Historical Fiction Books

[enchantingdragon]

Any historcial fiction fans out there? Was looking for some new author recomendations as my 2 favorites (Philippa Gregory & Margaret George) are currently working on their next books due out late this year I think So in the meantime looking for a new write to latch on to. Never tried Jean Pilday but she might be next Thanks for your suggestions!.

[hockeybrat]

Any historcial fiction fans out there? Was looking for some new author recomendations as my 2 favorites (Philippa Gregory & Margaret George) are currently working on their next books due out late this year I think So in the meantime looking for a new write to latch on to. Never tried Jean Pilday but she might be next Thanks for your suggestions!.

Which era(s) are you interested in? If you like ancient Egyptian themed or 17th-18th Century when the ship trade was big, I would suggest Wilbur Smith.

[pixiecat]

I loved all of the "Caesar" books by Colleen McCullough
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0380710811.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Also, highly recommend anything by Jeffrey Shaara - most recently enjoyed To the Last Man:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0345461347.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I love historical fiction & can't wait to hear other's suggestions!

[emmjay]

I don't know of any recent historical fiction authors, but I know of some older books. I like Irving Stone - fictionalized biographies of famous historical people. The Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo is awesome, and some of the other subjects are Charles Darwin and Vincent Van Gogh.

James Michener writes about the history of different places by using a fictionalized family and their ancestry. The Source is really good - he describes the development of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by writing about an archeological dig in Israel.

Robert Graves wrote I, Claudius about the Roman caesars from the persepective of Claudius - another great book.

[mgrace]

Loved The Red Tent!

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood—the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers—Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah—the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

[kalogrias]

See post below

[kalogrias]

I second The Red Tent . I also LOVE (as in, they are my favorite books and I have read them 5 million times) The Hope and The Glory by Herman Wouk. It's story of modern Israel, with accurate historical facts and some fictional characters thrown in. Also phenomenal was London by Edward Rutherford, which is a somewhat fictionalized biography of the city.

Are you interested only in historical fiction, or would interesting non-fiction historical books apply as well? Because if you don't mind reading non-fiction (I am primarily a non-fiction reader), then Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor by Donna Moreau, was very interesting. I just finished it, in fact. Also, if you haven't read it, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is amazing.

[bunnybeth]

I have read a number of Jean Plaidy aka Victoria Holt books and enjoyed them. I really liked the ones about Queen Anne, The Reluctant Queen, and Marie Antoinette, The Queen's Confession.

Other personal favorites:
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Girl in Hyacinth Blue and The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

[houseblend]

I love historical fiction, too. Some recent ones I've really liked:

The Virgin Blue and Girl With a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory
Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez

[Carrie K]

Robin Maxwell writes novels that take place during Tudor England that I like. The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn , which is written as if Elizabeth will someday find and read it, Virgin, Elizabeth's early years, The Queen's Bastard hypothesizes that Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley had an illegitmate son and Wild Irish, a novel about Queen Elizabeth and an Irish female pirate. She's also got a new book out about the princes in the towers.

I liked Jean Plaidy, but I read her books years ago.

Alison Weir is probably technically non fiction, but her biographies are wonderful. She's written about King Henry and his wives, Isabella of Spain (who sent Columbus off on his voyage and is Henry the 8th's first wife, Catherine of Aragon's mother), Elizabeth, her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, Eleanor of Aquitaine....

[Emilie]

So after reading the Alienist, Angel of Darkness and Devil in the White City again I am looking for more books along those lines. Historical fiction, Victorian era New York, Chicago, etc. I love that stuff. Love that time period.

Any other recommendations?

[apoppy]

I enjoyed Metropolis by Elizabeth Gaffney. It is set in New York in the late 1880s.

[strwbrygirl]

You may want to check out Homeland by John Jakes- relatively the same time period, set (mostly) in Chicago, immigrant experience. Don't let the length put you off, it's a great read!

[looch]

oooh, so glad i found this thread. I am huge fan of margaret george and philippa gregory. I have the maxwell books on my list to read actually.
One i can also recommend is Sappho's Leap by Erica Jong.

[sarahh]

Another suggestion for Red Tent...that was a phenomenal book!

