2019b ~ Your Historical Fiction Aventures!

Collecting another 6 months of historical fiction posts ~ where and when do these tales take place?

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

Travelling with a circus in the aftermath of the American Civil War, in Gary Jennings' Spangle.

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.

>4 tealadytoo: I need to read more MacLean. Ice Station Zebra was one of my top 5 books read last year.

>3 Lynxear: Great book that I read as a kid and while I don't remember the details, I do remember the impact it had on me when I finished it.

But the greatest nautical fiction book I ever read, Patrick O'Brian's series notwithstanding, is The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. Brutal verisimilitude about Royal Navy sailors in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Continuing the nautical topic, I am enjoying a French graphic novel about a corsair set in 1742: L'Épervier.

>5 Limelite: Yes it is a great story...I am off the coast of Iceland now in a storm with force 10 winds and snow. Not good at the best of times but on a ship that is near mutiny it is very trying. I like Maclean's naval war books but his attempt at a crime/mystery book fell flat for me.

I have read Cruel Sea , an amazing psychological thriller of WWII Atlantic convoys. I am Canadian and my only disappointment was that there was no mention of Canadian merchant seamen or vessels which comprised a large portion of the Atlantic merchant fleet in WWII.

I am not a great fan of Patrick O'Brian mainly because sometimes the Commander and his surgeon split up and then reunite but you only follow one but not the other. You almost need a dictionary of ancient seamen's language to understand their discussions :)

My favourite naval writers are C.S. Forrester (Hornblower series) and Dudley Pope (Ramage Series). Both are set in the Napoleonic war and are very well written.

>7 Lynxear:

Hornblower was my father's favorite maritime hero; Aubrey and Maturin are mine. Not sure I ever read any Ramage.

Do you know any Canadian authors who have or are writing the stories of the experiences of Canadian services and individuals in WW II? As we all know, that war launched an infinite number of American writers' careers, and still sustains hundreds today.

I just finished all my love, Detrick by Roberta Kagan, set in Germany - WWII era.

Now reading the book woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson. Appalachian region of Kentucky in the 1930s with the interesting themes of the Pack Horse Librarians and the Blue People of Kentucky.

>8 Limelite: I did some digging and came up with a few that may catch your eye

The Three Pleasures by Terry Watada - Japanese interment in Canada

The Water Beetles by Michael Kaan - the fall of Hong Kong

The Wars by Timothy Findley - WWI

Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden - experiences of an indigenous Canadian in Great war

On to Victory by Mark Zuehike - Canadian liberation of Netherlands

Generals Die in Bed by Charles Yale Harrison - anti-war novel of WWI

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje - post WWII London

When Your Numbers Up by Desmond Morton - the Canadian Soldier in the 1st World War

I have not found any Canadian naval novels but am sure they exist.

>8 Limelite: >10 Lynxear: Storm Below, by Hugh Garner, is about a fictional Canadian naval vessel during WW2.

In non-fiction, I liked Farley Mowat's Grey Seas Under, which is about salvage tugs and covers WW2 at least in part.

>10 Lynxear: and >11 rabbitprincess:

Thank you both for taking the trouble. Consider my eye caught. Looks like I may have to duck a lot of bullets!

I'll read anything by Ondaatje, even if it's a cookbook. On to Victory interests me because my mother worked as a civilian for the American Occupation Forces cdr. in The Hague while my father worked for the Crown dismantling German factories that had been active in the war effort. Wasn't Mowat himself a WW II vet who saw active duty?

Again, I appreciate your research, even if it means probable disaster to my budget.

>10 Lynxear:, I'll vouch for Finley's The Wars, it was very good.

>13 Cecrow: >12 Limelite: Well I have not read any of these to date. The ones that catch my attention for my TBR list would be The Wars. Three Day Road. Generals Die in Bed and When Your Numbers Up.

I have made a note of them for my next used bookstore prowl. :)

I am almost finished HMS Ulysses... a story about a convoy to Murmansk, Russia. It is not an easy read as it is quite a depressive book. Nothing goes right for these guys and they are losing ships one or two at a time each day and the survivors in the water die in minutes from the cold.

>14 Lynxear:

Exactly what sticks in my mind from youthful reading of "HMS U" too.

Quiet adventure in HF reading since I'm just sitting at table in Castlebridge around Christmas time with members of the Mellstock Quire, discussing the new school teacher, sipping whiskey and warming by the fire as the gentle gossip of Sussex working class friends unwinds around me.

