2021 ~ Your Historical Fiction Adventures!

We welcome 2021 and more historical fiction adventures into our lives!

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell It's been a bit slow going at first, but it seems to be picking up. It's about the children of Shakespeare.

Silver Wings, Iron Cross - a WWII historical novel by one of my favorite thriller writers (his first historical novel). So far, weaker than his other books but readable.

>2 Tess_W: You will find that it is not about Shakespeare's children. It's about his wife, and their marriage. A really wonderful book, press on.

I finished Joseph Conrad's last novel (or at least the last published during his lifetime), The Rover, which is also one of the few that can accurately count as an historical novel by whatever criteria one uses. Published in 1922, The Rover is an adventure of the French coast set during Napoleonic times. On it's surface this is a more straightforward narrative than the better known Conrad novels, but there is still a lot going on, observations on human nature-wise. Regardless, this is also a very enjoyable tale.

>4 dajashby: I did find that out before I saw you post! I did finish, but maybe I was expecting more because of all the hype, but I found the read average.

I finished Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. This book is admirably written, with a stunning sense of time and place (Stratford, England, during Shakespeare's time) and a wonderfully effective sense of invention (Shakespeare's family life, essentially, through the two perspectives of Shakespeare himself and, more emphatically, his wife, Agnes). All of this orbits around the pull of the short life of their son, Hamnet.

For all the writing skill and acute observation, however, I have to admit that I frequently became impatient during the book's first half. The characters and situations struck me too often as too familiar set pieces, and more than once I thought to myself, "Can we move along?"

The second half of the book, however, I found very effective, indeed, as the characters came much alive to me as individuals, and their situations, experiences, relationships and emotions moved for me from the general to the unique. By the end (which I found terrific), I was wholly invested. So, yes, all in all, I found Hamnet to be a very, very good book.

The Darling Dahlias and the Unlucky Clover fun cozy series set in Alabama during the Great Depression.

>8 nx74defiant: I haven't read any Susan Wittig Albert in years. I did like the ones written as Robin Paige. This series sounds like fun...do they need to be tackled in order?

I wasn't as impressed by Hamnet as I thought I would've/should've been. Perhaps is was because I listened to it instead of read it.

I did really like The Personal History of Rachel Dupree--one of the only African-American homesteaders in the Black Hills.

I just read "The girl you left behind" and it was awesome. Seems under-rated based on the reviews on this site.

>9 gmathis: I have read all the books in this series and just love them. I would definitely recommend reading them in order. Depression-era recipes and other tidbits follow the story. Such fun.

I have finished War Lord, the final book in the Saxon/Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell. If you like Viking adventures and English history, or in this case, the making of the country of England, this series fits the bill. They are violent, so a heads up.

If you are watching the Netflix series, the story seems to get farther from the books as it goes along. Why they do these things, I don’t know.

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth was excellent. The setting is Medieval England in the late 1300's. At the 50,000 foot level, it involves a traveling troupe of actors and a murder mystery. It was nominated for the Man Booker Prize.

>14 laruebk: I think Morality Play may have been the source for the Paul Bettany movie The Reckoning, which I enjoyed a great deal (the cinematography is gorgeous).

>14 laruebk: I’ll keep that one in mind since I’m reading Barbara Tuchman’s non-fiction work A Distant Mirror about the 14th century.

>15 Caramellunacy: Yes, the movie The Reckoning is based on the novel Morality Play.

Just finished Follett's The Evening and The Morning. It lives up to the hype!

So far this year I have read the following historical fiction novels:

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn ★★★★
Recommended to readers interested in Bletchley Park and the often overlooked role women played there.

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow ★★★
Jane Austen fans might like this, as it is mix of fan fiction and historical fiction.

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles ★★★
This had an interesting premise but I would have preferred the story focused more on Doris, who was an Irish immigrant and Simon's love interest. Unfortunately, I didn't find Simon or his traveling group of band members particularly likeable.

As an author of historical fiction, I'm perplexed. Reviewers of my books say they love the historical descriptions and details that are actually apart from the main arc of the story to add interest. Writers say to avoid those and concentrate on the action and solely the story's arc so as not to be "preachy" or "showing off your historical period knowledge". What do readers prefer?

