Fiction Five: Courageous women

Immerse yourself in the lives, challenges and successes of several amazing women in our top five March new books, which are all based on true events. No Better Time is a novel about the spirited Black women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in World War II. Margaret Fuller defies conventions time and again as an activist for women and an advocate for humanity, earning admirers and critics in Finding Margaret Fuller. In Becomng Madam Secretary Frances Perkins rises in the political world dominated by men and faces the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant. During the Blitz three young women use their fighting spirit to save a London community's beloved library in The Underground Library. Maurice Carlos Ruffin sets his potent latest,The American Daughters, in pre-Civil War New Orleans where an enslaved girl joins a secret resistance movement run by women.

No Better Time by Sheila Williams

No Better Time is a novel about the spirited women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in World War II. This was the only Black Women's Army Corps (WAC) to serve oversees during the war.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor librarian and Spelman graduate Dorothy Thom joins the WAC to do her part in the war. She's also hoping for adventure. Dorothy quickly discovers the Army's adventures include unexpected deprivations and culture shock. Women from all levels of society – secretaries, teachers and sharecoppers – work together to navigate the military that's segregated by race and gender.

In early 1945 Dorothy and her battalion travel to their post in England to process the mail sent to GIs from their loved ones, an estimated 17 million pieces. They arrive to find mail stockpiled for more than two years in warehouses and airplane hangars, many pieces in poor condition, the names illegible. 

In England and France, the WACs navigate a landscape of unimagined possibilities. With their outlooks changed forever, they return to the United States as the catalysts for change in America and build lives beyond anything their ancestors ever imagined.

"Williams draws upon the personal narratives of her cousin who served in the 6888 to create a story full of color and energy. Combined with her significant research, this personal touch enables Williams to shine a light on a part of World War II that has had little prior attention. With an upcoming Tyler Perry film focused on this extraordinary battalion, the women of the 6888 are sure to find their rightful place in history. No Better Time is just the novel to elevate these unforgettable voices.” –Shelf Awareness

Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki

Young, brazen, beautiful and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson to meet his enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama. Her restless soul needs new challenges and adventures.

In Boston she hosts a salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and attends editorial meetings of The Dial magazine, where she hones her pen as its co-founder. Margaret also becomes the first woman permitted in Harvard’s library.

In New York she spars with Edgar Allan Poe and reports on Frederick Douglass. Margaret defies conventions time and again as an activist for women and an advocate for humanity, earning admirers and critics.

When the legendary editor Horace Greeley offers her an assignment in Europe, Margaret again makes history as the first female foreign news correspondent. In Rome she finds passion, romance and revolution, taking a Roman count as a lover and sparking an international scandal. As she evolves into the roles of mother and countess, Margaret enters the fight for Italy’s unification.

“Pataki digs into the fascinating and all-too-short life of Margaret Fuller, a trailblazing 19th-century writer . . . all of us who later benefitted from the march toward equal rights for women should read this book, which honors an early feminist icon who broke nearly every rule laid out for her and in doing so, inspired a generation and led the way into a brighter future with courage and heart.”—Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter
 

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century with an unyielding determination to make a difference. When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village. She befriends an eclectic group of politicians, artists and activists. Frances falls in love with the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson.

Then Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. However, during the next 20 years they will form a partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Frances rises in the political world dominated by men. She faces the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. When vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten, she must decide what she’s willing to do and what she’s willing to sacrifice to save the nation.

"What a compelling, important story about a trailblazing woman! In Becoming Madam Secretary, Stephanie Dray takes readers on an enthralling journey as Frances Perkins rises to become the country's most important cabinet member during a crossroads in American history, one with lasting ramifications. Hers is a name we should all know, and this is a novel we should all read." –Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling co-author of The First Ladies

The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan

During the Blitz three young women use their fighting spirit to save a London community's beloved library in this from the author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir.

Bethnal Green Library isn't the bustling hub the new deputy librarian Juliet Lansdown was expecting. However, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. Can Juliet show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running the library?

Katie Upwood is thrilled to be working at the library until she heads off to university in the fall. Then her beau dies on the front line and there is serious conflict in her family. Now she's keeping a life-changing secret with no one to turn to for help.

Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee, came to London on a domestic service visa. Now she's working as a maid for a man who treats her abominably. Sofie escapes to the library every chance she can, finding friendship in the literary community and aid in finding her sister, who is still trying to flee occupied Europe.

When a slew of bombs destroys the library, Juliet relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city's residents shelter nightly. She's determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up. But tragedy after tragedy threatens to unmoor the women and sever the ties of their community. Will Juliet, Kate and Sofie be able to overcome their own troubles to save the library?

The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

"Ruffin (The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You) sets his potent latest in pre-Civil War New Orleans, where an enslaved girl joins a secret resistance movement run by women. Ady is raised by her mother, Sanite, who came of age in a runaway settlement deep in the forests and swamps of Louisiana and teaches Ady basic survival skills such as hunting, planting, and foraging healing herbs.

"She's seven when they are sold to John du Marche and forced to work at his townhouse, and a preteen when Sanite dies from yellow fever, leaving Ady lonely, scared, and confused until she meets Lenore, the young free African American woman who owns the Mockingbird Inn, an integrated establishment in the French Quarter. There, Ady experiences a facsimile of freedom along with a burgeoning friendship with Lenore, who hires her to work at the inn during hours when she's not expected by du Marche. After a dramatic incident involving a slave hunter's visit to the Mockingbird, Ady learns that Lenore has been hiding a secret: the Mockingbird is a cover for a web of women engaging in espionage and violent resistance against slavery.

"Ruffin's dignified prose and focus on the bonds of women of color help elevate the novel from the tropes of slavery narratives, and he paints a vibrant picture of antebellum New Orleans. Readers won't be able to resist this stirring story of freedom by any means necessary." –Publishers Weekly