Books like 'Summer of '49'
Readers who enjoyed Summer of '49 by David Halberstam also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century sports urban
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Trickster by Sam Michaels
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGeorgina Garrett was born to be ruthless and she's about to earn her reputation. As World War One is announced a baby girl is born into a harsh life on London streets. Little do people realise that she's going to grow up to rule the borough of Battersea... -
![The Trade Off by Samantha Greene Woodruff]()
The Trade Off by Samantha Greene Woodruff
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA brilliant and ambitious young woman strives to find her place amid the promise and tumult of 1920s Wall Street in a captivating historical novel by the author of The Lobotomist’s Wife.Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers. With her father, she studies the burgeoning Wall Street market’s stocks and patterns in the financial pages... -
![You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian]()
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsAn emotional, slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine, queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, about grief and found family, between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first season—set in the same universe as We Could Be So Good.The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life... -
![The Smallest Crack by Roberta Kagan]()
The Smallest Crack by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1933 Berlin, GermanyWhen the price for life is dishonor dipped in blood, how much is too much?Eli Kaetzel and his beautiful but timid wife Rebecca suddenly find themselves in the gaping maws of Adolf Hitler's murderous rampage. Eli knows that their only chance, however slim, for survival may lie in the hands of Gretchen, a spirited Aryan girl...Categorized as:
urban europe western-central-europe germany historical-fiction ww2 fiction historical -
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![Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton]()
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA timeless classic of sleazy London life in the 1930s, a world of streets full of cruelty and kindness, comedy and pathos, where people emerge from cheap lodgings in Pimlico to pour out their passions, hopes and despair in pubs and bars... -
![The Rider by Tim Krabbé]()
The Rider by Tim Krabbé
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBrilliantly conceived and written at a breakneck pace, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing. Not a dry history of the sport, The Rider is beloved as a bicycle odyssey, a literary masterpiece that describes in painstaking detail one 150-kilometer race in a mere 150 pages... -
![A Family Affair by Mary Jane Staples]()
A Family Affair by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1926 was the year of the General Strike, but Adams Enterprises, under the wily management of Sammy Adams, youngest entrepreneur in Walworth and Lambeth, was doing very well. All the Adams brothers worked in the business, and so did two of the wives, Emily and Susie. There was just one dark cloud on the horizon - the impending trial of Gerald Ponsonby... -
![King Of Camberwell by Mary Jane Staples]()
King Of Camberwell by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSammy was the sharp one of the Adams family.Since he was nine-years-old - when he'd charged his mother interest on a loan to make up the rent money - he'd been busy setting up deals and expanding the family business - a china stall in East Street market. But as his mighty empire grew - two shops and a factory in Shoreditch - so did the determination of his assistant, Susie Brown... -
![The Doorstep Girls by Valerie Wood]()
The Doorstep Girls by Valerie Wood
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCan two friends find hope in hard times?Ruby and Grace have grown up in the poorest slums of Hull. Friends since early childhood, they have supported each other in bad times and good. But their families are bound together by more than friendship, and secrets from the past threaten to make their lives even more difficult... -
![The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb]()
The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsEllis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: "Give me your tired, your poor..."Ellis Island, 1902. Francesca arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life than the one she left in Italy. That same day, aspiring linguist Alma reports to her first day of work at the immigrant processing center...Categorized as:
urban new-york-state historical-fiction fiction historical audiobook 20th-century journey -
![Battles in the Desert by José Emilio Pacheco]()
Battles in the Desert by José Emilio Pacheco
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThis landmark novella—one of the central texts of Mexican literature, is eerily relevant to our current dark times—offers a child’s-eye view of a society beset by dictators, disease, and natural disasters, set in “the year of polio, foot-and-mouth disease, floods... -
![Down Lambeth Way by Mary Jane Staples]()
Down Lambeth Way by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe beginning of a wonderful saga telling the story of a Cockney family in peace and war from multi-million copy seller Mary Jane Staples. Perfect for fans of Kitty Neale, Maggie Ford and Katie Flynn... -
![Take these Broken Wings by Lyn Andrews]()
Take these Broken Wings by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSince she was six, Hannah Peckham has known how hard the world is. Thrown into the workhouse by the cousin to whom her desperate soldier father entrusted her, she emerges determined to make the most of what life has to offer, however little that might be.But the narrow confines of the workhouse have left Hannah ill-prepared for the hurly-burly of the Liverpool household in which she finds work... -