>5 rocketjk: Conrad wrote far more deeply than most assume. His stories are not just nautically themed tales. Every story is filled with subtle references to psychological characteristics and plot circumstances. One must be always on their toes when reading his work for these hidden "Easter eggs".

>20 David_E._Stockman: Since I enjoy learning about historical periods within the context of a fictional novel, I prefer a middle ground between the story and use of historical details. It seems there are appropriate times to insert those historical details into the plot, versus just adding gratuitous facts that interrupt the flow of the story.

Since this topic is generally devoted to historical novels we have read, you could also consider adding a new topic to discuss "what readers prefer" in historical fiction. Perhaps some other group members might have a more insightful answer than I do.

>20 David_E._Stockman: I prefer both context and culture within my historical fiction reads. However, I like them to be blended/melded within the plot and not separate entities.

I just finished Penman's Devil's Brood, the 3rd book in the Henry II trilogy--very good stuff!

>9 gmathis: There are some mentions of things from prior books. Things that the Dahlias have experienced. But they work we as stand alone books.

I finished The Miller's Dance by Winston Graham. It is book 9/12 of the Poldark series. I highly recommend this series. It really does need to be read in order. This particular book takes place in 1812-1813 in Cornwall, but also with news of the attack of the British on Washington DC and Napoleon's defeat in Russia.

I recently finished The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead and Meet Me in Bombay, Jenny Ashcroft. Set in India, WWI era.

A bit disappointed with my latest historical fiction read--The Narrow Road to the North by Richard Flanagan. It was about the building of the Burma Railroad during WWII. I was expecting more as it's a Booker Prize Winner. Very impressionistic.

Slowly working my way through a re-read of Ivanhoe. Written in 1819 and set during the time of Richard Lionheart. I picked this up after a re-read of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Finished The Huntress by Kate Quinn. About catching nazi war criminals after WWII. Very enjoyable, I recommend it, I think someone else on this list suggested it. Am now reading Hornet Flight by Ken Follett. About a Nazi radar installation in occupied Denmark and the spies that uncovered it. I haven't gotten far yet, but am enjoying it. And it is shorter than than Pillars of the Earth. :)

>30 al.vick: I enjoyed Hornet Flight. That's a fun read. He has a lot of good info about that plane, bringing to mind Night Over Water, which is the first book I read by him. You might like that one, too.

There are still several Ken Follett books I will recommend to people, but if there were ever an author who found a formula and refuses to deviate from it, it's him. I was aghast at the last one I read, A Column of Fire, because I found it so transparent. I was barely 50 pages in when I knew who would die in the end, who was going to end up with whom despite how it started, etc. I finished it just to see if he would surprise me, but unfortunately, he didn't. It was bad enough that it's on a short stack of books I'm donating to the library.

>31 terriks: Pillars of the Earth is the only other book I have read by him.

Currently reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which I received from my LibraryThing Secret Santa last year. I said I loved character driven historical fiction and this definitely fits the bill. Published in 2016, I can't believe I missed this!

I just finished for the second time, Dorothy Dunnett's magnificent novel about Macbeth, King Hereafter. I have never been able to get into her two well-known series, but I highly recommend King Hereafter.

I'm around the twelfth century BCE with the Trojan War about to start in Daughters of Sparta.

>14 laruebk: touchstone is wrong. Lemme see if I can find it

>19 This-n-That: really really disappointed in this book, DNF, Loved her first book News of the World its like they came from totally different writers

>14Here is the link to the touchstone for Morality Play; why Im not able to find it the usual way is odd but this should help

https://www.librarything.com/work/16632

>33 Marlane: Loved that book too. He has a new one out The Lincoln Highway which Im eager to read.

I finished Rashomon Gate by I.J. Parker, the second novel in Parker's Sugawara Akitada Mysteries series, set in 11th Century Japan. Our man Akitada is a relatively low-level nobleman who holds down a boring government administrative job but who in the series' first book acquired a reputation for being able to solve mysteries. These books are fun. The plotting is good and the historical information, assuming it's anywhere near accurate, is interesting. The writing itself, on a sentence level, I give a B or B-. I have the first four books of this 18-book series on hand. I'll probably read books 3 & 4 over the next little while, though I doubt I'll go much further.

