Book Discussion Kits

Historical Fiction Kits

The Kits: All titles, with summaries | All titles, by author | All titles, by title | New Adult Titles | New Youth Titles | Information about the Kits

Kits by Genre or Age: Contemporary Fiction | Historical Fiction | Memoir/Autobiography | Mystery | Nonfiction | Grades 4-5 | Grades 6-9

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Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune.
An orphan raised in Valparaiso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and meets a Chinese herbalist, who becomes her soul mate, on the journey. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Atkinson, Kate. Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
Ruby Lennox gives an account of family life above a petshop in England, revealing the lives of the women in her family, from her great-grandmother's affair with a French photographer to her mother's unfulfilled dreams of Hollywood glamour. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin.
In this multi-layered novel, a dying octogenarian recalls her past, including her forced marriage, her sister's suicide, and the publication of her sister's science fiction novel, The Blind Assassin. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Bloom, Amy. Away.
Lillian Leyb, survivor of a Russian massacre, immigrates to New York in 1924. Upon learning her 3-year-old daughter may still be alive, she journeys across North America through the Yukon wilderness and over the Bering Strait to find her. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Cather, Willa. My Antonia.
Written in 1918, this enduring classic tells the story of a Bohemian immigrant to Nebraska, Antonia, through the eyes of her orphaned friend Jim. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
A look inside the comic book industry of the late 1930's and a tale of a family divided by the Atlantic Ocean while World War II looms. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Chessman, Harriet. Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper.
Harriet Chessman's second novel gives a voice to artist Mary Cassatt's older sister Lydia. While living in Paris in the 1870s and 1880s, Lydia posed for several of Mary's paintings and struggled with a terminal illness. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring.
A maid in the house of the artist Vermeer inspires the painter to do a portrait of her wearing his wife's pearl earring, causing a scandal that changes the young woman's life. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Desai, Kiran. The Inheritance of Loss.
Winner of the Booker Prize, this novel has two story threads: a granddaughter in the Himalayan foothills fall in love with her tutor, and an immigrant from the same place tries to make it in NYC. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Diamant, Anita. The Red Tent.
The red tent, where women spend time during their monthly cycles, birthing and illness, is where Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah in the Old Testament, tells the stories and traditions of her family, and of her calling to midwifery. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Doig, Ivan. Dancing at the Rascal Fair.
Part immigrant saga, part Western, part romance, the McCaskill family trilogy begins with the arrival of the Scotsman Angus McCaskill to Montana in 1889. Book Discussion Questions from Ivan Doig.

Edwards, Kim. The Memory Keeper's Daughter.
A story of how the actions taken by a father, done with good intentions, can lead to the destruction of his family. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America.
Journalist Ehrenreich, leaving her past life behind and working a series of low wage jobs, chronicles the barriers to even getting by while waitressing, cleaning houses and working at Wal-Mart.

Enger, Leif. Peace Like a River.
Set in 1950s rural Minnesota, Enger weaves spirituality into this coming-of-age quest novel. Family connections and the importance of the land are two main themes. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.
The novel on which the popular movie was base, this account of four women's lives in the Depression-era South is humorous, while also threaded with the more serious themes of racism, feminism, and domestic violence. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain.
This novel of love and loss set at the end of the Civil War follows the long threatening journey home of a wounded soldier to Cold Mountain and the woman he left behind. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Frazier, Charles. Thirteen Moons.
An epic set in the wilderness of 19th century North Carolina, this novel follows life of a young Will, a trading store worker, who befriends the local Cherokee Indians, then lives to see and recount their forcible removal. Book Discussion Questions from About.com.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude.
A multigenerational story of 100 years in the South American town of Macando. A classic, this comic and tragic novel is the apex of Nobel Prize winner Garcia Marquez’s career. Book Discussion Guide from Oprah.

Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha.
Sayuri tells of her life as a geisha, beginning with how she was sold into slavery by her poor fisherman father in 1929 Kyoto, through her education in the arts of the geisha, to her triumph as one of Japan’s most celebrated women. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Grooms, Anthony. Bombingham.
Walter Burke, a middle class black American soldier in Vietnam, reflects on his experiences in the riot-filled streets of Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights struggle in the midst of a family crisis. Book Discussion Questions from WHC.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants.
90+ year-old Jacob Jankowski reminisces in a nursing home about his days caring for animals in a travelling circus during the Great Depression. Book Discussion Guide from OneBookTwoVillages.

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner.
A boy named Amir, born in pre-Soviet Afghanistan, befriends a servant’s son. Long after emigrating to California, Amir returns to Afghanistan to reconnect with his past and perhaps correct some of his childhood wrongs. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Jones, Edward. The Known World.
In this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, a black slave owner dies, and his plantation begins to fall apart. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees.
Small-town Georgia in 1964 is the setting for this novel of beekeeping, civil rights, and a girl's yearning for her deceased mother. Despite the difficult subjects, this novel is sad but warm and, ultimately, uplifting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian.
In this twist on the traditional Dracula story, a young girl discovers a mysterious book from her father’s past. The book holds clues connecting the disappearance of a professor with Dracula, but before the father can explain, he too vanishes. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

McEwan, Ian. Atonement.
In a crumbling English mansion in 1935, young Briony tells a lie that sends a man to jail. Five years later, a solider retreats during World War II. These story threads come together in the book's surprising conclusion. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

McEwan, Ian. On Chesil Beach.
The trauma of a wedding night spent on the Dorset Coast centers on the couple's fears about sex and their inability to discuss them. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise.
The first two parts of an epic drama of the Nazi occupation of France written by a Russian Jewish refugee who lived in France and died in Auschwitz in 1942. This novel was rediscovered and published over 60 years after her death. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse.

Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor Was Divine.
A 150 page novel about a Japanese American family's experience during World War II when they are taken from their home to an internment camp.

Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead.
Set in Iowa during the 1950's, minister Jon Ames has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is afraid that his six-year old son will never really know his father. Ames sets out to write a letter to his son informing him of his past. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America.
Roth imagines a historical America in which Charles Lindbergh gets elected president instead of FDR in 1940, choosing to appease Hitler and Japan instead of joining the Allies in World War II. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis.
Marijane’s years as a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution are the focus of this graphic novel. Satrapi’s style is minimalist; her young self is charming and defiant. Book Discussion Questions from Random House.

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
The story of Lily Yi and Snow Flower, intimate friends who used a secret written language to correspond, and how they were brought together and torn apart by their letters in 19th century rural China. Book Discussion Guide from Random House.

Shields, Carol. The Stone Diaries.
In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Daisy Goodwill attempts to understand her place in the world as she nears the end of her life. She narrates her own biography, from her birth in Manitoba in 1905 when she loses her mother to childbirth, through her college years, her marriages and her work as a newspaper columnist. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Sijie, Dal. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
Two boys are sent to the countryside to be re-educated in this fable set during China's Cultural Revolution. They discover hope through forbidden western literature, but find hope can be cruel and corrupting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Stefaniak, Mary Helen. The Turk and My Mother.
A down-to-earth multigenerational tale of a Croatian family who journey from their Balkan village to Siberia and ultimately to Milwaukee, WI. Book Discussion Guide from W. W. Norton.

Stegner, Wallace. Crossing to Safety.
This deceptively simple story traces the lives and hopes of two couples who met as young parents in Madison, Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century. Their friendship continues through the years, and provides a glimpse into the transformative power of friendship and marriage. Book Discussion Questions from MPL.

Tsukiyama, Gail. Women of the Silk.
Sold into a life of slavery at the Chinese silk factory in the early part of the 20th century, Pei finds friendship and independence amongst the women there despite the horrible conditions. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Vanderbes, Jennifer. Easter Island.
Two plotlines weave together in this historical look at Easter Island. A botanist and an explorer’s wife are both drawn into the mysteries (both cultural and natural) of this enigmatic place. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.

Vreeland, Susan. Girl in Hyacinth Blue.
Vreeland follows the trail of an unknown painting by the Dutch master Vermeer, from present day Philadelphia back in time to the creation of the painting in the artist's household. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides.