if you’d wanted to start reading historical fiction (kind of based on real events) what would you recommend?
if you’d wanted to start reading historical fiction (kind of based on real events) what would you recommend?
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Steve Berry
Aftershocks. I forget the author, but it’s about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Lisa Patti, I can’t find any book by that title for the earthquake. Would/could you get the name of the author? I would really like to read the book. TIA!
@Betty Richard S Wheeler. Took some digging!
@Lysa , thank you so much!
Anything by Gore Vidal.
Mischling by Affinity Konar. It’s about twin sisters sent to Auschwitz in 1944.
I have it but have only read the first chapter so far. So far it’s a very good book.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer. It is about WWII. Also Tuscan Rose by Belinda Alexandra. It is about an Italian woman and her journey in Italy during WWII.
Ginny Dye, Bregdan Chronicles. Civil War. I’ve never really liked historical fiction but the author has really captured the War from all perspectives. 13 novels have been published. I started this series 3 weeks ago and I’m already on book 5.
Oh I forgot this one. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. This is a YA historical fiction but don’t let that turn you off. This book is excellent. It is about a lesser known passenger boat sinking during WWII.
I second this! I typically don’t read YA, but the writing and characters really drew me in. Such a tragic event.
yeah that one I read dand all the lights I cannot see or something too :p also about world war
Anything by Phillipa Gregory. She has written several booked based on the War of the Roses and the Tudor period.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
If also recommend if you would be interested in reading a real account of the Holocaust, Night by Elie Wiesel. It is heartbreaking so best read at home not on the bus!
Also, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel is excellent- but not fiction.
Emperor series (based on life of Julius Caesar), conqueror series ( based on Ghengis Khan and his descendants ) by Conn Iggulden
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini. One of my all time favorite books ?
Oh oh oh Clara and Mr Tiffany by Susan Vreeland. Clara works for Louis Tiffany (Tiffany Stained Glass). I loved this book! It takes place early 20th century. It also deals with women in the work place and social issues of that time.
Pope Joan and One Thousand White Women……Both really interesting reads.
Pope Joan, one of my favs
Sorry last one…It’s the Petticoat Men by Barbara Ewins. It’s a true account of a trial in Victorian England of two men who used to go to private parties dressed as women. The story is told from the perspective of a young girl whose mother lodged them. Really interesting!
The Guernsey Literary am Potato Peel Society
Stalking Jack the Ripper By Kerri Maniscalco for sure
That one is fantastic!
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly is about the french revolution and the book thief is about the Holocaust.
Lilac Girls
Refugee By Alan Gratz
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Following
Following
All the Light We Cannot See
Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah
The Help
Outlander
Lilac girls, Sarah’s key, as bright as heaven.
Loved Sarah’s Key
Sarah’s Key was so good!
The Alice Network
The Girl in the Blue Coat
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Book Thief.
Outlander!
At the Edge of the Orchard Tracy Chevalier
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundareson
Ireland by Frank Delaney
The Source by James Michener
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Surviving the Killing Fields
Age of Wonder
Pillars of the Earth
The Nightingale
Sarah’s Key
Salt to the Sea
The Zookeeper’s Wife
I’m reading Salt to the Sea right now and love it!
The Zookeeper’s Wife is excellent
I read all 3. Very good books
I was a big fan of All The Light We Cannot See. I also just downloaded Last Train to Istanbul (WW2 novel) for free. Had amazing reviews but haven’t had a chance to start it yet
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
George Morris books!!
Last train to Istanbul (WW II resistance in France)
Anything by Elizabeth Chadwick, especially if you like to read about the kings and queens of old. Her stories are rich in character and historical detail, and I feel like I’m seeing it all with my own eyes. I also love The Help, set in 1960s Mississippi.
Events of the 20th century are certainly history, but when I think of ‘historical fiction’ I consider it to be earlier than that.
Historical fiction is set in a past time, and deals with the events, and social attitudes and customs of that time. Fiction about the Civil Rights Movement encompasses all of these things. The Help is concerned with two African American maids working during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and the white woman who wanted to capture their stories (and the stories of other maids). It goes very much in depth with race relations in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. In a way it also deals with the day’s marriage conventions and expectations of women. We see this in Miss Skeeter’s struggle with becoming an author, much to the dismay of her friends and family who simply wish to see her settled in marriage. To be honest, since the OP didn’t specify an era, I don’t really see the issue here. She requested books based on real events. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter, so as not to hijack someone else’s post.