[wander_woman]

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is one of my favorite books ever. The Red Tent is great.
I haven't read any Alexander Dumas books in a while but I remember really liking The Three Musketeers series (those are actually the books that turned me onto historical fiction).
The Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser is great -- it's a series of books about a hilarious English adventurer & womanizer during the height of the British empire (he just happens to be present at every important event in history).
Somewhat cheesy but a good read are Leon Uris books.

I'm going to run out and get some of the books recommended on this thread!

[Amuse Bouche]

I was going to recommend the Caesar Books by Colleen McCullough, too. Incredibly detailed and historically accurate, and fascinating.

[dionysia]

I love the Caesar books as well. They are long and detailed, but well worth it.

Also wonderful are the books by Edward Rutherford: Russka, Sarum, London, Dublin.

Di

[Rosebud]

Another thumbs-up for The Red Tent. I really liked that book!


Here's a piece of historical fiction that I really enjoyed when I read it several years ago.

I Am of Irelaunde : A Novel of Patrick and Osian
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312875673.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

From Booklist:
Anyone familiar with Ireland knows its patron saint, Patrick, who banished the snakes and Druids from the country. Few have heard the behind-the-scenes story about what happened before the legends. So, Patrick is a Roman captured as a slave when he was a teen. After he escapes, he vows never to return, yet God speaks to him, prompting him to return. As a traveling priest, he grumpily spreads the word of God to the "heathen" Irish, hating every second of it. His band of disciples meets Osian, a poet-warrior of the Fianna, who has been dead for 200 years. Osian shares his stories, challenging Patrick's strident disbelief of magic and disdain for Druids and fairies. As the two become close, and their band of men encounter hardship sharing their beliefs, Patrick is forced to reexamine and strengthen his faith in order to survive. Osborne-McKnight beautifully portrays the intricacies of faith, love, and humanity in this novel.


The author has written several other books about early Ireland. The only other one I've read is "Daughter of Ireland", which I didn't care for because it was a tad too "romance-y" and predictable for my taste. But "I am of Irelaunde" is quite good- gives a lot of insight into a very different world in an intelligent, interesting way.

[KarenS]

The Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien. These are the ones Master and Commander with Russell Crowe was based on.

Anything by Jeff or Michael Shaara. I just read "To The Last Man" about the WWI and it was great.

The "Sharpe" series by Bernard Cornwall

Anything by Morgan Llywelyn, who primarily writes about the history of Ireland and the British Isles

[bookworm]

I liked a lot of the books that have already been mentioned-- The Red Tent, Sarum and London, and the Philippa Gregory novels. I'd also add Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet. It's set around the building of a cathedral (I can't remember which one now--Salisbury or Canterbury, I think).

[DallasLady]

I am a HUGE historical fiction fan. I mostly favor US Historical fiction. My all time favorite is Gone With the Wind (cliche, I know, but true). I love the North and South series by John Jakes. I haven't been able to get into his other books, though, they are a little too soap opera-ish for me.

I just read The Other Boleyn Girl and I really liked it. It gives me another avenue to look into when checking out historical fiction.

[houseblend]

DallasLady - I used to absolutely love the North and South mini-series. I started to read the book, but I think I was too young at the time to appreciate it. I actually have the series in queue on Netflix so I can torture DH with it! :D

[RobynScott]

I also LOVE (as in, they are my favorite books and I have read them 5 million times) The Hope and The Glory by Herman Wouk.

Ditto. I think I also read War and Remembrance (the beginning of Wouk's trilogy)

I am also a big fan of the Leon Uris books, especially Exodus (also a story of modern Israel) - and one of my all time faves - Mila 18 - the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

As you might be able to tell, I tend to be interested in / attracted to WW II era books.

[gantry_g]

I like Caleb Carr's novels The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness , both set in turn of the century NYC.

[pixiecat]

gantry_g - I really liked those Caleb Carr books too!

Recently read The Other Boleyn Girl and loved it! I liked Pillars of the Earth, but not a huge fan of Follet in general. I am going to amazon to look up Wouk right now... ready for some new books!!

[bookworm]

Since I recommended "The Philappa Gregory books" in general before, I wanted to come back and add an exception for The Virgin's Lover. That book was wretched. I'm still annoyed that I read it (and even more annoyed that I paid retail--in an airport--for it).

