2019 ~ Your Historical Fiction Adventures!

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2019 ~ Your Historical Fiction Adventures!

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1Molly3028
Editado: Jun 11, 2019, 2:40 pm

Which historical fiction novels are you exploring ~ where and when do
these tales take place?

***ALSO: the Audiobooks group would appreciate your input!***
http://www.librarything.com/groups/audiobooks

2Molly3028
Editado: Ene 3, 2019, 9:11 am

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

Beauchamp Hall: a Novel by Danielle Steel

(after three major disappointments, Winnie decides to visit the village
in England where a Downton-Abbey type show is filmed/historical-ish)

3gmathis
Ene 5, 2019, 9:13 am

Just finished The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin. Well-researched and a refreshing, non-"Greatest Showman" look at P.T. Barnum.

4rabbitprincess
Ene 5, 2019, 9:31 am

My first historical fiction of the year was The King's Agent, by J. Kent Clark, featuring an agent of James II/VII of England/Scotland. I really enjoyed it, both for the time period and for the writing.

5h-mb
Ene 5, 2019, 9:52 am

Reading The ten thousand by Michael Curtis Ford. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the narration. The characters are depicted from afar and monodimensioned.

6Lynxear
Ene 5, 2019, 4:40 pm

>5 h-mb: The Ten Thousand sounds like a book I would like to read. Your review here runs counter to those that are given on the book's LT page and its star rating is pretty good, so if I find it I will give it a chance.

I like ancient Greece historical fiction having read Gates of Fire and Tides of War by Steven Pressfield

7h-mb
Ene 5, 2019, 6:36 pm

>6 Lynxear: It is good enough but it's difficult to understand how the soldiers choose to follow Xenophon when he appears to lack any charisma. The characters lack life.

8Lynxear
Ene 5, 2019, 8:02 pm

>7 h-mb: I will let you know my thoughts after I read it but that will mean I have to find it first in my used -bookstore haunts :)

9rocketjk
Ene 7, 2019, 3:41 pm

My first book of 2019 was The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad, which I guess we could technically classify as historical fiction, as it was published in 1920 and takes place in Marseilles, France in the 1870s. The novel is, essentially, a love story placed within the political intrigue of the Third Carlist War, a civil war in Spain that attempted to earn the Spanish throne for pretender Carlos VII, grandson of Carlos V. I love Conrad, but this novel is not among his best, sad to say.

10Molly3028
Editado: Ene 19, 2019, 7:47 am

Starting this OverDrive audiobook ~

A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts by Therese Anne Fowler

(Gilded Age/Alva Smith marries into the Vanderbilt family/old money vs. new money positioning in NY society)

11h-mb
Ene 19, 2019, 7:16 am

I'm on the German border with general Maximus at the end of the Roman empire: Eagle in the snow de Wallace Breen

12tealadytoo
Editado: Ene 19, 2019, 8:37 am

Just spent some time at Shrewsbury Abbey with Brother Cadfael and The Devil's Novice. I love that medieval series and am gradually making my way through the whole list. Most are rereads, but some are new to me.

13rabbitprincess
Ene 19, 2019, 11:11 am

I was just visiting Scotland in 1715, the year of the first Jacobite rising, with Rob Roy MacGregor in The Clansman, by Nigel Tranter.

I'm also in Scotland a few hundred years before the Jacobite rising, in Glasgow, with the first Gilbert Cunningham mystery by Pat McIntosh: The Harper's Quine.

14Lynxear
Ene 20, 2019, 1:41 am

>7 h-mb: well I found The Ten Thousand in a used bookstore and it is my next read.... Will let you know soon what I think of it.

15h-mb
Ene 20, 2019, 3:12 am

I hope you'll like it.

16Lynxear
Ene 20, 2019, 5:22 pm

>15 h-mb: so far, just in the prologue, but it reads like a history book....not a novel

17Lynxear
Editado: Ene 21, 2019, 11:42 am

>15 h-mb: Ok... I have read over 75 pages now and it passes my test for completely reading a book. I like the writing now, I like the descriptions of a slave growing up being a companion/battle squire to a lad in a rich family. The story has settled down a bit after jumping around a bit. I see a young rich boy growing into manhood, now assuming the name Xenophon, through the eyes of this slave. We are now in the Hoplite army being trained.

I had always thought Hoplites were basic soldiers with little skills... it seems I was wrong...wrong... wrong. So far I am enjoying this book. I will give my final verdict when I finish it.

18gmathis
Ene 21, 2019, 1:12 pm

Have been working off and on since Christmas on Paris by Edward Rutherfurd. I've sampled most of his over the years, and I believe this is my favorite so far.

19rabbitprincess
Ene 21, 2019, 7:32 pm

Leaving Scotland now and moving on to France in the late 1700s in A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel.

20Lynxear
Editado: Mar 3, 2019, 2:49 pm

>15 h-mb: I wonder if your problems with The Ten Thousand stem from the jumping around of the story. I am having troubles concentrating now. Small chapters that jump from issue to issue bother me.... when Dermout settles down and writes a 10-20 page chapter with an idea that is developed this is what I like...but bouncing from short chapter to short chapter is annoying.

I hope this gets better with time.

21Molly3028
Editado: Feb 8, 2019, 2:18 pm

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(the 1920s/an annual fave!)

22Molly3028
Feb 9, 2019, 8:36 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

If Wishes Were Earls by Elizabeth Boyle

(Rhymes with Love series/England, early 1800s/Harriet Hathaway and the Earl of Roxley)

23Caramellunacy
Feb 11, 2019, 8:16 am

>22 Molly3028: I generally enjoy Elizabeth Boyle, though I haven't read this one yet.

24Molly3028
Feb 11, 2019, 1:27 pm

>23 Caramellunacy:

I love listening to the voice of the narrator ~ Susan Duerden ~ a British actress. She is the best when it comes to reading Regency tales.

25jessibud2
Feb 12, 2019, 9:32 pm

I just finished the audiobook version of The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict. It tells the story of Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein's first wife. Most people would not recognize her name, despite the fact that she was a brilliant mathematician and scientist in her own right, and was married to him and was the mother of his 3 children. This story, though fictionalized, is the story of another woman lost to history, swept up by events of the time, out of her control. I appreciated the author notes at the end, telling how she herself had never heard of Mileva until her son was doing a project where her name came up, and how she chose to write her story as a fiction so that she could flesh out what was known and imagine the *between the lines* aspects of her life based on the facts that are known. I liked how Benedict listed her sources and the research she did, and recommended further reading to learn more about Mileva, including websites.

And by the way, Einstein was not a very nice man. Not at all. I happen to own the (non-fiction) book Einstein by Walter Isaacson and am tempted to dive right into that one while this is still fresh in my mind, just for comparison's sake and to see what and how Mileva is presented. I won't, as I have too many others pressing at the moment. But I may skim...

26Lynxear
Feb 14, 2019, 1:11 am

>7 h-mb: well I finally finished The Ten Thousand... it was a struggle to finish though and I think I understand the problems you had with the book.

" it's difficult to understand how the soldiers choose to follow Xenophon when he appears to lack any charisma."

I don't have any problem with Xenophon and his leadership. First of all, the soldiers in the Ten Thousand were career soldiers. Other than the love of the fighting and getting plunder from it, in general they are lost if there is no leadership. In the case of this army they lost 40% of their leaders in that big fight with the Persians and later as they tried to retreat they lost 40% more through treachery when they thought they had an agreement with the Persians and most of the remaining leaders were slaughtered at a meeting.

Xenophon became a leader by default and basically learned how to be a leader on the job. He made many mistakes especially at first, but the soldiers followed him because they had no choice in the matter.