Yes, it's Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy.

>!5

Well the last 100 pages went quite fast but without revealing too much, 90% of the characters in the book are dead by the end of the book. I think this was Maclean's first Naval war novel. He certainly communicates the misery, hardship and reluctant gallantry of war. This is my third Maclean novel... I won't be in a hurry to read another.

I am going to try another Historical fiction in A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory. I think this will turn into a Historical Romance from the look of it. I am not a great fan of romance novels though Nevil Shute novels are basically that way and he succeeds in toning down the graphic aspects. Perhaps it will be so in this novel, but right now I need something to take my mind off the futility of war.

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory

(Plantagenet and Tudor Novels/mid 1500s/Elizabeth I/Robert and Amy Dudley)

I'm in Iceland in 1686 in The Glass Woman.

Heading back 12th century Shrewsbury Abbey with Brother Cadfael in The Rose Rent.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
(part 2/WWII England/Ada is a very independent 11-year-old with a younger brother/middle-grade lit/narrated by Jayne "Flavia" Entwistle)

UPDATE: ****1/2

I'm in Scotland toward the end of the 13th century with William Wallace in Nigel Tranter's The Wallace.

Today I'm going to start The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr.

I finished The Apostle by Sholem Asch. Asch was a Yiddish writer, a Polish Jew who wrote about shtetl life in Europe and became very well known, with his work being translated into many languages. He moved to America in his 30s and began writing about the Jewish immigrant experience here. Late in his career, however, he wrote three books in what became known as his "Founders of Christianity" series: The Nazarene, The Apostle, and Mary. This did not go over well in the Jewish community of the time (The Apostle was published in 1942), and he lost readership and his job. This despite that fact that Asch maintained that the novels were meant to bridge the gap between Jews and Christians by demonstrating in fiction that Christianity was in fact a deeply Jewish phenomenon at its core. As my old man would have said, however, "Lotsa luck." And so I was curious about The Apostle. It is the fictional story of early Christianity as seen through the eyes of Saul, who become the Apostle Paul.

Once he is converted and begins preaching about the Messiah, Paul schlepps back and forth across the Middle East, founding congregations and converting Jew and Gentile alike to the new faith. Being Jewish myself, I never knew the details of Paul's life nor much about the turning point where Paul stopped preaching only to Jews that their Messiah had arrived and instead insisted on preaching to everyone, thus taking the new religion out of the realm of Judaism. (And that is, of course, to whatever extent this book is faithful to what is know of those events.) So that was interesting. Unfortunately about 95% of the storytelling is done in flat, expository prose. There's almost nothing to draw us into the narrative for its own sake. So I plodded through, chapter by chapter, one chapter at a time over several years, and now I've finished! I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone other than the historically curious about Asch and his career. That's probably a fairly small subset of my LibraryThing friends! I do look forward to going back and reading some of Asch's earlier works, which were much praised when he wrote them and are still highly regarded.

Starting this library audiobook ~

Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

(Ohio, mid 1800s/Honor Bright is a Quaker who left England after a major trauma/Underground Railroad/quilting)

UPDATE: ****

Reading an oldie, Taylor Caldwell's Captains and the Kings, following an Irish immigrant's rise to power in 19th century America. She certainly does love her conspiracy theories. Which is entertaining, if a bit over the top.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson

(Hagenheim Castle fairy tales, book #2/Sophie is a Snow-White-type character/Germany/Middle Ages/YA Christian lit)

I very much enjoyed Der zweite Reiter by Alex Beer, a mystery set in 1919 Vienna which paints a very vivid picture of the post-war chaos and misery.

I read a lot of Alistair Maclean books in the 70's and they were all, without exception, great reads.

Trying out my first Leon Uris novel; Trinity. Not sure how I've missed him for this many years.

Listening to this library audiobook ~

Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick

(Victorian era London/Slater is an archeologist & adventurer/Ursula is the owner of Kern Secretarial Agency/a death due to mysterious circumstances/amateur sleuthing and romance)

I'm in 1787 at the moment, just starting Marley.

