2020 ~ Your Historical Fiction Adventures!

DiscussieHistorical Fiction

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2020 ~ Your Historical Fiction Adventures!

1Molly3028
dec 29, 2019, 10:27 am

Which historical fiction novels are you exploring? Where and when
do these tales take place?

2jenniferw88
dec 30, 2019, 3:41 pm

Hello everyone! I'm new to the group but thought I'd jump right in. I'm Jenny, 29 but turn 30 next May, and live with my parents and ginger cat Jaffa in the United Kingdom. I love historical fiction and have a Master's in 18th century literature.

Anyway, here's what I have planned for 2020:
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - WW2 Poland
The Wolf and the Watchman - 1793 Stockholm
Tribune of Rome - 26AD Rome
The Silver Collar - 1720s/30s London
Thirteenth Night - 1200AD Italy (not sure about country)
When the Doves Disappeared - 1940s/60s Estonia
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - Cold War era Germany
Burial Rites - 1829 Iceland
The Ides of April - 89AD Rome
The Disorderly Knights - 1551 Malta
Girl With a Pearl Earring - 17th century Delft
Clash of Empires - 215BC Macedonia/Rome
Falcons of Fire and Ice - 1539 Portugal
The Muse - 1967 London
Last Train to Istanbul - WW2 Istanbul
Birdcage Walk - 1789 Paris
An Almond for a Parrot - 1756 Newgate Prison
A Burnable Book - 1385 London
The Cellist of Sarajevo - 1990s Sarajevo
The Fatal Tree - 1720s London
Gentleman Captain - 1662 London
Hawksmoor - 18th century London
The Lady and the Poet - Elizabethan London
The Einstein Girl - 1932 Berlin
The Last Runaway - 1850 Ohio
The Luminaries - 1866 New Zealand
Lonesome Dove - 1870s Texas

3Molly3028
Bewerkt: dec 30, 2019, 4:31 pm

>2 jenniferw88:

Welcome to the group! You are definitely hitting the ground
running when it comes to your book plans for 2020.

4Molly3028
jan 4, 2020, 1:02 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold by Nancy Atherton

(Aunt Dimity series/paranormal cozy/Christmas happenings & mystery in an English village/present-day tale involving an historical mystery)

5Limelite
jan 5, 2020, 4:38 pm

I've put down The Moor's Account twice but plan to make a third stab at it this year because there's a want in me to read it. I think I back out because of the brutality of the Spanish explorers in the New World against the native inhabitants. Too hard to take.

6Molly3028
jan 6, 2020, 8:29 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva Stachniak

(1700s/Varvara, a palace maid during Catherine the Great's rise/Canadian author)

7Molly3028
Bewerkt: jan 21, 2020, 2:45 pm

Enjoying this library audiobook ~

SPY by Danielle Steel

(London, India, etc./ 1940s-90s/a young woman moves from a life of privilege into a life of intrigue/British narrator)

8nx74defiant
jan 12, 2020, 4:14 pm

I just finished The Tale of Hill Top Farm. by Susan Wittig Albert. A sweet little tale.

9Molly3028
jan 13, 2020, 10:29 am

>8 nx74defiant:

I enjoyed listening to all of the books in that series several years ago.

10Cecrow
jan 23, 2020, 8:05 am

Trying Bernard Cornwell for the first time in The Archer's Tale. He's very telling-more-than-showing which I don't generally like, but it at least gets the backstory portion dealt with quickly. I'll probably read the second book but may stop there, the third apparently goes downhill.

11rocketjk
jan 25, 2020, 2:03 pm

I finished The Dragon Scroll by I.J. Parker. This is the first book in Parker's "Sugawara Akitada" series of mysteries set in 11th century Japan. Our man Akitada is a low-level nobleman trying to rise in the bureaucracy of Imperial Japan. In this first story (the LT series listing says this is the first book chronologically though the third book published), Akitada is sent out to a distant province to try to solve the mystery of the disappearances of three straight convoys carrying tax payments to the capital. Murder and mayhem ensue. The plot is engaging, and the story is mostly enjoyable, though there is precious little real character development. On a whim I bought the first four books of this series (there are 14 books in all!) a while back. I will read through those first four gradually, though I doubt that I'll bother to go much further.