I was disappointed in the novel because the book did not really live up to the cover title. The Ten Thousand were fierce fighters but they were never really tested until that fight near Baghdad. Parts of that army (the Ten Thousand) won their battle but they allowed themselves to be surrounded and lost their leader which was certainly demoralizing and then had much of their followers and supplies destroyed.

From then on they were not really feared. They were in retreat and when that act of treachery happened and the bulk of the leaders were slaughtered, they were a shell of their former selves, being hounded by every "barbarian" tribe as they struggled to reach the Black Sea.

Constantly we were reminded of the fierce Ten Thousand but I doubt 1/2 of those survived in the end. That winter should have decimated them... Walking in the snow without proper footwear should have killed most of them... not just a few.

I was also disappointed at not understanding Xenophon more... the first part of the story as he was growing up was fine, but most of the story was about his squire, Theo, and the story was told through his eyes. I am not a great fan of third party stories.

I gave this novel a 3.5 stars... It was ok but it was not a page turner for me and I doubt I will seek other novels by this author

27h-mb
Feb 14, 2019, 7:13 am

>26 Lynxear: Well, I think we agree on the meh judgement.

28al.vick
Feb 14, 2019, 8:45 am

Started The Skystone by Jack Whyte. About the end of Roman Britain. He is such a good author. I am enjoying it.

29rocketjk
Editado: Feb 14, 2019, 6:11 pm

I finished All for Nothing by German author Walter Kempowski. This was the final novel by Kempowski. It tells in muted terms of the horrific last days of World War 2 in East Prussia, as hundreds of thousands of terrified Germans take to the road, fleeing the advancing Russians whose artillery they can already hear. Not as well known in America, I guess, it seems that Kemposwki is considered a classic writer in his native country. He himself, as a teenager, lived through the events this books tells of, only to be imprisoned by the Russians as a spy, serving eight years. Originally published in 2006, a new English publication came out in 2018 as part of the New York Review of Books' Classics series. As the book was first published in 2006 and describes events in 1945, I think it's fair to consider it historical fiction.

30Lynxear
Editado: Feb 14, 2019, 3:17 pm

>29 rocketjk:

Looks like a good book to read.... you have the wrong touchstone though.... it seems like that title applies to a lot of books.

I could not find a touchstone for "All or Nothing" but if you follow this link you will find it.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1745785

31rocketjk
Feb 14, 2019, 6:11 pm

>30 Lynxear: Thanks. Touchstone fixed. It's "All for Nothing," by the way, not "All or Nothing."

32nx74defiant
Feb 17, 2019, 4:08 pm

I read Six Rode Home: A Novella a group of 6 men return after the Civil War. I got it from the Early Reviewers.

33tealadytoo
Feb 17, 2019, 4:40 pm

I finished Renee Ryan's 223 Orchard St., set in the Bowery at the turn of the 20th century. It was well done, although the conclusion rather glossed over future difficulties in favor of a happy ending.

34MissWatson
Feb 18, 2019, 6:31 am

I was suprised to find that A tale of two cities is a very decent tale of the French Revolution.

35rabbitprincess
Feb 18, 2019, 6:16 pm

I'm in Edinburgh in the 1880s in The Strings of Murder, by Oscar de Muriel, the first in his Frey and McGray series.

36Molly3028
Feb 20, 2019, 11:56 am

Started this Kindle/Audible combo ~

In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen

(historical fiction/England, WWII/espionage plot/code breakers)

37nrmay
Feb 20, 2019, 12:16 pm

This month I read
the lost girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff. WWII era
and
the Paragon Hotel Lindsay Faye. African-Americans in Portland, Oregon, 1920s.

Liked them both.

38tealadytoo
Feb 20, 2019, 1:11 pm

I'm in the 1920's as well, with Inspector Ian Rutledge in Cornwall.

No Shred of Evidence

39rocketjk
Feb 20, 2019, 2:58 pm

I'm trying to remember how far back before it's time of writing a story has to be set to be considered historical fiction for our purposes. At any rate, I'm now reading a novel called The Land of Cain by Peter Lappin. It was published in 1957 and is set in 1920s Northern Ireland.