Had an email notification from Read It Forward for free giveaway of new novel by Sara Donati (pen name of Rosina Lippi) for her latest novel, Where the Light Enters. Release date 9/10/19. Partial blurb from Booklist starred review: Donati’s saga of a New York family in the 1880s, with its exquisitely realized characters, is apt to inspire repeated readings. Taking up the story begun in The Gilded Hour (2015), Donati extends the experiences of the Savard cousins, Anna and Sophie, both physicians, one white and one multiracial, and the diverse individuals who become their family. . .

Anyone can enter here.

https://www.readitforward.com/giveaways/

For fans of this popular historical fiction writer. . .

Had an email notification from Read It Forward for free giveaway of new novel by Sara Donati (pen name of Rosina Lippi) for her latest novel, Where the Light Enters. Release date 9/10/19. Partial blurb from Booklist starred review: Donati’s saga of a New York family in the 1880s, with its exquisitely realized characters, is apt to inspire repeated readings. Taking up the story begun in The Gilded Hour (2015), Donati extends the experiences of the Savard cousins, Anna and Sophie, both physicians, one white and one multiracial, and the diverse individuals who become their family. . .

Anyone can enter here.

https://www.readitforward.com/giveaways/

Enjoying this Kindle eBook Alexa is reading to me ~

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

(delving into the post-war chapters of this favorite)

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron (4+ stars)
(1800s-1921/the life and loves of Winston Churchill's infamous American mother)

FYI
A novel written by Marie Benedict about Winston's wife ~ Clementine ~ is due out in early January.

Now I'm in 1863 in A Hope Divided.

I liked if you want to make God laugh by Bianca Marais.
It's set in South Africa in the 1990s, around the time apartheid ended.

"If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans."

I have just finished lamentation by CJ Sansom..... a great Historical mystery set in the time of Henry VIII.... about 800 pages and hard to put this book which is the same for all of the Shardlake series...5 stars

I have found a new historical fiction writer, Alex Grecian. I have just finished reading the first book in his Scotland Yard series titled The Yard . It starts out pretty slow since you are learning about a host of characters but Grecian has a talent of making you feel you are in London in the 1880's... you walk the streets, you deal with the grime and crime of the city, the morgue, the workhouses. I will read a lot more offerings from this author.

East Tennessee during the American Revolution, preparing for the battle of King's Mountain by Sharyn McCrumb. Interesting read, but I haven't yet landed on a character that I really liked.

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly's Royal Wedding by Hazel Gaynor

(mid 1950s/Sophie is a parfumeur/James is a tabloid photographer/a female and a male narrator)

**Thanks to a Wowbrary.com email, I was #1 in line for this novel**

Very much enjoying Jocelyn Green's Between Two Shores, set in French Canada during the French and Indian War.

>42 tealadytoo:
I read that novel shortly after it was released. It's quite an interesting read!

>42 tealadytoo:

You might enjoy Eliot Pattison's early American colonial PA historical novels. They combine the French and Indian War, backwoods unconventional warfare, Indian lore, and murder mystery in intelligent character studies of heroic figures who adventure all over the colonial Americana and Canadian frontiers. One is Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America.

If French Canadian historical novels are your specific cup of tea, Annie Proulx's recent book, Barkskins: A novel is a lyrical and powerful portrait of the development of the timber industry in Canada from earliest days. Again, an excellent character driven work.

>44 Limelite: Thanks! I'll have to check those out.

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels and Other Gentlemen by Victoria Alexander (4 stars)

(1880s/a spinster and a helpful heir to an earldom/Paris trip to track down a missing traveler)

I finished Action at Aquila by Hervey Allen. This is an historical novel about the Civil War, originally published in 1938. The physical descriptions of the country around southern Pennsylvania and into the Shenandoah Valley are wonderful, the descriptions of southern Pennsylvania towns who have recently lived through Lee's invasion and retreat, and the experiences of our protagonist, Colonel Nathaniel Franklin of the Union Army, as he travels this territory during a 3-week leave and then rejoins his troop in time to take part in a horrific battle, are often quite engaging (the battle scene is very well done). Some of the characters fall into stereotype, and some of the developments, especially between the characters, are predictable, but all in all I enjoyed reading this novel quite a bit.

Enjoying this Library audiobook ~

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali (5 stars)

(1950s, Tehran upheaval/love of a young couple/60-year separation/Iranian culture)

Finished Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart recently. Reviewed here https://benjaminlclark.com/book-review-kopp-sisters-on-the-march-by-amy-stewart/
New Jersey/ 1917

About to jump into NYC in 1803 with Paddy Hirsch's Hudson's Kill.

