Books Set in the 1910s

By Betty Smith
Setting: 1900-1918, Brooklyn, New York
First published 1943

This beloved American classic brilliantly captures a unique time and place and deeply resonant moments of universal experience.

Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff from her earliest days. Growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit - and Francie has each of these in spades. Neighbors often scorn her for her family's erratic and eccentric behavior, including her father's taste for alcohol and her Aunt Sissy's habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce. No one, least of all Francie, would say that the Nolans' life lacked drama.

The Book Girls Say... This book isn't a plot-driven page-turner, but instead provides a poignant, and at times meandering, look at life in the 1910s.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
96% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Ellen Marie Wiseman
Setting: Philadelphia, 1918
First published 2020

As the US celebrates the end of the WWI in 1918, the Spanish flu brings a new threat to American cities. In Philadelphia, 13-year-old Pia, a German immigrant, is forced to venture out into the quarantined city in search of food for her and her younger brothers.

Amid anti-immigrant sentiment in her city and the grief of losing her baby to the Spanish flu, Bernice Groves formulates a plot to transform the city's orphans and immigrant children into "true Americans."

After collapsing on the street, Pia wakes up days later in a hospital, desperate to return to her brothers, but instead, she is taken to an orphan asylum.

The Book Girls Say... Some readers find this book a bit slow to start and difficult to read because of the parallels to the recent global pandemic, but most find themselves drawn into the story and invested in the characters.

For another historical fiction perspective on the impacts of the Spanish flu epidemic in Philadelphia, you might want to read As Bright as Heaven, by Susan Meissner. This book - about a couple that takes in a baby that has been orphaned by the disease - is both heartbreaking and uplifting.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
96% Would Recommend to a Friend

This book is available free with Kindle Unlimited as of January 2022.

By Fiona Davis
Setting: New York City, 1919, 1966
First published 2022

Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing famous landmarks throughout the city - from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. After losing her mother to the Spanish Flu outbreak, however, Lillian feels lost in the world.

Her work has mostly dried up, so when she's offered a job as a personal secretary at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian is eager to accept the opportunity. Working closely with Helen Frick, daughter of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, pulls Lillian into a privileged world and a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that might prove to be life or death.

Five decades later in the 1960s, Veronica, an English model, is working in the former Frick residence, which has since been converted into one of New York City's most impressive museums. After being dismissed from a Vogue shoot, she and a young art curator stumble upon a series of hidden messages in the museum that might finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Susan Meissner
Setting: Manhattan 1911, 2011
First published 2014

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made.

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers, which was the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. But a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf may open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life.

The Book Girls say... Melissa chose this book the first year of the Decades Challenge and rated it 4.5 stars. She enjoyed the peek behind the scenes of Ellis Island and learning about the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
93% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Hazel Gaynor
Setting: 1912 and 1876, England
First published 2015

For years, Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls in London has watched over London’s flower girls, as they are known. These orphaned and disabled children survive on the streets by selling posies of violets and watercress. In 1912, Twenty-year-old Tilly Harper left her native Lake District and moved to London to become an assistant housemother at the home.

Tilly discovers the diary of a young woman named Florrie with dried flowers pressed between the pages, and a heartbreaking tale of her separation from her sister, Rosie. Drawn into their story from the 1870s, Tilly hopes to find out what happened to Rosie.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Fiona Davis
Setting: 1913 and 1993 New York City
First published 2020

In 1913, Laura's husband was the superintendent of the NY Public Library. The job included an apartment for their family in the grand building. Laura seems to have it all, but after she enters journalism school at Columbia, and meets a group of women fighting for women's suffrage. Her worldview is rocked, and she starts to question if the things she has are the things she wants.

Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie has landed her dream job as a curator at the NY Public Library, but the legacy of her grandmother, Laura, looms over her until she can no longer ignore it.

The Book Girls Say... Fiona Davis is one of our favorite historical fiction writers because of her strong female characters and because each novel is set in a famous NYC building. This book is no exception! We enjoyed the dual timeline that follows this family through the generations.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Amy Stewart
Setting: New York & New Jersey, 1914-1915
First published 2015

This historical fiction novel is based on the real-life events of one of America's first female deputy sheriffs. Constance Kopp doesn't fit the mold of a woman in the 1910s - she towers over most men and has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs. She has isolated herself from the world for the past years, ever since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding. When a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy and refuses to cover the damages, he threatens her family and their farm with violence. But Constance refuses to be intimidated. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, she is forced to confront her past in order to defend her family.

The Book Girls Say... This book is the first of seven in the Kopp Sisters series. One of our readers described this book as, "a fascinating look into small-town New Jersey society."

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
94% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Camille Di Maio
Setting: New York City, mid-1910s and 1940s
First published 2018

Vera, the daughter of German immigrants in New York City, finds her life upended when the man she loves becomes engaged to another woman. But Angelo has also inadvertently opened up Vera's life to unexpected possibilities. Angelo's new wife, Pearl, the wealthy daughter of a clothing manufacturer, has defied her family's expectations by devoting herself to the women's suffrage movement.

