Currently reading in Historical Fiction

I plan to start reading the third book in the Tideland series Dawnlands by Philippa Gregory

>1 GrammyTammyM: Her forthcoming novel Boleyn Traitor releases in October here in the US. (It may have already released in the UK) It's about Lady Jane Rochford.

>2 princessgarnet: sounds good, I will have to keep an eye out for it

I am starting to read Rules of the Heart by Janice Hadlow. Looks like it should be good.

Just started The Great Divide; early 1900's Panama during the building of the Panama Canal. Not an era or subject I would've pursued on my own, but was recommended by a coworker. Glad I took her advice.

>5 gmathis: sounds interesting

>5 gmathis: I saw this at the bookstore in German, glad to hear it’s worth tracking down the original.

Finished: The Sisterhood: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander
New and 19th installment in this long running series. Lady Emily and Colin investigate the death of Victoria Goldsborough who was set to marry a marquess; it was to be the highlight of London Season. In Roman Britain, Vatta is figuring out her place within the Iceni tribe and becomes a horse trainer to Boudica.

Recommended: Sonora by Jenni L. Walsh. Fiction based on the real life of Sonora Carver, who was the "mane" attraction (sorry, couldn't resist) of a horse diving act in the 20's and 30's. Was almost an "unputdownable" for me.

From the library: Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory (US edition)

Currently reading The Founding, book one of the medieval epic The Morland Dynasty. It was a Christmas gift, and I am just getting to it. It's quite absorbing, following one family's fortunes through the years. This is the initial part of the saga, dealing with a Yorkshire family in the years leading up to the War of the Roses.

the safekeeperabout a dutch family post WWII

Off and on, between other books, I have been reading Aztec Rage by Gary Jennings

The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green. Set in French colonial Louisiana. Excellent book.

I am on Dejima Island, off the port of Nagasaki in The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet, and it is everything the blurb promised it would be. Riveting.

ETA I have finished and can wholeheartedly recommend it.

I finished and enjoyed The Betrothed, one of Sir Walter Scott's "Waverly Novels." The Betrothed was published in 1825. It is set in 12th-century Wales. Anyone interested can see my review as posted on my Club Read thread.

Currently reading Beauty among Ruins by J'nell Ciesielski takes place 1914 Scotland.

I'm reading The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambron. It moves back and forth between the lives of the characters in WWIi and their past at the lead up and into WWI.

I've got too many good ones going at the same time, but on the historical front, The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease 1400s England and Prague; conflict between the "heretics" who attempted to translate Scripture into English and the elitists who tried to stop them.

Reading an oldie A Dangerous Love by Brenda Joyce part of the De Warenne series.

Recently started The Paris Deception which focuses on a scheme to save "degenerate" (modern) art from Nazi destruction during the WWII Paris occupation.

Just finished the american daughters}, about alice, daughter of teddy roosevelt From his first marriage
and Portia,daughter of Booker T Washington. The two men got to know each other and the two daughter connected in different ways. Even though the Author* tells me that much of it was conjecture between the two girls I I found the way she connected them in the book very realistic for the time. found it a fascinating read. this is a book that shows the time and place very well but the characters that you want to keep reading about. What was fun or is reading the politics of the day and it's another example of the more things change the more things stay the same

* I read a lot of historic fiction and I'm always thrilled that the author writes a note telling you whats real or memore,x this author a very good job of this

Reading another oldie the ninefold key by rebecca brandewyne

I'm reading one of Ovidia Yu's mysteries set in post WWII Singapore, The Rose Apple Tree Mystery, part of the Su Lin/Crown Colony series.

Currently reading Swallowing the Muskellunge by Lawrence P. O'Brien

I'm starting The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn, set in late 18th century Maine.

I started reading a Christian Cozy Mystery that takes place in 1987. Is 1987 considered historical fiction?

>26 tealadytoo: Currently re-reading the book a book club and the first time I read it was an absorbing read and as with historical fiction one learns about that time period.

I am just starting The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

>27 GrammyTammyM: It seems weird to us geezers, but the 80's now fit the historical category.

For a comfort read, I broke out Christy by Catherine Marshall; there are parts I still have memorized from reading it cover to cover and back again in my teens. Cutter Gap, Tennessee, circa 1912.

>27 GrammyTammyM: I figure if the author considered it a bygone era, it's historical fiction! But 80s nostalgia makes me feel really old.

I just finished a WWII set cozy mystery, Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon F. Ballard. Light and enjoyable.

