Fireworks! Hot Dogs! Books? Okay, well not a traditional way to celebrate – but I thought I’d make a list of five of my favorite U.S. historical fiction books in honor of Independence Day!
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – some books really are as good as everyone says they are. This books gives a very specific window into childhood, racism, the legal system, stereotypes around mental illness/disability, and does it all with a unique narrative lens. I will judge you if you haven’t read this book š
- The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder – when people ask me how I first got interested in American history I trace it to this series about a quintessential pioneering family.
- Molokai by Alan Brennert – This is one of the best books about the history of Hawaii and the devastating history of Hansen’s Disease in the United States. Plus it’s just a really, really good story.
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates – In my Goodreads review of this book I said it’s not often that the fantasy geek, writer geek, and history geek in me can all be delighted by the same book, but this is one of them. If you can do justice to the history of slavery, and still make a book uplifting and magical, that’s definitely worth reading.
- Fools Crow by James Welch – reading this book in college gave me my first taste of the ability of some authors to put me in the shoes of someone of another culture, in this case a young man of the Blackfeet Nation, while still telling a compelling and relatable story.
Happy Fourth everyone!
Photo Credit: Paul_Stachowiak via Pixabay
Jenel Alan 