now you see her...
Bestselling author of historical fiction including THE ARCTIC FURY and the Five Queendoms epic fantasy series (SCORPICA, ARCA).
A very short post for a very quick giveaway! My publisher Sourcebooks is holding a giveaway to celebrate hitting the milestone of 10,000 Instagram followers — and the brand new paperback of WOMAN 99 is one of the 10 titles you can win! If you’re on Instagram, hop over to the @Sourcebooks account for instructions on how to enter — and hurry! The winner will be named the morning of Friday, February 7th.
And good luck!
Have you ever heard a real-life story and wish someone would write a historical novel about it? And wouldn’t it be amazing if that person were one of your favorite authors? That’s how I felt when I heard the story of Virginia Hall, a World War II intelligence operative who performed all sorts of daring tasks that got her labeled "the most dangerous of all Allied spies" by the Gestapo, all while sporting a prosthetic leg she referred to as Cuthbert. Then when I heard Erika Robuck would be writing a Hall novel, it just seemed like the perfect match between subject and writer. THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is forthcoming from Berkley/Penguin in February 2021.
In addition to being the author of historical fiction including HEMINGWAY’S GIRL, CALL ME ZELDA, FALLEN BEAUTY and more, Erika is a book blogger, voracious reader, country music aficionado, and hockey mom. She lives in Annapolis, MD with her husband, three sons, and a spunky miniature schnauzer.
Erika Robuck
Erika’s got a non-fiction read to recommend: Sarah Rose’s D-DAY GIRLS, which she calls “impossible to put down.” Drawing on diaries, oral histories, and previously classified files, Sarah Rose tells the stories of several “phenomenal, courageous” women in World War II. Read the rest of Erika’s recommendation on BookBub here.
And if you like the stories of World War II lady spies, you’re going to love tomorrow’s guest author! Tune in for her #read99women pick.
Historical fiction has long been one of my favorite genres to read, well before I started writing it, and the past couple of years have highlighted so many amazing, lesser-known women from history by incorporating their stories into wonderful novels.
For example, you might not know that in the 17th century, Judith Leyster was the first woman to enter the Haarlem painter’s guild, attaining master status alongside such luminaries as Rembrandt and Franz Hals. But you can read Carrie Callaghan’s excellent A LIGHT OF HER OWN to get a sense of Judith’s challenges and victories and walk away with a greater understanding.
Carrie’s new novel SALT THE SNOW (out now!) highlights the “trailblazing and liberated” Milly Bennett, one of the first female war correspondents, whose name and work should be far better known.
More on Carrie, today’s #read99women guest: Carrie Callaghan is a writer living in Maryland with her spouse, two young children, and two ridiculous cats. Her short fiction has appeared in Weave Magazine, The MacGuffin, Silk Road, Floodwall, and elsewhere. Carrie is also an editor and contributor with the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Carrie Callaghan
Carrie’s recommendation is THE WELL OF LONELINESS by Radclyffe Hall, and she’s got a great story to go with it:
“I first heard about this novel while reading the archived letters of Milly Bennett, the subject of my second novel. Milly was describing a charming cad whom she met on an oceanliner, and he had asked her what she was reading. ‘The Well of Loneliness,’ she answered him. ‘You wouldn't like it.’ So of course I had to know what book she knew this man wouldn't like! It turns out the novel was a groundbreaking story about a woman who loved women, and it was banned when it was first published in 1928. It's a fascinating work and an important window into the lives of queer women whose sacrifices and bravery helped to -- slowly -- change minds.”
Love it. Tune in tomorrow for another #read99women recommendation!
That’s right, I’ve decided that in my epic #read99women project, one of the 99 authors I’m bringing to my blog to recommend a book by and/or about women will be… me!
I’ll dispense with my official bio (you can find it here) but will make one brief note before jumping into my recommendation: today’s the day that my newest novel, WOMAN 99, releases in paperback. Yay!
Now on with the fun.
Oh wait. I’ve used everyone else’s headshot in their recommendation blogpost. So I guess I need to include my headshot too? Here it is.
Greer Macallister
My recommendation is THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON by Sara Collins. I picked it up because, as I say in my BookBub review, “I'm a sucker for historical fiction about women who might or might not be guilty of murder.” (My first book, THE MAGICIAN’S LIE, and my upcoming book set in the Arctic both fit that description, and Margaret Atwood’s ALIAS GRACE is probably my favorite novel of all time.) THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON is an intense, haunting novel, and beautifully written. A bit more of my review: “Parts of this story, especially the horror of the Jamaica-set plotline that's only gradually revealed, are full of stomach-churning cruelty, but Collins's language and imagery are never gratuitous, only evocative.” You can read the full review here.