Currently about 15% of the way into a 1200 page Covenant by James Michener. Beginning to bog down with details of the trade between the Cape tribes and the Arabs.

come back to me

Received from Library Thing Early Reviewers.

The miraculous cures of the past are real. It requires a suspension of disbelief to accept the premise. But a nice historical time travel romance. I didn't know a lot about the Peasants' Revolt, so it was interesting to see the characters get caught up in it. It is the start of a series. So in this book we have Marion and Williams story. The next we will find out what happens to Ellen.

I finished A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende's most recent novel. I expected to like it better than I did, alas. It is the story of two families, and in particular one member of each (one man and one woman who end up together; no shock, there), living through the Spanish Civil War. The protagonists end up in Chile (again not a spoiler, as the book's title refers to that country). The story takes the two through their entire lives.

The storyline, the times described and the characters are certainly interesting, so why was the book ultimately unsatisfying to me? One element was the flat nature of the narrative. We are in third person omniscient. And while we often touch down inside the mind of one or another character, particularly our two main players, I felt that too much of the book was spent in above-the-fray exposition and explanation, and way too much time in historical overview mode. Everything from the history of the Spanish Civil War through the Chilean coup that brought Pinochet to power, with long lessons on Chilean history in between, are doled out paragraphs, sometimes pages, at a time before we finally get back to our characters and their stories.

I just finished The French Baker's War by Michael Whatling.

There’s some great imagery and excellent dialogue here, and brilliant sections where we experience everything the characters do. You can almost smell the pastries baking. I especially liked the realistic dialogue, and there are some great lines in this book that caused me to stop and think about. Few books do that any more.

I just finished Bess Aldrich's The Rim of the Prairie . It is HF set in Nebraska during the 1920's. Excellent read!

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi was gripping but grim. I learned about some events I hadn't known about.

I read Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars earlier this month. It was a gripping account of life in a quarantined Dublin maternity ward during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

I recently finished The Snake Pit, the second volume of Sigrid Undset's Master of Hestviken quartet set in medieval Norway. It's a fascinating saga, though I don't think it quite achieves the level of mastery her Kristen Lavransdatter saga does. (As a bit of trivia, Kristen's father Lavran makes a brief appearance in this tale as a young man.)

Finished The Twisted Sword book 11/12 of the Poldark series. This book saw the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.

Chris Cleave's (Little Bee) latest, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, set primarily in London during the worst of the blitz and on the island of Malta during the Nazi blockade that nearly starved the tiny British garrison to death down to a man.

Circe by Madeline Miller, about the most imaginative riff on Greek mythology ever. Strictly speaking, not historical fiction, though. Wonder why I waited so long to read it?

Finished Qinchan Cece's epic murder mystery set in Tang Dynasty, The Golden Hairpin. WoW! Be sure to read e- or tree version. Don't make mistake that I did, to listen to an audio recording. The names are confusing and there are dozens of characters. Some with the same last name, which is always given first in Chinese.

Don't peek ahead of time at the highly dramatic ending -- a real tour de force!

Finished book 12/12 of the Poldark series, Bella Poldark. One of the best series that I've read.

>53 Tess_W:

I love Poldark. I think I have 3 left to go in the saga.
My other favorite is Outlander.

>54 nrmay: Oh, I love Outlander too and her final book in the series is out I believe in November of which I have preordered it.

Other series on par with Outlander and Poldark

Sharon Penman--The Plantagenet Series

Maurice Duron-The Accursed Kings Series (intersects only occasionally with the Penman series, but mostly a different approach and not much repetition

Into the Wilderness Series - by Sara Donati--most like Outlander

>55 Tess_W:
Thanks! I'll try them all.

