Books like 'The First Ladies'
Readers who enjoyed The First Ladies by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century historical-fiction politics female-mc poc-mc black-mc
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The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne of his best-known works, Hughes wrote The Ways of White Folks while living in Carmel, California. In it, he shares acrid and poignant stories of blacks colliding--sometimes humorously, but often tragically--with whites throughout the 1920s and 1930s...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc politics 20th-century adult anthologies christian -
![Mary Kate by Nadine Dorries]()
Mary Kate by Nadine Dorries
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratings'Dorries is the queen of the saga and she is back with a heart-wrenching, captivating new novel' Bookish Jottings. Liverpool, 1963. Mary Kate Malone is seventeen and bitterly unhappy that her father has married again after the death of her mother. On her last day at school, she decides to leave home in Tarabeg on the west coast of Ireland and head for Liverpool to find her mother's sister... -
![The Lost Song of Paris by Sarah Steele]()
The Lost Song of Paris by Sarah Steele
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratings'For a moment she closed her eyes and imagined she was perched on the diving board at the Piscine Molitor, the sun beating down on her bare shoulders and the sound of Parisians at play beneath her. All she had to do was jump.'1941. Darkness descends over London as the sirens begin to howl and the bombs rain down. Devastation seeps from every crack of the city... -
![Break of Dawn by Rita Bradshaw]()
Break of Dawn by Rita Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEach day brings a new beginning... Her mother's death in childbirth leaves Sophy Hutton at the mercy of her cruel aunt and uncle, and her childhood is brutal. At sixteen, Sophy learns the shocking truth behind her birth and escapes to London to pursue a career as an actress, determined to put the past behind her... -
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![The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw]()
The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCan love survive when all is lost? England is at war, but nothing can dim land girl Esther Wynford's happiness at marrying the love of her life - fighter pilot Monty Grant. Their short honeymoon results in a baby, but on the birth of her daughter, Joy, Esther's world falls apart... -
![The Musician by Tess Thompson]()
The Musician by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFiona Barnes has a secret. One so big she's afraid it will destroy everything she holds dear. Not even her beloved music can save her.Li Wu has fought prejudice his entire life. But he's always felt safe and protected within the fierce love of the Barnes family. If only the object of his desire were free to be his, all would be well... -
![A Royal Visit to Victory Street by Pam Howes]()
A Royal Visit to Victory Street by Pam Howes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Amazon charts bestseller Pam Howes comes an emotional and uplifting saga about the power of family and a community trying to rebuild their lives after the terrible war that nearly destroyed everything…1956, Liverpool. With the shadow of the war looming over them and bomb craters littering the surrounding streets, hope feels far away for the residents of Victory Street... -
![Secrets of the Homefront Girls by Kate Thompson]()
Secrets of the Homefront Girls by Kate Thompson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA new series from bestselling author Kate Thompson.During World War Two, Churchill declared that 'beauty was duty'. But for the women working at the Yardley cosmetics factory in London's East End, it's friendship and family... -
![Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda, Donald Devenish Walsh]()
Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda, Donald Devenish Walsh
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn celebration of the 100th anniversary of Pablo Neruda's birth, New Directions is pleased to announce the reissue of a classic work in a timeless translation by Donald D. Walsh and fully bilingual. Residence on Earth is perhaps Neruda's greatest work. Upon its publication in 1973, this bilingual publication instantly became "a revolution... a classic by which masterpieces are judged" (Review)... -
![A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar]()
A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLibrarian note: Alternate cover edition of: 9780976395096Set on the eve of World War II, A Mind at Peace captures the anxieties of a Turkish family facing the difficult reality entrenched in the early republic, founded on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923... -
![Liverpool Daughter by Katie Flynn]()
Liverpool Daughter by Katie Flynn
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA brand new novel from the bestselling author Katie Flynn. This is book one in her brilliant series about a young girl trying to make her way in war-torn Liverpool. Liverpool, August 1940 As the Luftwaffe turns its attention to Liverpool, Shane Quinn decides to move his family back to the safety of Ireland. But his only child, the beautiful Dana, refuses point blank... -
![Midnight by Beverly Jenkins]()
Midnight by Beverly Jenkins
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn a time of peril, she fears nothing—except the forbidden passions of her heart. In Boston, revolution is in the wind—yet none would ever suspect Faith Kingston of treason. But under cover of darkness, the beautiful daughter of a Tory tavern owner becomes the notorious spy “Lady Midnight,” passing valuable secrets to the rebels...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook colonization -
![A Letter From Pearl Harbor by Anna Stuart]()
A Letter From Pearl Harbor by Anna Stuart
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNinety-eight-year-old Ginny McAllister’s last wish is for her granddaughter to complete a treasure hunt containing clues to her past. Clues that reveal her life as one of the first female pilots at Pearl Harbor, and a devastating World War Two secret... -
![Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone]()
Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDiane McKinney-Whetstone's lyrical first novel, Tumbling, vividly captures a tightly knit African-American neighborhood in South Philadelphia during the forties and fifties. Its central characters, Herbie and Noon, are a loving but unconventional couple whose marriage remains unconsummated for many years as Noon struggles to repossess her sexuality after a brutal attack in her past... -
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![Duet for Three Hands by Tess Thompson]()
Duet for Three Hands by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA story of forbidden love, lost dreams, and family turmoil. The first book in a new historical series from bestselling author Tess Thompson, Duet for Three Hands is equal parts epic love story, sweeping family saga, and portrait of days gone by. Set against the backdrop of the American South between 1928 and 1934, four voices blend to tell a tale of prejudice, fear, and love... -
![Sweet Songbird by Teresa Crane]()
Sweet Songbird by Teresa Crane
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFleeing their Suffolk home in the wake of disaster, Kitty Daniels and her brother Matt arrive in the stews of 19th-century Whitechapel with nothing but the clothes in which they stand and, to each, a talent. Kitty’s voice may hold the key to escape from the savage squalor of the slums; but Matt’s talent for thieving, whilst more immediately useful, plunges them both into deadly danger... -
![Secrets and Promises by Kate Jackson, Rosie Hendry]()
Secrets and Promises by Kate Jackson, Rosie Hendry
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPreviously published as Secrets and Promises by Kate Jackson A poignant and unputdownable story of a woman who must finally acknowledge the secret she has hidden for a lifetime. But will it cost her all she holds dear?England, 1944: With deadly doodlebugs terrorising London, Bessie Rushbrook agrees to give shelter to eight-year-old evacuee, Marigold, in her Norfolk home... -
![The Girl in the Photo by Catherine Hokin]()
The Girl in the Photo by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTheresienstadt Concentration Camp, 1944. ‘I have to go away, my darling. Please, be brave, stay alive, for me.’ Mama’s voice breaks. The little girl tries to stop the forbidden tears from falling, as the train takes her mother, and she is left alone…Berlin, six years later. Hanni Winter glows with pride as she shows her new husband around her first solo photography exhibition...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction 20th-century adult book coming-of-age fiction historical -
![Speedwell by Alex Martin]()
Speedwell by Alex Martin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSpeedwell Living in the fast lane tests everyone's limits Katy and Jem enter the 1920's with their future in the balance. How can they possibly make their new enterprise work? They must risk everything, including disaster, and trust their gamble will pay off... -
![The Last Card by Ruth Saberton]()
The Last Card by Ruth Saberton
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEscape to Cornwall this Christmas ... From the bestselling author of The Letter, Ruth Saberton’s beautiful new novella is the perfect seasonal blend of nostalgia, secrets and long-lost love, set against a backdrop of the stunning Cornish landscape. A lifetime apart. A love never forgotten... -
![The Autumn Posy by Michelle Vernal]()
The Autumn Posy by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsShe went looking for answers. She discovered a completely different era. In 1963 three-year-old Sabrina is a foundling left on the streets of Liverpool. She’s taken in and raised by Evelyn Flooks the feisty proprietor of Brides of Bold Street. Now a young woman, Sabrina has followed in her Aunt Evie’s footsteps and creates dream wedding dresses for the brides-to-be who cross their threshold... -
![The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsROSA’S PAST IS HER PANDORA’S BOX, AND THE LID IS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED … ‘If you lie down with dogs you’ll rise with fleas’ – Irish Proverb Rosa Sorenson’s conversation was often peppered with sayings from her homeland. It was these conversational clangers that gave her daughter Kitty the only clue as to a childhood her mother refused to speak of... -
![Peace Lily by Alex Martin]()
Peace Lily by Alex Martin
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPeace Lily is the sequel to DAFFODILS and book two of the 'Katherine Wheel' series. After the appalling losses suffered during World War One, three of its survivors long for peace, unaware that its aftermath will bring different, but still daunting, challenges. Katy trained as a mechanic during the war and cannot bear to return to the life of drudgery she left behind... -
![A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley]()
A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in a mythical backwater Southern town, A Different Drummer is the extraordinary story of Tucker Caliban, a quiet, determined descendant of an African chief who for no apparent reason destroys his farm and heads for parts unknown--setting off a mass exodus of the state's entire Black population...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc politics 20th-century adult alternate-history audiobook -
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![And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Stephanie Marie Thornton]()
And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Stephanie Marie Thornton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn intimate portrait of the life of Jackie O… Few of us can claim to be the authors of our fate. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy knows no other choice... -
![The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw]()