[Sherb]

Fidelis Morgan's Unnatural Fire: a mystery novel set in Restoration England is a favorite of mine.

[sublime311]

I LOVED I, Elizabeth: A Novel by Rosalind Miles. Of course, this is about Queen Elizabeth, England's "virgin queen".

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0609809105.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[sublime311]

James Michener writes about the history of different places by using a fictionalized family and their ancestry. The Source is really good - he describes the development of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by writing about an archeological dig in Israel.
I love the sound of this - just ordered it! Thanks for the rec.

[Elizabeth]

The Virgin's Lover. That book was wretched. I'm still annoyed that I read it (and even more annoyed that I paid retail--in an airport--for it).

I like everything else I've read by Phillipa Gregory except this one. I hated the way it portrayed QE1 as nothing but helpless to her desire of and the manipulation of Dudley.

I LOVED I, Elizabeth: A Novel by Rosalind Miles. Of course, this is about Queen Elizabeth, England's "virgin queen".

Thank you for this recommendation! I'm going to go put it on my Amazon wish list right now! I love bios of her b/c I was named after her.

I enjoyed Sarah by Marek Halter a lot. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1400052726.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

The Red Tent I'm slightly disappointed by, actually, but I have a few more chapters to go.

[olive]

I enjoy historical fiction.

I loved the book "Glass Palace". It is one of my alltime favorite books -- I was so sad to have to leave the characters.

I also enjoyed Gone with the Wind but more recently I read Devil in the White City. It's about a serial murderer in the time of Chicago's World fair.

[bunnybeth]

more recently I read Devil in the White City. It's about a serial murderer in the time of Chicago's World fair.

That's a nonfiction book, FYI. :) And, the serial killer part is only half the story. I really enjoyed it.

[olive]

That's a nonfiction book, FYI. :) And, the serial killer part is only half the story. I really enjoyed it.


You are totally correct. I totally flaked. My book club and I actually discussed extensively that it almost didn't belong in the non-fiction category because the author made up a lot of facts about the murders (i.e. conversations with the his victims, etc.)

[alegria]

I was hoping I'd have something new to add by the time I had read all these posts... but alas - all my ideas were mentioned!

I loved The Other Boleyn Girl and tolerated The Virgin's Lover, like many others have said. I've been reluctant to pick up other Philippa Gregory books but maybe I'll try again.

I also second the Elizabeth I book by Rosalind Miles and Sarah by Marek Halter, especially if you liked The Red Tent.

I also have several Robin Maxwell books on my list, but I haven't read those yet...

Have you read Pride and Prejudice? If so, I'm currently enjoying several "spin-offs;" one by Linda Berdoll (Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and Linda Aidan's three-part series Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman.

[alegria]

Oh, I just thought of another one, inspired by my recent trip to Italy: The Ruby Ring by Diane Haeger. It's about the painter Rafael.

And I've been reading some of Posie Graeme-Evan's books. She has a three-part series about the 1400-1500-ish? English Monarchy (The Innocent is the name of one book; I can't remember the other; the third book, The Beloved should be published in America this summer).

[flygirl]

I third Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

One of my favorite books of all time is The Eight (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345366239/qid=1138217420/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8603429-6766200?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) by Katherine Neville (also one of my favorite authors of all time). It's an intricate tale that weaves together 1973, the French Revolution, Charlemagne and ancient human history with chess, music and math.

[CindyLouWho]

There's a triology about Josephine and Napoleon. I think the author is Sarah Gullard. Very good.

[Rosebud]

Read this recently on the recommendation of a friend and enjoyed it:

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0156007479.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

From Library Journal:
"Slammerkin," an 18th-century term meaning a loose gown or loose woman, is a fitting title for Irish writer Donoghue's (Hood) third novel. Mary Saunders's mother scratches out a meager living as a seamstress in 1760s London, but Mary longs for a more luxurious life with fine ribbons and clothes. At 13, she sneers at her mother's suggestion that she take up the needle, then makes a fateful mistake that leads her into prostitution. On the street, the young woman indulges her fine tastes and lives an independent life. When illness forces her to seek help, she vows to reform her lifestyle. Mary flees to a tiny hamlet where she finds work as a maid and seamstress. In her new life, she discovers the comforts of a home and family. But she questions whether "honest" women are any freer than prostitutes and is unable to forget her former life and her need for autonomy a need that leads to violence. This eloquent and engrossing novel, rich in historical detail and based on an actual murder, raises numerous issues about a woman's station in society during this period. An ideal choice for book groups.