Reminded me of the classic Awakening Land Trilogy by Conrad Richter. Includes The Trees, The Fields and The Town.
Early American - historical fiction

>55 Tess_W: I read and own the complete reissued The Accursed King series. The #7 and finale The King Without Kingdom was released in English translation (by Andrew Simpkin) for the 1st time in 2016. Druon wrote that novel some years later and the writing style is different than the previous installments.

>57 princessgarnet: Yes, it was noticeable and not good. I chalked it up to different translators.

>56 nrmay: I will definitely look up the Richter series.

Just finished The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea by James Fenimore Cooper. This historical fiction takes place during the American Revolutionary War off the coast of England, where a whaleboat is put ashore from the schooner Ariel. The goal of the boat is pick up a pilot known only as Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray is not the real identity of this pilot. There are many plot twists and turns before the pilot is deposited on the shores of Holland. There was a bit too much of naval life and strategies for me and as all of Fenimore's works that I have read, he is even more wordier than Charles Dickens. Reason for reading: to clear my shelf! No idea why I would have purchased this book. Oh yeah, probably because it was 99 cents on Amazon! 281 pages 3 stars

Read Peder Victorious a coming of age immigrant narrative. When I began reading, I had no idea that this is book two of a trilogy. Now that I've read book two, I can just about guess the story in book one and book three, which I'm not going to read--not because this book was bad, but it was also not stellar. This particular book focuses its attention on Peder, the son of a Norwegian immigrant, who is straddling the line (forced by his mother, a first generation immigrant) between retaining the "old ways" and becoming assimilated. There are many conflicts, of which the largest one in this book is that of religion. This story is set in South Dakota, where there was/is a large settlement of Norwegian immigrants, in the 1920's. In the end it seems that author has tied up everything with a nice ribbon! 325 pages 3 stars

Finished Lionheart by Sharon Penman. My least favorite of the Angevin/Plantagenet series as most of the book focused on battle strategies/leaders of the Third Crusade.

The Twentieth Wife The first in a trilogy. It is about Mehrunnisa's childhood and first marriage. At this point she has no power or influance. There is a lot about Jahangir's rebellions, trying to usurp his father. Than once Jahangir becomes emperor he has to deal with his son Khusrua doing the same thing. The book is full of political intrigue.

Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell. Billed as a YA, but a good read for any age. The story of the forced migration of the Navajos from their tribal lands to Ft. Sumner in Arizona. 124 pages

Finished The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson A superb work of fiction based on 3 real events: 1) "Blue" people in Kentucky 2) pack mule traveling libraries 3) the Great Depression/WPA of FDR. This book told the trials and tribulations faced by Cussy Mary as she just tries to survive being a "Blue." I can not recommend this book enough! 320 pages

>65 Tess_W:

I loved that one too.
Now you might like Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt, a non-fiction account.

>66 nrmay: I will definitely look for that one!

Finished Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott. This was a "novel" originally serialized for newspapers and then reconstructed chronologically for the book. Perhaps this is why this book felt disjointed to me. Besides being disjointed, it was tedious in many places, especially the conversations with the "natives" in Jamaica. These are the "logs" of Midshipman Tom Cringle from about 1811-1834. This midshipman spent a lot of time on land! The section on yellow fever and the incident where Tom is imprisoned in Germany were the best part(s) of this book. This ebook has languished on my tablet for about 10 years and after 2-3 starts I finally finished. If I had it to do over again, I would not have read it! As far as detail goes, think Dickens on steroids! 576 pages 2.75 stars (it gives a "fair" picture of Jamaica/Caribbean during the early 19th century).

Read book 5/5 in the Angevin (Plantagenet) series by Penman, A King's Ransom. This series was top notch all the way!

Read Waverley by Sir Walter Scott. This is my first Scott, and while I did not particularly care for the book/writing, I did like the story. I think my reading was somewhat enhanced by knowing the history of the Jacobite Rebellion and the Battle of Culloden. Had I not known something about the Highlanders and their rebellion(s), I would have been lost. I was not a fan of the romance part of the novel, it seemed obligatory or contrived. I started to read the introduction, but after 9 pages of self-absorbed drivel, I skipped it. 484 pages, just barely 3 stars. 3 stars for me is your average read--can be mediocre or enjoyable, this was not necessarily enjoyable and yet not mediocre.

