Hi, historical fiction fans!
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
Guess who went into a bookstore and came out with three unexpected books in their hands? That’s right; it was me! I’d say it was a surprise, but we all know that wouldn’t really be true. What kind of bookworm can leave a bookshop empty-handed? Not this one, at any rate. All three books I picked up were new-to-me short story collections I’m very eager to read: Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold, Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, and Uranians. Check them for yourself to determine if you, too, are unable to pass them up. Fair warning: the covers alone may get you.
Bookish Goods
Black Author Bookmark from Pounded Yam Pro
Celebrate your love of Black literature every month with these cool text-heavy bookmarks listing names of significant African American authors. $4
New Releases
A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh (February 6, 2024)
A Deaf student who studied under Alexander Graham Bell is torn between the loyalty she feels for her former teacher and confidant and betrayal when she discovers how his actions—and inventions—have harmed the Deaf community. The story is inspired by actual journal entries kept by Bell’s Deaf students.
The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Sara Ackerman (February 6, 2024)
Inspired by real events, The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West tells the story of a woman who sets out to join the Dole Air Race. It’s a dangerous 2,400-mile crossing from the West Coast to Hawaii, and Livy is determined to be a part of it, even if it means joining in as a navigator and not a pilot.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
February is Black History Month in the U.S., so let’s highlight some great historical fiction by and about Black Americans.
The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by ReShonda Tate
Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person to ever win an Oscar, but it didn’t bring her the acclaim she hoped. Instead, she found herself adrift, viewed only for her role as Mammy by white people and shunned for the portrayal by the Black community. But Hattie’s story doesn’t end there. Her determination to pave a path for Black people in cinema and fight against housing discrimination while also helping with the war effort in the 1940s are the true heart of her life story.
Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton
Rebellion doesn’t have to be obvious to be effective. When the owners of a Texas plantation decide to increase their profits by impregnating six enslaved women, the women meet together in the dark of night to plan a covert rebellion. It’s one that won’t save them from what’s to come but at least puts some of the power back in their own hands. If all goes well, no one will be the wiser. But if they’re found out, the consequences will be dire for all the women.
That’s it for now, folks! Stay subscribed for more stories of yesteryear.
If you want to talk books, historical or otherwise, you can find me @rachelsbrittain on Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy.
Right now, I’m reading At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop. What about you?