In this issue, Jill Rourke, head librarian at the Apalachicola Margaret Key Library, recommends two favorites. “Historical novels are a delicious blend of history and the imagination, peeling back time and space and often — through great characters — letting us view history through a slightly different lens,” she writes.

“The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead blew my socks off! Whitehead envisions the Underground Railroad as an actual working railway operating on a network of tracks and tunnels beneath Southern soil.

Young Cora risks everything to escape the shackles of slavery. It is a novel of terror, cruelty, humanity, and courage beyond measure.”

Her next selection is The Women of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck. “It chronicles a trio of women enduring the hardships of post-WWII Europe, the challenges they face and the sometimes brutal choices they must make to survive,” she says.“ A story of dark secrets and painful revelations, this novel is ultimately about love, forgiveness and the bonds of shared experience.”