40Unreachableshelf
Feb 20, 2019, 3:41 pm

I'm in the 1890s for romance, a heist, and other intrigue in Any Old Diamonds.

41Molly3028
Mar 3, 2019, 11:45 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley

(Flavia de Luce mystery series/1950s/girl busybody and sleuth/sent abroad to a Canadian boarding school/I adore Entwistle's voice performance)

42h-mb
Mar 3, 2019, 1:42 pm

Reading Ransom by David Malouf : crossed sorrows of Achilles and Priam on the plain of Troy.

43Lynxear
Mar 3, 2019, 2:47 pm

I am in the Mediterranean near Tuscany with Lord Ramage on the Calypso who is supposed to create as much mayhem as possible with the French vessels in the story The Ramage Touch

44Lynxear
Mar 3, 2019, 2:56 pm

>28 al.vick: I hope you follow up with the others in that Jack Whyte series. To me it gives a quite plausible origin of the Arthurian legend. I did not complete the series though I stopped after four books.

45nx74defiant
Mar 3, 2019, 6:41 pm

Land of Silence by Tessa Afsharcreates a believable back story for the unnamed woman healed of a flow of blood by Jesus. I enjoyed the story of life for a Jewish woman in the first century.

46Lynxear
Mar 6, 2019, 9:35 am

I have finished The Ramage Touch by Dudley Pope. It is a fast satisfying read. Whenever I get bogged down with books that are less than interesting I read another of the Ramage series and I feel good again :)

My next book is another historical fiction set in WWII titled Most Secret by Nevil Shute. A story of four angry men determined to exact vengeance on the Germans. Nevil sute is rapidly becoming a favourite author.

47Cecrow
Mar 6, 2019, 10:53 am

>46 Lynxear:, I haven't read Nevil Shute yet, but he's definitely one I want to look into.

48nrmay
Mar 6, 2019, 12:46 pm

Finished The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani. :)

1947, during the partition of Pakistan from India.

49Lynxear
Mar 6, 2019, 12:47 pm

>47 Cecrow: So far I have read three Shute novels On the Beach, A Town like Alice and The Far Country and enjoyed every one. They are really Historical Romance books. Normally I am not a romance fan but Shute has a talent for introducing mild sexual tension but without any gory detail that obscures the story.

Most Secret does not appear to be a romance novel at all but rather a Historical Military book. I am looking forward to this change of genre.

50nrmay
Mar 6, 2019, 6:26 pm

Two more Nevil Shute novels that I really liked -

Pied piper and
Trustee from the tool room

51Molly3028
Mar 7, 2019, 11:32 pm

Starting this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

(Hagenheim Castle Series, Book 1/reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale/historical fiction/Christian YA)

52MissWatson
Mar 9, 2019, 12:19 pm

I just finished 1793 by Niklas Natt och Dag about a murder investigation in Stockholm which contains lots of information about the city.

53h-mb
Mar 9, 2019, 3:21 pm

I finished David Malouf's Ransom: a reimagining of the meeting of Priam and Achilles.

54Molly3028
Mar 14, 2019, 1:52 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Devil's Daughter: The Ravenels meet The Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas
(romantic historical fiction ~ England, about 1880/wedding get-together)

55Lynxear
Mar 14, 2019, 3:00 pm

I am 3/4 of the way through Shute's Most Secret the story itself is pretty interesting (no spoilers) but I am not a great fan at how he has written it. There are 4-5 major characters in the novel and he bounces between them frequently. The problem is he frequently refers to them in the first person and at times you think you are following one character when in fact he has shifted to a different one....very annoying.

56aussieh
Mar 16, 2019, 5:54 pm

My favorite historical fiction author is Rose Tremain.