Finished Toward the Midnight Sun by Eion Dempsey a less than stellar book about a young woman's trek to the Yukon during the Gold Rush.

Reading The Source, after not having read Michener for about two decades. This one has a nice framing story that he didn't use in Alaska, Hawaii or Chesapeake (my previous reads of his). But I am just about choking on the 1960s romance, where the lead male accosts a woman with a surprise kiss, insists she'll marry him someday despite her clearly explaining she's already in a relationship, and then he challenges her fiance as to which of them is the 'real man', getting nothing worse than a friendly handshake in return. Good lord.

Also gotta love the bit about the men on the archeology dig complaining about the women walking around in shorts, grumbling that they ought to put more clothes on!

>72 Cecrow: That was my 5th Michener read, and the only one I did not award 5 stars!

>72 Cecrow: I ran into some of this when I recently read The Bourne Identity - a romance apparently bloomed after Bourne manhandles and threatens to kill Marie for the entirety of Part 1...but 8 days later their swapping I love you's...

And HA! to grumbling about shorts on an archaeological dig - good for those women. (I got cranky at "not enough comeuppance" for jerk archaeologists in certain scenes in Netflix's The Dig...)

Read Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran, an excellent read about the French Revolution and the beginning of the famed wax museum. 465 pages 4.5 stars

>75 Tess_W:, thats really interesting, I'd never paused to wonder who she was before.

>76 Cecrow: A very interesting woman and family! They played both sides of the fence entertaining those such as Marat, Robespierre and Danton (perhaps out of fear), but also had Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette visit the gallery.

>75 Tess_W: I have this out from the library now!

>78 rabbitprincess: Hope you like it!

I completed Medicus the story of a doctor of the Roman Legion based in Britannia(Chester).

I completed Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. It was the novelized form of the true story of Elizabeth Keckley, a slave who bought her own freedom and turned seamstress. Industry and good luck had her making frocks for the movers and shakers in Washington DC, where she met the most decidedly insane Mary Todd Lincoln. There was a bit too much 3rd person "lecture" on politics and the war, but all in all was a good slice of history. 384 pages 4*

>80 Tess_W: I read and own that novel. The author features or mentions Mary in her Civil War era novels set in DC including Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters.

>80 Tess_W:
You might enjoy Breena Clarke's novel about self-employed free blacks who worked as tailors in D.C. circa the Civil War, called Stand the Storm. I thought it was vivid and fascinating.

>81 princessgarnet:
>82 Limelite:

Will add those to my WL!

I just finished The Lioness of Morocco by Julia Drosten. This is a family saga as well as historical fiction during the mid 19th century. Good info on the transition of ships from sail to steam and also the 1844 bombing of Morocco by the French.

>83 Tess_W:

I tried to like the Drosten novel, but couldn't become involved sufficiently to suspend disbelief. So, I put it aside. Do you rec that the book deserves that I try again? I think my interest gave way when I began to think I'd have to spend a lot of story time spent in harem scenes.

>84 Limelite: No story time in harem scenes that I can recall.

>85 Tess_W: Beginning of book when heroine realizes she has a business opportunity with women in seclusion. Perhaps seraglio is better word for the time story was set.

>86 Limelite: You are correct! I had forgotten about that. However, I felt (feel) that was a very minor part of the story.

Read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the secession of Biafra from Nigeria and its resultant violence as seen by 5 main characters. 4.5 stars

I finished Shiloh by Shelby Foote. This is a short, well written novel about the Battle of Shiloh (also known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing), fought in southwestern Tennessee in 1862. Some historical perspective, as per the website of American Battlefield Trust: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/shiloh

"The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, allowed Union troops to penetrate the Confederate interior. The carnage was unprecedented, with the human toll being the greatest of any war on the American continent up to that date. The South’s defeat at Shiloh ended the Confederacy’s hopes of blocking the Union advance into Mississippi and doomed the Confederate military initiative in the West. With the loss of their commander, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, in battle, Confederate morale plummeted."

