Open Books Challenge 2026: Set in America Between 1600-1800

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are some ideas that fit the 2026 category "Set in America between 1600-1800, to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence."

Happy Reading!

Updated December 31, 2025
Rochester Public Library RPL Staff
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Open Books Challenge 2026: Set in America Between 1600-1800

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are some ideas that fit the 2026 category "Set in America between 1600-1800, to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence."

Happy Reading!

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Cloaked in courage : uncovering Deborah Sampson, patriot soldier
Anderson, Beth
Paper Book
The remarkable story of Deborah Sampson, a woman who fought in the American Revolution disguised as a man-and who ends up finding her true identity and purpose in life. Deborah Sampson didn't like being told what to do, especially by the King of England. Fiercely independent, 18...
Chains
Anderson, Laurie Halse.
Paper Book
From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling first novel in the historical middle grade The Seeds of America trilogy that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual. As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old...
Loyalty
Avi
Paper Book
Newbery Medalist Avi explores the American Revolution from a fresh perspective in the story of a young Loyalist turned British spy navigating patriotism and personal responsibility during the lead-up to the War of Independence. When his father is killed by rebel vigilantes,...
King Hancock : the radical influence of a moderate founding father
Barbier, Brooke
Black writers of the founding era, 1760-1800
Basker, James G.
Ebook
A radical new vision of the nation's founding era and a major act of historical recovery  Featuring more than 120 writers, this groundbreaking anthology reveals the astonishing richness and diversity of Black experience in the turbulent decades of the American...
Hour of the witch : a novel
Bohjalian, Chris
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the acclaimed author of The Flight Attendant: "Historical fiction at its best.... The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying" (Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the...
The indigo girl : a novel
Boyd, Natasha
Paper Book
In this incredible story of ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice, an extraordinary sixteen-year-old girl in Colonial South Carolina defies all expectations to achieve her dream. The year is 1739. Eliza Lucas is sixteen years old when her father leaves her in charge of their family's three...
Caleb's crossing
Brooks, Geraldine.
Paper Book
A richly imagined new novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller, People of the Book. Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native...
The judge hunter
Buckley, Christopher
Ebook
The latest comic novel from Christopher Buckley, in which a hapless Englishman embarks on a dangerous mission to the New World in pursuit of two judges who helped murder a king. London, 1664. Twenty years after the English revolution, the monarchy has been restored and Charles II...
Alexander Hamilton
Chernow, Ron.
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton! Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn...
1666 : a novel
Chilton, Lora
Paper Book
The Survival Story of the Patawomeck Tribe of Virginia told through the lives of two women  The survival story of the Patawomeck Tribe of Virginia has been remembered within the tribe for generations, but the massacre of Patawomeck men and the enslavement of women and children...
The fort
Cornwell, Bernard.
Paper Book
"The most prolific and successful historical novelist in the world today." --Wall Street Journal "Readers who haven't discovered Bernard Cornwell don't know what they are missing." --New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn From the New York...
Daughters of the deer
Daniel, Danielle
Ebook
NATIONAL BESTSELLER   In this haunting and groundbreaking historical novel, Danielle Daniel imagines the lives of women in the Algonquin territories of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family's ancestral link to a young girl who was murdered by French settlers. ...
Mutinous women : how French convicts became founding mothers of the Gulf Coast
DeJean, Joan E.
Paper Book
The secret history of the rebellious Frenchwomen who were exiled to colonial Louisiana and found power in the Mississippi Valley In 1719, a ship named La Mutine (the mutinous woman), sailed from the French port of Le Havre, bound for the Mississippi. It was loaded with...
Never caught : the Washingtons' relentless pursuit of their runaway slave, Ona Judge
Dunbar, Erica Armstrong
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction "A fascinating and moving account of a courageous and resourceful woman. Beautifully written and utilizing previously untapped sources it sheds new light both on the father of our country and on the intersections of slavery and...
Spy ring
Durst, Sarah Beth
Audiobook
Independence lost : lives on the edge of the American Revolution
DuVal, Kathleen.
Ebook
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian tells the "astonishing" (The New York Times Book Review) story of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of the outsiders of colonial society--including enslaved people, American Indians, women, and British loyalists--in a revised edition with a new...