57Lynxear
Editado: Mar 16, 2019, 11:45 pm

I finished Most Secret by Nevil Shute. It was not my favourite work by Shute but still a decent read.

I am moving on to my next historical fiction novel from WWII - The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. I have been looking for this book for a long time.

58Molly3028
Editado: Mar 23, 2019, 7:49 am

OverDrive Kindle eBook ~

The Kite Runner Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini

(before and after Taliban takeover of Kabul/friendship of two boys/I read the original novel when it was first published)

59tealadytoo
Mar 20, 2019, 3:49 pm

I'm reading Lisa See's China Dolls, set in 1930s/1940s San Francisco on the Asian nightclub circuit. It's quite engrossing.

60Lynxear
Mar 21, 2019, 4:39 am

>59 tealadytoo: I have read Lisa See's Shanghai Girls and liked it very much. I must look for more of her books.

61Cecrow
Mar 21, 2019, 7:32 am

>57 Lynxear:, The Cruel Sea is brilliant. Only (not to open this regularly opened can of worms again) I don't count it as historical fiction, it was written within ten years of WW2.

62Lynxear
Editado: Mar 21, 2019, 12:11 pm

>61 Cecrow: yes that donkey is beaten to death... on Cruel Sea it is a well written book. I did not expect to get into the lives of the characters as deep as has been written. I certainly now understand the life of a newly formed crew on a new corvette in WWII for convey duty. I find thought it dragged a bit at the end of the first 1/3 of the book as it deals with home issues. But saying that I enjoy the detail in the book.

63Molly3028
Editado: Mar 23, 2019, 12:18 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive Kindle eBook ~

I Will: A Christmas Novella by Lisa Kleypas

(pretend relationship/England 1830s)

64Molly3028
Editado: Mar 25, 2019, 7:44 am

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

(England WWII/Ada and her brother/disability/dysfunctional family/evacuation/YA lit/narrated by Jayne "Flavia" Entwistle)

65Molly3028
Editado: Mar 28, 2019, 12:32 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Treacherous Is the Night by Anna Lee Huber

(Verity Kent Mystery series, book #2/England, post WWI/Verity was a Secret Service agent/rocky relationship after reuniting with her estranged husband/seances and a medium)

66Lynxear
Editado: Mar 28, 2019, 2:01 am

I finished The Cruel Sea today. I have mixed feelings about the book as I got deeper into it. The book follows the lives and deaths in some cases of a new crew taking charge of a corvette in 1939. This was a new type of vessel, mainly used in escorting convoys across the Atlantic during the war.

If you are looking for an action thriller, this is not the book for you. There are two notable scenes that are well described in minute detail but for the most part you read, again in great detail, about the personal lives of several of the crew and life aboard a convoy escort. Attacks from U-boats come swift and with deadly effect but at the beginning there was little they could do but chase the U-boats away, sometimes losing up to half the ships in the convoy.

I found the book kind of wandered toward the end and dragged in many places. It was interesting to read a large section about the crew when their second boat, a frigate, was being refitted in New York. The crew's comments on Americans and their way of life contrasting it to their lives in England showed a disconnect from what I thought the feelings might have been. Seems the Americans were tolerated but not really liked. I won't comment further as it would spoil the read for you.

Not a bad novel but 400+ pages of a #9 font (or maybe less) made it a very long read, especially towards the end as the book wound down.

67Cecrow
Mar 28, 2019, 7:40 am

>66 Lynxear:, no, The Cruel Sea is far from action-adventure. It's effectively a psychological novel about what these men went through, and the result of their experiences. He has a broad cast, and across them he covers the entire spectrum between those who pulled through okay and those who ... didn't. There were a lot of insights and perspectives shared that I'd never imagined, and I felt as close as I'll ever get (or would ever care to) to having lived the experience myself. Thought it was brilliant, needless to say. :)

68Lynxear
Editado: Mar 28, 2019, 9:40 am

>67 Cecrow: I agree totally with you. I do like detailed novels that get into the head of its characters. The Cruel Sea certainly fills the bill there and like you I gained a lot of insight into the lives of those that fought in the Atlantic theater in WWII. With the loss of shipping during that war it amazes me that anyone would want to join the merchant marine at that time. His comment, through the characters on the Americans when they entered the war near the end of the book, I found very interesting and rang true to what my relatives feelings over in England expressed to me when they discussed WWII with me decades ago.

