10 books like Florence Adler Swims Forever

Historical fiction at its best. This book about the once wealthiest woman in the United States, Marjorie Post, packed the informational punch of a textbook and the juicy details of a soap opera. I loved moving through the decades with Marjorie, starting in the late 19th century at her birth up until her death in the 1970s. Getting to relive major historical events and reveling in the zeitgeist of different cultural moments in Marjorie’s shoes was such a thrill. Pataki is top-notch at historical fiction that focuses on fascinating women. 

I loved this book for so many reasons.

First, it’s incredibly funny, and humor is my favorite genre to read. The real world is scary enough. 

Second, the heroine is a strong, take-no-prisoners chemist dealing with all the harassment and discrimination women faced in the 1950s and 1960s, issues that women still experience in our current society.

Elizabeth is unapologetically brilliant, and she never gives up, despite repeated attempts to derail her, all traits that I admire. But this book has a bonus.

I’m an animal lover, and the best character may be Six-thirty, Elizabeth’s dog, a dropout from bomb-sniffing school, who narrates his scenes.

That’s priceless.

I have long been a fan of Jennifer Weiner and expected another charming, funny (and modern) read when I picked up Mrs. Everything. But this book far surpassed my expectations. It was far more serious, ambitious, and sweeping than her other books. The story centers on two sisters growing up in 1950s Detroit, taking me back to an era where women were raised to be housewives alone, and follows them through the tumultuous sixties and beyond. Weiner’s writing and research are so strong, I felt like I experienced the historical milestones along with the characters. 

After a freak accident when he’s eleven, Samuel Masur is left with a lame foot, leading him to use video games to escape his problems.

Even without the accident, I experienced him as a high-functioning neurodivergent boy with sensory issues. Sam rarely complains about the constant pain from his never-healing foot, and his emotional wounds are equally painful and unhealing.

The story follows Sam and his two dearest friends over twenty years, where he makes more than his fair share of poor decisions. Still, I felt a deep sense of empathy with Sam, always hoping for him to see the amazing things he already accomplished and that he is indeed loved.

You are worthy, Sam!

Most art in the Renaissance was commissioned by specific patrons and this book superbly illustrates the complex interaction among patron, artist, and society by focusing on the greatest patron of art and architecture in fifteenth-century Florence. Cosimo de’ Medici was the most powerful figure in the city’s political and economic life, a fabulously wealthy banker, a devout Christian, but he had also an impeccable nose for great art. With the help of about 200 images, the book examines the religious, personal, and dynastic motivations behind Cosimo’s artistic patronage, both his direct commissions for the Medici palaces, villas, and chapels as well as his active involvement in the works officially commissioned by the republic. What you’ll get out of this book is a profound understanding of how art was commissioned, created, and viewed in Renaissance Florence.

There are millions of great guidebooks on Florence, but none is more entertaining, informative, and lively than Eve Borsook’s. An American art historian who lived in the city for most of her life, she unravels Florence's history, art, and politics with verve, knowledge, and insight. As one would expect in a guide, she describes systematically the city, a chapter for each neighborhood, each chapter starting with detailed descriptions of its most interesting streets, squares, buildings, and works of art. But what makes this guide invaluable are Borsook’s commentaries that follow her informative descriptions. I suggest you read this book before you go to Florence, plan your visit according to her chapters, and then, once in Florence, after you have seen the works she describes, read again the chapter on the neighborhood you visited that day. Renaissance Florence and the people who lived in it will come to life for you… show more.

The Monster of Florence is set in the famous Italian city of Florence (Firenze), as are all of Magdalen Nabb’s mysteries. She gives us fascinating insights into life in Florence, through the eyes of her detective, Marshall Guarnaccia. The Marshall is a very down-to-earth and believable character and does his best at trying to catch a serial killer on the loose in that part of Italy. The author takes the reader right inside life in Florence with a work that is entirely engaging and well-written.

Nabb’s Marshal Guarnaccia, unflamboyant and patient, is an unspectacular thinker but a brilliant listener with a real, if unsentimental sympathy for the people he deals with on both sides of the law. Without fancy vices or personal charisma, Guarnaccia’s fundamental decency is nowhere on better display than in The Marshal’s Own Case, set among the desperate young transgender prostitutes of the Florentine sex trade, a culture quite different from the Marshal’s own secure family life.

It’s impossible to understand the turbulence that frequently swept over Florence in those years without some sense of what the magnate class was all about: its pride and its violence, its lawlessness, its emphasis on knighthood, and its private military forces. Lansing shows how the magnate class evolved as a distinctive culture, becoming powerful and disruptive to the city’s peace well beyond even what its considerable economic clout would suggest. She places a lot of emphasis on the role of women among the magnates, even though women could never be full members of the lineage, since they married into other lineages. Lively and readable, with lots of stories of interesting individuals.

This concise history of Florence is a great starting point. It traces the evolution of the city from a medieval commune to a republic, covering intellectual, political, cultural, religious, and economic trends and developments over the centuries. Its scope is broad, and one of its strengths is its continuity, as it follows various threads through time. Najemy is a well-known historian of Florence, and this popular history is an excellent resource.