The Secret River by Kate Grenville, for Australia Reading Month

Title: The Secret River
Author: Kate Grenville
Publication: Blackstone Audio, 2005

Narrator: Simon Vance
Genre: Historical fiction
Setting: 19th century Australia

Description: William Thornhill, his wife Sal, and son Willie are transported to New South Wales in 1806 – a more merciful option than hanging him for theft but still a dramatic and terrifying change from the destitute but familiar life they knew in London.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, one of my favorite books of 2021

Title: A Single Thread
Author: Tracy Chevalier
Publication: Viking, hardcover, 2019
Genre: Historical fiction
Setting: 20th century England

Description: Violet Speedwell is part of the generation of British women who lost fiancés, husbands, and brothers in World War I.

Green Emeralds for the King: A Civil War Story by Constance Savery

Title: Emeralds for the King (American title)
Author: Constance Savery
Illustrator: Victor Dowling
Publication: Longmans, Green & Co., hardcover, 1945
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: 17th century England

Description: Austin “Tosty” Farringdon, barely 13, is woken one night and told he can serve his king by finding lost treasure at his deceased father’s home, Yanburgh Manor.

Yours Cheerfully, a sequel to Dear Mrs. Bird

Title: Yours Cheerfully
Author: AJ Pearce
Publication: Scribner, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Historical fiction
Setting: WWII London

Description: Yours Cheerfully begins where Dear Mrs. Bird left off, with the staff of Women’s Friend reorganizing after the departure of Henrietta Bird, who clashed with our heroine, Emmy Lake.

Sun in the Morning by Elizabeth Cadell - a novel based on her youth in India

Title: Sun in the Morning
Author: Elizabeth Cadell
Publication: Thorndike Press, large print paperback, 1978 (originally published in 1950)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: India, early 20th century

Description: The narrator and her two older sisters live with their father in one of five houses on Minto Lane in Calcutta, 1913.

The Midshipman and the Rajah by Marjorie Phillips

Title: The Midshipman and the Rajah
Author: Marjorie Phillips
Illustrator: Gil Walker
Publication: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., hardcover, 1963
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction

Description: At ten, Tim Kennet was alone in the world after his mother died, working at a local inn for his keep. When his uncle returned from a naval voyage and found Tim there, he made the boy a midshipman on the ship he captains, the Ariadne.

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus - another delightful evacuation novel

Title: A Place to Hang the Moon
Author: Kate Albus
Publication: Holiday House, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: World War II England

Description: William, Edmund and Anna Pearce will not miss their formidable grandmother but, without her, they realize they are now homeless orphans.

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper — A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team

Title: Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team
Author: Elise Hooper
Publication: William Morrow, trade paperback, 2020
Genre: Historical fiction

Description: In this novel about pioneering women athletes of the early part of the 20th century, the author focuses on three real-life American heroines:

Forbidden Promise by Lorna Cook - a downed airman in Scotland leads to a family rupture

Title: Forbidden Promise
Author: Lorna Cook
Publication: Avon UK, paperback, 2020
Genre: Dual time line fiction
Setting: WWII and present-day Scotland

Description: Constance McLay is a sheltered 21-year-old when she escapes a groping guest at her birthday party and takes refuge at the loch behind her family’s lovely home, Invermoray House.

Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery - an unusual and appealing WWII story

Title: Enemy Brothers: A Story of World War II
Author: Constance Savery
Publication: Bethlehem Books, paperback, 2001 (originally published in 1943)
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: World War II Britain

Description: When Flying Officer Dym Ingleford uses part of his leave for a flying visit to his brother in the Navy, he has a premonition that he is needed there – and he is right.

Never Jam Today by Carole Bolton - Votes for Women!

Title: Never Jam Today
Author: Carole Bolton
Publication: Atheneum, hardcover, 1971
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Setting: 1917 New York and Washington, DC

Description: At 17, Maddy Franklin has had a privileged upbringing in New York City, with a lawyer father and a mother who never questions the man of the house. But as the country prepares for war, Maddie reads in the newspaper that suffragists are picketing the White House for the right to vote.

