The circus: a place where those with strange talents and social outsiders alike were able to find a home and family that accepted them. This book list is filled with people and stories, both real and imagined, and how they lived out through the backdrop of the heyday of the circus.
The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus by Jaime Jo Wright
A dual timeline read. 1928: Pippa Ripley tries to understand the circumstances of her birth when she is presented with baffling letters from a man called the “Watchman.” Pippa finds that the man’s sister was murdered and he is searching for justice and has proof there is a serial killer involved in the Bonaventure Circus. Present day: Chandler Faulk already has a lot on her shoulders (a single mother recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder) when she is given the task to decide if an old circus train depot will be torn down or saved for its historical importance. As she researches the train she finds disturbing hints of unsolved murders.
The Circus Train by Amita Parikh
Despite being the daughter of Theo Papadopoulos, a famous and headlining circus performer, Lena hasn’t found the circus to be her future; she is more interested in science and medicine. As Lena tries to figure out her future under the overprotective arm of her father, she rescues Alexandre, an orphan, who begins to train under her father. Lena’s world is turned upside down when her father and Alexandre are contracted to perform by the Nazis as World War II looms.
The Circus Train Book
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker
A multigenerational story of found families, love, and survival. After spending part of her life in an orphanage, Cecily is sold into a traveling circus, where Cecily finds the family she longed for. But Cecily’s life begins to crack during her teen years and her life is changed. Fast forward to 2015: Cecily has lived a quiet family life for decades. Her family surprises her with a DNA test that brings to light Cecily’s secret past and makes her family question who they are.
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson Book
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson CD Audiobook
The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers
Paris, 1925: Cecile Cabot only knows of her life in the Secret Circus, her family’s bizarre and magical enterprise where every feat has a price. But her passionate affair with a young painter threatens everything. Virginia, 2005: Bride Lara Barnes is heartbroken when her fiance vanishes on their wedding day. Her hunt takes her through her great-grandmother’s diaries where she learns of her family’s dangerous past with a dark circus and a generational curse.
Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-defying Saga of the American Circus by Les Standiford
We all know the pageantry of the circus: death defying acts, visual and auditory grandeur, animal acts, clowns. But do you know who created the circus? This work of nonfiction gives readers the history of the “three circus kings,” whose talents and drive created and vied for control of what we know as the “big top.”
Maud’s Circus by Michelle Rene
A Fictionalized biopic: How did Maud Wagner become the first female tattoo artist in North America? Teenage Maud runs away to join the circus where she works as a contortionist. While working the 1904 World’s Fair Maude meets Gus Wagner, a famous tattoo artist. Trading a date with him for a tattoo lesson, Maud’s life is changed: marriage and a new career within the circus in which she quite literally leaves a mark on the people she meets.