The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Young Lions is a vivid and classic novel that portrays the experiences of ordinary soldiers fighting World War II. Told from the points of view of a perceptive young Nazi, a jaded American film producer, and a shy Jewish boy just married to the love of his life, Shaw conveys, as no other novelist has since, the scope, confusion, and complexity of war...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc politics 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe]()
Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe returns to the Deep South Depression-era town of her scandalous Mama Ruby series, in this tale of a woman determined to have a respectable life--and she'll do anything to keep it...The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going... -
![Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik]()
Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA spellbinding debut novel about the trailblazing poet Forugh Farrokhzhad, who defied Iranian society to find her voice and her destiny “Remember the flight, for the bird is mortal.”—Forugh Farrokhzad All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh is told that Iranian daughters should be quiet and modest...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction poc-mc politics 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi]()
Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPerhaps the most important work in modern Iranian literature, this starkly beautiful novel examines the trials of an impoverished woman and her children living in a remote village in Iran, after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch.Lyrical yet unsparing, the novel examines her life as she contends with the political corruption, authoritarianism, and poverty of the village... -
![شرق المتوسط by عبد الرحمن منيف]()
شرق المتوسط by عبد الرحمن منيف
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsهل يمكن أن ترمم إرادة انسان لم تعد تربطه بالحياة رابطة؟ أنا ذاك الإنسان. لا لست انساناً، السجن في أيامه الولى حاول أن يقتل جسدي. لم أكن أتصور أني أحتمل كل ما فعلوه، لكن احتملت. كانت إرادتي هي وحدها التي تتلقى الضربات، وتردها نظرات غاضبة وصمتاً. وظللت كذلك. لم أرهب، لم أتراجع: الماء البارد، ليكن. التعليق لمدة سبعة أيام، ليكن. التهديد بالقتل والرصاص حولي تناثر، ليكن. كانت ارادتي هي التي تقاوم... -
![Almonds and Raisins by Maisie Mosco]()
Almonds and Raisins by Maisie Mosco
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe first in a trilogy about a Jewish family who flee Eastern Europe in the early 20th century and settle in Manchester, England. In the cold world of Manchester in 1905 the family Sandberg found the good things of life scarce and the hardships bitter as the chill northern winds. Sarah, the mother. A born survivor stranded in a land of strangers by the vicious tides of persecution... -
![Deadly Caress by Brenda Joyce]()
Deadly Caress by Brenda Joyce
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBrenda Joyce's New York Times best-selling novels have thrilled millions of readers. Now, in her latest Francesca Cahill novel, return to the lush mansions and teeming streets of New York City's Gilded Age, where intrigue and seduction lie on every corner... The year is 1902. The place is New York City... -
![Beneath a Blazing Sky by Amanda Hughes]()
Beneath a Blazing Sky by Amanda Hughes
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe dawning of the Twentieth Century and it is a world in chaos. Raised on Coney Island among scoundrels, cheats, and dreamers, Piper Albrecht is apprenticed to violence at an early age. Not until she is rescued by her aunt and moves to the elegant Upper East Side of Manhattan does she experience a different life, the life of a well-educated, forward-thinking young woman...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc romance historical fiction ww1 action-adventure 20th-century -
![Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson]()
Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“No one except perhaps Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker“A swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty. Theatergoers who have followed August Wilson’s career will find in Gem a touchstone for everything else he has written.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times“Wilson’s juiciest material... -
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![Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright]()
Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet in the American Deep South, each of the powerful novellas collected here concerns an aspect of the lives of black people in the postslavery era, exploring their resistance to white racism and oppression. Published in 1938, this was the first book from Wright, who would continue on to worldwide fame as the author of the novels Native Son and Black Boy... -
![Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado]()
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne bright spring day in 1925, Gabriela arrives from the poverty-stricken backwoods of Brazil to the lively seaside port of Ilhéus amid a flock of filthy migrant workers. Though wearing rags and covered in dirt, she attracts the attention of Nacib, a cafe owner, who is in desperate need of a new cook. So dire is his situation that he hires the disheveled girl...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction poc-mc politics 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Third Life Of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker]()
The Third Life Of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlice Walker's first book recounts the lives of three generations growing up in Georgia, where the author herself grew up. Grange Copeland is a black tenant farmer who is forced to leave his land and family in search of a better future. He heads North but discovers that the racism and poverty he experienced in the South are, in fact, everywhere... -
![The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell]()
The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn July 1913, twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements had seen enough of the world to know that it was unfair. She’s spent her whole life in the copper-mining town of Calumet, Michigan where men risk their lives for meager salaries—and had barely enough to put food on the table and clothes on their backs...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics female-mc fiction historical audiobook feminism literary-fiction -
