Welcome Readers!
This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on historical fiction. Our main title for December is Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:
Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a searing and compassionate new novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench
Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women shape their destinies, to make their own choices for their lives and bodies.
But when her first week on the job takes her along a dusty country road to a worn-down one-room cabin, Civil is shocked to learn that her new patients, Erica and India, are children—just eleven and thirteen years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits, that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica, and their family into her heart. Until one day she arrives at their door to learn the unthinkable has happened, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.
Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace, and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. That must not be forgotten.
Because history repeats what we don’t remember.
Inspired by true events and brimming with hope, Take My Hand is a stirring exploration of accountability and redemption. – Berkley
Looking for some other historical fiction titles? Try any of the following.
- A Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner
- Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
- Daughters of Shandong by Eve J Chung
- One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter
- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
- The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian
- The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
- To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
- When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!