June GenreCAT: Historical Fiction

I copied a bit from Wikipedia about Historical Fiction since I wasn't quite sure what it is:

Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for the historical novel, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels.

An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert speculative or ahistorical elements into a novel.

Here's the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/GenreCAT_2021#June:_-_Theme:_Historical_...

Aha! A home for the Regency Romance!

>2 pamelad: You're not wrong!

I will probably read The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, which fits this, HistoryCAT and AlphaKit.

I'm thinking of Caligula, a fictionalised account of the Roman emperor by Allan Massie

I will read one that also fits HistoryCat and AlphaKIT because I won’t have much reading time in June.
I have three options for this CATtrick:

Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
In Distant Fields by Charlotte Bingham

I see that the book I need to read for book club next month is tagged as historical fiction so I'll be reading White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht although I'll probably finish it before the end of this month as book club is early in the month.

I'm going to be reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.

For anyone searching around, I'm reading Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, and it is FANTASTIC. I'd absolutely recommend it. It jumps between 1939 and 1992, following some jazz musicians who were performing in Germany prior to WWII and moved into France just as the war officially began. I'm so impressed with the author's writing and style, I know I'm going to be recommending this book a lot.

>7 whitewavedarling: I'm taking a BB for that!

>7 whitewavedarling: - Your mention of The Alice Network reminds me that I just read her new book The Rose Code which was excellent and also would fit this month if anyone's looking.

>7 whitewavedarling: I do want to read Half-Blood Blues...I really liked Edugyan's Washington Black.

This month I'm definitely planning on The Naturalist by Christina Dudley, which I believe is a Regency romance. But I may end up reading several others for this CAT as well!

>10 christina_reads:, this is my first taste of Edugyan, but now I've got that book and their others on my radar to find!

>8 MissBrangwen:, Yay!

>9 dudes22:, I'll take that as a good sign! I haven't read Quinn before, but this one has been on my TBR for a while now...

I'll see what appeals to me most next month. I have tons of options. I anticipate getting to one book in this category later this week or next. It's a matter of what setting and time period I want to read.

I will probably continue with book 11/12 in the Poldark series, set in Cornwall, about 1812.

This is one of my favourite genres, so I have lots to choose from. With my manual searching through my tbr on the weekend, I picked out a few options (though I know have LOTS more):

- Roots / Alex Hayley
- North and South / John Jakes
- Mrs Mike / Benedict Freedman
- The White Princess / Philippa Gregory

I had hoped to read The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams this month but I may not get to if not I'll read it next month. If I do read it this month I'll read The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray in June.

I'll probably read something in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series. Or maybe something by G. A. Henty.

I read a lot of historical fiction so I have plenty of candidates for this Cat. Right now I am planning on reading Fallen Women by Sandra Dallas, The Valley of Kings by Cecelia Holland and The Cannons of Lucknow by V.A. Stuart.

I have Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose stacked on my nightstand! :-)

I just watched the movie a couple weeks ago (starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater). I remember going to see it when it first came out, but I had forgotten most of it— so it was like watching it anew! The only odd thing is that I remembered it as being much more shadowy. It makes me wonder if it was remastered to look more open/bright like what happened with Buffy the Vampire Slayer… Still a good movie but I’m eager to dig into the book!

I just posted a review of Half-Blood Blues is anyone is interested. This was a five-star read for me--one of those rare books that I just want to shout to the roof-tops about, it was so good. I don't read much historical fiction, but this one's going to remain a favorite to come back to for me.

>19 whitewavedarling: definitely a BB for me!

I dug into my pick for this challenge early: Falls the Shadow, by Sharon Kay Penman. So good! Now if only I had the attention span to finish the trilogy... my reading brain is in hibernation these days.

>21 rabbitprincess: I loved Falls the Shadow and Here Be Dragons. This would be an excellent opportunity to finish up the trilogy with The Reckoning but my brain has not been geared toward deeper reads so I'm not sure I'd get it done...

My choice for this genre is the book I have to read for my book club next month - White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht. Since our meeting is on Jun 2, I knew I'd have to start the book this month, but never expected to finish it in one day. Spent the day on the deck and raced through it. It's fiction based on the Korean women who were captured and used as "comfort women" for the Japanese soldiers during WW II.

>23 dudes22: Glad you liked it. It is on my TBR.

Currently reading The Crediton Killings by Michael Jecks, a murder mystery set in 1320s England.

I read The Nun by Denis Diderot. Also will finish Bella Poldark in the next 1-2 days.

