Hi historical fiction fans!
I’ve been volunteering at a local animal shelter place recently, and 10/10, I highly recommend looking into opportunities at your local shelters. That has nothing to do with reading, but, hey, I’m sure you could listen to some great audiobooks while you walk dogs if you wanted.
Have you checked out The Deep Dive yet? Book Riot’s editorial team writes for casual and power readers alike in this newsletter. During the month of September, all new free subscribers will be entered to win Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, plus five mystery books from The Deep Dive. To enter, simply start a free subscription to The Deep Dive. No payment method required!
Bookish Goods
First Folio Postcards from First Folio Cards
Send notes to your friends and family in style with these postcards printed with images and text from Shakespeare’s First Folios. $9
New Releases
Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Julia Sanches (September 26, 2023)
Blending together fact and fiction, Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener confronts her family’s complicated history as colonized and colonizer. Though Wiener sees herself in the Indigenous sculptures at a pre-Columbian exhibition, her great-great-grandfather was responsible for their plundering.
Death and the Sisters by Heather Redmond (September 26, 2023)
A young Mary Godwin (later Shelley), her stepsister Jane, and Percy Shelley become entangled in a murder investigation when a dead body appears downstairs after a dinner party. The growing attraction both Mary and Jane feel for Percy, though, threatens to derail their quest for answers.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Death and the Sisters isn’t exactly a retelling, but it does reimagine a literary icon into a new story. These two historical fiction novels do the same with a Chinese classic and the author of The Scarlet Letter.
The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang
In this retelling of the classic Chinese novel Water Margin, a group of bandits whose progressive ideas the Empire would like to destroy push back against the norms of society. When an expert arms instructor is betrayed and disgraced, she joins the Liangshan Bandits. Together, these powerful outlaws could bring down an empire.
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
A Scottish seamstress recently immigrated from Scotland, and a young Nathaniel Hawthorne find themselves drawn to each other after Isobel Gamble’s husband abandons her. Nathaniel is still haunted by the women his ancestors condemned to the gallows in Salem. Isobel is a young immigrant, both talented and troubled. Both must contend with what it means to be a “real” American in a time when the Underground Railroad is still in its early days.
That’s it for now, folks! Stay subscribed for more stories of yesteryear.
If you’d like to talk books, historical or otherwise, you can find me @rachelsbrittain on Goodreads, Instagram, and Litsy, my favorite bookish social media.
Right now I’m reading Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen by Alison Weir. What about you?