Favorite historical fiction?
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Anonymous
| The Outlander series? Obviously there is some fantasy there (time traveling) but lots of history throughout. |
Anonymous
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Barkskins
Pachinko The O'Briens Special shout-out to The Thorn Birds as the book 11-year-old me read all day at the pool until I was fried to a crisp. Unputdownable. Most of these are multi-generational sagas but all highlight times in history that I did not previously know much about. |
Anonymous
OMG YES!!! Not sure I would consider it historical fiction but a teen me devoured those books. |
Anonymous
| Not at all chick lit- the George MacDonald Fraser Flashman series is great. It starts in 1830s England. If you want something like Outlander then probably not the best choice though. |
Anonymous
| Dorothy Dunnett (esp Lymond Chronicles) is the best historical fiction ever but it’s very dense (often someone will just recite a verse in medieval French and you have no idea what they are saying). |
Anonymous
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Martha Hall Kelly has a great series
Sunflower sisters-civil war era Lilac Girls - ww2 ravensbruck Lost Roses -ww1 (my favorite) Golden Doves - post ww2 They are all based on true stories and characters. |
Anonymous
Add me to the The Thorn Birds fan girl list. My teen self thought it was so fabulous I wrote my college essay about it and got accepted to my dream school! |
Anonymous
Agreed, these are 95% historical, more as they go along, and even the "modern" timeline sections count as historical at this point. They are pretty great. |
Anonymous
Absolutely agreed! Wonderful books but very dense. I also love Mary Renault for something a bit shorter although the historical accuracy while great for when the books were written has not always aged well. If you’re open to fantasy elements, Freedom and Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Burst is excellent. |
Anonymous
Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series (murder mysteries set in ancient rome) Not quite at the level of Harris' Cicero trilogy, but still, enjoyable reads This is a good thread |
Anonymous
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Ditto to Kate Quinn books and Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The magnificent lives of Marjorie post was really good |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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If you read the Kate Quinn books in order, there's a little wink here and there. The stories aren't related, but there's a tiny bit of crossover.
The Alice Network - WWI and post WWII, spy in France meets and American socialite searching for her cousin The Huntress - Russian pilot, American photographer, and a British reporter team up to track a Nazi war criminal The Rose Code - three women working at Bletchley Park during WW2 work in separate areas, but their lives intersect. This might be my fav. The Diamond Eye - Russian woman becomes one of the most lethal snipers during WW2. Winds up on a diplomatic tour in the US and meets Eleanor Roosevelt. Based on a real person. |
Anonymous
| Elizabeth Wein’s books are all great. Code Name Verity in particular is excellent — spies and pilots during WWII. |
Anonymous
| Below the Salt by Costain - Magna Carta with a bit of reincarnation for modern (1950s segments) |