[houseblend]

Coming back to second Memoirs of a Geisha. I didn't think going in that I would find it very interesting, but I can't put it down. It is written amazingly well and is a beautiful story.

[Rosebud]

If anyone is into the Civil War, here's a really good book set in that era.

The Black Flower by Howard Behr
http://tinyurl.com/kysf2

From Amazon.com:
Howard Bahr compresses this moving Civil War novel into 48 hours--two short days filled with grim deaths and the prelude, at least, to a love story. First issued by a small Baltimore press in 1997,The Black Flower was nominated for four major awards, including one from the Academy of Arts and Letters, but failed to garner the attention paid to Cold Mountain. Civil War buffs will rejoice in Bahr's vivid retelling of the November 1864 Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. More to the point, The Black Flower transcends its historical fiction niche and deserves a wider audience. Confederate rifleman Bushrod Carter, the novel's protagonist, is wounded during the battle and taken to a nearby house. In this makeshift hospital, he and two childhood friends huddle together, "shivering with cold and exhaustion, ignoring the ghostly shapes still shuffling through the coiling smoke around them, calling the names of men who would never answer." Bahr has poured 20 years of research into his novel, but this haunting portrayal of suffering and death is the product not merely of historical diligence but also an impressive literary imagination.

[Rosebud]

One more that I forgot to mention....

English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
http://tinyurl.com/hqtdd

This book is long, but very good. It was a real eye opener to some historical events and in the end quite moving. From Publisher's Weekly:

The brutal hand of British imperialism provides the foundation for this broad historical swashbuckler about the English colonization of Tasmania in the early and mid-19th century. U.K. author Kneale debuts stateside with this lengthy novel of hapless smugglers, desperate convicts, simpering bureaucrats, mad vicars and displaced aborigines. The English passengers are the Reverend Wilson, a vicar determined to prove that Tasmania was the site of the original Garden of Eden, and Doctor Potter, a ruthless scientist equally determined to prove Wilson wrong and gain fame in the victory. They're on their way to Tasmania aboard the good ship Sincerity, commanded by Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley, a high-seas smuggler and rascal of renown. This is an unpleasant voyage for everyone, especially Kewley, for he has been forced to charter his ship in order to escape punishment for dodging customs duties on his illicit cargoes. Storms, pirates and foul tempers, however, are just the prelude to the hardships that await everyone when they land in Tasmania. British self-righteousness in forcing civilization and Christianity on the aborigines causes wholesale slaughter and subjugation of the islanders, and the natives are more than just restless. Wilson and Potter's overland expedition is guided by Peevay, a wily aborigine not about to knuckle under to the white man. Of course, the expedition is a bloody disaster. Murder, madness, betrayal, mutiny and shipwreck spice up the action and provide intricate plot twists with surprising and satisfying resolutions, particularly for Captain Kewley. This rich tale is told by 20 different voices skipping back and forth across the years, but somehow Kneale manages to keep the reader from becoming confused.

[Rosebud]

Just read a glowing review of this new historical fiction novel in the L.A. Times and will have to add it to my to-read list. Just thought I'd share:

From 'great hunger,' hope sprouts: "The Law of Dreams" by Peter Behrens

Today, most of us know it simply as "the potato famine." But because the majority of its victims suffered and died innocent of English, its name in Irish better conveys the catastrophe's simple terror: An Gorta Mor — "the great hunger."

One of the many fine things about Peter Behrens' stunningly lyric first novel, "The Law of Dreams," is that it is emphatically a story of that "great hunger," a work of richly empathetic imagination that reminds us once again of how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands. In fact, the story has a factual and emotional authenticity that calls to mind the similarly masterful debut Thomas Flanagan made with his now classic novel of Irish history, "The Year of the French."