For more on, well, me, as well as WOMAN 99 and my other novels, plus other books I recommend, you can follow me on BookBub here.
On one hand, for those of us who write historical fiction, the number of stories and historical figures available for inspiration is nearly infinite. On the other hand, it’s inevitable that certain inspirations strike a spark in multiple authors—and it’s fascinating to see how each of us takes that spark and runs with it in a slightly different direction. My latest novel WOMAN 99, for example (out in paperback tomorrow! Whee!), was initially inspired by Nellie Bly’s undercover adventures in a notorious insane asylum, Blackwell’s Island in New York.
Today’s #read99women author, Kate Braithwaite, was also inspired by Nellie’s spell of feigned madness, incorporating that inspiration into her novel THE GIRL PUZZLE.
Kate Braithwaite
Kate Braithwaite grew up in Edinburgh and has lived in various parts of England, Canada and now Pennsylvania. She’s the author of three fact-based historical novels – so far! The first two are set in 17th century Paris and London respectively: Charlatan (Fireship, 2016) and The Road to Newgate (Crooked Cat, 2018). The Girl Puzzle, a novel of Nellie Bly, (Crooked Cat in 2019) takes place in late 19th and early 20th century New York City.
Kate’s #read99women recommendation is a book of short stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman, ALMOST FAMOUS WOMEN. Each of the 13 stories in the book is inspired by a real-life woman or group of women from history, from Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly to conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton. “If you love books that celebrate real women, bringing their lost history to light, warts and all,” she says, “then this collection is for you.” Read the rest of Kate’s recommendation here.
(The funny thing is, as Kate and I discovered as we were putting this post together, only one other person has written a review of ALMOST FAMOUS WOMEN on BookBub. Guess who?)
For more on Kate’s books and other recommendations, follow her on BookBub here.
It may be the weekend, but #read99women is going strong seven days a week! Today’s guest is Michelle Gable, New York Times bestselling author of A PARIS APARTMENT, I'LL SEE YOU IN PARIS, THE BOOK OF SUMMER, and THE SUMMER I MET JACK.
Michelle grew up in San Diego and attended The College of William & Mary, where she majored in accounting, as most aspiring writers do. After a twenty-year career in finance, Michelle now writes full-time. She lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with her husband, two daughters, and what is quickly becoming a menagerie: one cat, one bunny, and a lab/jindo mix recently rescued from the dog meat trade in Thailand.
Michelle can be reached at www.michellegable.com or on Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest at @MGableWriter.
Michelle Gable
Michelle’s recommendation is THE FIVE by Hallie Rubenhold, one of 2019’s most exciting nonfiction books — it’s the first full-length biography of Jack the Ripper’s five victims, painstakingly re-creating their stories from extensive research and shining a spotlight on the societal forces that drove these women to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Says Michelle, “The narrative has been that Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes, but this is an oversimplification, if not outright mistruth. His victims were those on the margins of society, women who it was simply easier to dismiss as ’prostitutes’ than look at them with any level of humanity.” Hallie Rubenhold tells their story “with great storytelling prowess and tremendous empathy.”
Read Michelle’s full review on Goodreads here.
Today’s #read99women recommendation is a fun — and brief! — one. Some books, the less you know going in, the more you get to relish the surprise of getting blown away.
Our recommender is Meg Waite Clayton, a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and book club favorite and the author of seven novels. Her most recent, the international bestseller THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, is published or forthcoming in 19 languages. Her screenplay of the same story gained her recognition by the prestigious The Writers Lab, sponsored by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman to expand the diversity of narrative film.
Her prior books include the #1 Amazon fiction bestseller BEAUTIFUL EXILES; the Langum Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS; THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time (on a list with The Three Musketeers!); and THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Runner’s World and public radio, often on the particular challenges women face. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, she has also written a monthly audiobook review for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Meg Waite Clayton
Meg’s recommendation is WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler, and instead of providing a description, she says this: “Don't read anything about this amazing book before you read the book itself--not even the copy on the back of the book!”
Need a wee bit more? This novel was the first book by an American author ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner. And Barbara Kingsolver called it "a novel so readably juicy and surreptitiously smart, it deserves all the attention it can get" -- praise Meg agrees with and so do I. (The audiobook is bonkers good.)
Find Meg’s recommendation on BookBub here or see more about her, her books, and other recommendations here.
As most authors will tell you, inspiration can come from anywhere; the novel recommended by Melanie Benjamin for today’s #read99women was inspired by a photograph.