I’m aware of what The Help is about. If you read my comment, what I said is that despite what technically is ‘history’, when I (personally) think of historical fiction, I consider it to be books set prior to the 20th century. TECHNICALLY, anything that happened yesterday is history.
The book thief
one of my fav reads :p
@Heleen it broke me. The only book to do so x
these are all so good, i am going to have to write then down for me
All the light we cannot see and Sarah’s key we’re both wonderful!
The Fall of the Giants! It’s a trilogy but an awesome trilogy that spans prior to WW1 and continues until modern day! I can’t remember the author but a good read
Ken Follett!
That is on my TBR!
I like the Shardlake Series by C J Sansom, they are completely fictional but Sansom’s writing makes you feel like you’re there with Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII putting the pressure on lol
Chilbury Ladies’ Choir, Summer Before the War, News of the World, Essex Serpent
Wedlock by Wendy Moore A biography of Mary Eleanor Bowes the first woman to obtain a divorce in eighteenth century Britain.
‘Billy’ is a novel about a child evacuee in the 2nd World War. Based around historical facts it tells his story of a small child wrenched from his home and family and finds himself billeted on a farm in Northumberland. Available from Amazon.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Billy-Shirley-Dawson/dp/1912192225
I don’t know if she’s been mention but Phillipa Gregory writes great historical fiction based on royalties.
Love her
This is who I would suggest too
Anything by James Michener. He has covered a pretty wide variety of places and times, so you’ll have lots to choose from. Amazingly detailed research, accurate historically, and still great stories
The Maisie Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear. The series begins with World War I; the most recent book takes place against the backdrop of the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Anything by Bernard Cornwall or Conn Iggulden. Great books! What period are you interested in @Heleen?
Never Home by Laird Hunt. It’s about a woman who pretended to be a man so she could fight in the Civil War as a Union soldier. It was very well researched and beautifully written. This story broke my heart. Kleenex required. This story is being made into a movie. Not sure if I could handle watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_17Rn0HYGk
Firebird by Susanna Kearsely. It’s about the Jacobites and Russia’s part in it. There is a small but sweet romance in it.
Let me be so bold as to recommend my own books, The Son of God Series. You will meet Jesus and all the Gospel characters + historical and fictional characters in their historic and cultural (Jewish) setting dealing with the real problems of life as well as the supernatural. Check out the 5 star reviews on Amazon. To read the Prologue and 1st chapter of each book go to http://www.sonofgodbooks.com/ Then click on each book.
The Burning Blue/A Pair of Silver Wings by James Holland, God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembéne, When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holte and Between the Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. 🙂
I enjoyed Helen Hollick’s King Arthur trilogy: The Kingmaking, Pendragon’s Banner, and Shadow of a King. I just got The Forever Queen, and I hope I enjoy it as much.
Alison Weir you won’t regret it
I agree
Sharon Kay Penman anything…❣️???
Also, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (?spelling) was so well written it blew me away. Civil War era. There is a new one out, I believe it’s Varina or some such, about the wife of Jefferson Davis. For more Civil War era, I loved the John Jakes trilogy; and also, The Known World by Edward Jones, which won one of the major book awards.
Anything by John Jakes. He writes about the time of The Civil War.
I enjoyed Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Lucinda Riley’s The Storm Sister.
London by Edward Rutherfurd. (Also started Sarum by the same author, but have no idea how it’s going to go.
I haven’t read London, but I own it. I did read Sarum and I loved it
Wolf Hall & its sequel Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. Both been awarded the Man Booker Prize.
The Nightingale, by Kristen Hannah.
Fiona Buckley’s Ursula Blanchard series. Follows Queen Elizabeth and queen mary
Sharon Penman’s Princes of Wales trilogy. https://amzn.to/2HAXA5E
Sarah’s Key
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
https://www.amazon.com/Either-Side-Jon-Halfhide-ebook/dp/B075TF673S/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1524895556&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=on+either+side&psc=1
I love The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (about the occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII). I also loved Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King. Almost anything by Nicole Galland. If you like a little fantasy throne in, try A Discovery of Witches. Anything by Elizabeth Gaskell (start with North &South) or George Eliot (start with Middlemarch) is good.
Phillipa Gregory
Hilary Mantel. Philippa Gregory is also a favorite of mine.
The Paris wife
The 19th wife