Historical fiction not set during WWII - Extreme Reader 2025Like this list

30 items

• All You Have to Do

  Allen, Autumn,

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  Intertwining the stories of two Black students decades apart, this compelling and honest novel follows Kevin and Gibran as they navigate similar forms of insidious racism while discovering who they want to be instead of what society tells…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bridge Across the Sky

  Ng, Freeman,

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  In 1924 at the Angel Island Immigration Station, teen Chinese immigrant Soo Tai Go is awakened to the political realities of his new home as he waits to find out if he and his family will be allowed into the country.

• By Any Other Name

  Cotter, Erin,

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  In London, 1593, sixteen-year-old Will Hughes makes his living on Shakespeare's stage, but after the famous playwright Christopher Marlowe is murdered, he teams up with young Lord James Bloomsbury, and together the two hunt the elusive…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Carolina Built

  Alexander, Kianna,

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  Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own, and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married, and ready to follow her dreams. As the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Copper Sun

  Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills)

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  Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

• A Crane Among Wolves

  Hur, June,

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  In a kingdom gripped by turmoil, privileged seventeen-year-old Iseul defies danger to rescue her sister Suyeon from the absolute power of tyrannical King Yeonsan, while Prince Daehyun, desperate to overthrow his despotic half-brother,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Crook Manifesto

  Whitehead, Colson, 1969-

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  It s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

  Chang-Eppig, Rita,

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  When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Downstairs Girl

  Lee, Stacey (Stacey Heather),

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  1890, Atlanta. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Eleanor & Park

  Rowell, Rainbow

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  Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

• Four Treasures of the Sky

  Zhang, Jenny,

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  Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Frederick Douglass

  Morrison, Sidney (Novelist),

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  Sidney Morrison has skillfully written an epic novel of historical fiction based on the life and times of Fredrick Douglass

• The Frozen River

  Lawhon, Ariel,

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  A gripping historical mystery based on the real-life diary entries of Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

• Homegoing

  Gyasi, Yaa,

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  Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Island Witch

  Jayatissa, Amanda,

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  Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father's craft have…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Kitchen House

  Grissom, Kathleen

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  Lavinia, an orphaned seven-year-old white indentured servant, arrives in 1791 to work in the kitchen house at Tall Oaks, a Tidewater, Va., tobacco plantation owned by Capt. James Pyke. Belle, the captain's illegitimate half-white daughter…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Last Night at the Telegraph Club

  Lo, Malinda,

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  Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Lincoln Highway

  Towles, Amor,

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  In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Million to One

  Jaigirdar, Adiba,

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  Josefa is an unapologetic and charismatic thief, who loves the thrill of the chase. She has her eye on her biggest mark yet--the RMS Titanic, the most luxurious ship in the world. But she isn't interested in stealing from wealthy…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mrs. Everything

  Weiner, Jennifer,

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  Growing up in 1950s Detroit, Jo and Bethie Kaufman's roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who…Read moreRead more of this annotation