Book picks similar to
Seventrees by Janice Young Brooks


historical-fiction
podcast-recommendation
literature
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Sarah's Valley


Sharon Mierke - 2012
    This might be an elusive dream for a young girl who, along with her brother Frank, are orphaned early in life. Their parents die on the way to California in the early 1800's. Sarah and Frank are the only wagon train survivors. How would two children survive the highwaymen, the raging grassfires, the cold winters, and the heartache?(Many words in this story reflect the times. e.g. From the late 1600's until the late 1800's, soldiers used an iron shell filled with pitch that burned at intense heat. It was called a carcass. The United States ordnance manual of 1861 lists carcasses as weapons).

Stranger from Another Land (erilaR, #1)


Hector Miller - 2019
    The Great Khan, Attila, overlord of the Scythian and Germani hordes is no more.The lands of Rome lie in ruin, razed by the Scourge of God.From the ashes of civilization a new power is destined to emerge. Warriors whose fearsome reputation would remain for more than a thousand years.On the plains of Pannonia a boy is born. A boy destined to shape history.Meet Ragnaris, the son of no man.

A Love Forbidden


Meg Hutchinson - 1999
    But her bitterness and desire for vengeance lead her to treat the girl with extreme cruelty, and when Miriam falls pregnant, Leah refuses to let her marry the father of her child. Leah's son Ralph has always loved the girl he believes to be his sister, and fights to subdue feelings that are more than brotherly. When he discovers Miriam's seducer has no intention of standing by her, he takes a terrible revenge: Saul Marsh will leave no other woman pregnant. But Miriam's trials are far from over. Her mother's hatred reaches new and evil heights - even on her deathbed she seeks to ruin the girl's happiness. Only when Leah's malign influence is removed for ever can Miriam overcome the horrors of her girlhood to find love and joy at last.

The Dirty Parts of the Bible


Sam Torode - 2007
    Tobias is obsessed with two things: God and girls. Mostly girls, of course. But being a Baptist preacher's son, he can't escape God. When his father is blinded in a bizarre accident (involving hard cider and bird droppings), Tobias must ride the rails to Texas to recover a long-hidden stash of money. Along the way, he's initiated into the hobo brotherhood by Craw, a ribald vagabond-philosopher. Obstacles arise in the form of a saucy prostitute, a flaming boxcar, and a man-eating catfish. But when he meets Sarah, a tough farm girl under a dark curse, he finds out that the greatest challenge of all is love.

The Visionist


Rachel Urquhart - 2013
    She and her young brother find shelter in a Massachusetts Shaker community called The City of Hope. It is the Era of Manifestations, when young girls in Shaker enclaves all across the Northeast are experiencing extraordinary mystical visions, earning them the honorific of "Visionist" and bringing renown to their settlements. The City of Hope has not yet been blessed with a Visionist, but that changes when Polly arrives and is unexpectedly exalted. As she struggles to keep her dark secrets concealed in the face of increasing scrutiny, Polly finds herself in a life-changing friendship with a young Shaker sister named Charity, a girl who will stake everything--including her faith--on Polly's honesty and purity.

The Moonlight Palace


Liz Rosenberg - 2014
    As outside forces conspire to steal the palace out from under them, Agnes struggles to save her family and finds bravery, love, and loyalty in the most unexpected places. The Moonlight Palace is a coming-of-age tale rich with historical detail and unforgettable characters set against the backdrop of dazzling 1920s Singapore.

Rules of Civility


Amor Towles - 2011
    On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve. With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.

Great Son


Edna Ferber - 1944
    THE SCENE: Seattle from village to skyscraper city; the Alaskan gold fields.TIME: 1851 - 1941.THE SUBJECT: Four generations of the marvelous Melendys--a frontier family grown rich and ill at ease.THE AUTHOR: Edna Ferber, who wrote So Big, Cimarron, Show Boat, and other great novels straight from the heart of America.