Foote is a well known Civil War historian, author of several detailed histories and a major contributor to Ken Burns' Civil War documentary series. The novel is a short one, only 142 pages in old fashioned pocket paperback format. (I selected it for reading more or less at random from my pulp paperback shelves.) Over the course of the book, Foote tells the story of the battle from lead up to finish, through the eyes of a variety of fictional participants, both Southern and Northern, some officers, others enlisted men. In this way, Foote is able to take us into the minds of the men who are planning and leading the battle, and into those who are only reacting to those plans and doing the actual fighting. The narrative is crisp, and the voices of the narrators believable. The book stays for the most part with the day-to-day and moment-to-moment aspects of the battle, touching only occasionally and briefly (though effectively) on the greater issues at stake in the war itself and the soldiers' motivations for fighting. (This was sometimes seen as a flaw in Foote's approach, as noted in Foote's NY Times obituary: "Some {critics} said that Mr. Foote may have played down slavery so that Southern soldiers would seem worthy heroes in the epic battles he so stirringly chronicled." Foote died in 2005 at the age of 88.

At any rate, I would say this is a very good novel about men at war and about the conditions that Civil War soldiers fought under, with the foregoing reservations.

>89 rocketjk:, I don't think this is the Shiloh you were looking for, or else I'm much surprised. :)

>90 Cecrow: Ha! Fixed. It's a bit irksome that when you cut and past a comment including a touchstone from one thread to another, the touchstone doesn't stay put. As problems go, though, globally speaking, I guess I will muddle through. Thanks for the heads up.

Recently finished -

The Warsaw Orphan: a WWII novel by Kelly Rimmer. very good
The Orphan Collector by Wiseman. thumbs down :/
The Lost Wife. Alyson Richman. very good

Just finished The Gilded Years. As I understand it, a movie based on the novel is forthcoming.

The Radetsky March by Joseph Roth is an excellent time-period piece that covers the years 1860-1914. It chronicles 3 generations of the Trotta family (Austria) and also the Hapsburg Empire. Both are "old" and crumbling; neither can survive in the "new world." A very good piece of writing, but also very depressing. 355 pages 4.5 stars. I knocked 1/2 star off because the first chapter was very confusing! . Of course, I had to go down the rabbit hole of the history of the Radetsky March and listen to it several times on Youtube. I had heard it before, but would not have been able to identify it

One for the Blackbird One for the Crow The name of the book comes from a legend (prairie?) about planting; plant 4 seeds: one for the blackbird, one for the crow, one for the cutworm and one to grow. This is a story about homesteading on the prairies of Wyoming in the 1870's. Life is harsh! Each major character (4) has their own chapter/storyline/POV. A great tragedy throws two feuding families together when both of their menfolk are gone and winter is approaching. Besides being a character study, this is also a love-letter to the Wyoming prairie; beautiful, descriptive writing. 493 pages

I just spent time in the princely state of Sambalpore in 1920 India with A necessary evil. Very enjoyable.

Audible has one of those two audiobooks for one credit deals going, and I snagged The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye and The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. I'm pretty happy about that. :=)

I just finished Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - it is well written, and covers an interesting part of Thomas Cromwell's life, but I didn't find myself gripped enough to continue with the rest of the series.

I investigated a gruesome murder with Sir John Fielding in Murder in Grub Street which gives lots of period detail about 18th century London.

>97 tealadytoo: Does The Game of Kings translate well to audio? I think that's one I tried a couple of times and had to give up because Lymond's lingo was just too hard for me to follow. (Is that the one where he starts out turning a pig loose at a nobleman's party?)

>100 gmathis: Sorry. I haven't listened to it yet. I have to get through the fantasy epic, The Name of the Wind first. :=)

>101 tealadytoo: how do you like it so far? I loved both books, and am, like everyone else, wishing the third one would come out already. I know some people felt they both were a bit too long but personally I wished they would never end.

>102 Darth-Heather: I'm loving it so far. (Not quite to the halfway point.) I've come to expect long for these fantasy epics. I hesitated to start the series because of the delayed and unreleased next book, but I caved in. :=) It's worth it.