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

The Marriage Game by Alison Weir (4 stars)

(1500s/Tudor era England/tale featuring Elizabeth I & Lord Robert Dudley)

Just finished the fourth book in the Lymond Chronicles: Pawn in Frankincense, by Dorothy Dunnett. Continental Europe (and the Ottoman Empire) in the 1550s.

During this past September, my lovely wife took a cross-country drive with her friend Kathy. They passed through Santa Fe, NM, where they went to a book fair, where my wife bought a book called Saturday Matinee directly from the author, Maxine Neely Davenport, who signed it for her! Anyway, this is a collection of interlocking short stories about a family that decided to stay on their Oklahoma farm, rather than light out for California, during the Great Depression. I decided to sit down with this volume last week. Quite a few of these stories are quite well written. Some are a little less so, but those are still enjoyable. The collection's drawback, I would say, is that while many of the stories effectively show various aspects of family dynamics, often from the point of view of a young girl, and describe farming life as well, there is very little of what we'd expect to read of the hardships of rural life in Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl days. However, as I said, the stories, other than that one proviso, are pretty good, taken on their own merit.

I'm starting a re-read of a favorite of mine from, IIRC, my junior high days, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, set in Colonial New England when persecution of "witches" was a real danger.

I'm interested to see how it holds up against my fond memories. It's an appropriate read as we approach Halloween, anyway!

The Stolen Bicycle is set in Taiwan during the period of Japanese occupation, that lasted 50 years, following First Sino-Japanese war.

>53 tealadytoo:
I read that novel when I was junior high too. I received the paperback edition of the book, 1988 copyright/printing, from an older cousin. (It features a young woman wearing a red gown on the cover) Since I have extended family living in CT, the town names were familiar!

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt
by Stephanie Marie Thornton

(1900s/the eldest child of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife)

I'm currently about 1786 I think and heading towards the French Revolution in Ribbons of Scarlet.

I am back to 1863 in An Unconditional Freedom.

I'm back at Shrewbury Abbey with Brother Cadfael in 1142. He's trying to sort out some secrets after learning about The Confession of Brother Haluin.

Straddling B.C. and A.D. years with Augustus by John Williams told using the diaries, letters, and journals of the Romans surrounding Augustus as he took control as ruler of the empire. Unusual approach to a novel but I really like it!

Mixed reaction to Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, an overview of world history in early 20th C, focusing on WW I, suffragette movement, and collapse of class society in Europe. Great details of the politics of international relations but not so hot as an introspective novel that features a prominent protagonist. In the vein of Michener historical sagas.

>60 Limelite:, never heard of (this) John Williams before, his works sound very interesting! How does that one compare to I Claudius or Memoirs of Hadrian?

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Viscount Who Lived Down the Lane by Elizabeth Boyle (4 stars)

(Rhymes With Love series/London, early 1800s/Louisa Tempest vs. Viscount Wakefield)

Currently reading Radio Girls by Sarah -Jane Stratford about the early days of the BBC.

>63 tealadytoo:

Thanks for the heads up on Radio Girl. I just added it to an OverDrive list.

I'm now in 1895 in London in Gilded Cage.

Enjoying this OverDrive Kindle eBook ~

Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict (4+ stars)

(1930s and 40s/Austria and the U.S./tale featuring actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr)

I'm at about 1913 in New York in The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick.

I'm in 1811 Cornwall, dealing with smugglers in A Lady's Honor by Laurie Alice Eakes.

>61 Cecrow:

I've read "Claudius" but not "Hadrian." The Williams book is built around the historical first-person record of the actual people who, of course, also appear in the novel. So, the fictive portions are not as extensive as in Graves' novel. Augustus is an NBA winner. "Composed of fictional letters, dispatches and memoranda," the committee said of Mr. Williams's work, "this epistolary novel brings to life in very human dimensions the violent times of Augustus Caesar (63 B.C.-14 A.D.)"

Williams also wrote Butcher's Crossing and Stoner, neither of which I've read. I loved "Claudius" and feel safe to recommend "Augustus" to you on that basis.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford

(England, 1920s/tale featuring BBC radio's early days)

I'm reading a fairly interesting WWII novel involving Jewish refugee children who left Europe via the Kindertransport and ending up in Northern Ireland. Specifically two German children who end up in the custody of a distant cousin, the Irish Catholic widow of a Jewish man killed in WWI.