There are a few scenes (which I won't mention here) in the book that are very brutal and hard to read in places due to the emotions they draw from the reader. It is only the wandering ending of the last 50 pages that caused me to lose interest.

Finally, I found it interesting that there was very little mention of Canada in his story other than St. John's Newfoundland was not a favourite destination as a port. Canada had one of the largest merchant navies in the war and the causality rate for Canadian merchant seaman was very high during that time with one in ten lives lost during the war. Austrailia, on the other hand, rated two significant characters in his novel...one good guy and one not so good.

69Molly3028
Editado: Abr 15, 2019, 1:20 pm

Listening to this very interesting/informative OverDrive audiobook ~

Fools and Mortals: A Novel by Bernard Cornwell

(Elizabethan London/a tale featuring William Shakespeare's estranged younger brother/the first production of A Midsummer Night's Dream/a missing manuscript)

70Molly3028
Editado: Abr 21, 2019, 9:13 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Alex and Eliza by Melissa De La Cruz

(book #1 in a trilogy/1770s/NY and NJ/the romance of young Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler/YA lit)

71rocketjk
Abr 20, 2019, 3:51 pm

I'm enjoying (more than I was expecting!) The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott, the second entry in their "Isaac Bell" series. The action takes place in 1907 across the western U.S. Somebody is blowing up trains!

72tealadytoo
Editado: Abr 20, 2019, 4:23 pm

>71 rocketjk: Gee, after The Chase, I would have thought Isaac was finished with trains!

73rocketjk
Abr 20, 2019, 4:45 pm

>73 rocketjk: Well, I guess given the era, if you want a confluence of money, power, greed and violence, the railroads are your go-to locale! Except mines, maybe!

74Unreachableshelf
Abr 26, 2019, 5:00 pm

I'm in England in 1928 with some former suffragettes looking for what's next in Old Baggage.

75rocketjk
Abr 28, 2019, 11:25 am

I've just started A Soldier's Wife by Irish writer Marion Reynolds. The novel begins in 1902 with a young Irish woman marrying a member of the Connaught Rangers, and Irish regiment of the British Army. As of page 60, they are off for a 7-year hitch in India. I'm pretty sure that our heroes will end up back in Ireland to be involved in the turbulent events soon to come there.

76Molly3028
Editado: mayo 10, 2019, 11:49 am

Enjoying this MP3 disc ~

The General's Women by Susan Wittig Albert

(historical fiction/WWII/fascinating tale featuring Kay S., Mamie and Dwight Eisenhower)

UPDATE: ****

77Unreachableshelf
mayo 9, 2019, 11:07 am

I'm in 1902 in Proper English.

78Molly3028
mayo 13, 2019, 2:20 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

And the Miss Ran Away with the Rake by Elizabeth Boyle

(Rhymes with Love series/1810, London/Miss Daphne Dale/Lord Henry Seldon/the mysterious "Mr. Dishforth")

79Lynxear
mayo 14, 2019, 3:49 pm

I am going to read another WWII War fiction in The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean. I recall seeing the movie when it came out in the early 1960's... I would have been 11 or 12 then with the stars being Anthony Quinn (of Zorba the Greek fame), Gregory Peck and David Niven. The movie had a huge effect on me then as I still remember a scene or two. I am looking forward to this read.

80Unreachableshelf
mayo 14, 2019, 4:00 pm

I'm somewhere in the early 18th century, not sure of the exact year yet, in Captain in Calico.