Read Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier the story of a wounded/deserted Confederate soldier from his escape from a hospital back to his beloved, which he will not see for 4 years. It was a perilous journey. Very sentimental and very coincidental. The author read his own book--and he was fairly bad! 14 hours 57 mins=366 pages 3 stars

Nora Webster byColm Toibin is on the edge of Historical Fiction - 1960s Ireland. Exquisite writing and characterization.

Snow by John Banville - 1950s Ireland - received the Financial Times and Irish Times best book of 2020. Although basically a crime novel, a tale was told in such a fine way - enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman though marketed as a World War II novel, the war doesn't really touch much here so its somewhat misleading. It takes place in the Eastern United States. Its also somewhat convoluted and lacks je ne sais quoi but I just didn't go for it.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish Wow! I loved this story and the primary female character. 1660s London and early 21st century England. Normally I don't like dual line stories but this is an exception. You really must give it a try.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernard Gunther series. Yep, this is a series book set in 1943 Berlin from the point of view of an anti-Nazi German. Of all the books in the series I've only not liked one. It's a great series. Can you just start reading out of order? ohhh don't ask me that, I'm a person who has to do things in order so I don't know. I think you probably can. It's just me who couldn't. This book occurs about a month following the stunning defeat at Stalingrad, morale is low. There is a rumor of a Russian atrocity in the recent past- a massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensky. Bernie investigates.

The House of Endless Waters by Emuna Elon A hauntingly beautiful novel (most of the time) Again, a dual time line is going on which I'm not crazy about and didn't like in this novel. I really didn't like the conclusion either despite it being a hauntingly beautiful novel. Difficult to critique!
It's World War II and its Amsterdam and a Jewish family is trying to keep a low profile and keep on with their lives. What happens is rather shocking. I know that sounds disingenuous because we've all read these type of plots but it was rather shocking.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue 1918 Dublin - War, poverty, pandemic of the Spanish flu, Julia is a nurse in an understaffed city hospital nursing expectant mothers who have this flu and thats just the start. Very interesting book.

>107 silverbooks: I love the Bernie Gunther series. I'm like you . . . I have to read series in order. In fact, A Man without Breath is up next for me sometime soon.

Falling to Earth -great read about a deadly tornado

>96 MissWatson: I've been enjoying this series and I'm looking forward to getting Book #5 The Shadows of Men next month.

>110 PeggyDean: Making a note of that!

The Man from Berlin is the first in a series of books featuring Capt. Gregor Reinhardt. Reinhardt is an iron cross medalist from the Great War, where he was injured. On returning home he went to work for the Kripo (Berlin Police) and then the Abwehr (German military intelligence). Reinhardt is called to Sarejevo where another German military intelligence officer has been murdered along with a famous German female journalist; everybody's darling. Reinhardt has to contend with those who don't like him from the war and the police work, communists, partisans, Ustase, Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, Feldgendarmerie (German State Police?) and others! It was a real crime thriller. The first few chapters were a bit confusing in trying to keep all those organizations sorted and who worked for who, but it fell into place. I will read more of Capt. Gregor Reinhardt in the future. 426 pages 4 stars

I've just read a book about World WarII from the perspective of an ordainary German family. It was really wonderful. The author has not written any other books, as far as I can discover, although he does say story of what happens to the family will be continued in a sequel. The book is: The War: Three German Brothers Part 1 by Steven Hugh Kenyon.

Here's the review I put on Amazon:

In this impressive, engrossing new novel we follow an ordinary family living in a small German town near Hamburg, and their friends and acquaintances, on their journey from the opening of the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to the end of the Second World War. Some survive, some don’t.

The story starts with a young, newly married couple, Inge and Horst, very much in love and on their honeymoon in Berlin. Coming from ordinary working families, this trip, a wedding present from their combined families, is a special luxury that they never imagined they would be able to experience. We follow them as they explore Berlin, the parks, monuments, restaurants and beer gardens. They attend the lavish Olympics, full of the iconography of the new German state and presided over by Hitler, at the time the widely admired and charismatic Chancellor of Germany. The whole experience leaves them feeling elated by the promise of a new dawn in German history, coming after the poverty and despair that followed its defeat in World War I.