![The Short Stories by Langston Hughes]()
The Short Stories by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis collection of forty-seven stories written between 1919 and 1963--the most comprehensive available--showcases Langston Hughes's literary blossoming and the development of his personal and artistic concerns. Many of the stories assembled here have long been out of print, and others never before collected...Categorized as:
black-mc poc-mc fiction classics anthologies 20th-century literary-fiction historical -
![News from the Empire by Fernando del Paso]()
News from the Empire by Fernando del Paso
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOne of the acknowledged masterpieces of Mexican literature, Fernando del Paso's News from the Empire is a powerful and encyclopedic novel of the tragic lives of Maximilian and his wife, Carlota, the short-lived Emperor and Empress of Mexico...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics fiction historical 20th-century literary-fiction book adult -
![The Fig Orchard by Layla Fiske]()
The Fig Orchard by Layla Fiske
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe unforgettable story of a woman splintered by war and cultural mores, desperately struggling to hold her family together, THE FIG ORCHARD is a rich, compelling epic of love, heroism, family and empowerment... -
![Confessions in B-Flat by Donna Hill]()
Confessions in B-Flat by Donna Hill
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEssence bestselling author Donna Hill brings us an emotional love story set against the powerful backdrop of the civil rights movement in New York City...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc 20th-century adult audiobook book enemies-to-lovers -
![Mine to Tell by Colleen L. Donnelly]()
Mine to Tell by Colleen L. Donnelly
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAnnabelle Crouse is determined to reopen her great-grandmother's boarded-up house--and her shunned life. Many years earlier, after an unexplained absence, Julianne was relegated to a separate home by a rigidly unforgiving husband, and the Crouse women have suffered the disgrace of her assumed guilt ever since... -
![The Italian Island by Daniela Sacerdoti]()
The Italian Island by Daniela Sacerdoti
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMy darling girl, don’t make the same mistakes as I did. Now that my life is coming to an end, take your grandmother’s bracelet, unlock the secret of our family history, and discover who you are…Twenty-year-old Annie arrives on the Sicilian island of Galatea carrying nothing but grief for the father she just lost in her heart and the weight of the mystery she just inherited on her shoulders... -
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![The Unlocked Path: A Novel by Janis Robinson Daly]()
The Unlocked Path: A Novel by Janis Robinson Daly
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Unlocked Path presents and embraces a "New Woman" of the early 20th century: educated, career-minded, independent. In 1897 Philadelphia, after witnessing her aunt's suicide, Eliza Edwards vows to find ways to help and heal. Rejecting her mother's wishes for her society debut, Eliza enters medical college at a time when only five percent of doctors are female... -
![Prisoner of Love by Jean Genet]()
Prisoner of Love by Jean Genet
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsStarting in 1970, Jean Genet—petty thief, prostitute, modernist master—spent two years in the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. Always an outcast himself, Genet was drawn to this displaced people, an attraction that was to prove as complicated for him as it was enduring... -
![With Hope by Dorothy Garlock]()
With Hope by Dorothy Garlock
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOklahoma, 1932: Trouble seems to be rolling up like the dust on the dry yellow horizon beyond Henry Ann's farm. Her father is dead and her two rebellious half-siblings are now her responsibility. Then Tom Dolan, a new neighbor, comes into her life bringing both a ray of hope and burdens of his own. Before they can fully love each other, tragedy strikes. Tom is suspected of murder.. -
![Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life by Alice Childress]()
Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic's Life by Alice Childress
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLike One of the Family, which provides historical context for Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help, is comprised of a series of conversations between Mildred, a black domestic, and her friend Marge. They create a vibrant picture of the life of a black working woman in New York in the 1950s...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc female-mc black-mc fiction classics social-commentary historical -
![I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots by Susan Straight]()
I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots by Susan Straight
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBeginning in the late 1950s, this novel tells the story of Marietta Cook, a tall girl growing up in Pine Gardens, a Gullah-speaking village in South Carolina. When Marietta's mother dies, she heads to Charleston in search of her uncle - only to find a lover and return pregnant with twins two years later... -
![The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies by Leslie Johansen Nack]()
The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies by Leslie Johansen Nack
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNew York 1915, Marion Davies is a shy eighteen-year-old beauty dancing on the Broadway stage when she meets William Randolph Hearst and finds herself captivated by his riches, passion and desire to make her a movie star. Following a whirlwind courtship, she learns through trial and error to live as Hearst’s mistress when a divorce from his wife proves impossible...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc fiction historical golden-age-mystery 20th-century book adult
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