2020b ~ Your Historical Fiction Adventures!

2020 ~ second six-month thread

Where and when do the tales you are exploring take place?

My favorite Historical reads are Shardlake - A series by C J Sansom during the reign of Henry VIII. Lots of historical detail and a bit of mystery too. Great author and series!

I'm in New York in the 1740s in Golden Hill.

Just left Winter Quarters, Utah at the turn of the 20th century, site of the Scofield mine disaster.

My Loving Vigil Keeping - Carla Kelly

I suppose I can mention reading The Scarlet Letter, since it takes place 200 years before it was published.

Posting and shelving books at this site is hardly worth the bother. It appears that LT is going the way of Shelfari.

I'm about to be in 1888 in The Last Days of Night.

I'm heading for Galveston, Texas, circa 1851, to address issues of steamboat safety.

Full Steam Ahead

I'm in 1666 in The Ashes of London.

I finished In the Distance by Hernan Diaz. In the mid-19th century, a naive Swedish farmboy named Hakan heads off to America with his brother, but soon finds himself alone. Arriving in Gold Rush era San Francisco rather than New York, the destination he and his brother had set out for, and with virtually no knowledge of geography, Hakan decides to set out walking to New York, where he's sure he will find his brother. Over it's first half, In the Distance is a picaresque novel, with Hakan falling into a series of situations, seemingly randomly, through which he gains a strange, piecemeal sort of knowledge about human nature and about the natural world. The writing, especially the descriptions of the mountains, plains and deserts of western America, is detailed and exquisite. The life that Hakan falls into, via a combination of circumstance, ignorance and choice, is also intimately and lovingly described. I found this novel to be an interesting reflection, almost a reverie, about humankind's place in the grander scheme of the natural world. In didn't work as well as a character study for me, because of Hakan's (and his story's) "larger than life" qualities. At any rate, the story's quick arrival into the realm of fable is certainly intended. This novel was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2018.

I'm in a quiet place in the country (England) in 1908 with Lady Hardcastle and her assistant, Florence.

I'm in a less quiet place in Victorian England (London) with Charles Lenox.

The Woman in the Water by Charles Finch

Although it is technically a historical mystery, I also recently spent time in Victorian London while reading The Darwin Affair. I usually do not read historical mysteries but I actually liked the novel, although some of the crime scenes were quite gory. I think it would be a good one to listen to on audio and also make a great BBC TV mini-series.

Currently I am listening to The Gown. I set aside the novel last year but decided to try it again from the beginning.

The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna
by C. W. Gortner
(OverDrive audio/almost 18 hours long)

4+ stars

>14 Molly3028: I 'knew' Gortner from Historic Fiction book club. His first book the mad queenis an excellent take on the 'mad'queen juana of Spain, well researched well written and I enjoyed it despite making me feel rather sad and more than a little bit perturbed how long men have kept their women under their thumbs, and how it really hasn't changed much.

>14 Molly3028: I 'knew' Gortner from Historic Fiction book club. His first book the mad queenis an excellent take on the 'mad'queen juana of Spain, well researched well written and I enjoyed it despite making me feel rather sad and more than a little bit perturbed how long men have kept their women under their thumbs, and how it really hasn't changed much. Touchstone is wrong, look up gortner first, you'll find it

>14 Molly3028: You may want to check the dual biography Sister Queens: the Noble Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Julia Fox (2012)
I read a library copy of the book, and I learned more about Juana's life from it.

I also read and own The Last Queen: A Novel by CW Gortner. The Romanov Empress was good too!

I read the Julia Fox book, and yeah, wow. I didn't know all that about Katherine (oh so sad) and Juana . Liked read how Gortner put those lives together in HFm

ETA from a review here on the fox book, says what I am feeling quite well

Fox certainly seems to have done her research, and man, she’s good at pulling heartstrings. Like, the tragedies Katherine and Juana went through? The politics they had to learn on the fly? The incarcerations, gaslighting, and emotional abuse? The ways Katherine kept on top of politics when nobody would tell her anything? This is a much-needed look at the sisters, and at women in power at the time, and if you’re interested in the era, I say go for it.

>16 cindydavid4: and >17 princessgarnet: and >18 cindydavid4:

Thanks for the info and suggestions!

