Historical Fictionistas discussion

What is a recent read that was five stars? I enjoy our discussion on what we are reading, but I can't always keep up with everyone's updates to how they liked a book. This is an easy way for everyone to post the books they couldn't put down! Life is too short to waste on books you don't love.

Not sure it’s quite 5, but I liked The Weight of Ink quite a bit. Slightly troubled by period characters acting out of character for the period.

I read it in July, but The Huntress. I swear Kate Quinn gets better with every book.

Oliver Potzsch's The Ludwig Conspiracy really surprised me last week and got 5 stars as well. It gets a lot of comparisons to the Da Vinci Code but I think it's a far superior read.

I haven’t heard of that one. Adding it to my TBR!

It isn't a recent read, The Perfect Coupleby Elin Hilderbrand

Becoming, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, The Complete Persepolis, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and an under the radar but great read for me was From Sand and Ash

Neither are historical fiction-
The Library Book
The Lager Queen of Minnesota

Gretchen wrote: "Neither are historical fiction-
The Library Book
The Lager Queen of Minnesota"

I have The Library Book on hold. I've heard such good things about it.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn and

The following two books by Karen Books: The Brewers Tale and The Chocolate Maker's Wife.

I'm really, really stingy with 5 star ratings - I only have one this year - Lovely War by Julie Berry.

I'm also apparently stingy with 4 star ratings. This year has:
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Sugar Money by Jane Harris

I've had three 5 star reads so far this year; all of them Non-Fiction:

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba

Homes: A Refugee Story by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah

I'm fairly generous with stars, if I dislike a like a book I don't review it, and if I like it happy to rate it between 3 and 5 stars.

So these are effectively six-star reviews; ie historical fiction I'd be really glad not to have missed. Not sure I've read anything unmissable much this year maybe Allende's Daughter of Fortune.Daughter of Fortune
Two favourites are;
Phillipa Gregory Earthly Joys
and Bryce Coutrnay's Solomon's Song

My most recent 5-star read was the non-fiction Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. One of those rare books that changes the way you look at the world.

My most recent 5-star historical fiction was The Good People by Hannah Kent. A tragic story about superstition and loss in 19th-century Ireland. (I also gave a 5-star rating to Kent's first book, Burial Rites; she's becoming one of my "must-read" authors).

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Rated 5 stars. A WOW! read for me. Adding this one to my favorite shelf. First time I've read anything by this author and I'm looking forward to reading his other books in the future.

Peggy wrote: "This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Rated 5 stars. A WOW! read for me. Adding this one to my favorite shelf. First time I've read anything by this author and I'..."

I had never read this author before and then our bookclub chose Ordinary Grace. I really really liked it and have this new one on my wait list at my library

Thanks, Dawn. I've also heard that William Kent Krueger writes a mystery series that is very highly rated.

This year for me, the 5 stars have been:
Cutting for Stone
Dragonfly
The Bear and the Nightingale and the rest of the Winternight trilogy
The Huntress

I just finished Us Against You. It's the second of the Beartown duology and I would highly recommend it.

I just finished This Tender Land. 5 stars for me

I read Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel by Mark Sullivan this summer. I talks about the Italian experience in WWII. I hadn't learned much about this aspect before. It was definantly 5 stars. I also enjoyed Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys.

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed Tidelands by Philippa Gregory. I gave it 5 stars.

I gave 5 stars to The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff and 4 stars to Ribbons of Scarlet by Kate Quinn and others, both are really good.

Amanda wrote: "I read Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel by Mark Sullivan this summer. I talks about the Italian experience in WWII. I hadn't learned much about this aspect before. It was definantly 5 stars. I also e..."

I'm listening to the audio version now. It is really a thrilling story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I'm not finished yet, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be a 5 star book.

I just finished King Rat. I thought it was great. Good character development showing the psychology of the prisoners in a WWII Singapore prison. You might yourself described in there. Here was my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I gave it 5 stars but its average rating is more like 4.10.

It is also a brilliant film if anyone hasn't seen it. Cast a role-call of famous British and American actors when they were young.

