Book picks similar to
Worthy McGuire by Tim McGee


first-reads
historical-fiction
fiction
historical-fiction-american

The Settler


Orit Arfa - 2013
    “Jews Don’t Expel Jews” she cried along with the Zionist activists seeking to stop what they called “The Expulsion.” Once she is dragged out of her home by the Jewish army she had once idolized–and to which her brother lost his life–she decides: Screw it. Screw God. Screw the country. Screw the Jewish people. She sets off for Israel’s big city, Tel Aviv, seductively fertile ground for a religious rebel. The colorful lights and sizzling music of Tel Aviv's world-famous nightclub, Atlantis, ignite her love for dance. Despite herself, she is drawn to its charismatic, liberal owner, Ziv Harel. He's intrigued by the prospect of transforming a “religious settler” into a nightlife queen.Their tortured romance forces both to confront their deep-seated values, but how far will Sarah go to question who she is and what she believes—and at what cost?

The Gender Experiment


L.J. Sellers - 2016
    After discovering they were born at the same clinic two decades earlier, she investigates further and uncovers a startling list. With the realization that more gender-fluid people are targeted for elimination, Taylor kicks her investigation into high gear. But the researchers who conducted the experiment aren’t about to let anything interfere with their plans. Soon Taylor is in deep trouble and needs the help of FBI Special Agent Bailey. As Bailey scrambles to track down leads, events spin out of control and she finds herself blocked at every step by powerful military forces. With the clock ticking on Phase 2 of the experiment, can Bailey and Taylor uncover the truth in time to save the other subjects?

A Kind of Woman


Helen Burko - 2017
    Barder does not return alone: with him is his new wife, Rachel, a beautiful blonde woman whom he met in Warsaw shortly after the war - a Jewish survivor who lost her entire family and remained alone in the world. Jacob fell in love with her and brought her to the states. Now he will defend her in the biggest battle of her life. A Jewish lawyer’s wife is accused of committing Nazi war crimes One evening, in a Broadway theater, Rachel is attacked by a woman who accuses her of being Matilda Krause - a German SS officer who served at the Nazi concentration camps. Rachel’s arrest and police investigation open the way to a sensational trial that will be written in the pages of history. With no one willing to protect a Nazi officer, Barder decides to defend his wife himself. Why would a Jewish survivor speak for a Nazi in the court of law? Barder is called to make an impossible case in the name of his beloved wife, and that of humanity altogether. The jury, the judge, and the readers will be astounded by what he has to say.

Sea Raptor: A Deep Sea Thriller


John J. Rust - 2014
    Army Ranger, until an unfortunate incident forced him out of the service. He is soon hired by the Foundation for Undocumented Biological Investigation and given a new mission, to search for cryptids, creatures whose existence has not been proven by mainstream science. Teaming up with the daring and beautiful wildlife photographer Karen Thatcher, they must stop a sea monster's deadly rampage along the Jersey Shore. But that's not the only danger Rastun faces. A group of murderous animal smugglers also want the creature. Rastun must utilize every skill learned from years of fighting, otherwise, his first mission for the FUBI might very well be his last.

The Secret of the Grand Hôtel du Lac


Kathryn Gauci - 2020
    He was sure he heard a noise outside. It sounded like a twig snapping. Under normal circumstances it would have meant nothing, but in the silence of the forest every sound was magnified. There it was again. This time it was closer and his instinct told him it wasn’t the wolves. He reached for his gun and quietly looked out through the window. The moon was on the wane, wrapped in the soft gauze of snowfall and it wasn’t easy to see. Maybe it was a fox, or even a deer. Then he heard it again, right outside the door. He cocked his gun, pressed his body flat against the wall next to the door, and waited. The room was in total darkness and his senses were heightened. After a few minutes, he heard the soft click of the door latch.” February 1944. Preparations for the D-Day invasion are well advanced. When contact with Belvedere, one of the Resistance networks in the Jura region of Eastern France, is lost, Elizabeth Maxwell, is sent back to the region to find the head of the network, her husband Guy Maxwell.It soon becomes clear that the network has been betrayed. An RAF airdrop of supplies was ambushed by the Gestapo, and many members of the Resistance have been killed.Surrounded on all sides by the brutal Gestapo and the French Milice, and under constant danger of betrayal, Elizabeth must unmask the traitor in their midst, find her husband, and help him to rebuild Belvedere in time for SOE operations in support of D-Day.

