Yet Another Book Recommendation Thread: Historical Fiction

Cafe Society
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I’m going to forgive xtisme the non sequitor there (strangely enough the Welsh Princes books are not just set in *England * :wally ) and second the vote for Sharon K Penman. The Sunne in Splendour is set during the Wars of the Roses, prinicipally the reign of Richard III, ending with Henry Tudor becoming Henry VII; the other three I know interweave Llewellyn Fawr (“The Great”), Simon de Montfort and Llewellyn’s grandson (Llewellyn ap Gruffydd. Excellent reads with interesing notes at the end. (Also a great way to learn a bit about the history of the Celtic Land the tourists and marketing boys forgot :wink: )

I recently read The Other Boleyn Girl in three days !!! I was happily surprised as I didn’t really like Phillipa Gregory’s Tradescant / Garden books.

It was good to see that old favourite Jean Plaidy show up - I learnt most of my history from her in my youth. And I can heartily recommend the Sharpe novels.

A neat combination of mystery and history is Daughter of Time by Jospehine Tey - a ‘modern’ detective looking at the mystery of the princes in the Tower.

To change tack slightly if any of you are looking for good historical novels for young readers can I put in a word for these two authors ? Very readable for both sexes. Rosemary Sutcliffe, especially The Eagle of the Ninth, and Hilda Lewis, The Gentle Falcon.

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For late-colonial/American evolution time period I like Kenneth Roberts stuff ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0892723645/qid=1118156316/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-3158361-2355860?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 )

He has books with colonial protagonists from both sides during the revolution.

I enjoy Mary Renault’s historical fiction set in ancient to hellenistic Greece.

I like Harry Turtledove/Turtletaub/whatever’s ancient stuff too.

I liked Dorothy Dunnett’s King Hereafter (MacBeth from a more or less pro MacBeth point of view IIRC). Most of her other stuff is meh though.
Steve Sayler has a series of detective novels set in Late Republican Rome that are pretty good.

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Karen Essex’sKleopatra is also excellent. I haven’t read Pharaoh yet, but I will. Yes, there is sex of many persuasions. There is also scheming, incest, and murder!

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I’ve enjoyed all three of David Liss’ novels so far. The first, A Conspiracy of Paper is about a Jewish boxer turned “protector, guardian, bailiff, constable-for-hire, and thief-taker,” Benjamin Weaver, in 18th century London who’s hired to investigate a murder and the disappearance of some papers. These two investigations converge with the recent (apparently accidental) death of Weaver’s own father to lead him into the world of the early stock market in London, the Bank of England and the South Sea Company.

His second novel, The Coffee Trader, is set 100 years or so earlier in Amsterdam’s commodities market, and concerns the efforts of one of Weaver’s grandfathers, Miguel Lienzo, to corner the market on coffee in the days before it was widely known or consumed.

Questions of Jewish identity are definitely in the forefront of both books, as both Weaver and Lienzo have to balance their desire to live and succeed in the mostly Christian or secular world around them without being false to their sense of themselves (and the Jewish community’s sense of them) as Jews. This is much less a part of the third novel, A Spectacle of Corruption, which returns to Benjamin Weaver and 18th century London, and deals with Weaver’s attempt to exonerate himself after being falsely accused of murder, tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. His efforts to clear himself end up involving him in Parilamentary election politics and intrigues that reach to the very highest level.

All three books are extremely well-written, meticuluously researched, and succeed both as mysteries and as novels.

Can’t believe no one has mentioned Patrick O’Brien yet, or Ellis Peters. O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin series may well end up being regarded as one of the major literary achievements of the twentieth century, as well as being impeccably researched. And, for something completely different, Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael novels are gripping mysteries, with nuanced characters and an interesting take on English life in the 11th century.

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Wales, England, Scotland…whats the difference?? /ducks

Sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I wrote that. Appologies. If it helps any, I’ve been to Wales and its definitely not bad (to use traditional British understatement). At any rate, loved the books.

-XT

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Check out Giants in the Earth.

It’s about a Norweigan family immigrating to the Great Plains in the 19th century–sounds dry, but it’s actually quite the page turner…

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You might try John Jakes. His most popular is the North & South trilogy, which focuses on the civil war & reconstruction era.

My favorite is California Dreams.

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If you can recommend those, I can recommend Kim Newman’s ANNO DRACULA series (Dracula defeats Van Helsing & Co, married Queen Victoria, installs reign of literary vampires through the British Empire; one of the Van H band becomes Jack the Ripper, The Elephant Man is a member of a secret society working against Prince Vlad’s rule, etc.)

Jeffrey Sackett’s BLOOD OF THE IMPALER is half-(VERY GOOD) historical novel about Vlad Dracula, half-(ALSO VERY GOOD) sequel to Stoker’s DRACULA

Taylor Caldwell- the only one left in print is CAPTAINS & THE KINGS (1800s Irish immigrant lad becomes an apprentice for the New World Order Conspiracy, founds a Kennedy-esque dynasty, decides to make his son the first Catholic & Irish President, against the wishes of the Conspiracy.) She also wrote novels in Biblical times, classical Greece & Rome, all with one thing in common- the heroes are members of the John Birch Society.

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Hee hee. Brilliant synopsis. Funny how tastes change – her books were everywhere, back in the day.

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Just dropping in to recommend Margaret George’s Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. That is by far my favorite of hers, although The Autobiography of Henry VIII and The Memoirs of Cleopatra were decent, also.

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I’ve read lots of the books mentioned. But City of Dreams hasn’t been mentioned…a great and compelling book about the settlement of New York. And I can’t believe I’m the only one who’s read Judith Merkle Riley’s books. I’m an atheist and there is a strong thread of spiritualism (I mean that in the best possible sense of the word) throughout her books but it makes for a richer experience for the reader, regardless of theistic leanings. The best are Vision of Light and the sequel In Pursuit of the Green Lion. They are sadly hard to come by now, but worth investigating. They tell the story of a young woman who survives the plague in the 14th century, marries badly, marries well, marries…in a hurry. Great narrative and terrific details.

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Seconding and thirding Morality Play – the only other Unsworth I’ve read is Sacred Hunger and it’s just as good, if quite a bit longer.

Heart of the Country by Greg Matthews is set in the American West in the 1800’s, and follows a misanthropic, vengeful, hunchbacked buffalo hunter. It’s a real page-turner, as is another Matthews story, Power in the Blood. Matthews has a thing for vengeance in these books.

Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears is a doorstopper of a book, telling a story and solving a mystery from several different viewpoints. I also liked his Dream of Scipio, although I’m pretty sure I didn’t “get” most of it. I read it last year during the election season, and it was interesting, how the concept of civic duty has changed over the centuries.

I think my favorite historicals are the slightly romancey ones – Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, and Katherine by Anya Seton, and the Plantaganet series by Thomas Costain.

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The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease. It is set in England in the late Fourteen Century during a period of social and religious change. It does have a romantic angle to it, but it is well-researched, beautifully written and thoughtful. My husband is reading it aloud to me and both of us are caught up in it.

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I’ve read several of the books listed here; some of them more than once.

I’d like to add Edward Rutherford’s Sarum and The New Forest. Both start way back in the mists of time and work their way to close to present day by following families and their descendents. Real life happenings are included in both, but the families followed, of course, are fictional. I enjoyed them both.

I’m just about finished with Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal by David Anthony Durham. It’s been a pretty good read and gives a different perspective than that of the Romans.

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If you like the hero in a dress, sarcastic and kicking ass while walking you through Vespasian’s Rome, then I recommend:Lindsey Davis

This is the first book in the series with our intrepid hero, Marcus Didius Falco.

I blame a forgotten doper for turning me onto Falco. Which, I’ve discovered, the newest one is out, but I’m only up to book 4 ( after two years…)

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Margaret George is AWESOME! I’ve always loved her books, even though the historian in me nitpicks. (She often repeats common misconceptions and fallacies which get passed down in biographies that are based off of other biographies.)

I didn’t like her Mary Magdalen, but I’m looking forward to what I’ve heard her next project is: Helen of Troy.

Another fictionalized biography that I loved:

Pope Joan by Donna Cross. I think it gives an excellent picture of the early Catholic Church and its politics, as well as what life was like at the time for the poorer classes.

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I couldn’t resist xtisme :wink:

Oh we’re friends now boyo !

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I’m looking through my reading lists from the last couple of years to find out what historical fiction I’ve been reading.

I loved Grandmother and the Priests, but I hated A Testimony of Two Men. G&TP framed by the story of a turn-of-the-(last) century little girl who is sent to her grandmother’s house whenever her parents want to fight. There she meets the priests who are always over for dinner hoping to bring her grandmother back to the faith. After dinner, the priests tell stories and those stories make up the bulk of the book. ATOTM made me mad because the “hero” is a gigantic jerk, but we’re supposed to like him because he advocates modern medicine.

Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa is a historical play based on a Ghanaian folk tale. It deals with the way people in Africa “forget” about slavery and its consequences.

Julia Alvarez has a couple of excellent books dealing with famous people in Dominican history. Before We Were Free is based on her own family history, looking at the people left behind after her immediate family fled the island in 1960. In the Name of Salome is about the national poetess of the Dominican Republic. In the Time of the Butterflies is about the Mirabal sisters who are national heroines/martyrs in the Dominican Republic and the rest of the Spanish-speaking Americas.

Michelle Cliff’s Free Enterprise is about Mary Ellen Pleasant, the woman who financed John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. I recommend anything by Cliff. She’s one of my five most favorite authors. She came to my university last semester and gave a talk. I’m still basking in the glow from that.

Gore Vidal’s Creation is set in ancient Persia in the time of Xerxes and Cyrus and is told from the point of view of Zoroaster’s grandson. He travels to India and China, so if you like Asian history there’s something for you as well.

Also in the Asian history section is Oswald Wynd’s The Ginger Tree, which is about a Scottish woman who travels to China to marry her fiancee who is in the British Army. She then has an affair with a Japanese man and travels to Japan where she spends the rest of her life. It covers from 1903 to the 1940s and is a pretty good read.

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Anything by Judith Merkle Riley. She wrote a trilogy set in the middle ages: “A Vision of Light”, “In pursuit of the Green Lion” & “The Water Devil”. Also “The Serpent Garden” set at the time of Henry VIII, “The Master of All Desires” set amongst the royal court in 16th century France, & “The Oracle Glass” set in 17th century France. Female protagonists, good knowledge of the era. I’ve re-read all of these more than once.

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Zombie booklists!