Twelve-year-old Suzy Bowels lives in the tiny town of Burr Oak, Michigan, where her family expects her to stay, have a family, and be a proper lady. But she has other ideas. Suzy’s dream is to explore the world and have adventures, so when her wayward uncle comes to work on their farm but ends up disappearing mysteriously in the mornings and skipping out on chores, she has to investigate. But she didn’t expect to find him working on the legendary former circus queen Madame Marantette’s farm, training ostriches.
Queen of Ice is a fiction mystery book. This book is an amazing read if you are interested in learning about other cultures. The information about the culture in the book is not direct but as you read you start to get an insight on other cultures, making the book informative. The overall storyline of the book is great and attention-getting since it’s very unpredictable. The mystery aspect of the book is tied in smoothly to the other themes making it so that the book isn’t exactly a thriller but not just fantasy fiction either.
Esperanza is a young girl whose father owns a ranch called El Rancho de las Rosas in Mexico. The night before her thirteenth birthday, something terrible happens. A series of events eventually forces Esperanza and her Mama to go to the United States in secret, where they hope to start a new life. In the United States, Esperanza’s life is changed forever. She must take care of babies, manage housework, and more. Will Esperanza be able to learn patience and strength as her new life unfolds before her and many things threaten to pull her down?
Anthony Bridgerton is a young viscount in his late twenties, as well as the eldest in the eight-sibling Bridgerton family. As the head of the family, Anthony is plagued by immense responsibility in keeping the viscountcy together, marrying his sisters off, and providing for his family. This pressure of exceeding responsibility lies in a past that he is unable to overcome. Falling in love–or more accurately– wanting to fall in love is a phenomenon he wants to avoid at all costs. Yet, this mindset comes into question when he meets the spinster Kate Sheffield.
The novel Homegoing, is an eye-opening story that depicts an unflinching portrayal of the slave trade exports in the 18th century and its contrasting impacts down the generations. Gyasi conveys these struggles by sharing the stories of two half-sisters (and their descendants), Effia and Esi, one who married a wealthy English man and the other who was sold into slavery, representing how slavery destroyed one line of the family while it cursed the other.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is by far one of the best books I have ever read. Set in WWII, this historical fiction novel is narrated from two different perspectives; one from Werner, a German boy, and Maurie Laure, a blind French girl who remarkably cross paths. There is so much anger and conflict created between the contradicting backgrounds of the two characters, but their personal interactions with each other tell a much different story.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a historical fiction novel set in San Francisco in the 1950’s, where high-schooler Lily Hu goes through her queer awakening. Lily Hu is the “model” Chinese-American daughter, who gradually comes to realize her sense of identity as she befriends her math classmate and heads off towards a lesbian bar. Caught in the overwhelming feelings of confusion and exhilaration, the threat of risking old friendships and even her father’s deportation looms over her.
In an alternate reality where the Axis powers won World War Two, current day United States has been taken over by Japanese forces and Europe by the Nazis. Ren Cabot is living in what would be California with only his father, bitter that the government killed his mother after she committed treason. The government is controlling of its people, and is only benefiting those in power, so there are many groups trying to undermine them. Mr.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a story about Lily Hu in 1954 Chinatown. She’s stuck between complications with Red-Scare paranoia affecting her family, and her friend Shirley trying to set her up with Will, a boy from school that she has zero interest in. But everything gets turned upside down when Lily meets Kathleen Miller and realizes that there’s an obvious reason why she isn’t interested in Will.
These Violent Delights is the first novel in Chloe Gong's historical fiction series of the same name. Set in 1926 Shanghai, a blood feud between two rival gangs tears the city apart until they lose control. When a contagious sickness runs rampant through Shanghai and turns the population mad, the teenage heirs of the two gangs must work together to save their city. Gong's retelling of Romeo and Juliet is unique and well-done.
