Mary Ross | Site Director
Even if history isn’t everyone’s favorite subject in school, history informs every aspect of who we are today. The following stories are great works of fiction based off of real life events that did shape the world we all know. For the History and Historical Fiction fans in your life, this is the perfect place to find a book for them!
11/22/63 by Stephen King
This novel follows the story of Jake Epping, his friend Harry Dunning, and local diner owner, Al Templeton, who has a portal to the past in the pantry of his diner. Al, in all his years traveling in the portal, only wants to save President John F. Kennedy from being assassinated, believing that if JFK had survived, the world would be a better place. But when Jake travels back in time, he messes with time much and Harry ends up dying while serving in Vietnam, causing Al to commit suicide, leaving Jake alone in his knowledge of the portal. The rest of the story follows Jake trying to carry out Al’s plan to save JFK thrown together with many other unexpected events that make this story fantastic.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is one of those books that many people had to read for school. Though a short novel, The Great Gatsby brings up themes of old money and new money, class differences, the aristocracy, love, affairs and many more that make it well worth the first read or the reread.
Lincoln in the Bardo
To start, each chapter of the book is told from a different character that exists in the bardo. The bardo, as it is in this story, refers to the Buddhist idea that is loosely a state of existence between a death in one life and rebirth in another. In this book, each one of the characters in the bardo all are in a sense “stuck” as they are trying to understand lessons from their previous life to carry it into the next. Seems somewhat out of the ordinary thus far, right?Now add two more characters: President Abraham Lincoln and his recently deceased son, Willie. Willie is in the bardo with all of these other characters, while President Lincoln remains in the world we all know, mourning his son. We are able to see Lincoln cradle his dead son’s body from within the bardo, despite Lincoln being in the real world. The story follows all the characters in the bardo trying to care for Willie and help him pass on to the next life. This definitely is worth your read if you love discussing the human condition from various places throughout life and death.
The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Beautiful and Damned is a fascinating story following a young aristocrat, Anthony Patch, who has no desire to work because he has all the money he wants. He falls in love with a young aristocrat named Gloria, whom he marries. But they lead very extravagant lives, blowing through money rapidly. When Anthony’s grandfather comes for a visit and leaves utterly disappointed in Anthony, he writes Anthony out of his will, leaving him and Gloria without money they were expecting to have. Do they recover from this sudden realization they were pretty much out of money? The Beautiful and Damned offers great insight into the American aristocracy at the turn of the 20th century with many dramatic turns all throughout.
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner details the life of Amir, a young boy from Afghanistan, as he grows up and begins to understand the world and its dark secrets much better. Highlighting the continuous war in Afghanistan, race relations, family secrets and more. Heart-wrenching from beginning to end, The Kite Runner is a must read.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the Wind is a Civil War era romance featuring Scarlet O’Hara, the daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner. Included in the story line are three marriages, a child, and the heartbreak of never being with the man she truly wants to marry, along with everything that comes with the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction in the United States.
The Boy in the Striped Pajama by John Boyne
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas takes readers back to Nazi Germany from the standpoint of nine-year-old Bruno. Bruno’s father is an official for the Nazi party and they move to a new house for his work. On an adventure one day, Bruno finds a fence with people in striped pajamas on the other side, including a young boy named Shmuel. Despite a fence separating them, Bruno and Shmuel develop a friendship where Bruno goes and visits everyday. But how will it last when it is evident Shmuel is in a concentration camp where he could die? This story is heart wrenching from beginning to end, but reminds us of a devastating and horrifying part in history.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Les Miserables is a wonderful (and long) story about life during the French Revolution. Though the main plot of the story involves Javert, a captain for the French military, trying to track down prisoner 2-4-6-0-1, whose name is Jean Valjean for over a decade, there are quite a few storylines that intertwine with this. They are stories of love, family, revolution, manipulation and more, all aspects of life during this time in French history. Now turned into a musical and movie, this story has been loved for ages.
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