12rabbitprincess
jan 25, 2020, 3:49 pm

I most recently spent time in Scotland shortly after Culloden 1746 in Nigel Tranter's Gold for Prince Charlie.

13Tess_W
feb 1, 2020, 11:33 am

Just came back from Afghanistan after reading Caravans by James Michener. I also visited Poldark in Cornwall.

14Molly3028
feb 2, 2020, 7:53 am

Enjoying this OverDrive Kindle eBook Alexa can narrate for me ~

The Lady Travelers Guide to Larceny with a Dashing Stranger: A Novel (Lady Travelers Society Book 2)

(one painting/two people seeking ownership/romantic Victorian romp in Europe)

15tealadytoo
Bewerkt: feb 2, 2020, 6:18 pm

I'm starting The Axe by Sigrid Undset. It's the first book in her "Master of Hestviken" saga, set in 13th century Norway.

16Unreachableshelf
feb 4, 2020, 2:23 pm

I'm in 1824 somewhere in the English countryside in A Delicate Deception.

172wonderY
feb 4, 2020, 3:14 pm

This group discusses historical fiction, which is not quite the same as historical romance.

You might like to check out http://www.librarything.com/groups/romancefromhistorica

18rocketjk
feb 4, 2020, 3:54 pm

>17 2wonderY: Was I off base, then, in posting The Dragon Scroll (post 11), which is an historical mystery?

192wonderY
feb 4, 2020, 4:14 pm

>18 rocketjk: **stepping back**

I was just looking at the type of novels generally listed in this group. Look at the topic titles. The emphasis is on history.

It looks like it's been hashed over before:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/225982

A better group description would help, but is the creator even around anymore?

20rocketjk
Bewerkt: feb 4, 2020, 6:02 pm

>19 2wonderY: I just read through that discussion (which I remember from when it was new) again. Mostly it's a discussion of how much separation there needs to be in time between the writing and the setting for fiction to be considered "historical." There are only two or three references to genre, with very little follow-up.

Since the default setting for LT has always been inclusiveness (which is one reason why I like it so much), I would think we'd hesitate to set limitations on what sort of historical fiction is welcomed, even if a particular book does not fall into "the type of novels generally listed in this group."

Obviously, I think, a book written in 2019 taking place in 1824 is historical fiction. If somebody wants to post a Regency Romance here, what's the harm? I think it's certainly value added to be informative about an additional group the person might like, as you have done, but other than that, the more the merrier, in my view.

I bought a used bookstore in Mendocino County, CA, in 2011 and ran it for 7 1/2 enjoyable years before selling it, thus assuring its continued existence, and retiring. When I bought the store, I was more than a bit dismayed by the amount of shelf space taken up by the romance section. Little by little I whittled that section down somewhat, but I never came close to getting rid of it, not just because of the amount of those books I sold, but more importantly because of the delight I came to experience from getting to know the people who liked those books. Hence, I guess, my desire to be welcoming to all comers here.

21tealadytoo
Bewerkt: feb 5, 2020, 1:31 pm

I think the various genres within historical fiction are worthy of discussion. The Axe, which I'm currently reading, is traditional historical fiction, and has considerable weight. Just before that, I finished an historical romance, The Unlikely Spy Catchers by Carla Kelly. It is certainly a lighter story, but Carla Kelly is a trained historian and I usually learn something from her books. I'll grant you that there is a segment of the romance genre that is laughably anachronistic, but there are many authors whose scholarship can't be faulted. Carla Kelly, Jocelyn Green, Tamara Alexander, to name a few. The same for historical mystery. I've learned more about the conflict between Stephen and Maude from Brother Cadfael, than any other source I've come across. There's room for all sorts here, I believe.

22Unreachableshelf
feb 5, 2020, 10:41 am

Yep, I read historical romances that are interested in the history. One of my favorites, K.J. Charles, got a review of her first historical romance without supernatural elements that faulted it for spending as much time on politics as the romance. And since I follow about three authors, I don't see much point in joining a different group just to mention them I'm reading one.