After the honeymoon Inge and Horst return to their home town, looking forward to a happy life together in a peaceful and prosperous new Germany. Then the war starts, slowly at first and close to home, widely and enthusiastically supported in the early stages by the populace, as the army ostensibly regains control of the lands that Germany feels were unjustly taken from it after World War I. But Hitler is insatiable in his ambition, and as the war expands throughout Europe and the protagonists become more and more involved, we experience through them the full chaos and horror that ensues.

We witness at first hand the terror of being caught in the middle of the infamous fire storm of Hamburg and of the long drawn-out Battle of Stalingrad. We see the creeping ostracism and violence against the Jews, many of whom had fought bravely alongside their German neighbours in the First World War, and who were previously considered as fellow Germans. We see the insane demands Hitler puts upon his own people and the way any possible rebellion on their part is crushed. We also see the actions of the minority who carry out Hitler’s cruel commands right to the very end.

Throughout the book we are aware that this could be could be any war, anywhere. The people in it are just like us, ordinary people caught up in events they don’t fully understand. It’s a warning to everyone of how the pride in one’s country, felt by good, ordinary people can be manipulated by an evil minority into extreme nationalism, leading to unimaginable horrors.

The book is not only about horror though. At heart it remains the story of a family, and so, as in any family, there is not only despair, there is love and tenderness, friendship and solidarity. There is bravery as well as cowardliness, births as well as deaths. We become deeply attached to the main characters and anxious to see how their personal stories unfold.

For me the book was a revelation. Although I knew the broad outlines of the Second World War, thanks to the quality of the writing and the empathy of the author, the war has taken on a tangible reality, becoming less of a thing of dry dates and names. I almost feel as if I’ve lived through those cataclysmic events, and they will remain with me, giving me a deeper understanding of history and human nature.
I totally recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand what happens to ordinary people when events beyond their control take over their lives.

A word must be said about the excellent quality of the research that has gone into the book. The author’s incorporation of dates and facts into the story gave me a clear sense of the ebb and flow of the war across the continent. However, it was the many details of such things as what the people ate and drank, the music they listened to, their furniture and reading matter, that really made the characters come alive for me.

This book is, according to the title, is part one of the story. The ending gives us a clue about what might happen to the surviving family members in the second part. I must say that I’m very much looking forward to finding out what that will be!

Just finished Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. This was Kent's debut novel and it was superb! It is the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, a 30 year old woman in Iceland that was put to death for a gruesome murder. The first lines of the book set the tone, and they are chilling: "They said I must die. They said that I stole the breath from men, and now they must steal mine. I imagine, then, that we are all candle flames, greasy-bright, fluttering in the darkness and the howl of the wind, and in the stillness of the room I hear footsteps, awful coming footsteps, coming to blow me out and send my life up away from me in a gray wreath of smoke." The book, although a novel, was based on a true story. Definitely a winner! 336 pages

Completed Chickamauga: A Novel of the American Civil War (Blair Howard's Civil War/Western Series Book 5) by Blair Howard was a fictional account of said battle. It was very dry, as I find much military history. I thought by reading it in novel form it would be more interesting, but not so much! In summary, the Confederates were successful, but at a great price in lives that they could ill afford. Many have said this victory was the death knell for the Confederates. General Bragg claimed the victory and left the battlefield to retake Chattanooga from U.S. Grant; which he failed to do. Grant cleared Chattanooga for General Sherman to make his way through the south. I read this book because I do not know a lot of specifics about the U.S. Civil War.

I finished The Personal Librarian

The story of Belle da Costa Greene a black woman who "passed" as white, claiming to have Portuguese heritage. She is hired by J. P. Morgan to be his Personal Library. She was for curating the outstanding Pierpont Morgan Library.

I read The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam. This was a bit of historical speculative fiction assuming there was a 5th daughter born to Empress Alexandra Romanov. The story is told in 3 time lines and I am surprised that this first-time author does it rather well. All in all, a good read. 342 pages