. valentine’s day massacre.
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a tree grows in brooklyn by betty smith
The beloved American classic about a girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving story full of compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartbreak, bursting with life and people and incidents. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg have enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the unforgettable Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honesty and tenderly intertwined with family connection, in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place, as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
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in a field of blue by gemma liviero
England 1922. Four years have passed since Rudy’s brother, Edgar, disappeared in war-torn France. still grieving and dealing with unanswered questions, rudy and his mother struggle to move on. When the enigmatic Mariette unexpectedly arrives at the family mansion claiming to be Edgar’s widow and the mother of her child, Rudy urges her to stay, hoping she will shed light on the missing pieces. >
Captivated by Mariette, Rudy discovers that mutual loss and grief bind them together…as does the possibility of new love. but mariette’s revelations bring more questions than answers about edgar’s death. Suspicions threaten to tear Rudy’s already fractured family apart, leading him on a search for the truth that takes him from England to France and beyond.
In his search, Rudy is forced to confront the tragedies of war and the realities of the brother he lost and the woman he found. Will the truth set him free to find peace, or will it forever cast a shadow over his future?
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a gentleman in moscow for love towles
With his debut novel, The Rules of Civility, Amor Towles established himself as a master of sophisticated and absorbing fiction, bringing late 1930s Manhattan to life with lavish atmosphere and impeccable mastery of style. readers and critics were delighted; as npr commented, “towles writes with grace and enthusiasm about the mores and mores of a society on the cusp of radical change.”
a gentleman in moscow plunges us into another elegantly drawn era with the story of count alexander rostov. When, in 1922, a Bolshevik court deems him an unrepentant aristocrat, the Count is sentenced to house arrest at the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of scholarship and wit, has never worked a day in his life and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide a doorway to a much larger world of emotional discovery.
Overflowing with humor, a brilliant cast of characters, and one beautifully acted scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it recounts the Earl’s quest to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.
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the house in riverton by kate morton
grace bradley was just a girl when she started working as a maid at riverton house. For years, her life was inextricably linked with the glamorous and eccentric daughters of the Hartford family, Hannah and Emmeline. At a glittering society party in the summer of 1924, a young poet shot himself. the only witnesses were hannah and emmeline. only they, and grace, know the dark truth.
many years later, while grace is living in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a movie about the events of that summer. The Headmistress brings grace to Riverton House, reawakening memories of the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege, the roaring twenties, and a dazzling secret grace kept her entire life.
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a certain age of beatriz williams
The bestselling author of One Hundred Summers brings the Roaring Twenties to life in this delightful, highly read story of intrigue, romance, and scandal in New York society, replete with an exuberant atmosphere, striking characters, and irresistible charm.
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As jazz-age freedom transforms new york city, the iridescent mrs. Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue and Southampton, Long Island, has done the unthinkable: she has fallen in love with her young lover, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. An intense and deeply honorable man, Octaviano is engaged to the beautiful socialite of a certain age and wants to marry her. while times are changing and she adores the child, divorce for a woman of theresa’s wealth and social position is out of the question, and there is no need; She has an understanding with Sylvo, hers generous and respected philandering husband.
But their relationship subtly changes when his single brother, Ox, decides to marry the sweet youngest daughter of a newly wealthy inventor. Committing to a long-standing family tradition, Theresa enlists the boy to act as his brother’s knight, presenting the family’s diamond rose ring to soon-to-be Miss Sophie Fortescue of Ox, and to do a background check on the little-known fortescue family. When Octavian meets Sophie, she falls under the beautiful ingenue’s spell, even as she discovers a shocking family secret about her. As Theresa, Octavian, and Sophie’s love triangle unfolds, it transforms into a saga of divided loyalties, dangerous revelations, and surprising twists that lead to a shocking transgression…and ultimately force Theresa to make a bittersweet decision. p>
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mitchell james kaplan rhapsody
One night in 1924, Katharine “Kay” Swift, the restless but loyal society wife of wealthy banker James Warburg and an earnest pianist who yearns for recognition, attends a concert. the piece: rhapsody in blue. The Composer: A brilliant and elusive young musical genius named George Gershwin.