Oddly, for a calamity that occurred in what was then the territory of the world's most developed nation (Britain) in the relatively recent past (the mid-19th century) and that afflicted that most verbal of people (the Irish), "the great hunger" has bequeathed us precious little first-rate fiction.

For generations a kind of shamed silence hung over the cataclysm, complicated by the assertion in some Irish nationalist circles that the famine following the general failure of the island's potato crop in 1845 was a deliberate act of genocide by the English government.

Rest of the article HERE (http://www.calendarlive.com/columnists/rutten/cl-et-rutten23aug23,0,5017774.story)

Synopsis from Amazon.com:
Inspired by his own family history, Behrens has fashioned a paean to the strength of the human spirit that illuminates a piece of history. Fergus O'Brien is still in his teens in 1846 when blight strikes his potatoes and typhus his family, whose cabin is set aflame with his younger sisters dead and his parents lying ill inside. Famine, fever, and deprivation are his constant companions, from the workhouse to which he is sent, through his time with an outlaw band, an attack on the farm on which his father was a tenant, respite in a Liverpool bordello, and work in Wales, where he takes a fancy to his shanty-owner's "railroad wife," red-haired Molly, with whom he sets sail for the New World. The law of dreams is to keep moving, and that's what Fergus does, taking advantage of opportunities even as he is haunted by dreams and hurt by betrayal. Behrens tells this story in spare prose that distills ideas to their essence, making this absorbing historical fiction.

[lawyerlee]

I've found myself reading a lot of historical fiction this year. I'm enjoying this genre so much!

Here is a list of the titles I've read this year:

Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes*
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl*
The Known World by Edward P. Jones (I didn't care for this and can't really recommend it. :( )
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

*=highly recommended

Next I'll be reading The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Baynard, another historical fiction title about Poe. It is our October book club read, and I can't wait to dive into it. I *love* Poe and historical fictions. :D

[BumbleB]

This is my favorite "Book Talk" thread.

Rosebud03- all of your recs sound SO good. They're on my list.

Some books I've recently read:

The Agony and The Ecstasy by Irving Stone about Michelangelo
The Birth of Venus
----------------------------------

Plum Wine - Deals beautifully with the fallout from dropping the A-bomb in Japan. Loved it.
From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. As this enthralling novel opens, Barbara Jefferson, teaching English in Japan in 1966, receives a bequest from her Japanese fellow teacher and mentor, Michiko Nakamoto, a Hiroshima survivor who has just died of cancer. Barbara's superiors arrive at her apartment bearing Michi-San's gorgeous tansu chest, filled with bottles of homemade plum wine dated by year. After a short, perfectly rendered struggle with the elder Japanese teachers over the possession of the wine, Barbara discovers that the rice paper wrappings of each bottle contain a portion of the story of Michiko's life. Barbara's path through the texts, which she cannot translate herself, forms the rest of the novel. As Barbara delves into Michi-San's life and loves, an odd triangle forms between Barbara, Michiko and Michiko's childhood friend Seiji, a man who is between the two women in age, and who translates some texts. Author of Felice and Forms of Shelter, Davis-Gardner handles the Japanese mores of the time expertly, and the dialogue spoken by non-native English speakers is pitch perfect. She quietly wows with this third novel, which features a wonderfully inventive plot and a protagonist as self-possessed as she is sensitive.

Empress
From Booklist:

From the internationally best-selling author of The Girl Who Played Go (2003) comes another brilliant historical novel set in China. Reaching back in time to the seventh century, Shan re-creates a China ruled by the powerful Tang dynasty. Chosen to become one of the emperor's royal concubines, a young girl known as Heavenlight is thrust into the exotic world of the Forbidden City, where she must learn to navigate politics, court intrigue, and petty jealousies. One among 10,000 girls and women, she eventually distinguishes herself from the others by relying on her intelligence, wit, and fierce determination. Chosen by the heir to the throne to be his first wife, she ascends to the throne after her husband's death, becoming the first empress of China. Based on the controversial reign of Empress Wu, this fictional biography illuminates the life and times of one of the ancient world's most powerful, capable, and overlooked women.

[lawyerlee]

Plum Wine - Deals beautifully with the fallout from dropping the A-bomb in Japan. Loved it.
This sounds awesome. Thanks for suggesting it!