I have finished Sommer in Wien, an undemanding and short romance set in Vienna in 1912. Marie is nursemaid to Arthur Schnitzler's children and in love with Oskar who works in a bookstore, and they can finally marry. I realised only in this, the third in the series, that the bookstore is the very one which the author owns today.

ETC

I have read Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, set during the mid 1800s. It takes place twenty years after Jane Austen's death and follows her sister Cassandra, the only sister still living, as she hunts for personal letters Jane had written to a close friend. Her purpose in finding the letters is to destroy them to protect Jane's privacy and reputation.

This is the first novel I've read based on Jane Austen and I thought it was very well done.

I'm reading The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera. It begins in Puerto Rico around the time of the Spanish-American War.

I will probably read another book about the packhorse librarians -- either The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson and/or The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. I've already read Along a Storied Trail by Ann H. Gabhart as a LT ER book, and enjoyed it.

Well, I didn't finish The Vanishing Witch (by Karen Maitland) for the ScaredyKit May Challenge, so I'll carry it over into June for this challenge! Set in 1380 Lincolnshire, it's about a superstitious town that is beset by bad luck. Looking for a scapegoat, there's the widow who has moved into town recently. Thing is, are they right?

Love reading in this category because I can "go" to places and times otherwise forbidden me in this life.

Just finished an intricate mystery set in the Tang Dynasty China and featuring a female child prodigy detective who is forced to assume the identity of a palace eunuch in attempt to clear her name. Her face is on wanted posters all over for the poisoning murder of her entire family because she adamantly refused the arranged marriage they wanted for her.

Great period detail, learned quite a bit about court etiquette and palace intrigue as well as the forensic techniques available in what was Europe's Dark Ages.
THE BOOK
The Golden Hairpin by Qinghan Cece
Warning: read the text rather than listen to audio recording as the Chinese names sound similar and members of the same family can be hard to sort out since the Chinese custom is to give last (family) names first, followed by first (given) names.

This month, I plan to finish The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin, featuring an actual eunuch detective living during the Ottoman Empire. Really good!

>33 Limelite: My book club read The Janissary Tree and felt so hungry from the descriptions of food we went to a Turkish restaurant after our meeting

>34 Robertgreaves: Now that is a great endorsement! No restaurants for me yet, but I do have a cookbook...and of course, The Janissary Tree on the TBR.

I have completed Fallen Women by Sandra Dallas. This was an interesting historical mystery set in Denver during the 1880s.

>31 sallylou61: I'm reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson for this. Got halfway through yesterday and should finish it today :)

I read Sweetshop of Dreams which alternates between past and present times. The characters were a delight, and the ending wraps things up nicely.

COMPLETED The Crediton Killings by Michael Jecks set in England in 1319

I have finished Wide Sargasso Sea which looks at the first marriage of Edward Rochester of Jane Eyre notoriety and tells a very different tale from the one we know.

And a historical mystery which was a very nice, relaxing read: Feuer in der Hafenstadt, set in Glückstadt, so it's almost local.

>34 Robertgreaves: Turkish delighted to hear that!

>42 Limelite: Groan

Starting Caligula by Allan Massie

COMPLETED Caligula by Allan Massie

Starting A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Since the events took place before Dickens's birth, I think it counts as historical fiction.

I have finished Die Schatten von La Rochelle set in the last year of Richelieu's life. A great read.

I've read The Third Mrs. Galway by Deirdre Sinnott, a LT ER book about runaway slaves and the antislavery movement in upstate New York in the 1830s.

Mrs. Mike / Benedict and Nancy Freedman
3 stars

In the early 1900s, Katherine (Kathy) is sent to Calgary, Alberta to live with her uncle due to her health, where she meets RCMP Mike. Although Kathy is only 16, they get married and move further north – where there aren’t many white women, and life is much more primitive than Kathy is used to.

Apparently this is based on a real person – I only found that out by looking at a few other reviews. I listened to the audio, which wavered in and out on holding my attention (or not). It was ok. Some parts I liked, but overall, ok. Had a hard time with a couple of parts about injured animals. I’m not sure I particularly liked any of the characters. Except for one secondary character (due to the unusual name), I tended to get those secondary characters mixed up. One of the good things, though, were descriptions of hardships encountered: loss, fire...

The July Thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/332937#n7529825

COMPLETED A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (18th century England and France)

My second historical novel for the month is The Story of Lost Words by Pip Williams. The third is The House at Baker Street by Michelle Birkby. Mrs. Hudson and Mary Watson decide to take up a case themselves that Sherlock Holmes turned down.

I was surprised to see over half of what is in my TBR is historical fiction!