In Pearl, Vera finds an unexpected dear friend…and a stirring new cause of her own. But when Pearl's selfless work pulls her away from Angelo and their son, the life Vera craved is suddenly within her reach—if her conscience will allow her to take it.

The Book Girls say... Watch our interview with author Camille Di Maio! Melissa rated this book 4 stars and Angela gave it 4.5 stars. We both enjoyed getting a look into the suffrage movement in New York City, as well as learning about the work that went into constructing the tunnels under NYC, all woven into an easy-to-read historical romance.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
90% Would Recommend to a Friend

This book is currently available free with Kindle Unlimited as of January 2022.

By Jonathan Santlofer
Setting: 1911 and Present Day, Paris
First published 2021

Did you know that the Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincent Peruggia in 1911? This historical fiction examines the theft, recovery, and the world of art crimes. Along with the 1911 portion, you'll meet one of Peruggia's descendants, art professor Luke Perrone, in a present-day timeline. As Luke investigates his notorious ancestor, he falls deeper into the dangerous world of art forgery.

The Book Girls Say... This book fed Angela's love of art history, but she did wish that a bit more of the narrative took place during the 1911 story line. However, that timeline remained key to the overall plot. On the other hand, if you aren't interested in art history, this might not be the book for you.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

By E. L. Doctorow
Setting: New York City, 1906 through WWI
First published 1975

The story opens in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears.

Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters. The characters include an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.

The Book Girls Say... This book has been on Angela's want-to-read list ever since her husband performed in a production of the musical adaptation of Ragtime several years ago because she was blown away by the story!

By Kim Izzo
Setting: 1915, New York and aboard Lusitania
First published 2017

As WWI rages in continental Europe, two New York heiresses, Sydney and Brooke Sinclair, are scheduled to set sail for England. Brooke is engaged to marry an aristocrat in the wedding of the social calendar. Sydney is drawn to the burgeoning suffragette movement, which is a constant source of embarrassment to her proper sister.

As international tempers flare, the German embassy releases a warning that any ships making the Atlantic crossing are at risk. Undaunted, Sydney and Brooke board the Lusitania for the seven-day voyage, not knowing that disaster lies ahead.

The Book Girls Say... If you're interested in learning more about the sinking of the Lusitania, consider Dead Wake by Erik Larson. This narrative non-fiction is filled with glamor and suspense, but in true Erik Larson fashion, it's also quite detailed and wordy.

By Mary Doria Russell
Setting: 1913, mining town in Michigan
First published 2019

Twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements has spent her whole life in the copper-mining town of Calumet, Michigan. Here men risk their lives deep underground, and the women labor in elite households to help make enough money to put food on the table.

When Annie decides to stand up for herself and the workers in her town, she faces opposition from all sides. Her husband resents her growing independence, she's endangered by the violent political landscape, and she risks the threat of prison. Ultimately, she has to decide if standing up how much of herself she's willing to sacrifice for the families in her town.

This historical fiction novel is a portrait of the early 20th-century labor movement.

By Jeffrey H. Jackson
Setting: Paris, 1910
First published 2010

The Great Flood of Paris is an event that has been largely forgotten by history, but this book, in breathtaking detail, captured, for the first time, the story of the flood that plunged the City of Lights into darkness.

Given the Parisians' history of deep-seated social, religious, and political strife, many at the time worried that they wouldn't be able to collaborate to confront the crisis. Yet while the sewers, Métro, and electricity failed around them, Parisians of all backgrounds rallied to save the city and one another.

A thoroughly researched work of non-fiction, this book tells the story of Improvising techniques used to keep Paris functioning. Parisians braved the dangers of collapsing infrastructure and looters, while leaders and residents alike answered the call to action.

By Kate Quinn
Setting: France, 1915 and 1947
First published 2017

Two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during WWI and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

The Book Girls say... Angela and Melissa both rated this book 4 out of 5 stars. Angela found the story of the WWI Alice Network fascinating and enjoyed the writing style that intertwined the stories of the two women. Unlike many other stories told from two perspectives in two different time periods, Angela liked that the two female protagonists were together in the later time period forming a unique relationship, which added another layer to the story.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
96% Would Recommend to a Friend

Edited by M.J. Rose & Fiona Davis; Introduction by Kristin Hannah
Setting: New York City, 2015
First published 2020

On October 23, 2015, tens of thousands marched in NYC for the right to vote. Each woman was there for her own reasons, and with her own story. This collection of historical fiction short stories all take place on that day, and together they form a portrait of a very important moment in history.

These stories come from some of the biggest names in historical fiction, including Fiona Davis, Paula McLain, and Lisa Wingate, with an introduction by Kristin Hannah.

Book Girls Guide... When we first curated this list of books set in the 1910s, we were surprised at the lack of historical fiction books on women's suffrage. We are thrilled to see this book begin to fill that gap.

By Genevieve Graham
Setting: Nova Scotia, 1916
First published 2015

Danny Barker is a young soldier from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. When he heads into battle in war-torn France during WW1, he has no idea what the future holds for him. In the French countryside, he will find the love of his life and then lose his leg in the Battle of the Somme.

