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Need a good book? Browse through our extensive reading lists created by your APL librarians.
Historical Fiction
Ancient to 14th Century
Aztec Gary Jennings
Story is about a forgotten chapter in history—the magnificent Aztec empire after it has fallen beneath the brutality of the invading Spaniards.
Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar
Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, this novel reimagines Emperor Hadrian's boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world.
I, Claudius Robert Graves
Historical novel of ancient Rome during the intrigue-filled reign of the Emperor Tiberius Claudius.
Gates of Fire Steven Pressfield
Mesmerizing depiction of one man's indoctrination into the Spartan way of life and death, and of the most heroic confrontation of the Hellenic Age - the battle of Thermopylae.
Ines of my Soul Isabel Allende
Complex, riveting novel set during the conquistador era about the woman who became the coforger of the nation of Chile.
Khalifah John Elray
Fast-paced story about a forced Muslim convert who becomes the supreme ruler of an empire that stretches from Egypt to Persia in this drama about the Muslims' rise to power in the seventh century.
Pompeii Robert Harris
An absorbing novel, fully-researched, about the days before the eruption of Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Quarantine Jim Crace
A strange and austere, although beautifully written, retelling of Jesus' forty days of fasting in the desert.
River God Wilbur Smith
A warrior has been chosen by the gods to lead Ancient Egypt's army in a bold attempt to reunite the Kingdom's shattered halves.
The Red Tent Anita Diamant
Dinah, the daughter of Jacob from the Old Testament, tells what it was like to be woman during Biblical times.
The Religion Tim Wilcocks
Action-filled romp that blends violence, adventure, and great storytelling in an historically rich novel set against the backdrop of the 1565 siege of Malta.
15th Century - 17th Century
The Agony and the Ecstasy Irving Stone
Classic biographical novel about Michelangelo in which both the artist and the man are brought to life in full.
As Meat Loves Salt Maria McCann
Set against the background
of the English Civil War, this novel tells the love story of Jacob Cullen, a
deeply flawed man, and his love for Feriss, an idealist.
Birth of Venus Sarah Dunant
The daughter of a wealthy merchant during 16th-century Florence seeks the freedom of marriage in order to paint, but finds that she may have bought her liberty at the cost of love and true fulfillment.
The Confusion Neal Stephenson
Second book of The Baroque Cycle, a stunning 3,000-page trilogy about 17th century scientists, vagabonds, and pirates.
Girl with a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier
Inspired by the Vermeer painting of the same title, this novel takes the reader inside the world of 17th century Holland.
The Instance of the Fingerpost Iain Pears
A massive historical mystery about the murder of an Oxford don in 1660s England, which was a time of intense political and intellectual turmoil, and experimentation.
Shogun James Clavell
An exciting novel about an English sea pilot and his crew who are cast ashore in seventeenth-century Japan.
18th - 19th Century
Abundance Sena Jeter Naslund
Fictionalized account of the ill-fated French queen, Marie Antoinette.
Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
As a Confederate soldier walks back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the woman he loved there years before, he experiences encounters with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and dangerous.
Cloudsplitter Russell Banks
A deeply researched and brilliantly written story about the enigmatic Owen Brown, last surviving son of America's most famous and still controversial political terrorist and martyr, John Brown.
The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron
Pulitzer-prize winning novel about the 1831 slave rebellion is a powerful story despite Styron's artistic license with certain aspects of the bloody rebellion.
Conspiracy of Paper David Liss
Benjamin Weaver, an outsider in eighteenth-century London who tracks debtors and felons for aristocratic clients, investigates his estranged father's sudden death.
English Passengers Matthew Kneale
Novel follows the voyage of the Sincerity, a smuggling vessel that takes on a party of highbrow landlubbers bound for the island of Tasmania where a war is going on against the British.
Fanny: a Fiction Edmund White
Quirky, dazzling story of two extraordinary women, Frances Trollope, the mother of Anthony Trollope, and Fanny Wright, a utopian visionary.
The Gates of the Alamo Stephen Harrigan
Deeply imagined novel about the siege and fall of the Alamo that follows the lives of three people whose fates become bound to the doomed Texas fort.
Heyday Kurt Anderson
A fresh portrait of America in the middle of the 19th century, an era very reminiscent of our own times.
Jack Maggs Peter Carey
A captivating mystery about an exiled convict who returns to a darker Dickensian London to see his heir and becomes embroiled in the affairs of his employer.
Killer Angels Jack Shaara
Pulitzer-prize winning novel about the four bloodiest days of the Civil War--the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Known World Edward Jones
Story explores a neglected chapter of American history, the world of blacks who owned blacks in the antebellum South.
Little Big Man Thomas Berger
Fun read about the amazing adventures of 111-year-old Jack Crabb who lived with the Cheyenne Indians and ran into Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp, and George Armstrong Custer.
Lincoln Gore Vidal
In this profoundly moving work Abraham Lincoln is observed by his loved ones, his rivals, and his future assassin.
Luncheion of the Boating Party Susan Vreeland
Lives of the individuals depicted in Renoir's masterpiece are reconstructed within the context of the French arts life in the 19th century.
The March E.L. Doctorow
General Sherman comes to life in this vividly written tale of his legendary sweep through the south.
News from Paraguay Lily Tuck
Portrait of 19th century Paraguay, a largely untouched wilderness where Europeans and North American intermingle with both the old Spanish aristocracy and native Guarani Indians.
Night Inspector Fred Busch
Darkly imaginative historical novel re-creates 1867 New York City, whose seamy underbelly reflects the physical and psychological scars of the Civil War.
Piano Tuner Daniel Mason
A 19th century English piano tuner finds himself in Burma, mesmerized by his unfamiliar surroundings.
The Royal Physician's Visit Per Olov Enquist
Gripping story magnificently recasts the dramatic era of Danish history when Johann Friedrich Struensee, court physician to mad young King Christian, becomes the holder of absolute power in Denmark during the 1760s.
The Star of the Sea Joseph O'Connor
Shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year, this brooding but suspenseful narrative chronicles the mayhem aboard the Star of the Sea, a leaky sailing ship crossing from Ireland to New York during the Irish potato famine, its steerage full of diseased and starving refugees, some optimistic, some desperate.
A Twist at the End Stephen Saylor
Austin in 1885 is bought to life as Will Porter, aka O. Henry, explores the mystery behind the serial killings of seven women.
The Voyage of the Narwhal Andrea Barrett
Dramatic adventure story about explorers and naturalists who sailed out of Philadelphia in 1885 in the hope of discovering an open polar sea.
20th Century
All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, story is a loosely fictionalized account of Governor Huey Long of Louisiana.
Atonement Ian McEwan
Elegant and thought-provoking novel about a domestic crisis that befalls an insulated upper-class English family and continues to haunt them through World War II.
Baker Tower Jennifer Haigh
Emotionally rich and evocative exploration of community, love, and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II.
Becoming Madame Mao Anchee Min
Stirring, erotically charged story of Madame Mao Zedong, whom many hold directly responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.
Corelli's Mandolin Louis De Bernieres
History and fantasy are mixed in this heartbreaking and hilarious love story set on an idyllic Greek island torn apart by Nazi occupation.
December 6 Martin Cruz Smith
Fast-paced thriller memorably re-creates wartime Tokyo days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak
Challenging poetic masterpiece takes place in Russia during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed.
Dreamland Kevin Baker
Powerful and moving love story recreates turn-of-the-century New York with its sweatshops, immigrants, corrupt politicians, grifters, prostitutes and where Freud and Jung are appalled by the vulgar spectacle that America presents.
Drop City T. Boyle Coraghessan
A recent history novel about a group of hippies living on a 1970s California commune who move to the Alaskan wilderness.
Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa
The final days the of General Rafael Trujillo's evil regime is vividly told from the perspective of Urania Cabral, a successful New York lawyer who has spent a lifetime in exile, but returns to the Dominican Republic when the tyrant is finally murdered.
Fellow Travelers Thomas Mallon
A story of dangerous love and cloak and dagger poltics set in mid-1950s Washington DC during McCarthyism.
Fields of Fire Jim Webb
Searing novel of the Vietnam War full of poetic power, razor-sharp observation, and agonizing human truths seen through the prism of nonstop combat.
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Classic story of an "Okie" family seeking work as migrant fruit pickers in 1930s California.
Killing Rommel Steven Pressler
In North Africa, Rommel and his Panzers have routed the British Eighth Army and stand poised to overrun Egypt, Suez, and the oil fields of the Middle East, in Pressfield's latest riveting historical novel.
Little America Harry Bromwell
In this meditation on the 1950's cold war, the son of a CIA operative researches what actually happened in 1958 Kurash, a mythical Mideastern kingdom that collapsed after the unsolved assassination of its king in December 1958.
Long, Long Way Sebastian Berry
Poetic, grim story of a young Irish soldier who loses love, county, and family white fighting in the trenches of World War I.
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
An evangelical Baptist missionary takes his unprepared family to the Belgian Congo in 1959, entertwining their fate with that of the country.
Ragtime E.L. Doctorow
Well-researched novel captures the spirit of United States in the era between 1900 and World War II, following the lives of both fictional and real characters.
Roscoe William Kennedy
Story of a political hack of the corrupt Albany, New York Democratic machine circa 1945 who finds himself pulled back into politics and aiding the woman he pines for, just as he wants out.
Stiver's Row Kevin Baker
Historical fiction envokes 1940s Harlem and the two separate paths toward personal empowerment taken by two black men with very different backgrounds.
The Things They CarriedTim O'Brien
A collection of fictional memoirs depicts the men of Alpha Company during the Vietnam War.
TranceChristopher Sorrentino
History and fiction are deftly blended in this bold reconstruction of the 1974 kidnapping of the newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.
When the Emperor was DivineJulia Otsuka
Japanese American family's heartbreaking story of internment in a Utah enemy alien camp during World War II.
Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty Sebastian Barry
Beautifully written story of an Irish urchin whose innocent childhood gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict.
Winds of War Herman Wouk
Richly imaginative and full of historical fact, story follows a fictional USN family during World War II.
Waterborne: A Novel Bruce Murkoff
In this vivid debut novel, four characters move toward a fateful meeting at the Boulder Dam during its epic building in the 1930s.
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