I love Rutherfurd’s work. read Paris and London and have Russka on the shelf waiting. Didn’t read New York. Will have to check it out. Oh, yes, and Sarum.
All the Light We Cannot See and The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society! Historical fiction isn’t my favorite genre, but I love those two books!
I like anything by Lisa See (China). I liked Daugter of Siena (Italy). I also liked light between oceans. Potato peel pie society. Beach music is one of the best books I’ve ever read… World War II
Men To Match My Mountains by Irving Stone. My husband and I used to race to bed because the one that got the book first got to read out loud to the other. LOL
Sweet, thank you! I always hesitate to even say I like historical fiction because frankly if it gets within 500 years of modern times I lose interest. But I adore ancient historical fiction!
C J Sansom (all books but especially Shardlake Series)… Susanna Gregory’s Thomas Chaloner Series… Karen Maitland is good for more Medieval fiction, The Vanishing Witch was brilliant…
Ashes of London, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Witch Finders Sister, Witch Light, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Book Thief, The Interpretation of Murder…
And one of my fave series that has a lot of historical points but is actually a Steampunk series is The Burton and Swinburne Series by Mark Hodder…
Also have a few on my TBR to read so will share what I think once I’ve read ????
Not sure it is pure “historical fiction” but Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Triliogy is stunning if you have an interest in science and economics. And it has sex, violence and pirates.
Plantagenet and Tudor series by Philippa Gregory, Wolf Hall Series by Hilary Mantel, Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, and everything written by Edward Rutherford.
I liked I Am Mary Tudor by Hilda Winfred Lewis. It is not a new book so it should be easy to find a used copy. I also liked Aztec by Gary Jennings. Also The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve.
Same here. One of the few books I have read twice. I have been to the Almaden mines a few times to the museum over the years, and I always think of this story.
I just started one called the Blood of Toma and it is pretty good! I haven’t really done much historical fiction.
Ken Follett-Pillars of the Earth
One of my all time favorite books! I also read the others he wrote
@Libby, me too. I have the newest in the series but I’m in the middle of another series right now so I haven’t read it yet.
The Traitor’s Wife by Allison Pataki
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
My second favorite book ever!
Philippa Gregory’s Tudor Court and War of the Roses series.
I also LOVE Tracey Chevalier and Geraldine Brooks because their stories are set during all kinds of historical periods.
For light historical reading, I enjoy authors like Belinda Alexandra and Fiona McIntosh.
Love and read everything Philippa Gregory
i am reading lilac girls and can’t put it down ….
I have it in the house just haven’t picked it up yet!
On my never ending tbr pile!
Lilac Girls is on top of my 2018 TBR pile!
Sharon Kay Penman Here be Dragons Welch Princes trilogy.
Mists Of Avalon
Ken Follett’s books are good-currently reading A Column of Fire!
Right now, Gwen Bristow’s Celia Garth and Jubilee Trail cause I’m rereading them.
Before We were Yours by Lisa Wingate
I just got that book
Loved it!
Great book!
Anne Rice’s The Feast of All Saints.
Maude, The Kitchen House and The Shoemaker’s Wife.. really tough to decide as this is my favorite genre
Mine too, I love The Kitchen House and Shoemakers Wife is on my shelf I’ve just not picked it up for some reason
❤️ the Shoemakers wife
It’s such a beautiful love story, read it! Yellow crocus is great too if you liked the Kitchen House
Pope Joan was awesome
Agree, but I read that book a long time ago.
me too
For historical fiction with an artist bent – Susan Vreeland and Tracy Chevalier.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
This is on a tbr list somewhere in the house lol
It is amazing. It made me cry. #Warning
Those are my favorite books, I get mad at characters all the time too and I have to walk away from the book lol
Just started it. Lovely!
Worthy read and gives a new perspective to French resistance during WWII. I cant get enough of this kind of fiction. #PriorLife
First book in many years that made me cry too! Soooo good!
Many other great books of this kind out there
https://media.bookbub.com/blog/2017/09/25/world-war-ii-books-like-the-nightingale/
Anything by Tracy Chevalier
I read a book by her entitled New Boy. Very interesting take on Othello.
Oh that one i didnt read. I started with The Lady and the Unicorn and I was hooked ever since
Devil in the White City
Devil in the White City is non-fiction
@Posh oh you are right! Lol
It’s easy to mistake though, I stopped to double check at least twice while reading it!
I will take a non fiction lol I love history in general
@Brittany well then this is an excellent book!
I love anything by Erik Larson
The Source by James Michener
Oooh yes! Anything by Michener !
It was his books that got me hooked on the genre.
Thank you so much everyone!!!! This was my first post here, and I absolutely love historical fiction, you are all wonderful!
Does anyone remember Jean Plaidy?
I remember the name but not sure if I read any of her books-did you?
I read ALL of her books when I was younger. She started me on my path of nonstop reading. Highly recommend
I read many of hers starting very young- I think I still have some of her books around- I wonder where they got to? Must find…
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo); War & Peace (Tolstoy)
Can’t read War and Peace. Print is too small. Gives me a headache.
@Patricia: that’s why I have a Kindle: adjustable fonts! Perfect for my 70 yr-old eyes …
Don’t like my kindle.
I enjoyed “the light between oceans “ set after WWI but not too much history
The Russians by Michael Phillips & Judith Pella and The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers.
Dancing at the Rascal Fair by a Ivan Doig – about Scottish settlers in Montana. Fabulous book!
That sounds wonderful!
Yes …. sounds wonderfully….
All the Light We cannot see. ❤️
Nancy B. Brewer Carolina Rain series is good too
Kent Family Chronicles series and North & South trilogy, both by John Jake’s.
The Nightengale
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
Robert K Massie’s books. Biographies that read well.
All the Light We Cannot See, Sarah’s Key, Paris by Edward Rutherford and New York by the same author.
I love Rutherfurd’s work. read Paris and London and have Russka on the shelf waiting. Didn’t read New York. Will have to check it out. Oh, yes, and Sarum.
Yes! Anything by Rutherford. One of my faves.
I have London waiting on my shelf and want to get Russka still.
Hands down it’s The Town House by Norah Lofts. 3 pages in and you’ll be hooked!
True Grit; News of the World (and they make a great double-feature, so to speak)
Maisie Dobbs!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
This an amazing book! I’ve heard there is a movie in the works. #TheBookWillBeBetter
Yes, there is a movie coming out. I agree, the book is always better.
“Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara is one of my favorites
The best Civil War novel I eve read.
Little House on the @Prairie.
If you like historical spy fiction, Alan Furst
The Known World, Sarah’s Key, the widow of the south, all great reads
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
All the Light We Cannot See and The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society! Historical fiction isn’t my favorite genre, but I love those two books!
Also The Book Thief
Yes! Book Thief too…
Gone with the Wind
Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks is outstanding.
I like anything by Lisa See (China). I liked Daugter of Siena (Italy). I also liked light between oceans. Potato peel pie society. Beach music is one of the best books I’ve ever read… World War II
Yes to beach music. It’s been so many years since I read that book and it’s still with me.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys… NEVER heard about this happening in WWII… LOVED IT.
We had a visit to Gdansk on our Baltic Cruise this last June and I thought about this remarkable story that no one knows about. ?
A Land Remembered, Patrick D. Smith: old Florida.
Men To Match My Mountains by Irving Stone. My husband and I used to race to bed because the one that got the book first got to read out loud to the other. LOL
Ooops. It is non-fiction
Sharon Kay Penman
What eras do you like?
Almost anything, except directly related American Civil War for some reason.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, My Name is Mary Sutter, The Book Thief, The Autobiography of Mrs Tom Thumb
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate – spellbinding and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.
The Diviner series by Libba Bray
The Nightingale!
The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton
The Story of Beautiful Girl
by Rachel Simon
Pillars of the Earth
By Ken Follett
Fair and Tender Ladies
By Lee Smith
The Wind is not a River was a community read for our area (Whidbey Island) a couple of years ago…great read.
Sarum by Eduard Rutherford is a fabulous read
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.
Gone with the Wind of course!
Lilac Girls – Martha Hall Kelly!
This might be more like “ancient historical” fiction. 😉
https://www.amazon.com/Song-Achilles-Novel-Madeline-Miller/dp/0062060627/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508645263&sr=8-1&keywords=song+of+achilles
Sweet, thank you! I always hesitate to even say I like historical fiction because frankly if it gets within 500 years of modern times I lose interest. But I adore ancient historical fiction!
