Favorite historical fiction?

[Anonymous]

I’m searching for some new reading material. Loved Ken Follett & Sarah Vowell who were both suggested here.

Any other favorites from fellow historical fiction lovers?

[Anonymous]

I like reading historical fiction with a military bent.

- Anything by Bernard Cornwell, but especially the Saxon Tales series (what the TV show "The Last Kingdom" is based on)
- Michael Shaara "The Killer Angels"
- Jeff Shaara "To the Last Man: A Novel about the First World War
- Steven Pressfield "Gates of Fire"
- Mary Renault's "Alexander" (The Great) trilogy

[Anonymous]

I really liked The Other Boleyn Girl. I still routinely think about it.

[Anonymous]

Robert Harris' trilogy on Cicero is beyond incredible.

[Anonymous]

The Aubrey and Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien! (The movie master and commander was based on one of the books.) they’re really great (and I’m a woman and not a sailing buff.)

[Anonymous]

Not sure it's a favorite, but I read Sherry Thomas' NOT QUITE A HUSBAND, a historical romance set during the British Raj, and it was quite interesting

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed The Mercies, a novel based on the witch trials in Norway in the 1600s. By Kiran Millwood Hargrave. There is a Louise Bourgeois sculpture on the island memorializing the victims.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/06/803098155/the-mercies-is-a-spark-of-light-on-a-bleak-shore

[Anonymous]

Recently - the Nightingale

[Anonymous]

Just read The Art Thief by Michael Finkle (spelling may be off). Riveting but pure history, no fiction.

[Anonymous]

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Violeta by Isabel Allende
Sigga of Reykjavik
Cane River by Lalitha Tademy

[Anonymous]

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series.

[Anonymous]

Kate Quinn

Her books are so incredible.

[Anonymous]

Hilary Mantels' Wolf Hall trilogy (Tudors) and her book Place of Greater Safety (french revolution).

Herman Wouk's WWII historical fiction - War and Remembrance and The Winds of War.

The Children's blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

Women of Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell

[Anonymous]

All of Sharon Kay Penman. I would start with Here Be Dragons and read them in the order published rather than the chronological order of the stories.

[Anonymous]

Definitely the Agony and the Ecstasy (about Michelangelo). Still think about it 20 years later.