I just finished The Girl Who Came Home, by Hazel Gaynor, about a survivor of the Titanic. This really well-researched and well-written book is based on the true story of the Adergoogle Fourteen, about a group of 14 young people from a small village in Ireland who were making their way to the USA on the maiden trip of the Titanic to seek a better life. The story is told in 2 parts, one from the daily journals of a 17-year old who was a survivor in 1912, and one from her great granddaughter in 1982, and how the story comes full circle. Another title by Gaynor that I have read and also enjoyed was A Memory of Violets, about the flower girls of London (think Eliza Doolittle), also based on true events.

Enjoying Bryn Turnbull's novel ~

The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal
(OverDrive audio)

I'm in the midst of the Battle of Gettysburg. It's told from the perspective of mostly non-military people in the town. (The titular young Union widow, a free black woman, a war correspondent, and a mysterious Confederate non-combatant).

Widow of Gettysburg - Jocelyn Green

I finished, Beneath a Scarlett Sky by Mark Sullivan. It's based upon Pino Lella, an Italian from Milan that is caught within WW2 and the Nazi occupation in Italy. His father sends him to an all-boys school where he helps the Priest who runs the school "smuggle" Jews into Switzerland through the mountains! Once the Nazis catch a whiff of the Priest's activities, Pino goes back home to Milan where his parents convince him to join the German Military to avoid certain death in the front lines of the Italian army. In a case of crazy coincidences, Pino ends up injured and ultimately assigned non-combat duty to the right-hand man of Hitler. Seeing all the cruelty, destruction, and death the Nazis brought upon his country, Pino decides to become a spy for the Allies.

It's a wonderful account of this man's real-life stories - which Sullivan does say he added in what he thought may have happened. Nonetheless, it's a great story that tells of courage, bravery and depicts an emotional story of love and survival.

I'm reading 2 series at the mo: 1) Maurice Druon's series The Accursed Kings which number 8 books. I'm currently reading number 5 and they are a great material about a little known time in French history that begins with Phillip the Fair in 1284. We have poisonings, chokings, etc. The stuff royalty is made of! Very historically accurate and very enjoyable 2) Poldark series of which there are 12 books and I'm currently reading number 6. These are great time period pieces, beginning in 1779 in Cornwall.

I've just finished Labyrinth by Kate Mosse so have been in the 1200s and early 2000s, uncovering the mystery of the labyrinth and the grail. The story is great at intertwining actual historical characters
(Raymond Roger Trencavel, the viscount of Béziers and Albi, as well as of Carcassonne and the Razèsand) and historical events ( massacre at Béziers and the Crusade against the Cathars), all mixed in with fictional characters and a fantastical storyline.

>24 Tess_W: Hope you're enjoying it!
I read and own all the reprint editions of the novels in The Accursed Kings series. The final and #7 book, The King without a Kingdom, was published in the 1977 and has a marked difference than the earlier ones.

>26 princessgarnet: I'm not a person who is normally fond of series because by book 2 or 3 they are usually washed out or have changed course so much they are not recognizable. I put Druon's series at the top of most I have read, love them!

Today I'm planning on starting The Paragon Hotel.

https://www.librarything.com/work/16563180/book/191388057
The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia
by C. W. Gortner
(OverDrive audio)

This evening I plan to start Cathedral.

Am reading book #8 in the Poldark series. Thus far, Napoleon has made life miserable for Cornwall, and all of England.

Also reading Penman's Time and Chance. Henry II has just made an agreement with Louis of France, which infuriates Henry's wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (who was once Louis' wife).

>29 Molly3028: i usually enjoy his books; tell me how you like this one pls

Starting a Bess Crawford novel by Charles Todd, A Forgotten Place. It will be interesting to see where they take this series with WWI winding down.

Visiting the era of Mary Queen of Scots with Lord and Master, by Nigel Tranter, the first in his Master of Gray trilogy.

>35 rabbitprincess: Just read that recently. I really liked it.

>36 al.vick: I've enjoyed a lot of Nigel Tranter's work and am looking forward to this trilogy! Glad you liked it.

>37 rabbitprincess: yeah, I mean "the master" is kind of piece of work, but it was a very enjoyable story.

I'm jumping around the 1890s, mostly in NY now it seems but some in England earlier, in The English Wife.

>34 tealadytoo: Have you read the Maisie Dobbs series? Starts during WWI and continues to WWII. I like it even better than Bess Crawford.

>40 amylynnd: I read the first Masie Dobbs book and didn't really care for it because there was really not much in the way of a mystery in it. Mostly it revolved around Masie's sad history. I might have liked it better if it hadn't been billed as a mystery. Well, to be more precise, there were mysteries, but they pretty much resolved themselves, without Masie doing much about it. :=)

I'm told the series gets better, but I never read on. Bess seems much more believable to me.