Play here goes:
C J Sansom (all books but especially Shardlake Series)… Susanna Gregory’s Thomas Chaloner Series… Karen Maitland is good for more Medieval fiction, The Vanishing Witch was brilliant…
Ashes of London, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Witch Finders Sister, Witch Light, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Book Thief, The Interpretation of Murder…
And one of my fave series that has a lot of historical points but is actually a Steampunk series is The Burton and Swinburne Series by Mark Hodder…
Also have a few on my TBR to read so will share what I think once I’ve read ????
Jamie fords books
Not sure it is pure “historical fiction” but Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Triliogy is stunning if you have an interest in science and economics. And it has sex, violence and pirates.
Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel, Cromwell, Henry VIII, Reformation… gorgeous writing.
Maurice Druon The Accursed Kings and Neal Stephenson Quicksilver The Confusion The System of the World.
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
I read books mostly from the mid 1800s to the end of WWII, but I did enjoy the books by Susan Higgenbotham which take place in medieval times.
Which world war books did you enjoy the best?
That’s usually the time era I read along w civil war historical love novels
I have recently started reading just fiction set in the 1800’s but would love to have more historical books in the time period.
I would love to hear what others are reading from those eras as well, so I am going to start two new threads.
Plantagenet and Tudor series by Philippa Gregory, Wolf Hall Series by Hilary Mantel, Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, and everything written by Edward Rutherford.
bird without wings
Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon!
The Invention of Wings
Loved The Invention of Wings and The Orphan Train and The Book Thief.
Loving Frank is also a favorite.
People of the Book by Geraldine @Lana
All the Lights We Cannot See and The Light Between Oceans
“Exodus” by Leon Uris and more recent…
“The Muralist” by B A Shapiro.
Outlander
I’ve read the series and sub series! Her next book isn’t due til at least next year 🙁
I know I just picked up 7 stones to stand and fall waiting for go tell the bees?
The Book Thief, The Love Comes Softly Series, A Woman Named Damaris, The Nightingale, The Red Tent, Mrs Mike, The Light Between Oceans,
Wolf hall
London by Edward Rutherfurd
Outlander. Also Sara Donati’s Into the Wilderness series.
Anything by Philippa Gregory!
The Frontiersman – Alan Eckert… incredible book!
The Alienist & Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell. I also love Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May detective series!
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell… yes forgot about that!
The Nightingale, anything by Ken Follet or Erik Larson, 11.22.63 by Stephen King
Diana Gabaldon and Leon Uris
John Jake the Kent Family Chronicles
Current favorites – News of the World, Nightingale, Burial Rites and Salt to the Sea…
I liked I Am Mary Tudor by Hilda Winfred Lewis. It is not a new book so it should be easy to find a used copy. I also liked Aztec by Gary Jennings. Also The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve.
The other Einstein
Yes! This one too!
London by Edward Rutherford
And Sarum
Elizabeth Chadwick
The Shieldmaiden Trilogy by Marianne Whiting <3 Just finished it and even if I have started a new book, I am still in that one in my mind lol
Shades of Gray Ruth Sepetys WWII
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. I read it twice and that’s something I rarely do.
One of my all time favorites.
Me too, Michael LaFlamme. Genius paralleling of contemporary mores and the narrator’s discoveries about his ancestor’s history.
Same here. One of the few books I have read twice. I have been to the Almaden mines a few times to the museum over the years, and I always think of this story.
Outlander Series. Ken Follett Pillars of the Earth. Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill – all amazing.
Indignities Series by N.E. Brown–Each book gets even better!
I loved Those Who Save Us!
Loving Frank ❤️
One of my all time favorites! Not fiction though.
@Rebecca oooopps!!
I believe that it is fiction. The one by Nancy Horan is anyway.
@Elaine I looked Loving Frank up and it is fiction.
All the light we cannot see
Once eagle
Gone With The Wind!
The dust bowl
All of the Ken Follett series, particularly pillars of the earth
The Bible is the all time winner in this category, but I would go with Winds of War and War and Remembrance.
Steven Saylor’s historical mysteries.
Lincoln. Gore Vidal
Hands down—Indignities series by N.E.@Amanda