First, a little about Melanie, though if you’re a fan of historical fiction, she really needs no introduction:
Melanie Benjamin is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling historical novels THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE, about Truman Capote and his society swans, and THE AVIATOR’S WIFE, a novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Her latest novel, MISTRESS OF THE RITZ, is a taut tale of suspense wrapped up in a love story for the ages, the inspiring story of a woman and a man who discover the best in each other amid the turbulence of war.
Her previous historical novels include the national bestseller ALICE I HAVE BEEN, about Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB, the story of 32-inch-tall Lavinia Warren Stratton, a star during the Gilded Age; and THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE, about the friendship and creative partnership between two of Hollywood’s earliest female legends—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford. Her novels have been translated in over fifteen languages, featured in national magazines such as Good Housekeeping, People, and Entertainment Weekly, and optioned for film.
Melanie Benjamin; photo by Deborah Feingold
And now for Melanie’s #read99women recommendation: DELAYED RAYS OF A STAR by Amanda Lee Koe. Says Melanie, “This is a terrific historical novel that was inspired by a famous photograph of three iconic women, gathered together before any of them were truly famous: Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong and Leni Riefenstahl. The novel imagines this meeting at a party in Berlin in the 1930s, and then goes on to explore their fascinating lives after, and the ways they intersect again and again. It’s just a terrific book about women in the film industry – both in Hollywood and in Nazi Germany – and there are wonderful little character portraits of the less famous people whose lives are touched by these three. It’s bittersweet, moving, and insightful.”
(And see below: don’t these three look like they’ve got stories to tell?)
Click here for more on DELAYED RAYS OF A STAR, and here for more on Melanie and her books.
Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
In some of my (many, many) emails following up with fellow authors about their potential recommendations for #read99women, I joked that if I’d been thinking ahead, I would have titled my newest book differently. After all, this series is only #read99women because of the title WOMAN 99. If only I’d named it, say, WOMAN 33, I’d have so much less work to do!
(I have a spreadsheet for this project. A SPREADSHEET. Excel is a lot to ask of someone who spends the vast majority of her laptop time in Word.)
Anyway! The good news for you as readers is that the series will still be going strong through February… and March… and beyond.
And we’ve got SO many great authors lined up to recommend SO many great books.
Today’s guest is novelist Sonja Yoerg, who grew up in Stowe, Vermont, where she financed her college education by waitressing at the Trapp Family Lodge. She earned a Ph.D. in biological psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and wrote a nonfiction book about animal intelligence, CLEVER AS A FOX (Bloomsbury USA, 2001). Her novels include HOUSE BROKEN, MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE, ALL THE BEST PEOPLE, and TRUE PLACES. Her newest novel STORIES WE NEVER TOLD releases May 1. Sonja lives with her husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Sonja Yoerg
Sonja recommends SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid. Sonja calls the story “fast-paced, warm-hearted, and touching.” Balancing a “breezy style” with “the story's serious themes of identity, race, privilege, and motherhood” is where this debut author shines. With praise from NPR, the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly and more, this novel’s getting a lot of attention, and it deserves yours, too.
Read the rest of Sonja’s recommendation on BookBub here.
And tune in tomorrow (and tomorrow, and tomorrow) for more #read99women recommendations!
Some writers get into a comfortable groove and follow it, writing a particular type of fiction they know their regular readers will be eager to read; some writers get seized by an idea outside of their usual genre and can’t help but follow it to see where it leads. Karma Brown is the latter. Her latest release, RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE, is definitely a departure from her previous books, and it’s a slam-bang success of a detour, hitting Canadian bestseller lists and bringing home the gold medal of book reviews, a rave from the New York Times.
Karma has always loved the written word. As a kid she could usually be found with her face buried in a book, or writing stories about ice-skating elephants. Now that she’s (mostly) grown up, she’s the bestselling author of five novels, and her debut novel, COME AWAY WITH ME, was a Globe & Mail Best 100 Books of 2015.
A National Magazine Award winning journalist, Karma has been published in a variety of publications, including SELF, Redbook, Today’s Parent, Best Health, Canadian Living and Chatelaine. Karma lives just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband, daughter, and a labradoodle named Fred.
Karma Brown
And what book does Karma recommend for #read99women? “A story of motherhood, but not one of sweet lullabies... a book I read in one, breathless sitting.” THE NEED by Helen Phillips was one of the best-reviewed thrillers of 2019, making year-end lists at the New York Times, the Washington Post, O Magazine, NPR, and more. Read Karma’s full review here.
And tune in tomorrow for another #read99women recommendation!