It must be some kind of record that it’s already March 6th and I haven’t yet mentioned Women’s History Month on the blog! (Rest assured it’s come up plenty on Twitter.) But of course women, history, and especially historical novels featuring women from history are all near and dear to my heart. For the last two years, my spring blog project was a series of #womenshistoryreads interviews; this year it’s the #read99women series, and genre-wise, I’m casting a much wider net.

And a good thing, too, since some of the books I’m most looking forward to this year are outside of the historical fiction genre. One of the most highly anticipated is A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, coming from Therese Anne Fowler. Of course she’s a historical fiction superstar, best known for her Zelda Fitzgerald novel Z and its followup A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN; but her newest novel is contemporary, and by all accounts, it’s a real knockout. It hits shelves next Tuesday, March 10.

Therese Anne Fowler (pronounced ta-reece) is a New York Times and USA Today best selling author whose novels present intriguing people in difficult situations, many of those situations deriving from the pressures and expectations of their cultures as well as from their families. Her books are available in every format and in multiple languages, and are sold around the world. Z has been adapted for television by Amazon Studios. A Well-Behaved Woman is in development with Sony Pictures Television.

Therese’s #read99women pick is PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS by John Kessel, which she describes as “a brilliantly imagined, vividly rendered tale that puts Mary Bennet from Austen's Pride & Prejudice into Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.”

More: “It's a tensely plotted yet thoughtful examination of Mary Bennett's character set ten years after Lizzie and Darcy wed, when Mary is on the verge of permanent spinsterhood. Kessel, who won awards for his novelette version of the story, originally conceived it when he noticed that Austen's and Shelley's novels were published around the same time. He wondered what might happen if Mary were to meet Victor at a London ball, when Victor is in the city as part of his efforts to create a bride for his creature. The result is a fascinating read. Stories about Mary Bennet have become almost a cottage industry. But Kessel was among the first in, and I would argue that his tale is among the most interesting, skillful, and original of the bunch."

Fascinating!