My recent 5 star reads have been:

The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright

Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg

The Pecan Man

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

To the list of 5 star reads I would like to offer : The Weather Experiment by Peter Moore and The Pioneers by David McCullough.

Have a bunch of ever so close four star books but my last five star was the Lieva Lone series first two books both reached the five star level
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I just read The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. Next to Night by Elie Wiesel, The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, Stones From the River by Ursula Heidi and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, this is one if the finest Holocaust books I’ve read.

I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars as I need a book to be quite exceptional to get 5. In fact I tend only to rate/review books I either loved or hated so not many 3s from me.

In recent times I've handed out 5s to both of the book club selections for this month (Hilary Mantel is a genius) but a couple of others are:

Cold Mountain
Fools and Mortals

It's not HF but a book I adored as a kid - one of the most perfect books I've ever read - was:

The Stone Cage

Not historical fiction, but if you like true crime Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup was fantastic.

Adrian wrote: "I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars as I need a book to be quite exceptional to get 5. In fact I tend only to rate/review books I either loved or hated so not many 3s from me.

In recent times I've hand..."

I loved . It gave me an appreciation of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" that I never had before.

Scott, please review our group rules in advertising.

I highly recommend Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. One of the best reads in the past 5 years!!

Kirsten wrote: "I highly recommend Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. One of the best reads in the past 5 years!!"

I really loved that book.

I also loved where the crawdads sing. One of the best things i Have read in ages

One of my favorites by Kristin Hannah

I agree Alice. I almost did not read this because I had read another by the author. It was calledFirefly Lane. It was so predictable i was bored. I am glad i Gave Hannah a second chance.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I actually finished this before the Coronavirus thing broke loose.

One of my all time favourites is The Crimson Petal and the White

I absolutely love Speaks the Nightbird and the complete series.

New ones: City of Girls; Hannah's War; and The Giver of Stars.

Read it back in May, but I gave it 5 stars: Erik Larson's non fiction novel The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.

Adrian wrote: "I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars as I need a book to be quite exceptional to get 5. In fact I tend only to rate/review books I either loved or hated so not many 3s from me.

In recent times I've hand..."

Have you seen the movie "Cold Mountain"? Wonderfully done :)

Amanda wrote: "I read Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel by Mark Sullivan this summer. I talks about the Italian experience in WWII. I hadn't learned much about this aspect before. It was definantly 5 stars. I also e..."

Beneath a Scarlet Sky is a fantastic historical fiction novel :) Read it last summer via paperback from library, but can't find it as an ebook via Kobo though.

I have a new favorite author P.F. Chisholm aka Patricia Finney. I just finished her Sir Robert Carey historical mystery series set in Northern England/Southern Scotland during the reign of Elizabeth I. This series has witty dialogue, compelling characters and lots of adventure. And most importantly the character's personalities and history are slowly developed through out the series. Recommend reading in order. She's writing #10 but don't think it will be published until Sept 2021. A Famine of Horses is the first in the series.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. An oldie but goodie. By the end of the first chapter, you are immersed in the medieval world, you have met most of the main characters and have sympathy for them, and the ending is presaged. One of the most absorbing and perfectly-constructed books I have ever read.

Kathryn wrote: "The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. An oldie but goodie. By the end of the first chapter, you are immersed in the medieval world, you have met most of the main characters and have ..."

Kathryn, I agree! I love medieval historical fiction but was hesitant to read such a long novel about the creation of a medieval cathedral. My sister who mostly reads Science Fiction highly recommended this and I'm so glad I finally tackled it. One of my favorite reads!

I too am stingy with my ratings. if I rate it 5 stars is a masterpiece of that genre. For example to me a thriller is never going to stand against A Gentleman in Moscow. A romance is not going to be Where the Crawdads Sing. They dont compare. So my 5 stars are also genre specific.
So with that I have read 60 books so far this year. 5 Star Ratings go to

American Dirt
This Tenderland
Beach Read
Notes on a Silencing
The Book of Longings

5 of 60 earned 5 stars from me.