Below the Salt by Costain - Magna Carta with a bit of reincarnation for modern (1950s segments)

Elizabeth Wein’s books are all great. Code Name Verity in particular is excellent — spies and pilots during WWII.

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 wrote:Kate Quinn

Her books are so incredible.

+1

Ditto to Kate Quinn books and Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The magnificent lives of Marjorie post was really good

Anonymous wrote:Robert Harris' trilogy on Cicero is beyond incredible.

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 wrote: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).

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 wrote:The Outlander series? Obviously there is some fantasy there (time traveling) but lots of history throughout.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

OMG YES!!! Not sure I would consider it historical fiction but a teen me devoured those books.

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!

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.

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).

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 wrote: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.

OMG YES!!! Not sure I would consider it historical fiction but a teen me devoured those books.

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.

The Outlander series? Obviously there is some fantasy there (time traveling) but lots of history throughout.