Does anyone here read historical fiction? If so what are some of your favorites?
Does anyone here read historical fiction? If so what are some of your favorites?
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Does anyone here read historical fiction? If so what are some of your favorites?
Tracy Chevalier
One of my absolute favourite authors x
I was recently surprised by The Alice Network, so good!
Phillipa Gregory
I second that!!!
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Before we were yours was a great one
Susanna kearsley
The other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Yes, I love historical fiction! If you’re into any Japanese history (17th century), “Taiko” and “Musashi” by Eiji Yoshikawa are really amazing books. They are VERY long, though.
The Nightingale, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, A Fall of Marigolds, Beneath A Scarlet Sky, The Snow Child, Before We Were Yours and The Secret Wife. All excellent.
The snow child was amazing
@Sandra Loved it!
Loved The Tea Girl.
Lilac Girls
Alison Weir. I’m a huge Tudor nerd
Love this author.
@Lyndel oh me too. I’m working through her Tudor Queens series and they’re great
@Jessica the 6 wives?? Loving those. Wish she would write more than one a year LOL
I know! But she’s still a lot quicker than Hilary Mantel. I read Bring Up the Bodies in 2012 and the final book is STILL pending! ?
You’re gonna hear this a thousand times, but I’m really enjoying The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It’s about the women during WWII
Yes. Stephanie Dray. All her stuff.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Condemn me Not by Heather B Moore
The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green
The Book Thief
Christy by Catherine Marshall
Lilac Girls
The Confessions of X
The Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
America’s First Daughter
I am reading the Nightingale
The Girl in Disguise was good
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron
A Sparrow in Terezin by Kristy Cambron
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Any Phillipa Gregory
Outlander
Pillars of the Earth
White Houses.
Before we were yours, Nightingale, lilac girls, the Alice network
The Alienist
I agree
Captains and the Kings.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters was pretty good. set in the mid 20th century surrounding a family who live like they still are in the victorian times. it’s creepy and being turned into a film! worth the read xxxx
Devil in the White City-though listed as nonfiction, is almost a thriller-novel. Great book! So is Erik Larsson’s Thunderstruck.
It’s a well written non-fiction that ties a couple different stories together. Reads like lit.
The cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The daughters walk by Jane Kirkpatrick
The ruins of lace by iris Anthony
The lilac girl
The lilac girl
The plum tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackheath-Seance-Parlour-Alan-Williams/dp/190812251X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406646673&sr=1-1&keywords=blackheath+seance+parlour
As Bright as Heaven
The Nightingale
following
I love @Fiona! All of her books are amazing! I also love @Amber! She has a new one out this week!
So many books so little time. Some favs in that genre include : The Alice Network, The Nightingale, Beneath A Scarlet Sky, All The Light We Cannot See, Cutting for Stone, Shantaram
The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo !
One thousand White Women, Orphan Train, Lilac Girls
Books by Ken Follett
City of Thieves!!
This author has written some really good books
Beneath a Scarlet Sky, The Alice Network, All the Light We Cannot See, The Book Thief all in the Holocaust era
Those are my picks too.
That’s mostly what I read.
Thanks. ?
Anything by Michelle Moran she is amazing
Sarah’s Key. The Book Thief, The Thornbirds, The Last Telegram, A Tangled Mercy
Sarah’s Key was so good!
They have a movie too! I got it from my library.
11.22.63!!!!!!
Loved it!!!!
@Amy me too! Listening to it for the 2nd time!?
@Shanna did you see the mini series on Hulu? It was very different than the book but still good. Plus the fact I love James Franco ?
@Amy yup watched that too!
Historical Fiction is My FAVOURITE!
I used to read it all the time. Time to get back into it. ?
The Historian – by Elizabeth Kostova
The Alice Network
Loved this book!
Loved this!
An old book that’s out of print. I loved it. It’s called Galveston, by Suzanne Morris.
North and South.
Kate Quinn’s series on the Borgias and Ancient Rome.
It’s my favorite! Loved Lilac Girls, The Nightingale, and The Alice Network.
Love Sara Donati Into Wilderness series, Outlander series, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, The Nightingale, Gone With the Wind, Poldark series, Tea Rose Trilogy, From Sand and Ash, I could go on forever ….
The Kitchen House
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
All of James Michner Alaska, Hawaii, Centennial ( my favorite), Chesapeake …
I loved his books, especially Chesapeake and Centennial
As a Baltimore girl I have to agree Chesapeake is special.?
Hawaii was amazing! Also Tales of the South Pacific!
Philippa Gregory, I love her books
I love Bernard Cornwell. The Warlord Chronicles is about King Arthur (very different from the traditional tale). The Last Kingdom (now a series on Netflix) is great. There are many others. Also love Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel.
Love the Warlord Chronicles!
My first real introduction into historical fiction many years ago – had a huge impact on me!! I must re-read one day!
@Andrea me too! I only hold on to a few books for sentimental reasons – most I give away. Here it is, with some of my other all time favourites ?
