Jean Zimmerman

E.R. Ramzipoor's novel tells the story a group of resisters in Belgium during World War II who lampooned the Nazis by putting out a satirical edition of the newspaper Le Soir, then a Nazi mouthpiece.

Caite Dolan-Leach's new novel follows a young woman who gets kicked off a reality TV show and ends up on a 1960s-style commune, where utopian ideals soon fall prey to some very human foibles.

Elin Hilderbrand — known as the "Queen of Summer" — is back with another beachy tale of family secrets and intrigue (and tasty period details), set on Nantucket during the turbulent summer of 1969.

Television producer Deb Spera draws on her childhood in rural Branchville, S.C. in her first novel, painting a bleak, atmospheric portrait of three women's lives in the South during the 1920s.

Elizabeth Gilbert's new novel is set in the New York theater community of the 1940s — an effervescent golden age for the women who congregate at the offbeat Lily Playhouse.

Joanne Ramos builds her own experience into this story of a young Filipino woman who ends up on a seemingly cushy "gestational retreat" where women — called "hosts" — carry babies for rich families.

Author Jean Zimmerman chooses five books that "pick up where history leaves off," shedding new light on often forgotten corners of history, from the unruly Florida frontier of the 18th century to the real-life little dancer who inspired Edgar Degas' famous sculpture.