Hamilton and Peggy! : a revolutionary friendship
Elliott, L. M.
Ebook
A Recommended Reading Title by Ken Burns' The American Revolution Resource Center Drawing from historical journals and letters, New York Times bestselling author Laura Elliot weaves a richly detailed tale about the extraordinary Peggy Schuyler and her revolutionary...
Covered with night : a story of murder and indigenous justice in early America
Eustace, Nicole
Paper Book
In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois) and Anglo-American colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, the...
The seamstress of Acadie : a novel
Frantz, Laura
Paper Book
In a land torn apart by conflict, can love mend the tattered pieces? As 1754 is drawing to a close, tensions between the French and the British on Canada's Acadian shore are reaching a fever pitch. Seamstress Sylvie Galant and her family--French-speaking Acadians wishing to remain...
Written in my own heart's blood : a novel
Gabaldon, Diana.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The eighth book in Diana Gabaldon's acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series--season 8 coming in March 2026! "Features all the passion and swashbuckling that fans of this historical fantasy series have come to...
The ruin of all witches : life and death in the New World
Gaskill, Malcolm
Audiobook
A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. "The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing. Malcolm Gaskill goes to meet the past on its own terms...
The pirate's wife : the remarkable true story of Sarah Kidd
Geanacopoulos, Daphne Palmer
Ebook
The dramatic and deliciously swashbuckling story of Sarah Kidd, the wife of the famous pirate Captain Kidd, charting her transformation from New York socialite to international outlaw during the Golden Age of Piracy Captain Kidd was one of the most notorious pirates to ever prowl the...
A million quiet revolutions
Gow, Robin
Paper Book
Robin Gow's A Million Quiet Revolutions is a modern love story, told in verse, about two teenaged trans boys who name themselves after two Revolutionary War soldiers. A lyrical, aching young adult romance perfect for fans of The Poet X, Darius the Great is Not Okay, and...
The mark of the king
Green, Jocelyn
Ebook
Sweeping Historical Fiction Set at the Edge of the Continent After being imprisoned and branded for the death of her client, twenty-five-year-old midwife Julianne Chevalier trades her life sentence for exile to the fledgling 1720s French colony of Louisiana, where she hopes to be...
The vaster wilds
Groff, Lauren
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, TIME, ESQUIRE, VOGUE, LA TIMES, SLATE, HARPER'S BAZAAR and others "Part historical, part...
Lafayette! : a Revolutionary War tale
Hale, Nathan
Paper Book
Meet French nobleman and American Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette in author-illustrator Nathan Hale's New York Times bestselling Hazard Tales graphic novel series. STARRED REVIEW *"Action-packed. . . . A must-buy." --School Library Journal...
The love letter
Hauck, Rachel
Paper Book
Maybe love can come home after generations in a way not even Hollywood could imagine. Romance has never been actress Chloe Daschle's forte--in life or on screen. But everyone knows who to call for a convincing death scene . . . and it might be killing her career...
The scarlet letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Paper Book
Someone knows my name
Hill, Lawrence
Paper Book
Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom--and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War....
Magic lessons
Hoffman, Alice
Paper Book
In an unforgettable novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic.<...
The physick book of Deliverance Dane
Howe, Katherine.
Ebook
In the house in the dark of the woods
Hunt, Laird
Paper Book
The eerie, disturbing story of one of our perennial fascinations -- witchcraft in colonial America -- wrapped up in a lyrical novel of psychological suspense. "Once upon a time there was and there wasn't a woman who went to the woods." In this horror story set in colonial...
The heretic's daughter
Kent, Kathleen
Ebook
Salem, 1752. Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her granddaughter that reveals the secret she has closely guarded for six decades: how she survived the Salem Witch Trials when her mother did not. Sarah's story begins more than a year before the trials,...
Hester : a novel
Lico Albanese, Laurie
Paper Book
Named a Most Anticipated Book for Fall 2022 by Goodreads * Washington Post * New York Post * BuzzFeed * PopSugar * Business Insider * An October 2022 Indie Next List Pick * An October 2022 LibraryReads Pick "A hauntingly beautiful-...
Anna Strong : a spy during the American Revolution
Marsh, Sarah Glenn
Other
The biography of Anna Strong, one of George Washington's personal spies, tells the story of a brave woman who helped change the course of American history.
North woods : a novel
Mason, Daniel
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD AND THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD A sweeping novel...
Scarlet widow
Masterton, Graham
Ebook
They said the killings were the word of Satan. But Beatrice Scarlet, the apothecary's daughter, detects the hands of men... New Hampshire, 1756: The god-fearing farmers of Sutton are suffering divine punishment for unknown sins. Crops fail, cows die and fish are poisoned by their water. Six pigs,...
A mercy
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love-first from an older servant woman at her master's new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith-in an evocative novel set against late...