Imperfect


Claire Fraise - 2015
    Not a good home, but at least there she can find food and shelter for her sisters, Lily and Tory.To the powerful Making Perfect corporation, however, the Slump is a gold mine, a source of unending test subjects. Once a month, squads of company officials invade the ruins to capture orphans for their facilities. What happens to the kids they take is unclear—none of them ever return.Then Summer herself is taken.Forced into a series of grueling experiments, she soon discovers that Making Perfect’s ultimate goal is far darker than anything she imagined. As she fights to get back to the Slump and her now-defenseless sisters, she begins to understand why once you enter Making Perfect, you never get out.

Flashman At The Charge ;Flashman In The Great Game


George MacDonald Fraser - 1983
    

The Parisian Spy (A Resistance Girl #3)


Hannah Byron - 2021
    The artist Jean-Jacques Riveau is the enfant terrible of Urban Realism in France but forsakes his paint brushes to join the French Resistance movement. Cupido’s arrow is straight in the hearts of the two lovebirds but Océane steers clear from her boyfriend’s resistance activities. Until Jean-Jacques is arrested by the Gestapo and Océane’s convictions are heavily tested. She accepts a position as the personal physician to the head of the Paris Gestapo, Dieter Von Stein in the hopes of finding her beloved.But Von Stein has other plans, with Jean-Jacques and with Océane. When he’s transferred to a position in Northern Africa, Océane reluctantly follows. In the Egyptian desert a personal tug of war enfolds between the two smart, tenacious people. Only one can win.The Parisian Spy is the story of a reluctant spy-in-love whose medical precision and objective eye turn her into one of the most thought-after spies of the French Resistance.

Emperor’s Bane


S.J.A. Turney - 2016
    Tenzhin is only a boy when his tribe strikes deep into the Jin Empire and faces the might of the Jade Emperor. After his father is killed before his eyes, he is plunged into a new world: ancient, courtly – and brutal.Adopted by the Emperor, the boy must forget his old life and learn to survive the challenges of life as a prince. Tenzhin must perfect his mind, his soul and finally his body, in order to prepare for what lies ahead. Allies are few and far between, and eventually he must face the biggest trial of them all… Emperor’s Bane is a novella set in the Tales of the Empire universe. A gritty tale based on the Mongolian invasions of imperial China, it will engross readers of Guy Gavriel Kay and Conn Iggulden. The Tales of the Empire series Interregnum Ironroot Dark Empress Insurgency

Dances with Wolves


John Barry - 1991
    Comes complete with a color photo section of scenes from the movie and a bio of the renowned film score composer John Barry.

Spit of a Minute


Linda Dickson - 2013
    Her aging parents have already slipped into a great depression of their own. Her brothers named her 'Queenie' and it stuck. Queenie steps from the barn to welcome a man from a neighboring farm. A frustrated man drunk on corn liquor and rage.Three children, an alcoholic husband and a monkey later, she's living in the city and struggling to keep a clean house and beans on the stove when the "Eye-talian" pilot from New York City asks her opinion on fryer hens in the grocery. He's smooth. He takes her to places with white table cloths.World War II deploys the pilot to Europe and Queenie to the Big Apple. Survival on the streets of NYC for Queenie and her baby girl, Abba Gee, is a war story of another kind. Queenie makes decisions without options. Her's is a story of what can happen to any of us if we are not paying attention."Told from a Southern point of view, funny, sad, and partially true. Queenie is the grandmother I did not know. A lifetime of rumors and over heard gossip painted this character. Others speak of grandmothers who smelled of talcum powder and passed on receipes while Queenie's legacy echos stories of grit and how life can change in the Spit of a Minute.""Dickson's language is palpably evocative of the period--you could vividly imagine the scenes in sepia, peopled by those long-ago characters that now only exist as memory.""Dickson writes with a relaxed, leisurely cadence with confidence in her own literary powers. She effectively simulates the feel and mood of the South, as well as the hustle and bustle of the city--something about the writing, not the plot, that reminds me so much of Harper Lee's classic `To Kill a Mockingbird.'"Dickson's compelling narrative subtly shifts in tone and texture according to the changes in time, and this is one of the qualities in her writing that makes me hope she actually writes more, and soon."