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue is now on my list, too, Rosebud03. It sounds very intrieging. I might save it as a suggestion for my book club. Thanks! :)

[BumbleB]

lawyerlee - Hope you like Plum Wine, some of my favorite books are the ones that are a little more obscure - I heard about this one on NPR and hadn't ever read anything describing Japan after the war, so it was a very interesting read for me.

The Poe Shadow has been on my list for awhile, good to see someone highly recommend it - hopefully I'll get to it soon. ;)

[uwsweet]

Ooooo.... what great suggestions I'll have to add to my books to read list. I just discovered Philippa Gregory but haven't read anything yet. One that I would recommend which I would classify as historical fiction is

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. This is the first of a series that takes place in the US and Canada (NY area) mixing native american characters with English characters. Wonderful story, I'm need to start the 4th? one Fire Along the Sky soon.

Candy

[Rosebud]

Two books that I've seen recommended elsewhere but haven't gotten to read yet. Anyone read these?

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
by Lisa See

Amazon: See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love. While granting immediacy to Lily's voice, See (Flower Net) adroitly transmits historical background in graceful prose. Her in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life. As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well.

The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai

Publishers Weekly: This stunning second novel is set in mid-1980s India, on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state. Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired Cambridge-educated judge, lives in Kalimpong, at the foot of the Himalayas, with his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook. The makeshift family's neighbors include a coterie of Anglophiles who might be savvy readers of V.S. Naipaul but who are, perhaps, less aware of how fragile their own social standing is—at least until a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Jemubhai, with his hunting rifles and English biscuits, becomes an obvious target. Besides threatening their very lives, the revolution also stymies the fledgling romance between 16-year-old Sai and her Nepalese tutor, Gyan. In this alternately comical and contemplative novel, Desai deftly shuttles between first and third worlds, illuminating the pain of exile, the ambiguities of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a "better life," when one person's wealth means another's poverty.

[framboise]

Someone mentioned The Eight a few posts back. My book club read it & everyone really enjoyed it. I had sort of forgotten about it, but now that my memory has been jogged, I'd definately recommend it.

Plum Wine has been added to my list of to-reads!

I really enjoyed The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch. My MIL gave it to me a few years ago (because we both think we were French in a former life ;) ) and I found it really interesting. It's about a Native American who has been performing in the European tour of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show & is accidentally left behind in Marseilles. Rosebud, you might really like this one if you haven't read it yet.

I just listened to the audio version of Charleston by John Jakes. I picked it out because my brother lived in Charleston until recently & I really enjoyed visiting the city. I enjoyed listening, but might have had trouble reading the whole thing. I also noticed that one pretty major event was left out - the earthquake of 1853. While the Revolutionary War & Civil War had a considerable impact on the city, from what I could tell during my visit, the earthquake did too so I was surprised that it wasn't included.

[Rosebud]

I really enjoyed The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch. My MIL gave it to me a few years ago (because we both think we were French in a former life ;) ) and I found it really interesting. It's about a Native American who has been performing in the European tour of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show & is accidentally left behind in Marseilles. Rosebud, you might really like this one if you haven't read it yet.

I remember reading reviews of this when it was published and thinking that it sounded interesting. Putting it on my list. Thanks! :)

[BumbleB]

The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch -- My DH had to read this for a college course - it is sitting on our bookshelf, next time I need something to read I will have to pick it up. I've read his Fools Crow, also for school.


Tonight I'm starting The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

(we'll see, I was trying to decide between it and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and for whatever reason chose it) Anyone read it?

[Katie1]

Here's another vote for Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. He is my favorite author, and he has written historical fiction set in several different time periods. Some other good ones include A Dangerous Fortune (set in the 1800s) and any of his World War II books: Jackdaws, Lay Down with Lions, The Man From St. Petersburg.

Another good one I read as a kid, but which I have re-read many times as an adult, is E.L. Konigsburg's A Proud Taste For Scarlet & Miniver. It is about Eleanor of Aquitaine and very interesting.

[lawyerlee]

The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
I saw her interviewed on Charlie Rose last week, and it made me even more excited about reading this book. It sounds very good, so I hope I don't have to wait long to get it from the library! :)

[BumbleB]

Finished reading The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. It was ok. I know it is a modern classic, but it just wasn't Vivid enough for me, I felt like someone needed to breath some life into the pages. I'm trying for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan next, which looks to be a bit more my style.