23Molly3028
feb 7, 2020, 8:04 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Walnut Tree by Charles Todd

(a Bess Crawford Mystery/England & France, WWI/nursing corps)

24cindydavid4
feb 7, 2020, 10:20 am

>20 rocketjk: Which book store? Suspect I'd been there once or twice on my travels!

I agree with you about inclusion, and found one of my fav hf authors, Elizabeth Chadwick, started out as a romance writer; read some of her early work and they weren't bad - more romance than Id like but the writing was so good I couldn't complain much. That being said, if a group is called Historic Fiction, I'd preferring seeing books in the genre. I wonder if the romance group has the same discussion with some people preferring the historic as background for a very regency novel (IIRC Time Travelers Wife was a romance using SF as background)

The genres I tend to avoid are the mysteries, western, and romance, but I have found books in each genre to walk the fine line between it and historic fiction.

25cindydavid4
feb 7, 2020, 10:25 am

Obviously, I think, a book written in 2019 taking place in 1824 is historical fiction.

true; for me the real test is whether works by Dickens are HF if they were written in his own time

>21 tealadytoo: I've learned more about the conflict between Stephen and Maude from Brother Cadfael, than any other source I've come across.

Oh yes, I concure. It helped to have read Penmans when christ and his saints slept but still very informative in ways that Penman didn't touch (altho she does have some mysteries with her HF which are interestine but for me not as good as her HF)

26rocketjk
Bewerkt: feb 7, 2020, 2:58 pm

>24 cindydavid4: I owned Village Books, the used bookstore in Ukiah, for 7 1/2 years, selling it a year and a half ago only because I'd decided to retire rather than signing a new 5-year lease. Happily, I found a very enthusiastic buyer so the store is still there and still going strong.

"That being said, if a group is called Historic Fiction, I'd prefer seeing books in the genre."

Well, I'm personally less interested in historical fiction that also fits into the Romance genre, but if you'll look up at the books posted in this thread so far, you'll see that quite a few are in that category. In my own lexicon (obviously this is a "to each his/her own" question), I do consider historical fiction to be more a category than a genre, in large part because, for me, there are so many examples of genre fiction, of many genres, that happily fit within it.

"The genres I tend to avoid are the mysteries, western, and romance, but I have found books in each genre to walk the fine line between it and historic fiction."

Here is where you've confused me. Let us say that "historical fiction" is any fiction wherein the action takes place at some significant remove in the past (leaving aside the "Dickens or not" discussion for a moment). I don't see how westerns, for example, which clearly fit this criteria, can be said to only "walk the line" between "it and historic fiction." Westerns clearly (to me) are historical fiction.

Is it your thought that the genre Historical Fiction consists of books set in the past but that are not westerns, romances or mysteries? Perhaps I'm not understanding your point. I sincerely hope I have not misrepresented your point of view.

I guess to be absolutely clear about what I'm saying, I would amend the sentence of mine that you quoted above:

Obviously, I think, a book written in 2019 taking place in 1824 is historical fiction.

to read:

Obviously, I think, any book written in 2019 taking place in 1824 is historical fiction.

I don't see the various genres to be mutually exclusive.

"for me the real test is whether works by Dickens are HF if they were written in his own time"

As to this, after reflection I've come down on the side of those who say that part of the definition of historical fiction is in the distance in time between the book's setting and the date of its writing. In other words, for me, the book has to be about a period that counted as "history" for the writer. However, that's a logical assessment only. I have no emotional skin in the game. If people want to say that historical fiction is fiction that takes place in a time period that they consider "history," regardless of when the book was written, I can see that side, too.

27cindydavid4
feb 7, 2020, 3:13 pm

my apologies, I wrote that just before I took a nice well needed nap and see I need to clarify. be back soon!

28tealadytoo
Bewerkt: feb 7, 2020, 3:20 pm

>26 rocketjk: For the Dickens question, I would be in the camp that says only A Tale of Two Cities is historical fiction. I like the definition of time elapsed between the time period of the novel and the date it was written. But if someone takes the other view, I won't be challenging them to pistols at dawn.
:=)

29rocketjk
feb 7, 2020, 3:35 pm

>27 cindydavid4: hmmmm. . . . a nap sounds good!

