My To-Be-Read historical fiction list grows as fast as bamboo, which by the way is the fastest growing thing there is. You’re welcome.
At rate I’m adding to my TBR list, I’m going to have to mark off a couple of months just to read! And doesn’t that sound delicious?
What if every year we set aside a month devoted solely to reading? No cooking. No laundry. Checking in with your office? No. Absolutely not.
I vote yes.
Happy Days
I read by far more historical fiction than anything else. Guess that’s why my first novel takes place in the early 1950s.
That decade fascinated me in my teen years. Maybe it did everyone else my age, too. That would explain the popularity of the TV show Happy Days and why junior high student councils everywhere threw sock hops.
My Current TBR Historical Fiction List:
I’ve got a full roster of TBR (aka Really-Really-Want-to-Reads). So many books, so little time. The lament of every bibliophile. Here’s my slate of hopefuls:
- Tears of Amber by Sofia Segovia. Two families from Prussia flee their villages during War II. WWII. What else needs to be said?
- Half Life by Jillian Cantor. A biographical novel about Marie Curie. Yes, please.
- Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by Samantha Silva. The epic legacy of Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
- Island Queen by Vanessa Riley. Based on the true story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.
- Wolf Hall series by Hillary Mantel. I don’t know how these books slipped by me!
- And They Called it Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton. Anything about America’s “royalty” intrigues me.
- The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell. Sounds very atmospheric…and mysterious. But I thought everyone knew not to build a house on sand…
- Fortune by Lenny Bartulin. An historical epic featuring Napoleon.
- Vera by Carol Edgardian. About a fifteen-year-old survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
- Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce. 1925 in Chicago-jazz, prohibition, the mob, wild women’s lives. I must know more.
- The Widow Queen by Elzbieta Cherezinska. The epic story of a forgotten Polish queen. Well, heck yeah I want to read it.
I’m always amazed at authors who weave the tons of research they have to do into a novel seamlessly. It’s a balance of bringing a location and period to life without clubbing the reader over the head with all their treasured tidbits.
Hats off to those who do it so well!
Do you have any historical fiction on your TBR list? Well, go ahead…Tell us what it is!
Jamie
First of all, I can’t wait to read your book, Tracey! That is such a wonderful accomplishment. (On my list of things to do in my sixties, for sure. To write a book of my own, not just to read yours.) On my list of favorite historical fiction are novels by Lynn Austin. She wrote two that cover the founding of the town where I live, Holland, MI. The first one is called Waves of Mercy. Highly recommend almost anything by her. I had the privilege of meeting her many years ago at a writer’s retreat. She is a prolific writer.
Tracey Buchanan
I’ll definitely check her out! Thanks!