Danny and Audrey return to his home in Halifax, but Danny cannot leave the conflict behind. As the young couple struggles to put together a new life, they must face not only their own internal demons, but also a catastrophe that will soon rip apart everything they think they know about themselves and each other.

The Book Girls Say... If you enjoy WW1 historical fiction, keep an eye out for Genevieve Graham's newest historical fiction, Bluebird, which will be published on April 5, 2022. This dual timeline novel will transport readers from present-day where a museum curator in Ontario is researching a legendary family of bootleggers to the WW1 battlefields of Belgium.

By Aimee K. Runyan
Setting: 1917 Philadelphia, 1918 France
First published 2018

As WWI rages in Europe, twenty-four-year-old Ruby Wagner, the jewel in a prominent Philadelphia family, prepares for her upcoming society wedding to a man that her family chose for her. But when her beloved older brother is killed in combat, Ruby follows her heart and answers the Army Signal Corps' call for women telephone operators to help overseas. She becomes one of the trailblazing "Hello Girls" deployed to war-torn France.

The Book Girls Say... This book is very well-researched and provides a fascinating look at the often unknown history of the role of women in WWI. You'll fall in love with Ruby and find yourself invested in her personal story, which includes just the right amount of romance.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
94% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Walter Lord
Setting: England, Atlantic Ocean aboard the Titanic, 1912
First published 1955

A Night to Remember is still considered the best book written about the Titanic. It's a riveting account of Titanic's fatal collision - including what was happening with passengers and staff before, during, and after the iceberg.

While this non-fiction book is a true account written based on interviews and news reports, it reads like a historical fiction novel.

The Book Girls Say... Melissa rated this one a solid four stars and recommends it to anyone with even a slight interest in the Titanic. Although it's an older book, it's a page-turner full of interesting tidbits.

If you are looking for recently published historical fiction stories about the Titanic, consider: Women and Children First, by Gill Paul (which begins on the Titanic and then follows some of the survivors as they arrive in New York), and The Titanic Affair by Amanda Grange (at under 200 pages, this is a very quick read; it's also currently available free with Kindle Unlimited).

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
94% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
Setting: 1915 aboard Lusitania; 2013 England
First published 2018

The Glass Ocean is a captivating historical romance, infused with mystery, that links the lives of three women across a century—two in the past and one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, the Lusitania.

By Erich Maria Remarque
Setting: Germany 1914, France 1918
First published 1929

Considered by many the greatest war novel of all time, this classic book tells of the experience of a young German soldier who enlists in WWI. He starts youthful and enthusiastic but soon experiences the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

The Book Girls Say... This is not for the faint of heart because it is quite graphic, but our readers also describe it as beautifully written.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
96% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Kate Moore
Setting: America, 1917 through the 1920s
First published 2017

The newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty and the wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of WWI.

Across the US, hundreds of girls toil in the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

The Book Girls say... We have both read this non-fiction book, and both highly recommend it as an essential part of history! It is heartbreaking and hard to read because of the terrible illnesses that the women suffer, but worth it. While this book begins in the 1910s, it also covers the 1920s and into the 1930s.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
97% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Lydia Kang
Setting: New York, 1918
First published 2017

Set in New York amid the deadly Spanish flu, this book combines mystery suspense and historical fiction. A young socialite named Allene has lost too many friends and family, and she begins to question if the flu is really to blame. She suspects they've been poisoned, and she engages the help of her old friends Birdie, who works in a factory painting radium on clock dials, and Jasper, an apprentice medical examiner, to help.

The story opens with a murder, and the pace never slows down from there.

This book is available free with Kindle Unlimited, as of January 2022, including both the ebook and the audio versions.

By Sofía Segovia
Setting: Mexico, 1918
First published 2015

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, this novel tells the story of a mysterious child found as a baby abandoned under a bridge and covered in a blanket of bees. Some locals believe the child is "kissed by the devil," but he is adopted by the Morales family that discovers his special gift - the ability to see visions of all that’s yet to come.

The Book Girls Say... While this book gets great reviews overall, some readers, including Melissa, find that it drags a bit and is hard to get into. If you are looking for another book about the 1918 pandemic, but this time set in Dublin, Ireland, consider picking up The Pull of the Stars.

By Frances Hodgson Burnett
Setting: Yorkshire, England 1910
First published in novel form 1911

The Secret Garden is often considered one of the best children's books of the twentieth century, but it appeals to both young and old alike. Mary lives in India with her uncaring parents when they are both killed in a cholera epidemic. She is sent to live with an uncle at his house in England, where she meets and helps her uncle's sickly son, Colin, recover his health.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

By Sinclair Lewis
Setting: 1910, Minnesota
First published 1920

This classic novel shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire. Main Street attacks the conformity and dullness of early-twentieth-century midwestern village life in the story of Carol Milford, the city girl who marries the town doctor.

Her efforts to bring culture to the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, and petty, small-minded bigotry. Published in 1920, this is widely considered the first popular bestseller to attack conventional ideas about marriage, gender roles, and small-town life.

The Book Girls Say... This book moves a bit too slowly for some people's liking. One reviewer described it as the "bliss of the mundane," which some readers find satisfyingly thought-provoking, while others call it boring.