>31 tealadytoo: I am currently reading a cozy mystery, not historical though.

reading lamb in his bosom reading it for RTT march theme antebellum. liked it when I read it in HS but reading it now makes me apprecriate authors descripson skills

I've just finished Chronicles of the Canongate by Sir Walter Scott, a collection of three long short stories, or perhaps two long stories and one novella, published by Scott in 1827 (200 years ago!). The volume also includes a long introductory narrative by Scott's fictional author Chrystal Croftangry, explaining a humorous "how and why" of the writing of the tales, plus shorter introductions before the second and third tales. The stories are all historic tales (taking place around 75 years before Scott wrote them) recounting legends of the Scottish Highlands. I found the three tales to be of varying enjoyment.

"The Highland Widow" relays the history of a reclusive old women, the widow of a notorious outlaw who, who resides alone in the Scottish Highlands and is by now the subject of much superstition and suspicion. Here, she tells her story to the woman who, years later, relayed it to Croftangry. She is mourning, not the death of her husband, but of her son, and the part she herself played in his downfall. The writing is certainly entertaining, but I couldn't work up a sympathy for this tragic heroine.

"The Two Drovers" tells the story of the falling out of two friends over a minor disagreement, and the tragic consequences. Pride and a faulty sense of honor are the villains, here. I only found this story moderately enjoyable, I'm afraid.

"The Surgeon's Daughter" is the longest story, the one I referred to as a novella, and it is, thankfully, the best of the three. The titular character is not the main one of the tale, though she plays a prominent role in the action. It is the two young men who both serve as apprentices to the kindly country surgeon of the title whose differing degrees of character strength and capacity for folly moves the narrative, as the scene moves from a small Scottish village to India in the days of the Raj and the heyday of the British East India Company. Who will prevail, and how will the heroine, buffeted by events mostly out of her control, fare in these stormy events. This one, as I said, was the most fun.

All in all, this is not the best of the Scott "Waverly" tales I have read, but there was enjoyment to be derived all in all from the set.

In the last month l read
ISOLA by A Goodman,
a woman’s life in the 1500s.
DIAMOND EYE by Kate Quinn,
WWII in Russia.
MISS MORGAN’S BOOK BRIGADE
by J Charles, WWI in France.

Currently reading
THE LIONS’ RUN by S Pennypacker,
WWII in France.

Currently reading In the Company of Secrets by Judith Miller, set in Pullman, Illinois in 1892 (the period just before the notorious 1894 Pullman Strike, which will be covered in a later book in the series).

Plan to start reading Bound for destiny by James R. Trammell hope it is good.

Currently reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

About 1/3 through A Savage War of Empire by Harold Coyle. Very pleasantly surprised, and I'm filling a gap in my pre-Revolutionary knowledge.

I am in the middle of a reread of 'The Lady of Blossholme' by H. Rider Haggard. It's set in England in the time of Cromwell, and the protagonist is a woman who loses everything to a greedy abbot and is eventually tried as a witch. I love it!

I finished and enjoyed The Heiké Story by Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962), a modern (1956) retelling of the The Heiké Monogatari, a Japanese epic from the thirteenth century that related the feudal wars that had raged throughout Japan during the previous centuries between the powerful, Heiké, Fujiwara and Genji clans. The action of Yoshikawa's modernization takes place during the 12th century, and centers around the maturation, education, rise to power and reign of Heita Kiyomori of the Heiké. (Reminiscent somewhat of watching Prince Hal grow to become Henry V.) The original epic, as we're told in the helpful translator's afterward, is essentially a chronicle of "the deeds of warriors and princes." Yoshikawa brings the story to a personal level, following the lives of several characters in both the dueling Heiké and Genji clans, also portraying the subservient lives that the culture's women were forced to endure. There are some battle scenes, to be sure, and these are pretty well done, without much graphic gore. But the dominant themes of Yoshikawa's narrative are clearly the burdens of power, the tragedy and futility of war, and the folly of human (particularly male) pride, as personified by the warrior class, whose members refuse to foreswear vengeance and bloodshed even when they know that the resulting wars will lead to suffering, starvation, disease and death for thousands of innocent people. Still, we spend time with characters working to mute these cultural imperatives, and the power of both family and romantic love is a theme that runs through the narrative, as well. According to the historical translator's afterward, the influence of the clans and the warrior culture in Japan endured right through the events of World War II, and those events clearly influenced Yoshikawa's work.

I am reading Edward Marston's The Lions of the North, from his medieval Domesday Mystery series. It is a bit brutal in spots, but very engrossing so far.

I just rereading Lessons in Chemistry and highly recommend it.