Kay is transfixed, unable to resist the magnetic pull of George’s talent, charm and arrogance. Their ten-year love story, complicated by her conflicted loyalty to her husband and the twists and turns of her own music career, ends only with George’s death from a brain tumor at the age of thirty-eight. .
Set in Jazz Age New York, this stunning work of fiction, for fans of the Parisian wife and beloved Frank, explores the timeless bond between two brilliant and strong-willed artists. George Gershwin left behind not only a body of work unmatched in the history of popular music, but a woman who loved him with all her heart, knowing all the while that he did not belong to her, but to the world. /p>
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the mystery of mrs. christie by marie benedict
in december 1926, agatha christie disappears. investigators find his empty car at the edge of a deep, dingy pond, the only clues being some nearby tire tracks and a fur coat left in the car, odd for a frigid night. Her husband and her daughter are unaware of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming author of mysteries. eleven days later, she reappears, as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming amnesia and no explanation for her absence.
The puzzle of those eleven lost days has persisted. With her trademark exploration of the shadows of history, acclaimed author Marie Benedict takes us into the world of Agatha Christie, imagining why such a brilliant woman would find herself at the center of such a murky story.
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laura moriarty’s chaperone
The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who accompanied an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.
Just a few years before becoming a famous silent movie star and an icon of her generation, fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas to study at New York’s prestigious Denishawn School of Dance. much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither her mother nor her friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what lies ahead. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with straight bangs, is known for her arrogance and lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.
For Cora, the city holds the promise of a discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to care for Louise in this strange and bustling place, she embarks on a quest. own. . And though what she finds isn’t what she expected, she breaks free in a way she couldn’t have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the 20th century and a new understanding of the possibilities of being fully alive.
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carter defeats the devil by glen david gold
charles carter, also known as carter the great—is a young master performer whose skill as an illusionist surpasses even that of the great houdini. But nothing in his career has prepared Carter for the biggest stunt of all, starring none other than President Warren G. Harding and that it could end up costing Carter the reputation he has worked so hard to create. Filled with historical references that evoke the excesses and exuberance of the Roaring Twenties, before the American Depression, Carter Defeats the Devil is a complex and illuminating story of one man’s journey through a magical and sometimes dangerous world where illusion is everything.
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bridal head revised by evelyn waugh
the magnificent 75th anniversary edition of brideshead revisited, the novel selected by modern library as one of the 100 best of the century.
The sources of desire and impediments to love are brought into brilliant focus in Evelyn Waugh’s masterpiece, a novel that plunges us into the glittering and seductive world of English aristocracy in the last days of empire.
through the story of charles ryder’s entanglement with the flytes, a large catholic family, evelyn waugh traces the passage of the privileged world she knew in her own youth and vividly recalls the sensual pleasures denied her by the austerities of war . At once romantic, sensual, comic and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh’s earlier satirical explorations and reveals him as an elegiac and lyrical novelist of great feeling and lucidity.
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the hours of michael cunningham
See Also: Stephen Kings 10 Most Underrated Novels From a Guy Who&039s Read Them All | LitReactor
In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most talented writers of his generation, artfully draws on the life and works of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters wrestling with the conflicting demands of the love. and heritage, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf’s last days before his suicide early in World War II contrasts with the fictional stories of Samuel, a famous poet whose life has been overshadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend. Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding relationship. life despite the demands of friends, lovers and family.
Passionate, insightful and deeply moving, this is Cunningham’s most remarkable achievement to date.
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louise erdrich’s master butchers singing club
Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a prized set of master butcher knives, Fidelis leaves for America. In Argus, North Dakota, she builds a business, a home for her family, which includes Ella Eva and four children, and a singing club made up of the best voices in town. When the old world meets the new—in the person of Delphine Watzka—the great adventure of Fidelis’s life begins. delphine meets eva and is delighted. she meets fidelis, and the earth trembles. These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine’s life and the trajectory of this brilliant novel.
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the sun also rises by ernest hemingway
The quintessential lost generation novel, The Sun Also Rises (Party) is one of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpieces and a classic example of his understated yet powerful style of writing. A poignant look at the disillusionment and heartbreak of the post-World War I generation, the novel features two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake on their journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullrings of Spain with a motley crew of expats. it is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unfulfilled love, and fading illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
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radio girls by sarah-jane stratford
London, 1926. American-raised Maisie Musgrave is excited to land a job as a secretary at the British Broadcasting Corporation, whose use of radio (still new, strange and electrifying) is captivating the nation. But the hectic pace, smart young staff, and intimidating bosses only add to Maisie’s insecurity.
Soon, he is seduced by the work and gains confidence as he hosts broadcasts of Britain’s most famous writers, scientists and politicians. She is also caught up in a growing conflict between her two bosses, John Reith, the BBC’s formidable CEO, and Hilda Matheson, the extraordinary director of the hugely popular talk show, each of whom have very different visions of what It should be the radio. be. Under Hilda’s tutelage, Maisie discovers her talent, passion and ambition. But when she uncovers a shocking conspiracy, she and Hilda join forces with her to make her voices heard both on and off the air…and then face the dangerous consequences of telling the truth for a living. /p>
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the girl from the savoy by hazel gaynor
dolly lane is a dreamer; An downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the great war. memories of the soldier she loved of her, of her secret shame and her profound loss, in turn pull her back and drive her to a better life.
When she finds a job as a chambermaid at London’s largest hotel, the Savoy, Dolly steps closer to the brilliant lives of bright young people who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. right now, she must exist apart from power, wealth and glamour; she must remain invisible and unimportant.
But her fortune takes an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling composer’s ad for a “muse” and finds herself thrust into the exciting London theater scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they’re also looking for something.
Now, faced with the precipice of the life she has and the one she yearns for, the girl from Savoy must make difficult decisions: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close for her, but can a girl like Dolly really put her past behind her?
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a fine imitation of amber brock
vera bellington has beauty, pedigree and a penthouse in the angelus, park avenue’s most coveted address. But behind the sparkling social maelstrom, Vera lives a life of quiet desperation. Her days are an uninterrupted cycle of empty, champagne-soaked socializing, while her nights are silent and chilly, spent waiting alone in her cavernous apartment for a husband who rarely comes home. p>
So Emil Hallen arrives at the Angelus to paint a mural over his shimmering underground pool. The handsome French artist moves into the building, hiding his work in secret and piquing Vera’s curiosity, especially when the painter continues to dodge questions about his past. Is he the man he claims to be? Even as she finds herself increasingly drawn to Hallen’s warmth and passion, she’ll see she can’t suppress her suspicion. After all, she has plenty of secrets, too, and some of them involve art forgers like her bold and artistically talented former friend, Bea, who years ago, in Vassar, brought Vera to the brink of catastrophe and social exile.
When the dangerous mysteries of Emil’s past are revealed, Vera is faced with an impossible choice: cling to her family’s world of privilege and propriety or risk her future with the enigmatic man who has captured her heart. a fine imitation explores what happens when we realize that the life we’ve always led is not the life we want to have.
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mrs. dalloway by virginia woolf
In this vivid portrait of a single day in the life of one woman, mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of preparing for a party while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she prepares her home for friends and neighbors, she is flooded with memories of her past: the passionate loves of her carefree youth, her practical choice of husband, and her approach and retreat from war. . And, confronted with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, looking hesitantly toward the unknown job of growing old.
From the introspective Clarissa, to the lover who never fully recovered from her rejection, to a stranger in the war-torn park, the characters and scope of Ms. Dalloway reshaped our sense of ordinary life by making it one of the “most moving and revolutionary works of art of the 20th century” (Michael Cunningham).
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Lauren Willig’s other daughter
Rachel Woodley, raised in a poor but elegant home, is working in France as a governess when she receives the news that her mother has died suddenly. Heartbroken, she returns to the small town in England where she grew up to clean out the cottage…and she finds a clipping from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated three months ago. before. he is an earl, respected and influential, and he is with another daughter, her legitimate daughter. which makes rachel… not legit. everything she thought she knew about herself and her past, even her own name, is a lie.
Still shocked by her mother’s death and furious at this betrayal, Rachel settles in London under a new identity. she there she insinuates herself into the crowd of bright young people at the party, with a steely determination to expose her father’s treachery and bring his and her half-sister’s enchanted world crashing down. Soon enough, however, Rachel is faced with two unexpected setbacks: She finds out that she really likes her half-sister, Olivia, whose situation is not as simple as she seems; and she could be falling in love with her sister’s fiancé…
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wild women and the blues by denny s. bryce
“Why would I tell you about my life? I don’t know you, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell my story to any guy with long hair, who probably smokes weed. do you want to know about me. you have to tell me something about yourself. to make this worthwhile.”
1925: Chicago is the jazz capital of the world and the Dreamland Café is the city’s fanciest black and tan club. Honoree Dalcour is the daughter of a sharecropper, willing to work hard and dance every night on her way to the top. Dreamland offers a path to the good life, socializing with celebrities like Louis Armstrong and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. But Chicago is also awash in bootleg whiskey, gambling, and gangsters. And a young woman driven by ambition might risk more than she can bear to lose.
2015: Film student Sawyer Hayes arrives at the bedside of 110-year-old Honoree Dalcour, still reeling from a devastating loss that has brought him to the brink. Sawyer has pinned all of his hopes on this fragile but formidable woman, the only living link to the legendary Oscar Micheaux. if he’s right, if she can fill in the blanks in her research, maybe he can complete his thesis and start a new chapter in his life. but the links the honoree makes are not what he expects…
Piece by piece, the honoree reveals her past and her secrets, while Sawyer fights tooth and nail to keep his. is a story of courage and ambition, hot jazz and illicit passions. And as past meets present, for the honoree, it’s one last chance to truly be heard and seen before it’s too late. no matter the cost…
bookstore.org | amazon | good reads
the emcee’s wife by kristy cambron
What is revealed when you pull back the curtain on the greatest show on earth?
rosamund easling is no stranger to opulence. As the daughter of an earl, she has grown up with all the comforts that money can buy. But when hard times befall the family’s Yorkshire estate after the Great War, Rosamund’s father sells her beloved horse, setting the stage for a series of events that would go beyond even her wildest dreams. .
Although she is expected to marry for a title rather than for love, Rosamund feels called to a different life: a life of adventure outside the confines of a hall of ladies. She abandons everything she knows and chases after her while her horse is shipped to the new owner, an American artist named John Ringling. Once introduced to the Ringling Brothers Circus and knowing that she has much to learn, Rosamund accepts a bareback riding apprenticeship in the shadow of the Ringlings’ winter home: Ca’d’Zan. It is in that mansion, in what would be the last days of the enigmatic mable ringling’s life, that Rosamund finds a deeper sense of purpose in the life she has been given, and the awakening of faith in her heart.
With a supporting cast of characters as mysterious and dazzling as the big top world of Ringlings, Rosamund’s journey takes her from the lore of the English countryside to the last days of America’s roaring 20s. a journey that forever changes what one’s life could have been.
bookstore.org | amazon | good reads
genevieve valentine’s kingfisher club girls
a reimagining of the fairy tale of the twelve dancing princesses as flappers during the roaring twenties in manhattan.
jo, the firstborn, “the general” of her eleven sisters, is the only thing the hamilton girls have instead of a mother. she is the one who taught them to dance, who gives the signal every night, as they leave the confines of her father’s house to wait for the taxis that will take them to the speakeasy. Together they elude their distant and controlling father, until the day he decides to marry them all off.
The girls, meanwhile, keep on dancing, from Salon Renaud to Swan and finally Kingfisher, the club they come to call home. They dance until one night they’re caught in a raid, separated, and Jo Ella comes face to face with someone from her past: a smuggler named Tom whom she hasn’t seen in almost ten years. Suddenly, Jo must weigh in the balance not only the demands of her father and her eleven sisters, but the ones she must make herself.
bookstore.org | amazon | good reads
do you want more book lists?
here are a couple we think you might like:
40+ new 2021 historical fiction books to add to your tbr list right now
20 non-war books set in France
what we are reading this summer
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See Also: Amanda Quick – Book Series In Order