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
RPL Staff
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Chains
Anderson, Laurie Halse.
Ebook
As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American...
The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation. 1 The pox party
Anderson, M. T.
Paper Book
National Book Award Winner! This deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today. It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised...
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...
Flight of the sparrow a novel of early America
Brown, Amy Belding.
Paper Book
A historical novel based on the life of Mary Rowlandson ""An authentic drama of Indian captivity...A compelling, emotionally gripping tale."--Eliot Pattison, author of the Mystery of Colonial America series" "She suspects that she has changed too much to ever fit easily into English society...
The judge hunter
Buckley, Christopher
Paper Book
The latest comic novel from Christopher Buckley, 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 sits on the...
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...
The fort
Cornwell, Bernard.
Paper Book
Summer 1779: a British force of fewer than 1,000 Scottish infantry were sent to build a garrison in the state of Maine. But Massachusetts was determined to expel the British, and they sent a fleet to 'captivate, kill and destroy' the enemy. Told from both sides of the battle, this story features...
Daughters of the deer
Daniel, Danielle
Paper Book
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. ...
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
1778: France declares war on Great Britain, the British army leaves Philadelphia, and George Washington's troops leave Valley Forge in pursuit. At this moment, Jamie Fraser returns from a presumed watery grave to discover that his best friend has married his wife, his illegitimate son has discovered...
The mark of the king
Green, Jocelyn
Paper Book
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 scarlet letter
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Paper Book
A dramatic, moving depiction of social defiance and social deference A stark and allegorical tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letteris a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne's exploration of the...
The book of negroes
Hill, Lawrence
Paper Book
Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle--a string of slaves-- Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and...
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 heretic's daughter a novel
Kent, Kathleen
Paper Book
A courageous woman fights to survive the darkest days of the Salem Witch Trials in this "heart-wrenching story of family love and sacrifice" (USA Today).   Salem, 1752. Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her...
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-...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Mayflower : a story of courage, community, and war
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
Paper Book
From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims...
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...
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,...
Love thy neighbor : the Tory diary of Prudence Emerson
Turner, Ann Warren.
Paper Book
At the brink of the American Revolution, Prudence Emerson finds her friends and neighbors turning against her and her family, who remain loyal to the British King. The drama of the American Revolution is brought to life through the eyes of a Prudence Emerson, who tells the story...
Ring of secrets
White, Roseanna M.
Paper Book
This exciting romantic spy novel from Roseanna M. White combines fascinating cloak-and-dagger secrets with a tale of love and intrigue during the Revolutionary War. Winter Reeves is an aristocratic Patriot forced to hide her heart amid the Loyalists of the City of New York. She has learned...
The Mayflower bride
Woodhouse, Kimberley
Paper Book
Can a religious separatist and an opportunistic spy make it in the New World? A brand new series for fans of all things related to history, romance, adventure, faith, and family trees. Mary Elizabeth Chapman boards the Speedwell in 1620 as...

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