Last week, we had so many great responses that our NSRRU column took up a full page in the paper. After I submitted it to our editor, another reader reached out with even more great suggestions. I’ve had to hold onto them for almost a whole week, but I’m glad I did because the emails have slowed their roll again.
The Reading Farmer also dropped in to say, “Calamity Club! Off the Charts!” That lines up with another NSRRU reader, Barb Kinny, who told us the book “deserved a 4-star rating. Kathryn Stockett is a master at capturing personalities, and this book was full of them.”
Teresa Wagner sent a great batch of historical fiction selections, though she promises, “I do read other genres, but you can’t tell by this lot.”
Wagner appreciates our column and mentioned she had been meaning to write in for a while. She’s an avid listener of audiobooks and uses Libby almost exclusively through our “Wonderful Arrowhead Library.”
The first title on her list is Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards, which she labeled as “Medieval women exploring the mystics, saints, anchoresses and beguines during the Inquisition. Beautifully written!”
Canticle follows a sixteen-yearold named Aleys in thirteenthcentury Bruges as she flees an arranged marriage and finds refuge among the beguines, a community of independent religious women. The novel blends faith, agency, political tension, and the dangers surrounding illegal scripture translations and sudden miracles. It paints a vivid portrait of medieval women whose stories rarely make it into the spotlight.
Her next selection was Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor.
“You got it, takes place before Dorothy’s trip to Oz!” wrote Wagner. “Emily and Henry’s backstory of homesteading in Kansas and the adoption of Dorothy. A fun read!”
I love stories built on classics. I’d never really thought about Dorothy before she went to Oz, though I have wondered a lot about what happened to her afterward. Has anyone seen Return to Oz? That one still gives me nightmares.
Wagner also suggested The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez, which she described as “A story and history about the building of the Panama Canal. It follows the different peoples of the region and the impacts of the construction on their lives.”
The building of the Panama Canal is another subject I hadn’t considered much. Henríquez’s novel dives into the human side of that massive engineering project, following laborers, migrants, scientists, and locals as they navigate disease, displacement, racial divides, and the promise of opportunity. It highlights the overlooked stories of workers from Panama and the Caribbean who endured brutal conditions while helping carve the canal through jungle and rock.
Last on her list, The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate, is definitely about someone I’ve wondered about. The book is, according to Wagner, “a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, an underappreciated star. The first Black person to win the Academy Award for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. A heartbreaking story revealing racial and gender bias in 1930s filmmaking.”
I’m grateful to the Reading Farmer for the confirmation on Calamity Club—though I would never think Kinny would steer us wrong—and to Wagner, who sent me four brandnew titles I had yet to hear of.
It still amazes me how one email can change the entire direction of my reading week. Your suggestions don’t just fill this column; they steer it. They introduce new authors, forgotten eras, and stories I never would have found on my own. That’s the magic of this roundup. It only works because you keep sharing what moved you, and every time you do, the whole reading community gets a little richer.
As for my reading journey, I’m back to a novel after spending many weeks nose and brain deep in a poetry book by a local poet. I’m excited to talk to her soon and share the book with all of you.
In the meantime, the University of Minnesota Press has sent me The Prohibited, a new release by Matt Goldman. It’s a historical novel set in 1920s St. Paul, following the Kaner family as Prohibition shutters their liquor store and forces each of them onto new, complicated paths.
The story is full of bootleggers, family secrets, suffragists, and the scramble to adapt to a changing world. It requires less thinking than the poetry book, and I’m already moving through it quickly. We are planning a feature after talking with this author as well.
Don’t let those recommendations cease, my reading friends. Tell me which historical fiction carried you somewhere unexpected or taught you something you didn’t know you needed to learn. Tell me which reimagined classics made you grin or gasp or stay up too late. Write to sarahwritesnsj@yahoo.com and share all of your bookish thoughts. We’ll feature them in a future NSRRU near you, and my TBR will grow yet again, probably faster than I can keep up with, but I’m willing to try.
