The best books that right the wrongs of history

The history of women in the monarchy is annoying at best—it’s all cut off their heads and use them for heirs then let them die in a tower. My Lady Jane reimagines the life of Lady Jane Grey, known as the “nine days queen” who was a teenager on the throne before her execution (thanks to the next queen, Mary). What a trash fire of a teendom! This story deserved to be re-imagined with a lot more fun, a little bit of feminist magic, and a lot fewer executions. My own book reimagined a sad and dark history into one filled with forgiveness. Sometimes, reading a history made right can make us imagine a more just future!

Dread Nation is both a reimagination of the dark days of slavery in America and a gruesomely fun zombie book. Similar to My Lady Jane, there’s a bit of magic (with the zombie situation) that adds to the pleasure of re-imagining a dark and terrible time. Readers get to dive into a new history where the main characters have more agency than they did historically—we experience formerly enslaved Black and Indigenous people who get to zombie-slaughter the bad guys! What could be more satisfying?  

We often forget that women weren’t educated until very recently. Hundreds of years went by—and women were kept illiterate, barred from schools, barefoot, and making porridge. What utter drivel! The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy attacks the history that kept women from studying and practicing medicine and takes us on pirate adventures. Plus, sapphic love! What more could we ask for? 

Everyone ships Alex and Eliza. Everyone. Okay, maybe not Angelica. But everyone else. And with the fabulous Hamilton musical, we move a little too quickly to Alex’s affair(s) and his life’s tragedy. Let us linger on the love story, will you? This book hones in on Alex and Eliza’s love story and lets us live through their courtship and loveship, and leaves out all those parts that are a bunch of big downers. While it doesn’t quite right a wrong of history—it does tell the part of the story we all want to linger in. 

The one irritant of the Jane Austen books is the (various) sisters’ insufferable lack of agency. They must wait around and do nothing while other people decide their fates. It might have been historically accurate, but it’s a bore. Pride and Premeditation gives our old friend Elizabeth a lot more to do—like solve crimes—than play pianoforte badly. A fun and hilarious love story and a bit of a thrill, too, this book rights another wrong of those classic historical moments and stories we love—and turns a humble story into one full of fun.