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A Rebellious Woman
by Claire J. Griffin $9.99 – $34.95Price range: $9.99 through $34.95
by Claire J. Griffin
A Rebellious Woman is based on the life story of Belle Boyd (1844-1900), whose coming of age coincided with the opening shots of the Civil War. Debutante, teenaged spy, seductress, actress, divorcee, cross-dresser, and self-promoter, she carried a pistol and wasn’t afraid to use it. In a century when a woman was meant to be nothing more than a well-behaved wife and mother, Belle Boyd stands out as a scandalous woman of history defying all the rules.
Bone Necklace
$4.99 – $28.95Price range: $4.99 through $28.95
written by Julia Sullivan
In the summer of 1877, the bedraggled remains of the Nez Perce tribe took on the U.S. Army and, despite being badly outnumbered and outgunned, emerged victorious. Inspired by true events, Bone Necklace captures the intensity, violence, and unexpected conclusion of America’s final “Indian War,” told from the perspectives of a Nez Perce warrior, an Idaho militiaman, and an English painter who gets caught up in the violence. Combining heart-thumping action with an unforgettable cast, the novel centers on the relationship between two fighters, who are both enemies and allies in this war.
Bone Necklace is a tale of survival in which the Nez Perce not only overcome staggering odds but also win the grudging respect of a war-weary nation. While deeply rooted in American history, this remarkable story continues to resonate, illuminating modern debates around institutional racism, journalistic bias, and the call for courage in times of moral crisis.
Mrs. Gari Melchers
$7.99 – $17.95Price range: $7.99 through $17.95
Written by Joyce A. Miller
In the early 1900s, Corinne Mackall met and fell in love with Gari Melchers, a renowned artist, while traveling to the Paris Salon. An accomplished artist in her own right, Corinne and Gari have much in common, and the two are soon married. Corinne envisions a future traversing the art world side by side with her husband in a partnership of equals—hopes that are quickly dashed when she discovers the same gender inequalities that defined her youth afflict the art scene too. Instead, Corinne dedicates more and more time to supporting her husband’s career, even as she finds herself less and less able to focus on her own artwork. When Gari’s career explodes and makes him a household name, comparable to his friends John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler, her plight only becomes more difficult. Will Corinne retain her identity as an artist in her own right? Or will she be defined by her role as Gari’s wife? Based on the true story of Corinne and Gari Melchers, this novel follows their remarkable journey together through life, from an art school in seaside Holland to a studio in Weimar, Germany, before the Great War, and finally to their estate, Belmont, in central Virginia.
The Pinch Hitters
$8.99 – $28.95Price range: $8.99 through $28.95
written by Roger Stevenson
Will Livingston and his best friend, Sugarbread, aren’t about to let the paucities of war deprive them of the adventures of childhood. The Pinch Hitters chronicles one South Carolina family facing the flight of young adults in their call to wartime duty after Pearl Harbor in 1944. When the enlistment of the four military-age siblings leaves their farm in the hands of Granny Jack, the widowed owner, she soldiers on with the help of the resident sharecropping family, an elderly neighbor, and a German prisoner of war farm laborer. With a child’s pragmatism, Will navigates the challenges and joys that arise from planting season. Will’s observations of those who “came to bat” for the young men who left the farm to fight in World War II is an education in integrity and courage, with a love of baseball at its metaphorical core.
The Private War of William Styron
by Mary Wakefield Buxton $28.95
by Mary Wakefield Buxton
Returning to his childhood home in Virginia for the funeral of his stepmother, Elizabeth Buxton Styron, acclaimed writer William Styron finds himself plunged into boyhood reminiscence. He is “Billy” again, fourteen and heartbroken, with a mother recently passed from cancer and a grieving father who has fallen in love with the head nurse at the local hospital. The impending marriage terrifies Billy, who finds his new stepmother’s strict worldview stifling to his creativity, his joy, and his hopes for the future.
Driven by Elizabeth’s desire for him to become a doctor, Billy is sent to Christchurch boarding school, where he finds himself drawn more to writing than to sport, or anything else deemed appropriate for a man of good Southern breeding. Desperate to build a life on his own terms, the young Styron turns to fantasy and alcohol. He emerges a painfully burdened man, hounded by “the black dog” of depression from which he would never fully escape, and gifted with a foundation of moral sense that would inspire all of his later writing.
This is the story of the war Billy fought against the cruelty of circumstance, for the prize of his own soul and future—before he became Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Styron, gaining international recognition for his novel Sophie’s Choice.
Married into the family at a young age, Mary Wakefield Buxton, “the Ohio bride,” writes of her mentor and cousin’s coming of age with a sympathetic spirit but an objective eye, deftly revealing the complicated psyche of a man tormented by demons of and outside of his own making, and the beauty of the Tidewater region that birthed him.