Book Buzz: Librarians, 19th Century and Medieval Historical Fiction, Ancient Romans, and Bandit Bios

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For September, we’re looking at historical fiction that covers everything from WWII-era librarians to the Sioux Wars to a famous figure from medieval literature, as well as nonfiction about ancient Rome and a profile of stagecoach robber Black Bart.

If you enjoy historical fiction:

Brianna Labuskes’s The Librarian of Burned Books (2023)*

Inspired by the real-life Council of Books in Wartime, this novel intertwines the stories of 3 different literary inclined women in the 1930s and 1940s. One, Althea, is an American writer visiting Germany shortly after Hitler’s rise to power. Hannah, meanwhile, is a German-Jewish refugee in the mid-1930s in Paris who devotes her energy to the German Library of Burned Books. Nearly a decade later, American war widow Vivian is fighting to protect the program that sends paperbacks to soldiers in the field.

*Ebook also available on Libby.

Recommended for those who enjoyed Madeline Martin’s The Librarian Spy, Anita Abriel’s A Girl During the War, Kristin Harmel’s The Book of Lost Names, and Marie Benedict’s The Personal Librarian.

Susanna Moore’s The Lost Wife (2023)

If you prefer your historical fiction a bit more distant in the past, consider this novel. Based on a true story, it follows Sarah, who flees her miserable life for a new one on the frontier in 1850s Minnesota. After her new husband finds work at an Indian agency as a doctor, she begins to befriend the Sioux women who use the agency. However, when an uprising breaks out in 1862, Sarah finds herself caught in the middle.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Michael Punke’s Ridgeline.

Karen Brooks’s The Good Wife of Bath (2021)**

We added this book on the recommendation of a patron. If you know your medieval literature, you’ve probably already made the acquaintance of Geoffrey Chaucer’s infamous Wife of Bath from The Canterbury Tales. But this novel features her as the main character and allows her to tell her own story as she winds her way through a number of husbands and builds her fortune.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Pat Barker.

**Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby.

If you love nonfiction:

Garrett Ryan’s Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans (2021)***

This witty book covers everything you ever wanted to know but never thought to ask about the ancient Greeks and Romans. They cover all the aforementioned topics in the title, as well as whether or not these civilizations wore pants or jogged.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Mary Beard.

***Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby.

If you prefer audiobooks:

John Boessenecker’s Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West’s Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber (2023)****

Boessenecker has made a career out of biographies of intriguing outlaws and lawmen from Western history. In his latest, he profiles the infamously polite stagecoach robber named Black Bart. He became a legendary but shadowy figure for his crime spree in the 1800s, but relatively little is known about the real man. Boessenecker is determined to peel back the layers of history to shine more light on Charles E. Boles, who lived a seemingly respectable life in San Francisco when he wasn’t robbing Wells Fargo stages.

Recommended for those who love books where the Old West and true crime collide.

****Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby.

What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about these days? Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.