Across Great Divides


Monique Roy - 2013
    When Hitler came to power in 1933, one Jewish family refused to be destroyed and defied the Nazis only to come up against another struggle-confronting apartheid in South...

Fiction No More (Vincent Malone Book 3)


Ted Clifton - 2019
    Vincent Malone comes to her aid, he discovers that Stratton's first book is not a work of fiction at all, but an account of the murder of the stalker's father in the 1980s.Archaeology, Indian artifacts, and crimes from the past weave into a mysterious plot involving political corruption, a wayward priest, millions in stolen relics, forgotten curses, and old misdeeds.  Who's good and who's bad is all mixed up as Malone seeks answers both to the murder in the 80s and the confusing events happening now.

Dash for Dunkirk


Denis Caron - 2017
     May 1940: Royal Air Force pilot Harry Fitzgerald is one of millions of heroic Allied troops fighting against Nazi Germany. In the pitched heat of battle over the skies of Northern France, Fitzgerald is shot down by an enemy plane and captured. Miraculously, he escapes certain death but must make his way back to the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk to get back home. However, Fitzgerald is in the middle of a warzone. At a chateau turned hospital, he encounters two of his wounded comrades. Too sick to reach Dunkirk by themselves, they helplessly lie in wait as the German army advances. Fitzgerald knows he must save them, and with the assistance of the French nurse Solange, the refugees attempt to reach Dunkirk-before the Nazis can reach them. It’s a life-or-death mission through dangerous territory where nothing is guaranteed. In Dash for Dunkirk, authors Denis Caron and Fran Connor explore a world where loyalty and bravery face off against an unforgiving enemy. Bound together by duty and honor, war heroes push themselves to the limit through refugee-crowded streets, mechanical setbacks and enemy attacks. Will they reach safe harbor, or will the ultimate evil finally prevail? Praise for Dash for Dunkirk > "A wildly entertaining, action packed story not only about the reality of war, but also of loyalty, friendship, and romance. A must read! - Jordan Ebare, Avid Reader & Historical Fiction Enthusiast

Nancy's War


Anne Baker - 2011
    Nancy's War is a compelling wartime saga of family secrets, heartache and happy endings, from much-loved author Anne Baker. Perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries and Dilly Court.When Nancy Seymour's RAF pilot husband, Charles, is killed, her life falls apart. Not only has she lost the man she loved, but she also loses her home and must find a way to support herself and their little girl, Caro, on her own. With the outbreak of World War Two, Nancy is grateful for the sanctuary offered by Charles's father in the form of a little cottage in the countryside. But his mother Henrietta has always disapproved of her son's wife and seems hell-bent on making her life a misery. Nancy has little idea, though, of the depths to which Henrietta is prepared to sink. With the danger of war ever-present, Nancy must find the strength to protect those she holds dear through years of hardship and peril. And, if she survives all this, perhaps she can still hope for a second chance at happiness... What readers are saying about Nancy's War 'I was absolutely gutted when I finished this book. I absolutely loved it and couldn't put it down. I finished it within 24 hours... The way this is written is great. So easy to read and flows beautifully''Another top class book from Anne Baker, this lady certainly knows how to keep you interested in a book. Funny, sad, and totally engrossing'