General Outline
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Other Booklists
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Why is HBBB a thing?
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I am a list maker. I love organizing booklists, to-do lists, checklists of all kinds. I spend a great deal of my time researching books for my job and I’ve often found it frustrating that there isn’t one reliable resource where I can find an organized timeline of literature. So I’ve created one. I’ve set out to create a resource that will guide you on a literary adventure through history.
You can find books here on just about every time period or historical topic and for any age level. I’ve done my best to research and vet each title to ensure that this list is filled with living books. I’ve noted content warnings when necessary and my daughters and I have reviewed many of the titles recommended. This has been and will continue to be a labor of love, as we continue to build this website and update these book suggestions. I hope you find it helpful!
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Book Suggestions Published in 2024
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Featured Weekly Book Suggestion - 01/15/2024
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| Age of Revolutions
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Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix
Author: Novoa, Gabe Cole
Buy at Amazon | BookShop.org
Time Period: Age of Revolutions
Time Frame: 1812]
Geographic Area: Europe
Country: Great Britain
Topics: Regency Era, Retelling, LGBTQ+
Genre: Fiction
Reading Age: Young Adult, Adult
Format: Novel
Published: 2024
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| Content Warning
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| transphobia, deadnaming
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World History > Age of Revolutions > LGBTQ+
In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. This bittersweet Pride & Prejudice remix follows a trans boy yearning for the freedom to live openly, centering queerness in a well-known story of longing and subverting society’s patriarchal and cisheteronormative expectations.
London, 1812. Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world―and the vast majority of his family and friends―think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife.
But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart. And not to mention incredibly attractive.
As Oliver is able to spend more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares begin to hope that his dream of love and life as a man could be possible. But suitors are growing bolder―and even threatening―and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: Settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he's not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly, honestly his own.
Emily's Review
Oh my gosh - I cannot explain to you how much I adored this book. I love Pride and Prejudice. It is one of my favorite classics and one that I've returned to many times over the years. I adore the book, but I also love the film adaptations. I think a lot of women my age consider Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy to be the definitive Darcy. I won't pretend that he wasn't the image I had in my mind when I conjured up Novoa's version of Mr. Darcy. It's the ultimate romantic comedy.
So when I saw that a new remix was coming out and it was based on Pride and Prejudice, I knew I had to read it. I expected to enjoy it, but I had no idea that I would end up absolutely loving it.
In this remix, the character of Elizabeth Bennet is a trans boy named Oliver. This whole story is now about his experiences dealing with the expectations his mother has for him, that society expects, but wanting desperately to live his truth. I worried that it could potentially derail the story, but not at all. If anything, the new context made it somehow better. I loved this version of the Bennet family, Mr. Bennet especially.
The characters were all done well, Wickham is particularly heinous, and the relationship between Oliver and Darcy was fantastic. The way the author was able to not just retell Pride and Prejudice, but enhance it, and create a whole new story while still hitting all the main beats... I loved it, most ardently.
If you haven't picked up anything in the remix series yet, please do
Other Similar Books
Other suggestions on the subject of the Retelling.
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Books. Lots of Books.
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