Band of Sisters: The Women of Smith College Go to War by Lauren Willig

Title: Band of Sisters: The Women of Smith College Go to War
Author: Lauren Willig
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: World War I France

Description: Based on actual events, this is a novel about a group of Smith College alumnae who traveled to France during the First World War to assist small French villages that had suffered from German destruction.

A Lion in the Way by Elizabeth Cadell - a glimpse of the last days of the Raj

Title: A Lion in the Way
Author: Elizabeth Cadell
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 1982
Genre: Fiction
Setting: 1913-1929, India and England

Description: Annerley Brooke (whose name is really Rosalind Anna Lee, after her deceased mother) has been brought up frugally in India with her maternal grandmother, and father, who coaches the sons of affluent Indian families before they are sent to away boarding school.

The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery (an American rebel in England)

Title: The Reb and the Redcoats
Author: Constance Savery
Publication: Bethlehem Books, paperback, 1999 (originally published in 1961)
Genre: Juvenile historical
Setting: 18th century England

Description: The Reb is young Randal Everard Baltimore, an American prisoner of war, who encounters the Redcoats, the four Darringtons, children of a British officer fighting in the War of American Independence.

Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds - for the 1936 Club

Title: Drums Along the Mohawk
Author: Walter D. Edmonds (1903-1998)
Publication: Little, Brown & Co., hardcover, 1936
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Upstate New York, 1976-84

The 1936 Club is hosted by Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.

Description: When pioneering farmer Gilbert Martin sweeps 18-year-old Lana Borst off her feet and away from her family to help him settle his new farm in the Mohawk Valley, she anticipates a life of hard work and challenges but does not expect Indian warfare, violence, starvation, or Gil’s disappearance for endless periods of time when her husband is conscripted to the Revolutionary forces. She complains much less than I would! 

Susannah of the Mounties by Muriel Dennison - for the 1936 Club

Title: Susannah of the Mounties
Author: Muriel Denison (1886–1954)
Foreword: Susan Tweedsmuir
Publication: Puffin paperback (originally published in 1936)
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: 1890s Saskatchewan, Canada

The 1936 Club is hosted by Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.

Description: When Susannah’s artist father gets a big commission in India, her parents put her on a train in Montreal with a newly hired nanny to her uncle in Regina.

Songbird by Karen Heenan - a visit to Henry VIII's court

Title: Songbird: The Tudor Court #1
Author: Karen Heenan
Publication: Trade paperback, 2019
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 16th century England

Description: Life in Southwark is hard for Peter Davydd and his family. They lost their only son to the sweating sickness. His wife and daughters do washing and ironing for those who can afford it but barely make a living so he brings ten-year-old Bess to Greenwich Palace. Recognizing his child’s exceptional voice and Henry VIII’s love of music, Davydd sells his child to the king, freeing himself of a burdensome mouth to feed and also securing her the training she needs.

A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood - coming of age in Earnest

Title: A Snowfall of Silver
Author: Laura Wood
Publication: Scholastic UK, paperback, 2020
Genre: YA
Setting: 1930s England

Description: Freya, the younger sister of Lou from A Sky Painted Gold, has always wanted to be an actress, so leaves Cornwall dramatically at 18, fortuitously meeting Kit McKay on the train to London.

The Rising of the Lark by Ann Moray - a coming of age story set in early 20th century Wales

Title: The Rising of the Lark 

Author: Ann Moray (1909–1981) 

Publication: William Morrow & Co., hardcover, 1964 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Setting: Early 20th century Wales

Description: Catriona is just nine when this story begins. Orphaned very young, she was brought to Wales where her guardians installed her at a remote estate, under the supervision of an austere governess, Jane Withers.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson - first in a trilogy set in Revolutionary-era New York

Title: Chains: Seeds of America #1
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publication: Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 2008
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: 18th-century New York

Description: Isabel (13) and her younger sister Ruth are slaves and orphans, having lost their mother a year earlier and their father, sold away from his family when Ruth was just a baby.