![The Good Time Girls at Christmas by Fiona Ford]()
The Good Time Girls at Christmas by Fiona Ford
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLondon, December 1940. It's Christmas for the Good Time Girls, and whilst London tries to inject some sparkle into the wartime rubble, the women of the Hammersmith Palais aren't looking forward to the festive season.Nancy continues her battle to keep control of the Palais as Ronnie and his thugs appear at every turn, determined to take what he lost back... -
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![The People: No Different Flesh by Zenna Henderson]()
The People: No Different Flesh by Zenna Henderson
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsA novel expanded from a short story (different from book 1 Pilgrimage which was a push of short stories connected by new material) of the alien PEOPLE and earthlings with gifts similar to those of the People -- who might be lost PEOPLE!The "People" stories inclulded in this book:No Different Flesh (1965)Deluge (1963)Angels Unawares (1966)Troubling of the Waters (1966)Return (1961)Shadow on the... -
![Palinuro of Mexico by Fernando del Paso]()
Palinuro of Mexico by Fernando del Paso
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLike those writers to whom he has been compared--Fuentes, Garcia Marquez, James Joyce, and Rabelais--del Paso draws upon myth, science, and world literature to expand his particular story to universal proportions... -
![Outcast Child: A heart-breaking and gritty family saga from the Sunday Times bestseller by Kitty Neale]()
Outcast Child: A heart-breaking and gritty family saga from the Sunday Times bestseller by Kitty Neale
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this powerful evocation of working-class South London in the 1950s, drama and heartbreak wreak havoc in the life of young Daisy Bacon, guardian of her Cousin Lizzie. When her mother Judith is run over and killed outside their house, Daisy retreats into a world of silence. Blaming herself for the accident, the girl is unable to utter a word... -
![Curse of the Phoenix (The Arcane Irregulars Book 1) by Dan Willis]()
Curse of the Phoenix (The Arcane Irregulars Book 1) by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen a trail of magical murders follow a stolen statue, Lieutenant Danny Pak and FBI Agent Buddy Redhorn have to get it back, before its dire curse falls on the city.New York Police Lieutenant Danny Pak has a problem. When one of his officers calls him out to an unusual crime scene, Danny realizes that it’s terrifyingly similar to something the department thought was dead and buried... -
![The Pathfinder: A gripping and heartbreaking wartime romance that will stay with you forever… by Margaret Mayhew]()
The Pathfinder: A gripping and heartbreaking wartime romance that will stay with you forever… by Margaret Mayhew
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBERLIN 1948: - A vanquished city of rubble - sliced into sections by the Allies, and set well back behind the Russian lines. A city of old women, black marketeers and sleazy cabarets in ruined cellars. In the British sector was Squadron Leader Michael Harrison, a war hero who had helped to bomb Berlin into fragments. He hated the Nazis who had killed his sister and her children... -
![The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey]()
The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNew York, 1938: Martha pulled the door of her Fifth Avenue apartment closed, her heart thumping, re-reading the telegram she’d been dreading. Her beloved sister Charlotte needed her help. She was alone in Paris, and the threat of Nazi invasion grew ever stronger. The time had come for Martha to make the bravest decision of her life. She needed to bring Charlotte home...Categorized as:
urban historical-fiction ww2 family female-mc friendship literary-fiction historical -
![Summit by Harry Farthing]()
Summit by Harry Farthing
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA summit is a summit, and the truth is the truth. But the view from 8,848 meters isn't always so clear. Two men, seventy years apart, push for the top of Mount Everest, driven by forces beyond their control and something inside that says climb. After eight successful summits, Mount Everest guide Neil Quinn is confident he can handle anything the mountain throws his way... -
![The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones]()
The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThom Jones made his literary debut in The New Yorker in 1991. Within six months his stories appeared in Harper's, Esquire, Mirabella, Story, Buzz, and in The New Yorker twice more. "The Pugilist at Rest" - the title story from this stunning collection - took first place in Prize Stories 1993: The O. Henry Awards and was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 1992... -
![The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe]()
The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsPerfect for fans of Jennifer Chiaverini and Marie Benedict, this riveting novel takes you inside the scandalous courtship and catastrophic honeymoon aboard the Titanic of the most famous couple of their time—John Jacob Astor and Madeleine Force. Told in rich detail, this novel of sweeping historical fiction will stay with readers long after turning the last page... -
![Buddies by Ethan Mordden]()
Buddies by Ethan Mordden
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"What unites us, all of us, surely is brotherhood, a sense that our friendships are historic, designed to hold Stonewall together," muses on character in Ethan Mordden's Buddies. This need for friendship, for nonerotic affection, for buddies, shines forth as an American obsession from Moby-Dick through Of Mice and Men to The Sting... -