Face the Winter Naked


Bonnie Turner - 1991
    The life of a freight-hopping, banjo-strumming hobo appeals to him more than he wants to admit. But he insists he's not a bum - he's a family man looking for work; a down-and-out victim of the Depression, whose war flashbacks and guilt for leaving his family accompany him through the hills of Missouri. Compassionate, humorous, and warm, despite the economic hardships of the era, Face the Winter Naked will appeal to readers who enjoy tales of survival in the Great Depression. Stories of desperate men who couldn't handle the realities of war or financial ruin. Men who dearly loved their families but hadn't the courage to stay and accept responsibility. The story pulls the reader back to a tragic period in history, where people either learned to cope with poverty - or perished.

If You Awaken Love


Emuna Elon - 2007
    Set in Israel between the Six Day War and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, 'If You Awaken Love' is an intensely moving story of a stormy and spiritual young girl and her love-hate relationships with her childhood sweetheart, with her father, and with God.

Imhotep


Jerry Dubs - 2010
     Stumbling in the dark of an unfinished tomb beneath the sands of Saqqara, American tourist Tim Hope unknowingly passes through a time portal that leads to ancient Egypt — a time before the Sphinx, before the great pyramids of Giza, and long before the loss of his beloved Addy. When he discovers that two other Americans preceded him through the time portal, Tim immerses himself in the ancient world to search for them. As he becomes more comfortable with the simpler, more immediate land, he finds himself irresistibly attracted to the delicate Meryt, a wbt-priestess for the god Re. Learning that a seven-year famine has led to a plot to overthrow King Djoser, Tim discovers that his fate, the lives of the two Americans and the future of Egypt rest in the hands of the legendary Imhotep, master architect of the Step Pyramid, renowned physician and intimate adviser to King Djoser. Downloaded by more than 100,000 readers, “Imhotep" is the first book in an acclaimed four-book series about the ancient Egyptian architect Imhotep. The second book in the series is "The Buried Pyramid." The third book is "The Forest of Myrrh." The fourth book is "The Field of Reeds."

A Breed of Heroes


Alan Judd - 1981
    The thankless task facing him and his men -- to patrol the tension-filled streets through weeks of boredom punctuated by bursts of horror -- takes them through times of tragedy, madness, laughter and terror.

A Liverpool Legacy


Anne Baker - 2013
    Poor Sylvie blames herself for the accident and Millie needs all her strength to comfort her children and overcome her grief. Then Pete's will is read and further heartache lies in store...Meanwhile, Pete's younger brother and his good-for-nothing sons try to take control of the family business, but they've underestimated Millie's indomitable spirit. She's worked in Maynard's perfume laboratory for eighteen years and is determined to protect her husband's legacy no matter what obstacles are thrown in her way...

In the Blue Light of African Dreams


Paul Watkins - 1990
    Disfigured and demoralized, he deserts from France's famed Lafayette Escadrille, only to be captured, convicted, and sentenced to twenty years in the Foreigh Legion. He serves in Africa, where, along with a motley group of convicts and outcasts, Halifax is forced to fly illegal arms shipments to the very tribesmen they have been sent to fight. But a dream keeps Halifax alive even as his companions fall to harm or misery-the relentless determination to become the first pilot to fly nonstop from Paris to New York.

Maeve Binchy: Circle of Friends / The Copper Beech (Two Complete Novels)


Maeve Binchy - 2003
    Now two of her top-selling works have been brought together for the first time in an outstanding volume that shines with moving storytelling that celebrates Ireland, its people, and the journey of life itself. Circle of Friends is the heartwarming tale of two girls: Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, friends from the time they're in school together. Off to the university in Dublin to begin a new life and face new challenges, they help and support each other in a world that can bring them great new riches, expanded friendships, and also betrayal of the worst kind. In the Copper Beech, the children of the village of Shancarrig grow up without much obvious excitement, but there's far more there than meets the eye. The mysteries and adventures behind closed doors in a small town shape the children's futures and the life of the town in this moving novel of a country town in Ireland.