[CBMarie]

I really loved the Diana Gabaldon books about a time-traveling woman named Claire who goes to 18th c. Scotland. The first titles are Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and Drums of Autumn. There might be a few more - I only read the first four.

This is her website. (http://www.dianagabaldon.com/)

[BumbleB]

Thought I'd try to revive this thread in case anyone has new reading to add, here are my latest:


A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russel - story takes place in Italy during the height of WWII, tells the tale of villagers in the Italian alps who work a resistance in which they hide Jewish refugees who've crossed over the Alps and others in need of protection. Includes accounts from priests, nuns, children, and the Germans trying to stop them. One of the best books on this subject matter I've read.

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati - This has been previously listed here, but I wanted to add that if you liked Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, you might look into this series. I've only read the first book, but it was very good. I love accounts of ordinary life at this time in our nation's history - just fascinating to me.

[Sin Nombre]

Oldies but goodies – the John Jakes’ Bicentennial Series (also known as the Philip Kent books). The Bastard, The Rebels, The Seekers, et al - I think there are 12 books in total, and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable read of history of America from its birth to the 20th century, through the eyes of one family. I’ve read other John Jakes’ books and while they’re first-rate, none compare to the Philip Kent books.

Another wonderful, lyrical and beautifully written book is Pete Hamill’s “Forever”. It’s set in New York, and traces much of its history from the earliest days up until the day the planes crashed into the towers. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who calls themselves a New Yorker (or just loves New York).

[lawyerlee]

Oldies but goodies – the John Jakes’ Bicentennial Series (also known as the Philip Kent books). The Bastard, The Rebels, The Seekers, et al - I think there are 12 books in total, and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable read of history of America from its birth to the 20th century, through the eyes of one family.
I think I might like those, and I think my dad has a bunch of them. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

[Sin Nombre]

I think I might like those, and I think my dad has a bunch of them. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

Be sure to start with The Bastard and read them in order! You'll fall in love with Philip Kent and his descendants! :D

[DallasLady]

bumping... anything good out these days?

[Katie1]

Earlier in this thread a few of us have mentioned "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Well, he has written a follow-up (sort of a sequel, but takes place 200 years after POTE, in the same medieval town.) It's called "World Without End." I haven't read it yet but it's on my Christmas list.

Most of Ken Follett's books are historical fiction, and I would recommend them all. He is by far my favorite author.

Also, when I looked up "World Without End" on Amazon, they recommended this book: The Eagle and the Raven (http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Raven-Pauline-Gedge/dp/155652708X/ref=bxgy_cc_b_text_b) by Pauline Gedge. It looks pretty interesting.

[BumbleB]

Thanks for Bumping, DallasLady. This is one of my fav. threads!

I have a bunch of recs and am hoping more people will add theirs - I need to add to my book list for 2008! :)

Devil in The White City - Erik Larson-
From Barnes & Noble
The bestselling author of Isaac's Storm returns with a gripping tale about two men -- one a creative genius, the other a mass murderer -- who turned the 1893 Chicago World's Fair into their playground. Set against the dazzle of a dream city whose technological marvels presaged the coming century, this real-life drama of good and evil unfolds with all the narrative tension of a fictional thriller.

Resistance - Anita Shreve
Publishers Weekly
As in her earlier novels, Shreve (Eden Close) affectingly explores themes of love and loss with piercing clarity, once again capturing the fragile emotions of those in pain. Here, however, she moves from her customary domestic, contemporary milieu to WWII Europe-to the Belgian village of Delahaut, where young Claire Daussois and her husband, Henri, are members of an underground resistance movement. When a British plane goes down outside the town in December 1943, the plucky 10-year-old Jean Benoit finds a survivor, Ted Brice, hides him in his father's barn and then summons the aid of Mme. Daussois. When it becomes necessary for Henri to go into hiding, Claire and Ted embark on a brief affair, a passionate liaison made more poignant by its simultaneous inevitability and futility. With deceptive simplicity and superb control, Shreve evokes the impersonal horrors of wartime and its heartbreaking personal tragedies...

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen (Couldn't find a review I liked- you just have to read it!)


The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig
From the Publisher
"Can’t cook but doesn’t bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the hungry attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so begins the unforgettable season that deposits the noncooking, nonbiting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris Morgan, in Marias Coulee along with a stampede of homesteaders drawn by the promise of the Big Ditch—a gargantuan irrigation project intended to make the Montana prairie bloom. When the schoolmarm runs off with an itinerant preacher, Morris is pressed into service, setting the stage for the "several kinds of education"—none of them of the textbook variety—Morris and Rose will bring to Oliver, his three sons, and the rambunctious students in the region’s one-room schoolhouse.

A paean to a vanished way of life and the eccentric individuals and idiosyncratic institutions that made it fertile, The Whistling Season is Ivan Doig at his evocative best.


Ines of My Soul - Isabel Allende
From the Publisher
In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Inés Suárez, a seamstress condemned to a life of toil, flees Spain to seek adventure in the New World. As Inés makes her way to Chile, she begins a fiery romance with Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together the lovers will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage war against the indigenous Chileans—a bloody struggle that will change Inés and Valdivia forever, inexorably pulling each of them toward separate destinies.

and...

The Secret River - Kate Grenville (this one is a bit brutal/bloody at the end but still SO worth reading).
The Washington Post - Ron Charles
The most remarkable quality of Kate Grenville's new novel is the way it conveys the enormous tragedy of Australia's founding through the moral compromises of a single ordinary man. The Secret River reminds us that national history may be recorded as a succession of larger-than-life leaders and battles, but in fact a country arises from the accretion of personal dreams, private sacrifices and, often, hidden acts of cruelty.

[Niobe]

Abundance - A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The opening sentence of Naslund's fictional memoir of Marie Antoinette ("Like everyone, I am born naked") sets a hypnotically intimate tone that never wavers as the much-maligned Austrian princess recounts her life from baptism in the Rhine and rebirth as French citizen to appointment with the guillotine. In Naslund's (Ahab's Wife) sympathetic portrayal, 14-year-old "Toinette" arrives in France a pretty-mannered naïf determined to please the king, the court and, most importantly, her husband, the Dauphin. The novel provides a wealth of detail as Toinette savors the food, architecture, music and gardens of Versailles; indulges in hair and clothing rituals; gets acquainted with her indifferent partner and her scheming new relations; and experiences motherhood and loss. Her story unfolds like classical tragedy—the outcome known, the account riveting—as famous incidents are reinterpreted (the affair of the necklace, the flight to Varennes), culminating in a heartbreaking description of the bloody head of the Princess de Lamballe held aloft on a pike for the deposed queen to see. With vivid detail and exquisite narrative technique, Naslund exemplifies the best of historical fiction, finding the woman beneath the pose, a queen facing history as it rises up against her. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --

Started out great, dragged a little in the middle, but picked back up a bit near the end. Wasn't the best book I read this year, but it was entertaining.

Also, The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory - this was MUCH better then The Virgin Lover (yeah, that one was terrible). It switches between the narratives of Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Lady Jane Rochford very effectively. The Queen's Fool was another of Gregory's better books - having a fictional character narrate made for a nice change.

[MsPeachy]

I wasn't sure where to put this but it seemed this thread had the most mentions so here ya go. This is pretty exciting to me since this book is one of my favorites.

Pillars of the Earth to be made into a miniseries... (http://apnews.excite.com/article/20091207/D9CEGF4G0.html)Now, "The Pillars of the Earth" is being turned into a Ridley Scott-produced miniseries starring Donald Sutherland, Ian McShane and Rufus Sewell; shot in Hungary and Austria, it is to air by June 2010.

Follett said that while he had received offers to turn the book into a two- to four-hour film, only Scott was willing to commit to an extended version that would capture the book's complexities.

"Most people think it's my best book and I felt very strongly that I should hold out for a long miniseries," the British author said in an interview while visiting the set at Astra Studios in Fot, just outside Budapest. "Ridley was the only person who was able to guarantee that."


The producers financed the project independently, and the question of who will eventually broadcast the eight-hour series - which can be shown in four or eight parts - is still to be determined.

<snip>