A fast-paced, dynamic account of the race to cross the Atlantic, and the larger-than-life personalities of the aviators who captured the world's attention In 1919, a prize of $25,000 was offered to the first aviator to cross the Atlantic in either direction between France and America. Although it was one of the most coveted prizes in the world, it sat unclaimed (not without efforts) for eight long years, until the spring of 1927. It was then, during five incredibly tense weeks, that one of those magical windows in history opened, when there occurred a nexus of technology, innovation, character, and spirit that led so many contenders (from different parts of the world) to all suddenly be on the cusp of the exact same achievement at the exact same time. Atlantic Fever is about the race; it is a milestone in American history whose story has never been fully told. Richard Byrd, Noel Davis, Stanton Wooster, Clarence Chamberlin, Charles Levine, Rene; Fonck, Charles Nungesser, and François Coli--all had equal weight in the race with Charles Lindbergh. Although the story starts in September 1926 with the crash of the first competitor, or even further back with the 1919 establishment of the prize, its heart is found in a short period, those five weeks from April 14 to May 21, 1927, when the world held its breath and the aviators met their separate fates in the air.
*525 pages
*Adult/Young Adult
*5 copies available
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.
*578 pages
*Teen
*16 copies available
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Meeting through mutual friends in Chicago, Hadley is intrigued by brash "beautiful boy" Ernest Hemingway, and after a brief courtship and small wedding, they take off for Paris, where Hadley makes a convincing transformation from an overprotected child to a game and brave young woman who puts up with impoverished living conditions and shattering loneliness to prop up her husband's career.
*324 pages
*Adult/Young Adult
*20 copies available (+eBooks and audio versions available)
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
In the spring of 1929, eighteen-year-old Cordelia Grey and her stage-struck friend Letty Larkspur run away from their small Ohio town to seek their fortunes in New York City and soon find themselves drawn into situations and relationships, particularly with the dazzling Astrid Donal, that change their lives forever.
*389 pages
*Young Adult/Teen
*15 copies available (+ eBooks and audio versions available)
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty A novel about the friendship between an adolescent, pre-movie-star Louise Brooks, and the 36-year-old woman who chaperones her to New York City for a summer, in 1922, and how it changes both their lives.
*371 pages
*Young Adult
*78 copies available (+eBooks and audio versions available)
Harlem Redux by Persia Walker
A murder mystery set among the black bourgeoisie, it is also the heady tale of a bygone era ... compelling family intrigue and a full, vibrant portrait of that storied era when Harlem's pulse was the rhythm of black America.
*311 pages
*Adult
*1 copy available
The Runaway by Glen Huser In 1923 Alberta, Leroy "Doodlebug" Barnstable runs away from his aunt and abusive cousins and finds work with a travelling Chautauqua show.
*147 pages
*Teen
*3 copies available
Passing by Nella Larsen
Married to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in Harlem's vibrant society of the 1920s, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence — until a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been "passing for white." Passing offers fascinating psychological insights into issues of race and gender.
*182 pages
*Young Adult
*1 copy available
Monkey Town : The Summer of Scopes Trial by Ronald Kidd
When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small Tennessee town by arresting a local high school teacher for teaching about evolution, the resulting 1925 Scopes trial prompts fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.
*259 pages
*Teen
*5 copies available
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
In this dazzling novel, the book that established his international reputation, Roberto Bolaño tells the story of two modern-day Quixotes--the last survivors of an underground literary movement, perhaps of literature itself--on a tragicomic quest through a darkening, entropic universe: our own.
*648 pages
*Adult/Young Adult
*0 copies available
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen The year is 1918. America is fighting a war on foreign soil that has divided the nation. Meanwhile, rumors of the spread of the deadliest epidemic ever are causing panic on the home front. The uninfected town of Commonwealth, Washington, votes to quarantine itself, and two young friends are asked to guard the town entrance and keep strangers out.
*394 pages
*Young Adult
*5 copies available
True Detective by Max Collins
When Mayor Cermak’s “Hoodlum Squad” brings Heller along on a raid with no instructions but to keep his mouth shut and his gun handy, he becomes an unwitting, unwilling part of a hit on Al Capone’s successor, Frank Nitti. As a result, Heller quits the force to become a private eye; his first job — head off a nation-shaking political assassination in Miami Beach. With the Chicago World’s Fair as a backdrop, Heller encounters a Ragtime array of crooks and clients, including Al Capone, George Raft, “Dutch” Reagan, and FDR himself.
Rich in riveting plot turns, including a heartbreaking romance, True Detective is one of the most highly entertaining and unlikely coming-of-age stories written. That’s why mystery fans and critics alike rank the history thriller True Detective at the top of their lists — and why the book swept up a Shamus Award for the best novel from the Private Eye Writers of America.
*358 pages
*Young Adult
*1 copy available
Whiskey River by Loren Estleman
In 1931 Detroit, the era of Prohibition, the booming auto industry, and the Mob, newspaperman Connie Minor chronicles the rise and fall of gangster Jack Dance, a story that makes him a witness of and key player in a dangerous game.
*262 pages
*Young Adult
*1 copy available
One Sunday Morning by Amy Ephron
Amy Ephron navigates the social contradictions of New York society, a world in which freedom was celebrated even while Prohibition and the strictest social conventions were in force. She brings to life this time and place through the stories of five socialites whose lives are irrevocably changed because of gossip, indiscretion, secrets, and betrayal. Four women at a bridge party in the elegant Gramercy Park Hotel see a beautiful young woman, whom they all know, leaving a nearby hotel with a man who is not her husband. The sight of twenty-year-old Lizzie Carswell with Billy Holmes is shocking and potentially ruinous, and though they do not know the whole story and despite their mutual promise to keep what they've seen to themselves, it is only a matter of time before one of them talks -- with heartbreaking consequences for them all.
*213 pages
*Young Adult
*6 copies available
The Jazz Bird by Craig Holden
Cincinnati, 1927: a sensational murder trial captivates the nation. At stake: the lives of three men. There's the defendant, lawyer, and legendary bootlegger George Remus, whose crime of passion may seal his fate. Against him is the ambitious son of a former president, whose future rests on this monumental case. And then there's the federal agent whose obsession with taking Remus down started the entire tragedy. Three men separated by law and fate, but connected by something more seductive than either justice or corruption -- the impassioned, untamed heart of an enigmatic woman known as the Jazz Bird. Based on a true story, "The Jazz Bird" is an exquisitely written novel of love, betrayal, money, and power in an age of American innocence.
*314 pages
*Young Adult
*7 copies
7,000 Clams by Lee Irby
Unlucky bootlegger Frank Hearn is looking for the big score, but he'll have to contend with hustlers, mobsters, Babe Ruth, and a certain dangerous blonde to do so. In his fiction debut, Irby takes readers on a wild ride through the Roaring '20s, complete with colorful characters, sizzling style, and bathtub gin.
*355 pages
*Young Adult
*1 copy
City of Slaughter: A Novel by Cynthia Drew
Fourteen-year-old Carsie Akselrod and her younger sister, Lilia, flee the Russian pogroms to live with relatives on New York's teeming, dangerous Lower East Side. Like many Jewish immigrant Americans in the early 1900s, the girls go to work in sweatshops, eventually taking jobs at the ill-fated Triangle Waist Company, scene of the infamous 1911 industrial fire that claimed the lives of 146 garment workers. Set against Tammany Hall politics and gangland crime, City of Slaughter is a tale of a woman torn by family, faith, and her drive to rise from poverty, succeed in business, and claim her place in New York's world of fashion and society.
*312 pages
*0 copies
Vengeance is Sacred by Peter Healy
Young Paolo forges an unforgettable journey of fortitude, intrigue, and love as he eludes the retribution of the Camorra crime syndicate. But much more is at stake than just Paolo's humble life . . . for he has been bestowed with a mysterious family legacy that is now in danger to end! Fleeing to the New World in 1909, Paolo struggles on his own until he meets the beautiful Maria, a bold, fiery, labor activist. The dauntless couple become involved in the dangerous garment workers' strike in New York City, but it is the ensuing fire at the Triangle Waist Company that proves to be the ultimate challenge of Paolo's paranormal ways . . . and a true test of his courage as a man. However, through it all, a perilous debt still remains from Paolo's troubled past and those who lie in wait seek to honor their sacred code of vengeance.
*347 pages
*2 copies
