Today in Bookish and Literary History, September 25

1935 Maxwell Anderson's play "Winterset" premieres in NYC

The tragedy deals indirectly with the famous Sacco-Vanzetti case, in which two Italian immigrants with radical political beliefs were executed.

2012 Toby's Room by Pat Barker (UK)

Toby's Room is the second novel in Pat Barker's Life Class Trilogy, returning to the First World War in a dark, compelling examination of human desire, wartime horror and the power of friendship When Toby is reported 'Missing, Believed Killed', another secret casts a lengthening shadow over Elinor's world: how exactly did Toby die - and why?

2014 Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey (UK)

From acclaimed Booker Prize Winner, Orange Prize and Guardian First Book Award finalist Samantha Harvey, a stunning novel of female friendship, betrayal, and revenge

2025 Carapace by Travis M. Riddle

He has a job mining for a mysterious toxic substance used in the nation's #1 haircare product, parents who call him multiple times a week toward whom he feels an unyielding sense of obligation, and a two-bedroom apartment with his high school sweetheart Alyssa.

2025 Identity Crisis by Nicola Gill (UK)

Be yourself, people say. But the last person Clare Palmer wants to be is herself – she's lost everything she once had and now can barely get through a bus ride without wanting to thump someone. (People who don't wear headphones, sniffers, fried chicken guzzlers.)

2025 Old Songs: Stories of Love and Death from Traditional Ballads  by Amy Jeffs (UK)

Old Songs fuses short stories, histories, lyrics and music in an enthralling reimagining of traditional folk ballads. Sunday Times Bestselling historian Amy Jeffs and her creative collaborators combine forces to create a rich compendium, singing of travel, mystery, magic and the essential urges of humanity.

2025 One of Us by Elizabeth Day (UK)

When Fliss, the eccentric grown daughter of the powerful Fitzmaurice clan, is found dead on beach in Bali, what seems like a tragic accident stirs more suspicion than closure for those who’ve traded favors with—and within—her family for decades.

2025 The Blackest Time by Ken Tentarelli

It's Europe in the 1300s, and Gino, a young man living in rural Italy, leaves behind the familiarity of his family's farm to seek a new life as an apprentice in an apothecary shop in Florence.

2025 The Field Girls by Rosie Archer (UK)

A heartwarming WWII saga

2025 The Queen’s Necklace by Adrienne Chinn

Bryher Finch’s life isn’t just a disaster, it’s a catastrophe, until a chance invitation to chart her family tree changes everything. As Bryher uncovers the ancestry she never knew about, she stumbles on the find of the century – Anne Boleyn’s ‘B’ necklace, as enigmatic as Henry VIII’s most notorious Queen herself.