The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

30.5 - Sandy's task: History with Dialogue
Some say that good historical fiction is “history with dialogue.” Let’s take a look!

For this task you will read 2 books. Each book must contain at least 300 pages. No book with the genre “children” (or variations, such as “middle grade,” “juvenile,” “chapter books,” etc.) listed on its main page can be used for this task, no matter how many pages it has. Books with the genre YA can be used, unless “children” also appears in the genre list.

Book 1 – Read a book with the genre “historical fiction” on its main page.

Book 2 – Read a nonfiction book that relates to book 1.

Examples: If you read Code Name Verity for book 1, you could read The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive for book 2. If you read Memoirs of a Geisha for book 1, you could read Geisha for your second book.

REQUIRED: Include the number of pages of each book in your post. Briefly explain the connection between the two books in your post.

NOTE: ebooks without print versions cannot be used for tasks requiring a specific number of pages. If you read an ebook or audiobook use the page count for the mass market paperback if one exists. If there is no mass market paperback edition, use the paperback edition and if no paperback is available use the hardcover edition.

Pairs that work:
Deadly or Fever and Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health

The Osiris Ritual and Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality

Life After Life and Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England or The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

Year of Wonders and A Journal of the Plague Year

The Constant Princess and The Six Wives of Henry VIII

A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Bookseller of Kabul

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky and The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville

Born Of Illusion and Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind

The Last Summer and Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

fiction and nonfiction books about Titanic

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England

The Passing Bells and The Guns of August

Dissolution and Henry VIII: The King and His Court

Bring Up the Bodies and The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn

The Last Town on Earth and Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It

Poison and The Borgias: The Hidden History

Rasputin's Daughter or The Last Romanov and The Romanovs: The Final Chapter

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern

The Da Vinci Code and Templars: History And Myth: From Solomon's Temple To The Freemasons

Freshwater Road and Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin

won't work:
My Name is Mary Sutter and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Cutting for Stone and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The 19th Wife and Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West

This thread is now open!

Can I get this set approved before someone idiotically labels it as childrens..?

Deadly
Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health

Thank you!

ohh I like that idea Ty and I have 2 similar books

Fever and then the nf one that TY listed above (I have the fiction one for revieW)

Sandy, can the connection be broad? For example, can I read Life After Life and a random book about Britain during World War II like Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England?

Dee wrote: "ohh I like that idea Ty and I have 2 similar books

Fever and then the nf one that TY listed above (I have the fiction one for revieW)"

nice one, Dee!

Could I read The Osiris Ritual for my historical fiction? The main villain is trying to achieve immortality.
Then read Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality for my non-fiction book?

Ty wrote: "Can I get this set approved before someone idiotically labels it as childrens..?

Deadly
Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health

Thank you!"

those work

Dee wrote: "ohh I like that idea Ty and I have 2 similar books

Fever and then the nf one that TY listed above (I have the fiction one for revieW)"

good choices.

Chaitra wrote: "Sandy, can the connection be broad? For example, can I read Life After Life and a random book about Britain during World War II like Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power..."

Sure, WWII is a main topic in Life After Life and this connection works.

Valorie wrote: "Could I read The Osiris Ritual for my historical fiction? The main villain is trying to achieve immortality.
Then read Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality for my non-fiction book?"

sure. They sound interesting!

If I read Lily of the Nile, which is about the (I believe fictional) daughter of Cleopatra, could I then read a biography of Cleopatra?

If I read The Da Vinci Code for Book #1, would Fodor's Guide to The Da Vinci Code: On the Trail of the Bestselling Novel work for Book #2?

If I read Year of Wonders as fiction, could I read A Journal of the Plague Year for second one.

I am going to read The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (393 pages) and The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir (656 pages).

Book no. 1 is about Catherine of Aragon & book no. 2 is about Catherine & the rest of Henry's wives.

Ms Anderson wrote: "If I read Lily of the Nile, which is about the (I believe fictional) daughter of Cleopatra, could I then read a biography of Cleopatra?"

yes, the book description sounds as if the character of Cleopatra (even though she's dead) is important in the way this one plays out.

Sandra wrote: "If I read The Da Vinci Code for Book #1, would Fodor's Guide to The Da Vinci Code: On the Trail of the Bestselling Novel work for Book #2?"

Both books need to be at least 300 pages long. The connection works, but the Fodor guide doesn't meet the page length requirement.

Aleksandra wrote: "If I read Year of Wonders as fiction, could I read A Journal of the Plague Year for second one."

sure

Claire wrote: "I am going to read The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (393 pages) and The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir (656 pages).

Book no. 1 is about Catherine of Aragon & book no. 2 is about ..."

sounds good.

What about...

Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns and

Nonfiction: The Bookseller of Kabul?

Just wanted to check these 2

Fiction:The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

Non-Fiction:The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville

Bea wrote: "What about...

Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns and

Nonfiction: The Bookseller of Kabul?"

sure thing.

Sam wrote: "Just wanted to check these 2

Fiction:The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

Non-Fiction:The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville"

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky doesn't have "historical fiction" listed as a genre.

Sandy wrote: "Sam wrote: "Just wanted to check these 2

Fiction:The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

Non-Fiction:The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville"

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky doesn'..."

That's weird it looks as though there are 2 entries for the book & the one I have on my to-read list does have historical fiction listed. I think this is the right link http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
For whatever reason when I go to the add book/author this entry isn't coming up

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky (UK) was published as Trapeze in the US. The records needed to be combined

Dlmrose wrote: "The Girl Who Fell From The Sky was published as Trapeze in the UK. The records needed to be combined"

Thanks DLmrose. I'm assuming that the book works for the task as it does show historical fiction.

could i read Born Of Illusion and Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind

Sandy wrote: "Sure, WWII is a main topic in Life After Life and this connection works."

Yay, thanks Sandy! Have a wonderful vacation! :)

Just want to be sure I'm on the right track here...

The Last Summer
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

The first book is set in Edwardian England at a country estate and works the effects of WWI into the plot. The second book tells the history of a country estate during the Edwardian era/WWI.

Lindsey wrote: "Just want to be sure I'm on the right track here...

The Last Summer
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

The first book is set in Edwardian England at a cou..."

sounds perfect, Lindsey.

The Captain's Daughter or Distant Waves both with over 300 pgs and fiction about Titanic

Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History or How to Survive the Titanic: The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay or The Other Side of the Night: The Carpathia, the Californian and the Night the Titanic Was Lost all fit the 300+ pgs, just don't know which I want to read yet

All involve the Titanic sinking and being on the boat when it did sink.

Awesome, thanks, Sandy! Ditto on the good vacation wishes!

April wrote: "The Captain's Daughter or Distant Waves both with over 300 pgs and fiction about Titanic

Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History or How to Survive the Titanic: The Sinking of J. ..."

sounds like any combination of these would work.

Chaitra wrote: "Sandy wrote: "Sure, WWII is a main topic in Life After Life and this connection works."

Yay, thanks Sandy! Have a wonderful vacation! :)"

Thanks! We're having a lot of fun.

Sandy wrote: "April wrote: "The Captain's Daughter or Distant Waves both with over 300 pgs and fiction about Titanic

sounds like any combination of these would work ..."

Thanks!

I'm assuming this combo will work:

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (Salem witch trials).

I am also considering:

Summerset Abbey and The Guns of August (WWI)

I know a pseudo-pair picked...BUT does anyone have a recommendation for a fiction book about single/unwed mothers before Roe V Wade - I just got a recommendation for a NF book that sounds good and thought I could maybe fit it in

Dee wrote: "I know a pseudo-pair picked...BUT does anyone have a recommendation for a fiction book about single/unwed mothers before Roe V Wade - I just got a recommendation for a NF book that sounds good and ..."

How about The Patron Saint of Liars. I read it ages ago, & I think it fits your time frame. (Note: the book takes pace at a home for unwed mothers in the 1960's)

that sounds good - thanks Christine! and double bonus - my library has it

Christine wrote: "I'm assuming this combo will work:

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (Salem witch trials).

I am also considering:

Sum..."

Those sound good - but be careful with Summerset Abbey - looks like most of the editions are <300 pages.

I was wondering if my my message 29 got missed. lol. i don't see a reply. I wanted to read and . they are both about illusionist and their work.

thanks

Will this combination work?

Fiction: Dissolution

Non-Fiction: Henry VIII: The King and His Court

Dissoltion is a mystery, but the religious politics of this time (new Church of England/the beginning dissolution of the abbeys and monasterys) plays a large role.

The non-fiction is a biography of Henry VIII and his court, the person responsible for establishing the New religion and all the problems this caused.

Sandy wrote: "Christine wrote: "I'm assuming this combo will work:

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (Salem witch trials).

I am also..."

I noticed the page problem with Summerset Abbey right after I posted & meant to come & edit. I have several set in the WWI era - how about: The Passing Bells instead (544 pages, so definitely long enough). :)

Cindy F

I am going to read The Last Town on Earth and Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It These should work both about flu epidemic of 1918 and both over 300 pages.

I've been struggling trying to find something for this task and I think this might work:


Book 1 - Bring Up the Bodies which appears to be about Thomas Cromwell's plot to get rid of Anne Boleyn. It is shelved as historical fiction by 63 users and is over 300 pages (407 pages).

Book 2 - The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn which is about the fall of Anne Boleyn. It is shelved as non-fiction by 192 people and is over 300 pages (432 pages).

JennRenee wrote: "I was wondering if my my message 29 got missed. lol. i don't see a reply. I wanted to read and [bookcover:Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, a..."

I'm sorry, Jenn Renee, I saw your post, thought it was a great sounding combo, and tried to respond.

I'm guessing that it might have gotten eaten - I've responded to several things in the last day or two, then found that they didn't show up - sometimes they show up later, sometimes not. don't know what's going on with GR, but it's not fun!

Fandury wrote: "Will this combination work?

Fiction: Dissolution

Non-Fiction: Henry VIII: The King and His Court

Dissoltion is a mystery, but the religious politics of this time (new Church of England/the begin..."

sure, sounds interesting!

Christine wrote: "how about: The Passing Bells instead (544 pages, so definitely long enough). :)
.."

sure thing.