The Stories of HistoryLike this list

19 items

• The Things They Carried

  a Work of Fiction

  O'Brien, Tim, 1946-

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  Set during the Vietnam War, readers are introduced to the men of Alpha Company as they battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other.

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

  a Novel

  Chabon, Michael

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  Set in New York during 1939 just before World War II, Cousins Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clays collaborate to form one of America's hottest new trends: comic books. Joe is looking for a get-rich-quick scheme so that he can bring his family to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Our Lady of the Nile

  Mukasonga, Scholastique

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  Parents send their daughters to Our Lady of the Nile to be molded into respectable citizens and to escape the dangers of the outside world. Fifteen years prior to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, these girls try on their parents’ preconceptions…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• When the Emperor Was Divine

  a Novel

  Otsuka, Julie, 1962-

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  In five chapters, each offering a different point of view, this novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps using a single family to evoke the deracination of a generation of Japanese Americans.

• The Alienist

  Carr, Caleb

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  Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. Set during the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Giovanni's Room

  Baldwin, James, 1924-1987,

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  In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.

• Wolf Hall

  a Novel

  Mantel, Hilary, 1952-2022

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  In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power.

• The Invention of Wings

  Kidd, Sue Monk

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  Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in Charleston, yearns for life beyond the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Black Rain

  Ibuse, Masuji, 1898-1993

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  Tells the story of the effects of the Hiroshima bombing on one Japanese family.

• The Paris Wife

  a Novel

  McLain, Paula

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  Imagines the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley focusing on their time in Europe, where they become swept up in the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris.

• Comfort Woman

  Keller, Nora Okja

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  The story of Akiko, a Korean refugee of World War II, and Beccah, her daughter by an American missionary. The two women are living on the edge of society in Honolulu, plagued by Akiko's periodic encounters with the spirits of the dead, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• In the Time of the Butterflies

  Alvarez, Julia,

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  Set in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s during the reign of dictator Rafael Trujillo, the voices of four sisters—Las Mariposas—speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Weight of All Things

  Benítez, Sandra, 1941-

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  The battleground is El Salvador. The hero is Nicolas Veras. His story begins at the funeral of assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero. Nicolas and his mother have come to pay homage. When gunfire erupts, his mother throws herself atop…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cannery Row

  Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968,

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  Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Dora, Mack and his boys, Lee Chong, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive. …Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Regeneration

  Barker, Pat

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  In 1917, Siegfried Sassoon, noted poet and decorated war hero, publicly refused to continue serving as a British officer in World War I. His reason: the war was a senseless slaughter. He was officially classified "mentally unsound" and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Warlight

  a Novel

  Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-

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  Decades after World War II, Nathaniel Williams reflects on his experiences in 1945, when his parents left him and his sister in the care of a mysterious neighbor.

• In the Shadow of the Banyan

  Ratner, Vaddey

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  Told from the tender perspective of a young girl who comes of age amid the Cambodian killing fields, this novel is based on the author's personal story.

• Orphan Train

  A Novel

  Baker Kline, Christina

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  Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to 'aging out' out of the foster care system and is sent to work for an elderly woman to clean out her home. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Philida

  Brink, Andre

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  Set in 1832, South Africa, the year before slavery is abolished and the slaves are emancipated, this is the unforgettable story of a female slave, a fiercely independent woman and her fierce determination to survive and to be free. …Read moreRead more of this annotation