Beheld : a novel
Nesbit, TaraShea
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Fiction Book of 2020 Most Anticipated Books of 2020 - Vogue, Medium, LitHub Honoree for the 2021 Society of Midland Authors Prize Finalist for the 2021 Ohioana Book...
1774 : the long year of Revolution
Norton, Mary Beth
Paper Book
From one of our most acclaimed and original colonial historians, a groundbreaking book tracing the critical "long year" of 1774 and the revolutionary change that took place from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A...
An outbreak of witchcraft : a graphic novel of the Salem Witch Trials
Noyes, Deborah
Paper Book
A gripping tale of paranoia at its worst, this bewitching narrative nonfiction graphic novel visually imagines the haunting details behind the Salem witch trials. From 1692 to 1693, fear reigned in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts. The night Abigail...
Killing the witches : the horror of Salem, Massachusetts
O'Reilly, Bill
Paper Book
The instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller! Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What...
Heart of American darkness : bewilderment and horror on the early frontier
Parkinson, Robert G.
Ebook
"A scarifying, blood-soaked portrait of savagery on the early frontier--much of it committed by European settlers . . . superb."--Kirkus Reviews (starred) An acclaimed historian captures the true nature of imperialism in early America, demonstrating how the frontier...
The traitor's wife
Pataki, Allison.
Paper Book
A riveting work of historical fiction, The Traitor's Wife tells the little known but explosive story of Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning young wife of Benedict Arnold and mastermind behind one of the most shocking acts of...
Savage liberty
Pattison, Eliot
Paper Book
The fifth installation of Eliot Pattison'sBone Rattler series follows the exiled Scotsman Duncan McCallum to the stepping-stones of the American Revolution Acclaimed author Eliot Pattison continues his Bone Rattler series as Duncan McCallum is drawn into dark intrigue...
This here is love : a novel
Perry, Princess Joy L.
As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America's character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom. Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between...
The fiddler's gun
Peterson, A. S.
Ebook
Mayflower : a story of courage, community, and war
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
Ebook
Barkskins : a novel
Proulx, Annie.
Paper Book
Now a mini-series on National Geographic! A Washington Post Best Book of the Year & a New York Times Notable Book From the Pulitzer Prize-­­winning author of The Shipping News and "Brokeback Mountain" comes the New York Times bestselling epic about...
Blood slaves
Redmond, Markus
A Ben of all trades : the most inventive boyhood of Benjamin Franklin
Rosen, Michael J.
Paper Book
A rousing biography from Michael J. Rosen and Matt Tavares reveals how Benjamin Franklin's boyhood shaped his amazingly multifaceted life. Young Benjamin Franklin wants to be a sailor, but his father won't hear of it. The other trades he tries -- candle maker, joiner, boot closer...
Rebel spy
Rossi, Veronica
Ebook
A reimagining of the story behind Agent 355--a New York society girl and spy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War--perfect for fans of Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key and the novels of Julie Berry. Rebellious Frannie Tasker knows little about the war between...
If the tide turns
Rueckert, Rachel
Ebook
Her name was Mary Katharine : the only woman whose name is on the Declaration of Independence
Schwartz, Ella
Paper Book
A rousing picture book biography of the only woman whose name is printed on the Declaration of Independence. Born in 1738, Mary Katharine Goddard came of age in colonial Connecticut as the burgeoning nation prepared for the American Revolution. As a businesswoman...
Rise to rebellion
Shaara, Jeff
Audiobook
Rise to Rebellion
Taking Manhattan : the extraordinary events that created New York and shaped America
Shorto, Russell
Paper Book
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Best Book of 2025 One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 The author of The Island at the Center of the World offers up a thrilling narrative of how New York--that brash, bold,...
This land is their land : the Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the troubled history of Thanksgiving
Silverman, David J.
Paper Book
Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.In March 1621, when Plymouth's survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief),...
Golden Hill : a novel of old New York
Spufford, Francis
Ebook
Washington's gay general : the legends and loves of Baron von Steuben
Trujillo, Josh
Ebook
A graphic novel biography of Baron von Steuben, the soldier, immigrant, and flamboyant homosexual who influenced the course of US history during the Revolutionary War despite being omitted from our textbooks.   Author Josh Trujillo and illustrator Levi Hastings tell the true...
The Mayflower bride
Woodhouse, Kimberley
Audiobook
Can a religious separatist and an opportunistic spy make it in the New World?Mary Elizabeth Chapman boards the Speedwell in 1620 as a Separatist seeking a better life in the New World.William Lytton embarks on the Mayflower as a carpenter looking for opportunities to succeed-and he may have found...
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