The Star and the Shamrock - Jean Grainger

Enjoying this audiobook ~

His Mistress by Christmas by Victoria Alexander (5 stars)

(an annual fave/Christmas farce/read by Susan Duerden ~ my favorite Regency narrator)

I'm reading about a volunteer nurse for the Union at the start of the American Civil War, in Jocelyn Green's Wedded to War

I have finished one of the first historical novels ever, Waverley, and enjoyed it very much.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Mad About the Major by Elizabeth Boyle (4 stars)

(Bachelor Chronicles novella/London 1818/spoiled daughter of a duke and a rake named Major Kingsley/three favors)

I recently finished Rampart Street by Everett and Olga Webber. First published in 1948, Rampart Street is part swashbuckler, part romance that takes place in New Orleans from the years just after the Louisiana Purchase, through the War of 1812 and up into the 1830s or so. Woven into the intrigue, murder and passion, however, are lots of interesting historical threads about life in New Orleans during that time, provided in matter-of-fact exposition that lets us see the conditions as the characters would have seen them. For example, we observe the cultural conflicts between the older Creole society and the upstart American newcomers. When the Yellow Fever epidemic hits it is noted that the rise in the mosquito population is a good thing, as mosquitoes are known to help clear the miasma over the swamps that causes the illness.

As we begin our story, the brave and noble merchant captain John Carrick has just fought off an attack in the Gulf of Mexico by a Barbary pirate ship. Carrick is an American is trying to win the hand of the beautiful young Elizabeth, from a Creole family and already betrothed to a rich but (of course) dastardly Creole adventurer. Adventure and intrigue ensues. This book is a lot of fun, if one is in the mood for this sort of thing. Also, while I was prepared to wince at the treatment of race and slavery, expecting a "that's just the way things were" sort of attitude, the book does hold some mildly nice surprises in that regard. The workforce on the property our hero eventually acquires is noted as being all black, but we are told specifically that Carrick will have only free, hired help, and will not own slaves. Also, the last half of the book deals strongly with the absurdity and tragic nature of the city's race laws, wherein a person with even a single drop of black ancestry is black, and therefore of low caste if not an outright slave. That's a distinctly mild form of social consciousness, certainly, but given the time of publication, the setting and the genre, any amount of thoughtfulness in those regards was welcome.

Enjoying these OverDrive audiobooks ~

Merchant's Daughter (Fairy Tale Romance Series, book 3) by Melanie Dickerson
(England, 1352/a 'Beauty and the Beast' tale/YA Christian lit)

and

Christmas Revelation by Anne Perry
(Dickens-type tale)

A Christmas Carol (Reissue)

by Charles Dickens (Author), Patrick Stewart

(Stewart's one-man show on CD
https://www.librarything.com/work/1549/book/176458281)

Hello everyone

Searching for a historical romance novel that starts with a scene like this...a man and a woman is about to get it on (could be a duke/rake - not sure), when there is a knock on the door, the butler i think opens the door to find a frail and wet girl seeking shelter. Apparently she ran away from where she was staying....

Th hero is arrogant but falls for the this girl...

I'm near London somewhere around 1850, I think (the second edition of Jane Eyre is out, but I'm not sure how recently) in Jane Steele.

Enjoying this library MP3 audiobook disc ~

Murphy's Law (Molly Murphy Mysteries, book 1) by Rhys Bowen

(around 1900, NYC/Irish immigrant/woman detective)

About two-thirds through the fascinating "all in the dynasty" saga of the Godwin family of Wales in The Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch -- a real doorstop of a book! Could be used as a building block in a Gothic cathedral. No one would know the difference.

I'm in the 19th century southern United States, moving back and forth in time before and after the Civil War, in Conjure Women.

Final 2019 audiobook ~

Lady Osbaldestone And The Missing Christmas Carols (Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Chronicles, book 2) by Stephanie Laurens

(1800's/village in England/historical fiction)

Just squeaked one more into 2019, finishing up Gods and Generals Jeff Shaara's Civil War prequel to his father's famous novel of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels.

hello searching for a novel that is about a heroine that is very skinny but still beautiful the hero falls for her even though he doesnt want to and has a mistress... the heroine gets pregnant and runs away

>86 Marshalee_Matthews: you may want to ask in the “Name that Book” group.