Enjoying Dear Missing Friend, which was an Early Reviewers giveaway from March. It's a series of letters which follow a young Irish immigrant and her brothers to coastal New York in the whaling trade era. Very nicely done.

Reading a lengthy book London by Edward Rutherfurd

Reading the oldie, Saraband for Two Sisters by Philippa Carr, set during the run up to the English Civil War.

>46 tealadytoo: Eleanor Hibbert writing under her pseudonym Jean Plaidy has a few books on the Stuart royals that include the English Civil War.

>47 princessgarnet: She did like her pseudonyms! (Hibbert/Carr/Plaidy/Victoria Holt)

>48 tealadytoo: I had no idea Plaidy and Victoria Holt was the same. Learn something new everyday.

About four fifths done with Musashi, a historical fiction work from Japan that was written in the 1930s and takes place just after the year 1600 as the Tokugawa Shogunate was getting settled in. Started off a bit goofy, but has gotten more serious as Musashi's wisdom improves. A decent amount of samurai derring-do while exposing its ridiculous side. Also a very good look at life in Japan generally from that era.

>47 princessgarnet: Jean Plaidy was the first "grown-up" novelist I was permitted to read the summer after sixth grade :)

Finished rereading The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw a great thought provoking read, All of Penny Haw's books are great reads and one should consider them for book clubs.

>52 Carrieida: I read a library copy of The Woman at the Wheel (2023).

May I recommend two outstanding historical novelists:

(1) Mary Renault, and her novels of ancient Greece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Renault

(2) Patrick O'Brian, and his novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O'Brian

and if i may, try sharon kay penmanwith her welsh trilogy and her histories about the plantagents, to all those tired of the tudors and those who like a lot of history with their fiction

Finished from the library: The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann
Queen Anne Boleyn comes back to life, visits a part of London she hardly knows and the English countryside, and takes her revenge on Henry VIII.

Nearly finished with The Librarians of Lisbon. It's set in WWII Portugal, a hotbed for spycraft and treachery as the government there struggles to maintain neutrality regardless of the price. It could have been an excellent thriller, but has far too much steamy romantic melodrama in the mix..

Two other historical fiction titles I recommend are: A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff Both are great for book clubs.

From the library The Boleyn Secret: A Novel by Alison Weir (US edition)
The latest novel by the author is about Catherine Carey Knollys, niece of Queen Anne Boleyn

Just received Jonathan's Journal by Gerald Everett Jones, an Early Reviewer title. Hops between WWI past and present-day.

>1 GrammyTammyM: I am now readingParallel Lives A love story of two unlikely figures played out against the backdrop of the Cold War written by Ian Pears who has written several other historical books liking this very much he has a good understanding of time periods and he makes great use of that. I'm suspecting this book has not been published yet I can't seem to find a touch tone for it so look out for it because that's good

>61 cindydavid4: It looks like it was published last August. This one?
Parallel Lives: A Love Story From a Lost Continent

>62 tealadytoo: yup! guess the subtitle is important to add My copy Is it advanced uncorrected proof they were sent this way by the bookseller who I got it from I'll look around and see if I can find real copy Thanks again

1

>61 cindydavid4: sounds good

I'm listening to Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi narrated by Adjoa Andoh and it is incredible. Don't read it, listen to it as Andoh has brought Cleopatra back to life!

I'm reading a WWII British home front story, Moonlight and Lovesongs by Lilian Harry. It follows characters from her Portsmouth set April Grove series in the period coming up to D-Day.

Finished No Small Thing, A Novel of the American Revolution by Harold Coyle.

My review:
The author writes fiction historical and military books. This is my first read by Harold Coyle.
No Small Thing is fiction but many characters did live and fight in the American Revolution. George Washington, Paul Revere, and David Gray are three.
I did get somewhat confused with the names and who was fighting for which side. Many families chose different sides.
The first chapter begins at Breeds Hill, MA at dawn 17 June 1775 and ends Newtown. PA, evening 26 December 1776. Names of so many cites familiar to us now were involved in the fights; New York City, Long Island, Boston and Cambridge for a few.
I personally think this book is a great read for the 250th birthday of America.
I did like some of the fictional characters but would have liked to see more of their future.
I won a copy from LibraryThing and the author and want to thank them The opinions are my own. A 5 star read.

Finished Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi which was amazing but don’t read this masterpiece rather LISTEN to it read by Adjoa Andoh. She brings this incredible book to life.

Started reading Paris by Edward Rutherfurd

the semi-attached couple reading for junes RTT theme love and marriage written in 1860 and reads like it was written about todays marriage!

Currently reading The Sisters of Book Row by Shelley Noble