Welcome to Reading With Libraries!
We’re so happy to have you join us on the EIGHTH SEASON of our book group and Reader’s advisory podcast!
We have more genres to discuss and new books to recommend. We always enjoy our book group podcast, and we hope you do, too!
Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. At CMLE, we work with all types of libraries.
We are starting our new season off with a special pop culture episode! The historical romance Outlander begins its 6th season on the Starz network and we’re sharing some books that you might enjoy along with the show!
TV Guide offers this description of the upcoming Outlander season:
“The last time we saw the Frasers, Bree (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin) went through the time portal only to end up right back in 18th century North Carolina. When they returned to Fraser’s Ridge, they discovered that Claire (Caitriona Balfe) had been kidnapped. Roger joined the rescue mission with Jamie (Sam Heughan), and while the search party found Claire alive, she had been through unthinkable trauma at the hands of her captors.
Claire reunited with her family and returned to the Ridge to begin the healing process, but it’s clear that what happened to her at the end of the season will have a lasting impact on her going forward. Season 6 of Outlander will be based on the sixth book in Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Jamie will still be under pressure to unite the men on his land in the name of King George as the Revolutionary War looms ahead, but even more pressing in the upcoming season will be the newspaper clipping from the future that brought Bree back to the past in the first place to warn her parents they are fated to die in a horrible fire.”
We have more to discuss, so let’s settle in and get to the fun part: the book discussion! This week we are taking a quick look at historical fiction books set around the time of the Revolutionary War, to get into the setting of the new Outlander season.
Sit back with a beverage you will enjoy, and let’s share some books you might enjoy. We always enjoy hosting these book groups with you, and want you to have everything you need for the best experience!
And of course, if you are in a library, you can add these books to your collection, or use our suggestions as a place to start in setting up a display for your community members! Do you want to talk about some materials or programming ideas? Check out our Discord channel, talk to us on Twitter, or just send us an email! We are here to share ideas across libraries.
Our Book Discussion
Let’s talk books! As always, we list all these titles on our show notes page and give you links to Amazon.com. Clicking a link for further information is great – and if you buy something while you are there, Amazon sends us a little of the profits they make from everyone’s purchases! Thanks!
The Traitor’s Wife by Alison Pataki
Everyone knows Benedict Arnold—the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British—as history’s most notorious turncoat. Many know Arnold’s co-conspirator, Major John André, who was apprehended with Arnold’s documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it.
Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold’s age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride’s beauty and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the handsome British spy John André. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies, grows ever more disillusioned with his hero, Washington, and the American cause. Together with her former love and her disaffected husband, Peggy hatches the plot to deliver West Point to the British and, in exchange, win fame and fortune for herself and Arnold.
Told from the perspective of Peggy’s maid, whose faith in the new nation inspires her to intervene in her mistress’s affairs even when it could cost her everything, The Traitor’s Wife brings these infamous figures to life, illuminating the sordid details and the love triangle that nearly destroyed the American fight for freedom.”
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
“It is December of 1792. Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered—a white man dressed like a Native American: Nathaniel Bonner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, Elizabeth soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as with her own family. Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portait of an emerging America.”
My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner
Nancy Turner burst onto the literary scene with her hugely popular novels These Is My Words, Sarah’s Quilt, and The Star Garden. Now, Turner has written the novel she was born to write, this exciting and heartfelt story of a woman struggling to find herself during the tumultuous years preceding the American Revolution.
The year is 1729, and Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family in Jamaica, and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister are sold into slavery in colonial New England and taught the trade of spinning and weaving. When Resolute finds herself alone in Lexington, Massachusetts, she struggles to find her way in a society that is quick to judge a young woman without a family. As the seeds of rebellion against England grow, Resolute is torn between following the rules and breaking free. Resolute’s talent at the loom places her at the center of an incredible web of secrecy that helped drive the American Revolution. Heart-wrenching, brilliantly written, and packed to the brim with adventure, My Name is Resolute is destined to be an instant classic.
The Rebellion of Jane Clarke by Sally Cabot Gunning
From the author of The Widow’s War and Bound comes a compelling new novel about a young woman’s struggle to decide where her loyalties lie – with family or with forbidden love; with royalist tradition or upstart independence – on the eve of the Revolutionary War.
It’s 1769. The Winslow and Clarke families have been feuding over mill stream rights for generations, but Jane Clarke has managed to stay comfortably aloof, neither doubting her father’s claims nor getting overly involved. But when someone hacks the ears off Mr. Winslow’s horse, everyone in town believes that Mr. Clarke is the culprit, and Jane’s worldview and trust in her father are turned upside down.
So when Phineas Pain asks for her hand in marriage after securing her father’s blessing, Jane says no and is sent to Boston as punishment to care for her spinster aunt. But when Jane arrives in Boston, the only thing she can think about is the conflict in her life – father vs. daughter, loyalist vs. rebel, Winslow vs. Clarke – that is now complicated further by her seemingly unbalanced aunt, the kind British soldiers and the local townspeople who taunt them, and her beloved brother who is fervently channeling his own frustrations into rebel activity.
As political tensions mount, Jane finds herself deeply embroiled in the impending war and as a witness to the Boston Massacre, and she comes to question the seeming truth.
Blind Spot by Jane Kamensky
Stewart Jameson, a Scottish portrait painter fleeing his debtors in Edinburgh, has washed up on the British Empire’s far shores—in the city of Boston, lately seized with the spirit of liberty. Eager to begin anew, he advertises for an apprentice, but the lad who comes knocking is no lad at all. Fanny Easton is a fallen woman from Boston’s most prominent family who has disguised herself as a boy to become Jameson’s defiant and seductive apprentice.
Written with wit and exuberance by accomplished historians, Blindspot is an affectionate send-up of the best of eighteenth-century fiction. It celebrates the art of the Enlightenment and the passion of the American Revolution by telling stories of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary time.
One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale (graphic novel for kids)
“I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” These are the famous last words of Nathan Hale, a spy for the American rebels in the Revolutionary War.
But who was this Nathan Hale? And how did the rebels defeat an army that was bigger, better, stronger, and more heavily armed than they were? One Dead Spy has answers to these questions, as well as stories of ingenuity, close calls with danger, and acts of heroism in the American War of Independence.
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales are graphic novels that tell the thrilling, shocking, gruesome, and TRUE stories of American history. Read them all—if you dare!
Conclusion:
Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries! It’s always better when you are here with us, enjoying the book group. And we hope you enjoyed a detour into the pop culture world! If you watch the new season of Outlander or read any good books, let us know your thoughts!
Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!
Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!