>28 tealadytoo: Right. Who can get up at dawn? :)

30cindydavid4
Bewerkt: feb 7, 2020, 3:47 pm

<26 I owned Village Books, the used bookstore in Ukiah, for 7 1/2 years, selling it a year and a half ago only because I'd decided to retire rather than signing a new 5-year lease. Happily, I found a very enthusiastic buyer so the store is still there and still going strong.

Im sure I had been there! WE always are stopping for bookstores when we drive down the coast Glad you were able to find someone to continue it

>I posted That being said, if a group is called Historic Fiction, I'd prefer seeing books in the genre."

To clarify I was referring to our group name, and my preference for HF with less romance as possible (with a few exceptions such as Eliz Chadwick who I named.) Not surprised thta many books in our thread are HR - sometimes the two just meet perfectly. Tho i can easily spot the ones that go to far (looking at you Outlander) so if they appear her, I know how to tell what I might be interesed in (TBC)

31cindydavid4
Bewerkt: feb 7, 2020, 3:49 pm

ME The genres I tend to avoid are the mysteries, western, and romance, but I have found books in each genre to walk the fine line between it and historic fiction."

>26Here is where you've confused me. Let us say that "historical fiction" is any fiction wherein the action takes place at some significant remove in the past (leaving aside the "Dickens or not" discussion for a moment). I don't see how westerns, for example, which clearly fit this criteria, can be said to only "walk the line" between "it and historic fiction." Westerns clearly (to me) are historical fiction.

.>26 rocketjk: Is it your thought that the genre Historical Fiction consists of books set in the past but that are not westerns, romances or mysteries? Perhaps I'm not understanding your pointI sincerely hope I have not misrepresented your point of view.

ME > Its my thought that westerns romances or mysteries can be HF, and I can fine example to show. I have read books like Far Pavillions that definitly walk that line and can be part of HF (perhaps your use of categories is useful here) I was just clarifying that tho I prefer my HF to be strong in the history, I am not adverse to consdering HR as a genre, tho i tend not to care for them.

Basically its not helpful to be detail oriented when it comes to any literature, and keeping ones eyes open is for the best :)

>26 rocketjk: As to this, after reflection I've come down on the side of those who say that part of the definition of historical fiction is in the distance in time between the book's setting and the date of its writing. In other words, for me, the book has to be about a period that counted as "history" for the writer. However, that's a logical assessment only. I have no emotional skin in the game. If people want to say that historical fiction is fiction that takes place in a time period that they consider "history," regardless of when the book was written, I can see that side, too.

ME I concur!

32Molly3028
feb 9, 2020, 8:51 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Irish Girl: A Novel (Deverill Chronicles trilogy Book 1) by Santa Montefiore
https://www.librarything.com/work/17902284/book/178675298

(Kitty, Celia, Bridie/Ireland in early 1900s/Castle Deverill/folklore)

33Betelgeuse
feb 9, 2020, 9:45 am

>28 tealadytoo: Don't forget Dickens' other historical novel, Barnaby Rudge, set during the Gordon Riots of 1780.

34Cecrow
Bewerkt: feb 12, 2020, 11:18 am

>33 Betelgeuse:, ah you beat me to it. I read that and was zooming down here to note the other but, job done.

35Cecrow
Bewerkt: feb 12, 2020, 11:22 am

Started reading The First Man in Rome. I saw this new in paperback in 1991 at the bookstore and thought, I'd like to read that eventually. 'Eventually' has arrived!

Which causes me alarm, in light of several to-do items around the house that were also waiting for 'eventually' to get here.

36tealadytoo
feb 12, 2020, 11:47 am

>33 Betelgeuse: >34 Cecrow: Thanks! Forgot all about that one.

37Molly3028
Bewerkt: feb 23, 2020, 7:43 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Other Windsor Girl by Georgie Blalock (4+ stars)

(England, mid 1900s/Princess Margaret tale)

38tealadytoo
feb 20, 2020, 1:21 pm

I'm enjoying the 3rd Ian Rutledge mystery, Search the Dark by Charles Todd. Circa 1920 or thereabouts.

