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 April 30, 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...
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...
True history of the Kelly gang
Carey, Peter
Audiobook
Winner of the Booker Prize   "I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in...
Girl with a pearl earring
Chevalier, Tracy.
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling novel by the author of A Single Thread and At the Edge of the Orchard Translated into thirty-nine languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film, starring Scarlett Johanson and Colin Firth Tracy Chevalier transports...
All the light we cannot see
Doerr, Anthony
Paper Book
*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES--from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller...
Atomic Love
Fields, Jennie
Paper Book
"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 of The Dutch House "A highly-charged love story that reveals the dangerous energy...
A column of fire
Follett, Ken
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Bestseller "Absorbing . . . impossible to resist." --The Washington Post As Europe erupts, can one young spy protect his queen? Ken Follett takes us deep into the treacherous world of powerful monarchs, intrigue, murder, and treason with...
The good shepherd
Forester, C. S.
Ebook
Now A Major Motion Picture 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 to protect a convoy of thirty-seven...
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...
Lessons in chemistry
Garmus, Bonnie
Paper Book
#1 GLOBAL BESTSELLER WITH MORE THAN 8 MILLION COPIES SOLD * Meet Elizabeth Zott: "a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention" (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a ...
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
"A fascinating, heartrending page-turner that, like the real-life forgers who inspired the novel, should never be forgotten." --Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a...
News of the world : a novel
Jiles, Paulette
Paper Book
Now a Major Motion Picture National Book Award Finalist--Fiction In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered...
Orphan train : a novel
Kline, Christina Baker
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times Bestseller "A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of America's history. Beautiful."--Ann Packer Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train...
Wolf Hall : a novel
Mantel, Hilary
Paper Book
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...
The book woman of Troublesome Creek : a novel
Richardson, Kim Michele
Paper Book
RECOMMENDED BY DOLLY PARTON IN PEOPLE MAGAZINE! A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A USA TODAY BESTSELLER A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER The bestselling historical fiction novel from Kim Michele Richardson, this is a novel following Cussy Mary, a packhorse librarian and her...
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
#1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal! "A superlative novel . . . masterfully crafted."--The Wall Street Journal Based on "the forgotten tragedy that was six times deadlier than the Titanic."--Time ...
The killer angels : a novel of the Civil War
Shaara, Michael.
Paper Book
"My favorite historical novel . . . A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant."--James M. McPherson In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought...
Maus : a survivor's tale
Spiegelman, Art.
Paper Book
The definitive edition of the graphic novel acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker) * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * One of Variety's "Banned and...
Angle of repose
Stegner, Wallace
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * A "masterful" (Boston Globe) portrait of four generations in an American family and the traditions of our national past "Brilliant . . . Two stories, past and present, merge to produce what important fiction must: a sense of the enhancement...
The confessions of Nat Turner
Styron, William
Ebook
The "magnificent" Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times -bestselling novel about the preacher who led America's bloodiest slave revolt ( The New York Times ). The Confessions of Nat Turner is William Styron's complex and richly...
Tiananmen Square
Wen, Lai
Paper Book
An epic, deeply moving coming-of-age novel about young love and lasting friendships forged in the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square student protests, for readers of The Beekeeper of Aleppo and The Night Tiger. As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with...
Ghost girl, banana : a novel
Wharton, Wiz
Paper Book
Set between the last years of the "Chinese Windrush" in 1966 and Hong Kong's Handover to China in 1997, a mysterious inheritance sees a young woman from London uncovering buried secrets in her late mother's homeland in this captivating, wry debut about family, identity, and the price of belonging...
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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