Rooted in the Past

Get historical with books rooted in the past! Try one of the titles listed here for fictional takes on real events and historical figures. You can also ask a friendly Ledding librarian to show you nonfiction books on a historical subject, person, or era. Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 3, 2026
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Daughter of Egypt
Benedict, Marie
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER INSTANT INDIE BESTSELLER Known for her "delightful blend of historical fiction and suspense" (People), New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict, returns with a sweeping...
The Mitford affair : a novel
Benedict, Marie
Paper Book
"Plunges readers into a world of glamorous, charismatic young British debutantes and then turns that shiny world on its head...the most delicious storytelling." --Allison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post From New York Times bestselling...
The Jackal's mistress : a novel
Bohjalian, Chris
Paper Book
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she's willing to risk...
All the broken places
Boyne, John
Paper Book
"You can't prepare yourself for the magnitude and emotional impact of this powerful novel." --John Irving, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Garp "Exceptional, layered and compelling...This book moves like a freight train...
Girl with a pearl earring
Chevalier, Tracy.
Paper Book
In seventeenth-century Delft, there's a strict social order -rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant -and all know their place. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry, and the care of his six...
All the light we cannot see
Doerr, Anthony
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times BestsellerA Pulitzer Prize WinnerA blind child, Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint...
Atomic Love
Fields, Jennie
Audiobook
"A novel of science, love, espionage, beautiful writing, and a heroine who carves a strong path in the world of men. As far as I'm concerned there is nothing left to want."--Ann Patchett, author The Dutch House "A highly-charged love story that reveals the dangerous energy at...
The good shepherd
Forester, C. S.
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture Greyhound on AppleTV+, a WWII naval thriller of "high and glittering excitement" (New York Times) from the author of the legendary Hornblower series The mission of Commander George Krause of the United States Navy is...
The last heir to Blackwood Library
Fox, Hester
Paper Book
 "Weaves a spell of darkness that's mysterious and magical, and binds it with a knot of deathless love." --New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley on A Lullaby for Witches In post-World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library...
I, Claudius : from the autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, born 10 B.C., murdered and deified A.D. 54
Graves, Robert
Paper Book
A modern classic of historical fiction written in the form of Claudius's autobiography. Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D. Despised as a weakling and dismissed as an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and...
The nightingale
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
Limited edition hardcover jacket with foil and embossing, gorgeous designed edges, a ribbon bookmark, exclusive four color endpapers, and a decorative, gold foil stamp on the front case. A #1 New York Times bestseller and Wall Street Journal Best Book of the...
The women
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times! From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women--at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a...
The book of lost names
Harmel, Kristin
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author...
Orphan train : a novel
Kline, Christina Baker
Paper Book
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they...
Wolf Hall : a novel
Mantel, Hilary
Audiobook
Hamnet : a novel of the plague
O'Farrell, Maggie
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * Now a major motion picture starring ACADEMY AWARD® winner Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, and Joe Alwyn, directed by Chloé Zhao. The acclaimed author of the Reese's Book Club pick The...
The lost apothecary
Penner, Sarah
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD! "A bold, edgy, accomplished debut!" --Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A...
China Dolls : a novel
See, Lisa
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A fascinating portrait of life as a Chinese American woman in the 1930s and '40s."--The New York Times Book Review   "Superb . . . This emotional, informative and brilliant page-turner resonates with resilience...
Salt to the sea
Sepetys, Ruta
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A journey to freedom is rocked by an epic disaster in this masterpiece of historical fiction that shines a light on one of World War II's most devastating--yet overlooked--tragedies. WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL "Masterfully crafted."--...
The killer angels : a novel of the Civil War
Shaara, Michael.
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The "remarkable" (Ken Burns), "utterly absorbing" (Forbes) Civil War classic that inspired the film Gettysburg, with more than three million copies in print--now in a 50th anniversary edition featuring a new introduction by...
Angle of repose
Stegner, Wallace
Ebook
Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of personal, historical, and geographic discovery   Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of...
The underground railroad : a novel
Whitehead, Colson
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times's 10 Best Books of...
The dictionary of lost words : a novel
Williams, Pip
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * "Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded."--The New York Times Book Review "A marvelous...

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