39rabbitprincess
feb 20, 2020, 6:43 pm

Just spent time in London in 1605, days before the Gunpowder Plot, thanks to the Doctor Who novel The Plotters. This was a straight-up historical adventure with the First Doctor, very much in the spirit of that Doctor's TV incarnation.

40Limelite
feb 21, 2020, 1:50 pm

For the second time in my life, I've picked up The Quincunx, an historical fiction boulder of a book. Palliser wrote a 20th C. massive tome in what could be described as a nod to Dickens, but is far too large a gesture not to say "literary acknowledgment" to him.

The first time I read the book it was newly published. Sadly, I remember nearly nothing about it because it is so complex -- and super-sized. A mille feuille plot, starring nearly every character type alive in the 19th C. world.

Anyone in this thread want to read and discuss it with me as we plow along? Anyone already read it who would like to support me in my literary undertaking? ;^)

WARNING: It's a cathedral-sized reading.

41MissWatson
feb 28, 2020, 4:39 am

I just spent a few sweltering months in India in 1837 with Blake and Avery in The Strangler Vine. Off to a very slow start, I nearly abandoned it, but then we arrived in Jubbulpore meeting (real) Thug hunter Sleeman, and from there on in it's a roller-coaster ride.

42Cecrow
Bewerkt: feb 28, 2020, 7:28 am

>40 Limelite:, I have a copy of that waiting to be read (and never have before), but I'm knee-deep in Rome for challenge reading as per >35 Cecrow:

I was vaguely thinking about picking it up after concluding my run through the Dickens novels, which at one per year … umm … want to rendezvous in 2025? ;)

43Limelite
mrt 1, 2020, 3:55 pm

>42 Cecrow:
See you then!
Frankly, how you'll be able to tell Dickens from Palliser is beyond me. ;)

44Molly3028
mrt 2, 2020, 7:12 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

(YA/several authors and narrators)

45Cecrow
Bewerkt: mrt 2, 2020, 9:25 am

>43 Limelite:, good! I may feel bereft when I've run out of new-to-me Dickens, so if he's that similar it'll help my withdrawal.

>44 Molly3028:, re that era, apparently Hillary Mantel's trilogy is now complete! The third book is called The Mirror and the Light.

46Unreachableshelf
mrt 2, 2020, 6:29 pm

Now I'm Bristol at the end of the 18th century in The Fair Fight.

47cindydavid4
mrt 4, 2020, 9:03 pm

>45 Cecrow: its out now in Britain, comes out next tuesday in the US. The 2020 group read challenge is reading the first two books now, if you'd like to join us. We are reading the last one next month (well,I will have read it already, but we are discussing it then)

48tealadytoo
Bewerkt: mrt 5, 2020, 8:53 am

I'm in Victorian London with Charles Lenox, trying to solve a murder tied to The Inheritance.

49Molly3028
mrt 5, 2020, 8:22 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Mademoiselle Chanel: A Novel by C. W. Gortner

(1895-1954/fictionalized biography of Coco Chanel)

50Molly3028
Bewerkt: mrt 11, 2020, 12:27 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Chasing Cassandra: The Ravenels by Lisa Kleypas

(book 6/England, 1876/a very wealthy man with a frozen heart would like Cassandra Ravenel for a wife)

51tealadytoo
mrt 11, 2020, 1:08 pm

I'm in a Devon village in 1951. The villagers are trying to adapt to a post-war world and preparing to celebrate the Festival of Britain.

The Bells of Burracombe by Lillian Harry

52Limelite
mrt 14, 2020, 1:34 pm

ARC copy of Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles, donated by LTER by Harper Collins for early review.

At the end of the Civil War, Simon Boudlin finds himself conscripted into the Confederate Army despite his nimble efforts to dodge the draft. Fortunately, his talent as a fiddle player lands him in the band, and good fortune puts him in the way of Doris Mary Dillon, an Irish indentured servant. Their romance and adventures ensue.

53nrmay
mrt 20, 2020, 2:30 pm

Just finished The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys.

Haunting human tragedies set amidst a series of beautiful English manor house gardens.