@Emma
Yes , anything on the Tudor’s
Not sure if anyone mentioned it , but
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
as well as World Without End (same author)
I enjoy Alison Weirs books – Eleanor of Acquitain my fave. They are more biographical than fiction but I like that even better!
She’s my favourite, I met her at Hever castle , lovely lady xxx
@Beverley how fab! She’s a fantastic historian and writer. You lucky ducky!
my friend and I were there on the 19th of may (significant date) it was amazing
Anything by Edward Rutherford; London, Sarum, New York are all especially good.
The Morland Dynasty series by Cynthia Harrod Eagles is a must read if you like historical fiction. ALso Philippa Gregory and Margaret George books.
The Shardlake series by C J Sansom
I mainly only read WWII Historical fiction.
Maus by Art Spiegelman is amazing. So is the Tattooist of Auschwitz & Salt to the Sea
Elizabeth Chadwick, Philippa Gregory, and some of Anne O’Brien too
anything of Jean Plaidy read all her books growing up
Bernard Cornwell or Phillippa Gregory
I second C J Sansom. He writes so well you almost feel you are there in the streets of London in Tudor times.
My favourite genre! Though I’m not so keen on Philippa Gregory myself.
The Welsh Princes Trilogy by Sharon Penman is unbeatable. Here Be Dragons is one of the very few books I’ve ever re read. Also, Kathrine by Anya Seton is amazing.
I’ve read all Anya Seton’s books and I loved Katherine, Devil Water, Avalon and Green Darkness – all fantastic reads.
Philippa Gregory
Finger smith by Sarah Walters x great book x
Conn Iggulden “War of the Roses” series was amazing! I’m also going to get his “Emperor” series. Bernard Cornwell also great ?? Sarah Waters too
I love ww2 books.
C j Sansom Ken follet
Bernard Cornwell. Try The Name of the Rose (it’s superb)
Roses by Leila Meacham. Similar feel to gone with the wind. She has a bunch of other books as well that are all great!
For years historical fiction was my absolute favourite genre. I love Barbara Erskine. She combines historical characters (some who did actually live) with present day characters in the form of reincarnation/hauntings, but her historical accuracy is brilliant. Some books go back to Roman and pre-Roman times, very few are recent history. I also loved Anya Seton’s historical novels. Edith Pargeter’s Heaven Tree trilogy of books, set in the 12th century is probably my ultimate favourite series of books and I enjoyed her Quartet of books about The Brothers Gwynedd set in 13th century Wales.
I love Barbara Erskine. Child of the Phoenix is my favourite.
I think “Daughters of Fire” was mine. I’d never even heard of Cartamandua (I guess because history was more involved with Boudica at the time), but I just loved her. I think she’s my favourite heroine!
But I also really loved “On the Edge of Darkness”, “Kingdom of Shadows” and “Lady of Hay”. Thing is she hasn’t written a book that I haven’t been 100% engrossed in from the first chapter. That’s why she’s probably my favourite author.
Anya Seton
Loved her books – read all of them but particularly enjoyed the ones set in Britain. “Green Darkness” was my favourite because I love books based on reincarnation, but I also really enjoyed “Devil Water” and “Avalon” although they did make me cry! ?
‘Katherine’ is my absolute favourite of hers.
Yes I did enjoy that too @Jennie – in fact it was the first book of hers that I read, but it was the poignancy of “Avalan” and the ‘missed opportunities’ for Rumon and Merewyn that really got to me. Devil Water is local to me, so local history and it also involved a period of Scottish history that I’m engrossed in (Jacobite Rebellions) and of course “Green Darkness” covered both a favourite subject of mine and my favourite period of history (Tudor times), so a win-win for me! (y)
Lucky you being able to visit and see the places in Devil Water, that really brings things alive.
Yes I do enjoy books written in an area I’m familiar with, as it helps to enGross me when I can visualise situations in my mind’s eye. Maybe that’s why I read a lot of Scottish authors ?
Bernard cornwell
Fave book of all time is the other Boleyn girl by Phillipa Gregory,love Sarah Walters too x
Philippa Gregory is a favourite of mine because she’s extensively researched the lives of the Tudors and their predecessors.
Anna Karenina, War and Peace
Diana Gabaldon, C J Sansom, James A Michener, Hans Fallada, Georgette Heyer, Ken Follett, Sue Monk Kidd, Sebastian Barry, Sebastian Faulks.
Poldark!
Also, Jeffrey Archer has a great series called The Clifton Chronicles.
The Weight of Ink.
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I was just thinking the same thing when I saw your comment! Lol
the irish princess
Les Miserables. Is that historical?
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
To Kill a Mocking Bird.
Anything set in WW2
Me too. Can’t get enough of it!!
Just finishing The Nightingale. Great read.
Yes. Emma carroll
Phillipa gregory
Any of the Margaret George books. Cleopatra, Henry the VIII. Great author
The Alice network
I’m Reading Persuasion by Jane Austen, I love her books.