Roots / Alex Haley
3.5 stars

In the mid-18th century, Kunta Kinte grew up in “The” Gambia, Africa. When he is about 17 “rains”, he is kidnapped and taken on a boat across the “big water” and finds himself in a strange new world; he doesn’t even understand the language. He tries to escape multiple times, but the 4th time, he is caught and punished severely. The book follows not only the rest of his life, but the lives of some of his descendants. Next up, his daughter, Kizzy; one of her sons, who later becomes known as “Chicken George”, as he raises and fights roosters; George’s son Tom becomes a blacksmith…

It’s starts of as fiction, but the last few chapters chronicle Alex Haley’s genealogical research and findings. I know there was controversy, but Haley even says himself that the people are real and as many situations as he could find in his research as possible are real; obviously specific conversations, etc. are fictionalized. I’ve added tags for historical fiction and biographical fiction, but also memoir for the last chapters. This had nothing to do with my rating, though.

3.5 stars for me is good. I liked it. It’s also very long. I don’t often rate really long books much higher than 3.5 stars. I think that it’s hard to sustain “really good” in a book over 800+ pages! (And keep in mind, I’m generally a tough rater, anyway.) I admire that this was a groundbreaking book at the time it was published, and it reached a wider audience with the tv mini-series. I only watched the movie as an adult (I was a kid when it would have originally aired on tv). There was a longer section in Africa than I’d expected. I wasn’t crazy about the cockfighting (though, obviously it happened – and sadly, still does). Overall, though, good book. I’m glad I finally read it.

Although I didn't know it when I started it (it was a book club choice and I didn't know anything about the book going in), it turns out that my current read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is historical fiction set in Barcelona in the 1940s and 1950s.

Just finished Astray by Emma Donoghue. This is a collection of short stories. Each one is based on some piece of history taken from newspapers etc. I really enjoyed it and this one I would read again.

I have just completed Valley of the Kings by Cecelia Holland. This book was divided into two distinct stories, the first one was about Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb of King Tut. The second travels back to the time of King Tut and was rather silly.

I've just begun Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price, which is a reimagining of Pride and Prejudice in which Lizzie Bennet wants to be a barrister and gets involved in a murder case. It's set in the same time period as the original P&P.

I've read The Cannons of Lucknow by V.A. Stuart which is the 4th in a series about a British Army officier and is set during the Sepoy Rebellion against the British in India during the 1850s.

I received my copy of State of the Thing, the LibraryThing email newsletter today. It announced a new feature called GenreThing. Here is the page for Historical Fiction

>48 LibraryCin: I liked Mrs. Mike, but I read a paper copy. I tend to drift with audio books, and understand about names getting confused.

I have finished Die Dame mit der bemalten Hand where Carsten Niebuhr, sent on an official expedition to Arabia by the King of Denmark, meets a Persian astronomer on Elephant Island in 1764. Exquisite prose.

I had slated The Fort to read for 3 cats and gave up after it didn't grab me. Fortunately I also had Azincourt on the shelf, so my cat trick was completed.

Finished Pompeii by Robert Harris.

A blend of known facts and fiction about the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii in 79AD. The story features Attilius, an unpopular aquarius (water engineer) who has found sulphur in the aqueducts, the first indication of what was to come. With the help of Pliny the Elder he travels to Pompeii to investigate. Where Harris is most impressive is in his ability to give the reader a glimpse into what was for an entire city their last days before the catastrophe. We all know what the ending will reveal yet Harris keeps the reader hooked right to the last page. Highly recommended.

I'm reading At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole. The story starts in 1911 and will continue to World War I and after. Liking it so far!

COMPLETED The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game, both by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and set in Barcelona in the 1950s and 1920s respectively.

Now starting The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell, set in India in the 1850s.

COMPLETED The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell, a novel about a number of British and mixed-race people in an Indian town under siege from the sepoys and their allies in 1857

Also COMPLETED is Vita Brevis by Jostein Gaarder. It's a reply to St. Augustine's Confessions by the woman he was in a long term relationship with and the mother of his son, and who he abandoned at his mother's insistence because she wanted him to make a politically and financially advantageous marriage.

I had planned to read The Essex Serpent for this challenge. While I liked the part I read I just wasn't getting into the story so I set it aside. Instead I listened to The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I loved it. The story is about the life of Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian to J.P. Morgan, who was the director and curator of his library, which is now a public museum.

I have finished Alatriste a day late, which contains the first three novels of the series set in XVIIth century Spain.

I finally made a spot for this one. I am reading The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott