1800’s M to Z
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Place of Setting | Author | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Mexico | Canas, Isabel | The Hacienda | Haunted house |
Mexico | Moreno-Garcia, Silvia | The Daughter of Doctor Moreau | Young woman helps father create human-animal hybrids |
Mexico | Velastegui, Cecilia | Lucia Zarate | Based on the true story of the world’s smallest woman |
Persia (Iran) | Levy Mossanen, Dora | Courtesan | Three generations of women, starting with a courtesan to the Shah |
Puerto Rico | Santiago, Esmeralda | Conquistadora | The Spanish conquerors of Puerto Rico |
Russia | McMahon, Katharine | The Rose of Sebastopol | Two brave women during the Crimean War |
South Africa | McVeigh, Jennifer | The Fever Tree | A destitute woman leaves London for South Africa and a better life |
Turkey | Kazan, Frances | Halide’s Gift | Tradition clashes with freedom for young Turkish women |
United States | Agee, Jonis | The River Wife | Strong women in the 19th and 20th century in rural Missouri |
United States | Aldrich, Bess | A Lantern in Her Hand | Frontier life in Nebraska |
United States | Allende, Isabel | Daughter of Fortune | A Chilean woman moves to California during the Gold Rush |
United States | Barton, Emily | Brookland | A woman business owner dreams of building a bridge to connect Brooklyn to Manhattan |
United States | Beams, Clare | The Illness Lesson | Strange illness at a women’s school in Massachusetts |
United States | Benjamin, Melanie | The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb | Based on the life of Lavinia Warren Bump |
United States | Benton, Janet | Lilli de Jong | Pregnant and homeless Quaker woman chooses to keep her child |
United States | Bernard, April | Miss Fuller | Based on the life of Margaret Fuller |
United States | Bodden, Marlen Suyapa | The Wedding Gift | Two half-sisters: one a slave, and the other a slave owner. |
United States | Brenegan, Debra | Shame the Devil | Based on the life of writer Fanny Fern |
United States | Brown, Rosellen | The Lake on Fire | Jewish-American girl in Chicago |
United States | Brown, Rita Mae | High Hearts | A woman disguises herself as a man to fight in the Civil War |
United States | Butler, Octavia | Kindred | Time travel – modern day African-American woman kidnapped back to slavery |
United States | Chance, Megan | Bone River | Woman ethnologist in Washington Territory |
United States | Chevalier, Tracy | The Last Runaway | A Quaker woman gets involved with the Underground Railroad in Ohio |
United States | Clarke, Breena | Angels Make Their Hope Here | A runaway slave finds refuge in an interracial community in New Jersey |
United States | Courter, Gay | The Midwife | A Jewish midwife in New York |
United States | Deloria, Ella Cara | Waterlily | Daily life for a Sioux mother and daughter |
United States | Deon, Natashia | Grace | A baby survives the death of her escaped-slave mother |
United States | Donoghue, Emma | Frog Music | 1876 — a woman in San Francisco races to find the murderer of her friend |
United States | Dray, Stephanie and Laura Kamoie | America’s First Daughter | Based on the life of Patsy Jefferson, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson |
United States | Dykeman, Wilma | The Tall Woman | An Appalachian woman’s life during and after the Civil War |
United States | Eichmann, Mim | A Sparrow Alone | Coming of age in 1890s Colorado |
United States | Fowler, Karen Joy | Sister Noon | Rebellious and mysterious women in Gilded Age San Francisco |
United States | Gibbons, Kaye | On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon | Civil War era — plantation owner’s daughter nurses soldiers |
United States | Gilbert, Elizabeth | The Signature of All Things | A woman botanist explores evolution |
United States | Greenidge, Kaitlyn | Libertie | One of the first Black women doctors in the US |
United States | Glancy, Diane | Pushing the Bear | The Cherokee Trail of Tears |
United States | Glancy, Diane | Stone Heart | Based on the life of Sacajawea |
United States | Herring, Peggy | Anna, Like Thunder | A Russian astronomer is stranded with a Native tribe |
United States | Higginbotham, Susan | Hanging Mary | Based on the life of Mary Surratt, convicted as an accomplice to Lincoln’s assassination |
United States | Howe, LeAnne | Savage Conversations | Mary Todd Lincoln’s visions of a “Savage Indian” |
United States | Humphreys, Josephine | Nowhere Else on Earth | Daughter of a Lumbee Indian mother and a Scotsman gets caught up in the Civil War |
United States | Jiles, Paulette | News of the World | A 10-year-old girl rescued from Indian captivity travels in Texas with an elderly man. |
United States | Kasai, Kirsten Imani | The House of Erzulie | Vodou and insanity in Louisiana |
United States | Kidd, Sue Monk | The Invention of Wings | A female slave and her 11-year-old “owner” grow up together. |
United States | Kondazian, Karen | The Whip | Inspired by Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst, who lived as a man in California |
United States | Lane, Rose Wilder | Let the Hurricane Roar | A pioneer couple in South Dakota |
United States | Mackey, Mary | The Widow’s War | A young woman goes in search of her husband during the Civil War |
United States | Martin, Valerie | Property | 1828, Louisiana — a white woman’s slave becomes her husband’s mistress |
United States | McCabe, Erin Lindsay | I Shall Be Near to You | A woman disguises herself as a man to fight in the Civil War |
United States | McKinney-Whetstone, Diane | Lazaretto | Two black women in post-Civil War Philadelphia |
United States | Moore, Elizabeth | The Truth and the Life | Two women — one in the 1800’s and one in the present — in the New Jersey Pine Barrens |
United States | Morrison, Toni | Beloved | Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. An escaped slave struggles with past memories. |
United States | Naslund, Sena Jeter | Ahab’s Wife | Adventures of the wife of Captain Ahab of Moby Dick |
United States | Newman, Janis Cooke | Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln | Based on the life of Mary Todd Lincoln |
United States | Obreht, Tea | Inland | Frontierswoman in Arizona |
United States | Oliveira, Robin | My Name Is Mary Sutter | During the Civil War, a midwife wants to become a surgeon |
United States | Perkins-Valdez, Dolen | Balm | Two women — one black, one white — with healing gifts they must claim after the Civil War |
United States | Perkins-Valdez, Dolen | Wench | 1850s – four slave women, all mistresses to their masters, meet at a resort in Ohio and must decide whether to escape slavery |
United States | Rhodes, Jewell Parker | Voodoo Dreams | New Orleans — based on voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau |
United States | Schmidt, Sarah | See What I Have Done | Lizzie Borden’s story from four perspectives |
United States | Sheehan, Jacqueline | The Comet’s Tale | Based on the life of Sojourner Truth |
United States | Smiley, Jane | The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton | A strong-willed woman in pre-Civil War Kansas |
United States | Sontag, Susan | In America | Polish immigrants form a utopian commune in California |
United States | Svoboda, Teresa | Bohemian Girl | A young woman makes her own way through the American west |
United States | Tademy, Lalita | Cane River | Four generations of African American women |
United States | Ulleseit, Linda | Under the Almond Trees | Three generations of women in California |
United States | Vreeland, Susan | Clara and Mr. Tiffany | Woman stained-glass designer during Chicago World’s Fair |
United States | Walker, Margaret | Jubilee | Based on the life of the author’s great-grandmother, born a slave |
United States | Williams, Sherley Anne | Dessa Rose | A runaway slave and the white woman who hides her |
United States | Yan, Geling | The Lost Daughter of Happiness | A Chinese-American prostitute in San Francisco |
United States | Zimmerman, Jean | Savage Girl | A feral young woman is adopted by a wealthy NY couple |
Wales | O’Connor, Varley | The Welsh Fasting Girl | Farm girl — miracle or abused? |
West Indies (Virgin Islands) | Hoffman, Alice | The Marriage of Opposites | Based on the life of Rachel, the mother of painter Camille Pissaro |