54Molly3028
Bewerkt: mrt 24, 2020, 1:26 pm

Starting this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Knave of Hearts: Rhymes With Love by Elizabeth Boyle

(Book 5/Regency era/a wager leads to an unexpected romance)

55marell
Bewerkt: mrt 24, 2020, 2:27 pm

Reading An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris. A novel about the Dreyfus affair. Pretty good, but what a tragedy.

56cindydavid4
mrt 25, 2020, 3:13 pm

Finished The Mirror and the Light Great writing as always, following the last years of Cromwells life again through his eyes. Did think the book could have been better without some incidents and characters, plus she kept going back to his past a bit too much. Still loved it and think I'll read it again next month when we are discussing it in Group Read 2020

57rabbitprincess
mrt 25, 2020, 6:57 pm

Was just in France in the early 1300s with Le Roi de fer, by Maurice Druon. I'll be heading back there very soon, but I'm going to stop off in 1700s Pembrokeshire first with Ships in the Bay!, by D. K. Broster.

58princessgarnet
mrt 26, 2020, 10:20 pm

>57 rabbitprincess:, I read and own the entire "Accursed Kings" series by Maurice Druon. The 7th and final installment, The King without a Kingdom, wasn't available in English translation for many years. Druon wrote that novel many years later in his career.

59rabbitprincess
Bewerkt: mrt 27, 2020, 6:49 pm

>58 princessgarnet: I really enjoyed the first book! I like that all of the books are fairly short (about 250 to 300 pages each in my editions). A lot of historical novels are really long for some reason...or at least the ones I normally think interesting!

Glad that the last book became available in English translation eventually!

60rabbitprincess
mrt 30, 2020, 9:40 pm

Deviating from my planned trip to France to remain in Wales, with Sharon Kay Penman's Here Be Dragons.

61cindydavid4
mrt 30, 2020, 10:30 pm

Is this your first read of her books? Thinking about rereading them but starting in chronological ordr rather than published. So I'll start with When Christ and his Saints Slept, and ending with Sunne in Splendor (interesting, in between two civil wars)

62rabbitprincess
mrt 31, 2020, 5:47 pm

>61 cindydavid4: I've read When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance, Devil's Brood, and Lionheart. Will have to wait a while to read Sunne in Splendour because it's at my parents' place. Reading chronologically sounds like an interesting exercise.

63Molly3028
apr 4, 2020, 4:50 pm

Started this free book via audiobook.com intro offer ~

Woman in the Water: A Prequel to the Charles Lenox Series by Charles Finch

(London, 1850/young Charles Lenox aims to be a detective)

64tealadytoo
Bewerkt: apr 4, 2020, 5:23 pm

I'm starting Phillipa Carr's We'll Meet Again, a WWII entry in her "Daughters of England" series.

65rocketjk
apr 8, 2020, 7:48 pm

I finished Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon. This is a fun, engaging espionage thriller about a low-level U.S. operative trying to navigate all sorts of mayhem in 1945 Istanbul to try to save a high-level escapee from the Soviets because the American government thinks this fellow has information they can use about those darn Ruskies. The war is over and all the spies are leaving Turkey. Well, not quite all the spies, of course. Anyway, the plot is pretty good and the various twists and turns enjoyable, with just enough history worked in to add spice. Just a smidge of character development, but, how much do you need in a "entertainment" like this one? I read Kanon's The Good German a while back, and enjoyed it a bit more than this book, but still I would recommend Istanbul Passage to fans of the genre. Kanon does employ a narrative tic I can do without, the cobbling together, by comma of phrase smash-ups meant to approximate train of thought breathlessness. Occasionally, annoying, but not so much as to ruin the fun.

66rocketjk
apr 11, 2020, 12:50 pm

I finished Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It took me just about a day of "shelter in place" reading to enjoy this short, charming novel. It had been a while since I read any Marquez and was happy to return to his world, if only for the day. The story takes place in coastal city of an unnamed South American country during colonial days. The beautiful, young Sierva Maria, the only daughter of a dissolute nobleman, is bitten by a rabid dog on her 12th birthday. Are the subsequent manifestations of her wild, unruly spirit manifestations of the disease or of demonic possession? Marquez skillfully weaves themes of the passions of love, the ills and absurdities of a repressive culture, especially when it comes to powerless young women, and the inevitable dissolution of a bankrupt colonial system ruled from a distance of thousands of miles into 147 pages of floating, lyrical fable.

67rabbitprincess
apr 11, 2020, 1:31 pm

Heading back to England and France at the time of the French Revolution with a re-read of The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy.

68tealadytoo
apr 11, 2020, 3:14 pm

>67 rabbitprincess: Oh, my. Melodramatic as it is, I love that book.

69rabbitprincess
apr 11, 2020, 3:23 pm

>68 tealadytoo: I think it's just what I need at the moment!

70princessgarnet
apr 16, 2020, 3:49 pm

>67 rabbitprincess: That novel was the first in a series about The Scarlet Pimpernel published between 1905-40. The baroness wrote many other novels during her lifetime, this series is her best known.

71Molly3028
apr 18, 2020, 8:49 am

Enjoying this OverDrive Kindle eBook Alexa is narrating for me ~

Lady Clementine: A Novel by Marie Benedict

(historical fiction/Winston and Clementine Churchill)

72rabbitprincess
apr 20, 2020, 6:51 pm

>70 princessgarnet: I seem to recall she also wrote some detective fiction. Will have to see what the public-domain ebook sites can find for me if I want to read more by her.

Next up for me in historical fiction is La Reine étranglée, by Maurice Druon.

73tealadytoo
Bewerkt: apr 21, 2020, 5:59 am

>70 princessgarnet: >72 rabbitprincess: Indeed. Baroness Orczy's detective was The Old Man in the Corner.

74Molly3028
apr 21, 2020, 1:54 pm

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

My One and Only Duke (Rogues to Riches Book 1) by Grace Burrowes

(Regency historical fiction romance)

75rocketjk
apr 24, 2020, 11:46 am

I finished Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. Sometimes I just feel like diving into a good, old fashioned romance/adventure and Scaramouche certainly filled the bill. Sabatini is, perhaps, best known as the author of Captain Blood, a swashbuckler that many of us read in adolescence and that became an Errol Flynn movie. Scaramouche is a bit subtler in subject matter, although there is a fair amount of sword play. The action takes place in Paris, commencing just before the onset of the French Revolution. The title character, of uncertain parentage, has nevertheless been brought up in privileged circumstances in Brittany. He is, of course, one of those whimsical characters who becomes master of any trade or skill he sets his mind to learning or which fate tosses him into. Romance, adventure, narrow scrapes, dastardly noblemen, friendship and treachery ensue, at a fast pace and with a genial tone. The writing is fine and the book is fun. Long live Scaramouche!

Book note: My reading experience was enhanced by the fact that I chose this book off of my pulp fiction shelf. This is a second printing (1946) of the Bantam Books edition of 1945. The book was originally published in 1921.

76nrmay
Bewerkt: apr 24, 2020, 3:15 pm

Finished Island of the mad by Laurie King. One in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. Set in the 1920s. :)

77rabbitprincess
apr 25, 2020, 9:29 am

>75 rocketjk: But does he do the fandango? :) That sounds like a lot of fun.

I am back in 14th-century France with La Reine étranglée, by Maurice Druon.

78rocketjk
apr 25, 2020, 10:24 am

>77 rabbitprincess: It was a lot of fun, but truth be told I don't remember any fandango-ing. Oh, well. You can't have everything!

79cindydavid4
apr 25, 2020, 11:35 am

>77 rabbitprincess: Ha!! And now I have that song in my head, not a bad thing really, By the way the character of Scaramouche was introduced during the renaissance in Italy with the Comedia del Arte. Other characters include Harlequin, Pierot, Pantalone, Il Doctor and others.

80Unreachableshelf
apr 29, 2020, 2:35 pm

I'm about to start The Death's Head Chess Club.

81rocketjk
mei 4, 2020, 4:25 pm

I finished A House Divided by Fredrick Barton. The title of this novel serves double duty, as the book is at once an historical novel about the Civil Rights movement in New Orleans and a family drama about the relationship of a father and son. The father, Jeff Caldwell, is a Baptist preacher and is one of the most prominent white figures in the civil rights movement of the 1960s within New Orleans. Tommy Caldwell, Jeff's son, comes of age within that movement as well. The stories are told in narratives that skip back and forth time-wise, and we separately see both men's life stories from childhood to adulthood. Issues of promiscuity and faithlessness run like tendrils that interweave both lives. Barton rises the conflict level of the movement in New Orleans for dramatic effect, which is the sort of creative license I don't mind. In the event, while the struggles for integration and the elimination of Jim Crow in New Orleans were certainly difficult, they were not as violent as in other parts of the South. But Barton is himself a New Orleanian (full disclosure: he was a friend of mine when I lived there in the 1980s and one of my first fiction writing teachers) and so it is natural and--to me at least--effective for him to create a world within that city and have it stand for the struggles across the country as a whole. For me, the pieces did not always fit together as tightly as I would have liked. But in the end, this was an interesting look at the Civil Rights movement, albeit from a white perspective, and a good family drama.

A note that the book was the winner of the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition when it was first published in 2003.

82Unreachableshelf
mei 8, 2020, 3:03 pm

This afternoon I plan to start Hanging Mary.

83Molly3028
Bewerkt: mei 18, 2020, 7:01 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire by Allison Pataki (4 stars)

(late 1700s-1800s/tale featuring the secret lover of Napoleon)

84tealadytoo
mei 11, 2020, 4:32 pm

I'm off with Ian Rutledge and Hamish in 1920s England, looking into the murder of a priest.

Watchers of Time by Charles Todd

85princessgarnet
Bewerkt: mei 11, 2020, 9:25 pm

>83 Molly3028:
I've got this novel (print version) on hold at the library!
I've read and own Desiree by Annemarie Selinko, reissued in 2010. The novel was adapted as a movie in 1954, starring Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons.

86Molly3028
Bewerkt: mei 26, 2020, 9:24 am

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The American Agent: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear (4+ stars)

(book #15/an American war correspondent in London during the Blitz is murdered)

87Molly3028
Bewerkt: jun 10, 2020, 8:19 am

Enjoying this OverDrive Kindle eBook Alexa reads to me ~

Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen (4 stars)

(London, late 1800s/mystery tale which unfolds in Queen Victoria's royal kitchen)

88tealadytoo
Bewerkt: mei 26, 2020, 1:22 pm

I'm in 1950s England again with Flavia de Luce.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

89gmathis
mei 26, 2020, 1:43 pm

I started Alice I Have Been with high hopes, since I've enjoyed Melanie Benjamin's other novels about notable women (Mary Pickford, "Mrs." Tom Thumb of Barnum & Bailey, Anne Lindbergh), but I had to desert this one halfway in. While researched well, the subject matter just made me too creepy-crawly to enjoy the story.

90cindydavid4
mei 28, 2020, 6:30 am

After reading The Mirror and the Light and listening to Mantels lectures, I decided to take her up on her recommendation for The Man on a Donkey Its the story of the Pilgrimage which Mantels book describes through the eyes of Henry VIII and Cromwell. But here the story is told by 5 commoners who lived through it. It takes a bit to get into it but once you have your head around who is who, its a page turner. Caveat - if you don't like a lot of description, don't go there. But you'd be missing being put directly in that time and place with her writing.

91Molly3028
Bewerkt: jun 4, 2020, 5:59 pm

Starting this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

(Spain, 1950s/Franco dictatorship/two teens/YA tale)

92tealadytoo
Bewerkt: jun 4, 2020, 10:32 am

I noticed that the first book in the "Bone Rattler" mystery series set in Colonial America was on sale at Amazon today. The description looked intriguing. Has anyone here read it and have a thumbs up or down recommendation?

Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison

93Unreachableshelf
jun 10, 2020, 4:11 pm

I'm in 1920s New York in Etiquette for Runaways.

94rabbitprincess
jun 14, 2020, 11:22 am

Heading off to the English Civil War with The King's General, by Daphne du Maurier.

95sharhock
okt 31, 2021, 8:23 pm

The Reluctant Scot by Liz Fogleman. It's set in Scotland in 1074 during the time of William the Conqueror and Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland.