Staff Picks - Historical Fiction

Their Eyes Were Watching God

By: Zora Neale Hurston
Narrated by: Ruby Dee
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

“This is easily the best performance of an audiobook I've listened to, ever. Ruby Dee is so comfortable inside the lives and words of Janie and her friends and husbands and everyone in this masterpiece. Read more

Commonwealth

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Hope Davis
Length: 10 hours 33 minutes

“Patchett leaves behind the exotic locales and intricate plots of State of Wonder and Bel Canto for an even darker and more difficult place to navigate -- the interior of a blended family over the course of several decades. While more domestic than many of her previous novels, Commonwealth offers plenty of intrigue and surprises as Patchett... Read more

Midnight Blue

A Novel

By: Simone van der Vlugt
Narrated by: Imogen Church
Length: 8 hours 48 minutes

From Simone Van Der Vlugt comes her European bestselling novel of a young woman's rise as a painter in Holland's Golden Age—perfect for readers of The Miniaturist, Tulip Fever, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.Amsterdam 1654: against the backdrop of Holland's Golden Age, a dangerous secret threatens to destroy a young widow's new life.Following the... Read more

The Huntress

A Novel

By: Kate Quinn
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
Length: 19 hours 3 minutes

“A Russian night witch and a British war correspondent turned Nazi hunter join forces to track a ruthless assassin in The Huntress, the latest book by Kate Quinn. From the pre-war wilds of the Soviet Union to the streets of a war-torn Germany to the bustle of Boston, Quinn masterfully mixes the past with a post-war present, and it’s phenomenal.... Read more

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

An Oprah’s Book Club Novel

By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton & Prentice Onayemi
Length: 29 hours 48 minutes

“Jeffers is an award-winning poet and Du Bois scholar from her days at Bard College, and she harnesses the power of poetry, deeply researched history, and compelling narrative to craft a multi-generational saga of a Southern Black family. POWERFUL! Read more

The Heart's Invisible Furies

A Novel

By: John Boyne
Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
Length: 21 hours 9 minutes

“This is the novel John Boyne was born to write: A brilliant book of identity and redemption, both heartbreaking and humorous, intimate and expansive. Cyril Avery has been constantly reminded he doesn't belong, first by his adopted parents, then by the church and his country. As we follow him on his journey to acceptance, we are shown the cruelty... Read more

Winter Sisters

By: Robin Oliveira
Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
Length: 14 hours 35 minutes

“Stunning. . . Oliveira writes with feeling.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“[An] engrossing story. . . that feels utterly timely.”
—People, “The Best New Books”

New York, 1879: An epic blizzard descends on Albany, devastating the city. When the snow finally settles, two newly orphaned girls are missing. Determined not to give up hope, Dr. Mary... Read more

The Giver of Stars

Reese's Book Club (A Novel)

By: Jojo Moyes
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 13 hours 52 minutes

“A true story of amazing women in Kentucky in the 1930s. Featuring strong friendships, love and overcoming adversity. Read more

American Spy

A Novel

By: Lauren Wilkinson
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 10 hours 49 minutes

“Part literary fiction, part spy novel, punctuated by black American history, Lauren Wilkinson’s debut novel crosses time periods and genres. This unflinching portrayal of a young black woman who becomes a Fed during the height of the Cold War is based on the true story of Thomas Sankara, known as “Africa’s Che Guevara.” Politics, illicit... Read more

Washington Black

A novel

By: Esi Edugyan
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

“From sweltering Barbados to London streets, Arctic ice to Moroccan heat, skies above to depths below, fear to love and back again, again, again. Esi Edugyan’s epic new historical novel follows the young Washington Black from the unrelenting brutality of slavery to the edges of the world as he searches for freedom, finding the complexities of the... Read more

A Single Thread

A Novel

By: Tracy Chevalier
Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
Length: 10 hours 50 minutes

"A buoyant tale about the path to acceptance and joy--beginning, like all journeys, with one brave step."--People

"The best-selling novelist has done a masterful job of depicting the circumstances of a generation of women we seldom think about: the mothers, sisters, wives and fiances of men lost in World War I, whose job it was to remember those... Read more

Code Name Hélène

A Novel

By: Ariel Lawhon
Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik & Peter Ganim
Length: 17 hours 17 minutes

Based on the thrilling real-life story of a socialite spy and astonishing woman who killed a Nazi with her bare hands and went on to become one of the most decorated women in WWII—from the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and The Frozen River.

"Will fascinate readers of World War II history and thrill fans of fierce, brash,... Read more

The Personal Librarian: A GMA Book Club Pick

By: Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 12 hours 22 minutes

“I dearly loved this historical fiction based on the life of J.P. Morgan's personal librarian. My favorite combination of entertaining and educational! Read more

The Lincoln Highway

A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)

By: Amor Towles
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland & Dion Graham
Length: 16 hours 38 minutes

“THIS BOOK EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS! As a huge fan of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, The Lincoln Highway had a lot of pressure and holy cow did it surpass anything I could have hoped for. From the first page, I was immediately drawn into Towles' magical writing and superb characters. This felt like a modern classic, the new and... Read more

Still Life: A GMA Book Club Pick

A Novel

By: Sarah Winman
Narrated by: Sarah Winman
Length: 14 hours 54 minutes

“I want to crawl inside this book and live there. I adored all of these strange, funny characters, (including the Shakespeare-quoting parrot) and the rich descriptions of Florence made me feel like I was right there in the piazza. Read more

Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

By: Hernan Diaz
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò & Orlagh Cassidy
Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

“How satisfying, the slow unraveling of the truth behind the matter. Please enter into the experience of this novel as I did: with no preconceived notions, no summaries suspended in the back of your mind, no guesses as to its genre. Read more

The Secrets We Keep

By: A J Wills
Narrated by: Andy Cresswell & Penny Andrews
Length: 10 hours 21 minutes

Ten-year-old Annie Warren hasn't made it home from school and with every passing hour, hopes of finding her alive are fading fast.

Her parents, Cathy and Kit, are frantic with worry, fearing the worst.

Could their daughter, the miracle child who came as a surprise to them both, have been abducted?

The police are coordinating a massive search but... Read more

Rules of Civility

A Novel

By: Amor Towles
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

“I have a select few favorite books and A Gentleman In Moscow is one of them. After a friend told me that Rules of Civility was quite different, I was hesitant to read it as I didn’t want to be disappointed. I wasn’t! What a wonderful storyteller, so fun to be transported to an earlier time in our nation’s history and get a glimpse of what it... Read more

Hester

A Novel

By: Laurie Lico Albanese
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
Length: 9 hours 52 minutes

“Loved this so much - and *really* terrific as an audiobook! Read more

The Lost Apothecary

A Novel

By: Sarah Penner
Narrated by: Lorna Bennett, Lauren Anthony & Lauren Irwin
Length: 10 hours 17 minutes

“A wonderful melding of two timelines told by a trio of female voices. Each woman is standing at a crossroads; one is just becoming a woman, one is anticipating the end of her life, and one the end of her marriage. A small, blue apothecary bottle links the women and the timelines together. Penner skillfully guides us along the path each woman... Read more