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![The Maid’s Disgrace by Emma Hornby]()
The Maid’s Disgrace by Emma Hornby
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings**Don't miss Emma Hornby's gripping new wartime saga, A DAUGHTER'S WAR - available for pre-order now**---------------------A gritty and page-turning historical saga from the bestselling author of A Shilling for a Wife, perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin.Manchester, 1842Phoebe Parsons is a liar...a shameless harlot with unscrupulous morals..Categorized as:
urban industrial-era victorian historical-fiction family 20th-century female-mc historical -
![The Colony Club by Shelley Noble]()
The Colony Club by Shelley Noble
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen young Gilded Age society matron Daisy Harriman is refused a room at the Waldorf because they don’t cater to unaccompanied females, she takes matters into her own hands. She establishes the Colony Club, the first women’s club in Manhattan, where visiting women can stay overnight and dine with their friends; where they can discuss new ideas, take on social issues, and make their voices heard...Categorized as:
urban historical-fiction fiction historical mystery womens-fiction friendship 20th-century -
![The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor]()
The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsO'Connor's 1956 account of big-city politics, inspired by the career of longtime Boston Mayor James M. Curley, portrays its Irish-American political boss as a demagogue and a rogue who nonetheless deeply understands his constituents. The book was later made into a John Ford film staring Spencer Tracy... -
![Cockfighter by Charles Willeford, Jesse Pearson]()
Cockfighter by Charles Willeford, Jesse Pearson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe sport is cockfighting, and Frank Mansfield is the Cockfighter--a silent and fiercely contrary man whose obsession with winning will cost him almost everything. In this haunting, ribald, and percussively violent work, the author of the Hoke Mosely detective novels yields a floodlit vision of the cockpits and criminal underbelly of the rural South... -
![A Great Catch by Lorna Seilstad]()
A Great Catch by Lorna Seilstad
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt is the beginning of a new century at Lake Manawa Resort in Iowa, but some things never change. When 22-year-old Emily Graham's meddlesome aunts and grandmother take it upon themselves to find her a husband among the resort guests, the spunky suffragist is determined to politely decline each and every suitor. She has neither the time nor the need for a man in her busy life... -
![Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor]()
Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWorld War I has ended, and Ella, the oldest of the five sisters, who dreams of singing and dancing in the theater, is discovered by a Broadway talent scout. It seems that she will have her chance at a theatrical career after all, starting in vaudeville. But her thoughts are also on Jules, just returned from the War, and marriage... -
![In Love by Alfred Hayes]()
In Love by Alfred Hayes
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNew York in the 1950s. A man on a barstool is telling a story about a woman he met in a bar, early married and soon divorced, her child farmed out to her parents, good-looking, if a little past her prime. They’d gone out, they’d grown close, but as far as he was concerned it didn’t add up to much. He was a busy man. Then one day, out dancing, she runs into a rich awkward lovelorn businessman... -
![Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton]()
Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFUNERAL IN BERLIN is a spellbinding tale of espionage and its counter in which double and triple crosses are common. Berlin with its infamous wall symbolized the Cold War as did no other place. It was like theatre, but is war for real."Len Deighton has always been fascinated with the Cold War in a way that could be called scholarly.. -
![The Mirage by Naguib Mahfouz]()
The Mirage by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA stunning example of Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz’s psychological portraiture, The Mirage is the story of an intense young man who has been so dominated by his mother that her death sets him dangerously adrift in a world he cannot manage alone.Kamil Ru’ba is a tortured soul who hopes that writing the story of his life will help him gain control of it... -
![Fat City by Leonard Gardner]()
Fat City by Leonard Gardner
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFat City is a novel about the indestructibility of of hope, the anguish and comedy of the human condition. It tells the story of two young boxers out of Stockton, California: Ernie Munger and Billy Tully, one in his late teens, the other just turning thirty, whose seemingly parallel lives intersect for a time... -
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![Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg]()
Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages... -
![Band of Sisters by Cathy Gohlke]()
Band of Sisters by Cathy Gohlke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMaureen O'Reilly and her younger sister flee Ireland in hope of claiming the life promised to their father over twenty years before. After surviving the rigors of Ellis Island, Maureen learns that their benefactor, Colonel Wakefield, has died. His family, refusing to own his Civil War debt, casts her out... -
![Flatland / Sphereland by Edwin A. Abbott, Dionijs Burger Jr.]()
Flatland / Sphereland by Edwin A. Abbott, Dionijs Burger Jr.
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFlatland : the classic speculation on life in four dimensions; Sphereland : a continuing speculation on an expanding... -
![The City and the House: A Novel by Natalia Ginzburg]()
The City and the House: A Novel by Natalia Ginzburg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe city is Rome, the hub of Italian life and culture. The house is Le Margherite, a home where the sprawling cast of The City and the House is welcome. At the center of this lush epistolary novel is Lucrezia, mother of five and lover of many. Among her lovers—and perhaps the father of one of her children—is Giuseppe... -
![Grace of the Empire State by Gemma Tizzard]()
Grace of the Empire State by Gemma Tizzard
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this breathtaking debut novel, a daring dancer must take her twin brother’s place as a riveter high atop the in-progress Empire State Building to save her family from ruin. After the death of their father, it’s up to Grace O’Connell and her twin brother Patrick to support their family as the Great Depression takes its toll on New York City...Categorized as:
urban romance historical-fiction fiction historical audiobook female-mc 20th-century -
![The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglass Wallop]()
The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglass Wallop
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook of the Month Club edition with the BOMC pamphlet laid in. Book is near fine with a small bump at the upper right corner. Dust jacket is VG+ with corresponding bump at the upper right corner and fading to the spine... -
![Night Falls on the City by Sarah Gainham]()
Night Falls on the City by Sarah Gainham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA highly acclaimed bestseller when first published in the 1960s and now back in print, Night Falls On The City is an unforgettable portrait of wartime Vienna.Beautiful actress Julia Homburg and her politician husband Franz Wedeker embody all the enlightened brilliance of pre-war Vienna. But Franz is Jewish, and just across the border the tanks of the Nazi Reich are primed for the Anschluss... -
![Dance by Judy Cuevas, Judith Ivory]()
Dance by Judy Cuevas, Judith Ivory
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe dance of life is never danced alone... Years after fleeing to America—from an arranged marriage—Marie Du Gard returned to Paris a different woman. Slimmer and carefree, Marie vowed to protect her freedom at all costs—regardless of what her family or Parisian society thought... -
![Petersburg by Andrei Bely, Olga Matich]()
Petersburg by Andrei Bely, Olga Matich
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTaking place over a short, turbulent period in 1905, 'Petersburg' is a colourful evocation of Russia's capital—a kaleidoscope of images and impressions, an eastern window on the west, a symbol of the ambiguities and paradoxes of the Russian character...Categorized as:
urban fiction classics 20th-century historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism historical -
![The Tattoo Artist by Jill Ciment]()
The Tattoo Artist by Jill Ciment
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 1970, Sara Ehrenreich boards a small plane and returns to New York City with much fanfare; she will be featured in Life magazine. She has not left Ta'un'uu–the South Seas island upon which she and her husband, Philip, were marooned during a storm–in more than thirty years. Sara doesn’t know that man has landed on the moon. She has never seen a ballpoint pen... -
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![If It Ain't Love by Tamara Allen]()
If It Ain't Love by Tamara Allen
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the darkest days of the Great Depression, New York Times reporter Whit Stoddard has lost the heart to do his job and lives a lonely hand-to-mouth existence with little hope of recovery, until he meets Peter, a man in even greater need of new hope... -
![Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini]()
Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsRosie the Riveter meets A League of Their Own in New York Times bestselling novelist Jennifer Chiaverini’s lively and illuminating novel about the “munitionettes” who built bombs in Britain’s arsenals during World War I, risking their lives for the war effort and discovering camaraderie and courage on the soccer pitch.Early in the Great War, men left Britain’s factories in droves to enlist... -
![Bliss, Remembered: A Novel by Frank Deford]()
Bliss, Remembered: A Novel by Frank Deford
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn “entertaining and thought provoking” WWII-era novel of love, war, and sports, told with “a superb sense of character and period” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, American swimmer Sydney Stringfellow finds herself falling in love with Horst Gerhardt, a dashing young German... -
![223 Orchard Street by Renee Ryan]()
223 Orchard Street by Renee Ryan
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA heartening novel of the immigrant experience—and of redemption, self-sacrifice, and the power of hope when all else seems lost.Irish immigrant Katie O’Connor and her younger sister, Shannon, risk everything to journey to America at the turn of the twentieth century... -
![Escaping Dreamland by Charlie Lovett]()
Escaping Dreamland by Charlie Lovett
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLargely set in New York City in the early years of the 20th century, the novel follows the exploits of three writers working to create children's series (think Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys).Robert Parrish s childhood obsession with series books like the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift inspired him to become an author... -
![Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano]()
Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBased on true events, Elizabeth Street is a multigenerational saga that opens in an Italian village in the 1900's, and crosses the ocean to New York's Lower East Side. At the heart of the novel is Giovanna, whose family is targeted by the notorious Black Hand--the precursor to the Mafia...
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