81nx74defiant
mayo 19, 2019, 3:47 pm

Someone to Love part set in the current day. But Jace encounters a ghost and discovers the truth about the ghost's life and story.

82Molly3028
Editado: mayo 21, 2019, 2:00 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

(continues the Perez family's saga in Florida after Castro's takeover)

83Lynxear
mayo 21, 2019, 6:00 pm

I finished reading The Guns of Navarone. It was an excellent read and IMHO was far superior to the movie version back in the early 1960's. In fact there is little the same between the book and movie. For example there are no women in the novel and two in the movie. In the movie there is trouble between a couple of the men in the group... in the novel the men are all for one and one for all.

My only complaint is that once in a while, in the heat of some action, it can get confusing as to what they are doing.

84Unreachableshelf
Jun 1, 2019, 12:40 pm

I'm jumping back and forth between the early and mid-nineteenth century in Barbados in The Summer Country.

85tealadytoo
Jun 1, 2019, 12:56 pm

Finally getting around to reading Shogun. I saw the mini-series adaptation years ago when I was in High School, but somehow never read the book. It's fascinating.

86Unreachableshelf
Jun 6, 2019, 11:54 am

I'm in 1793 in The Warlow Experiment.

87Cecrow
Jun 6, 2019, 1:10 pm

>85 tealadytoo:, the rest of the Asian Saga is good too (including Gai-Jin which revisits Japan), although as the entries near the modern era they become increasingly business-oriented.

88tealadytoo
Editado: Jun 6, 2019, 1:16 pm

>87 Cecrow: Thanks! I've read Tai-Pan and Noble House. I particularly enjoyed the latter, because of all the business intrigue. So far, I am enjoying Shogun, but boy, is it brutal in parts.

89Cecrow
Jun 6, 2019, 1:54 pm

>88 tealadytoo:, Gai-jin would be the perfect follow-up for you, then, because it ties all three of those together brilliantly.

King Rat is a bit of a side-story, but Whirlwind is a pseudo-sequel to Noble House that covers the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

90Molly3028
Editado: Jun 13, 2019, 8:19 am

Enjoying this fascinating library audiobook ~

The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood

(Canada, 1930s/historical fiction featuring the famous Dionne Quints/diary entries of a midwife-in-training turned nurse-in-training teen who helped care for them)

UPDATE: ****1/2

JUNE IS AUDIOBOOK MONTH

91Cecrow
Jun 11, 2019, 7:36 am

>90 Molly3028:, curious about that one, since I've previously read the non-fiction version in The Dionne Years.

92Molly3028
Editado: Jun 11, 2019, 12:13 pm

>91 Cecrow:

I think the Canadian author chose the perfect way to relate this captivating, fact-based tale to a 21st Century reader or listener. Also, the voice of the narrator is perfect for the teen caregiver.

93Molly3028
Editado: Jul 5, 2019, 12:50 pm

FYI

The 2019b thread will be launched in three weeks.

94MissWatson
Jun 13, 2019, 5:08 am

I just finished a murder investigation in England under King Canute with Winston and Halfdan in The king's hounds which was quite good. Especially the ending was very much in keeping with the times.

95tealadytoo
Jun 13, 2019, 9:07 am

>94 MissWatson: I love that series. I'm just disappointed that the English translations seem to have stopped after 3 books. I thought there were more that have not been translated into English yet, but I can't confirm that, and I don't see any hints from the publisher that more are coming.

96MissWatson
Jun 14, 2019, 4:42 am

>95 tealadytoo: That is very disappointing indeed.

97Lynxear
Jul 4, 2019, 9:06 am

Well I am reading another WWII naval novel by Alistair Maclean titled H.M.S. Ulysses. I am on this ship which has borderline mutiny problems in a convoy starting a Murmansk run. I am in the first 50 pages and just getting to know the major characters of the book and I like the story so far.

98Molly3028
Editado: Jul 7, 2019, 6:47 am

The thread for the second half of 2019 is here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/308568