Historical Fictionistas discussion

New Year, new thread. Tell us what you are reading.

Just started reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë for another group.

I just started The Nature of Fragile Things .. I'm only 1 chapter in but so far so good

I finished Brimstone yesterday and immediately put a hold on the audiobook for its follow-up, Dance of Death. Then I got home and realized I could snag DoD as an ebook, so I did that and I'm already through 20%. Pendergast might be an obsession...

Finished reading The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles

My Review

Cider with Rosie: A Memoir by Laurie Lee

I just finished Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron. It's #14 in her cosy mystery series based on the life of Jane Austen. It's the first time I've come across this series, but the book read fine as a stand alone. I thought it was well researched and the facts and fiction were blended together well.

my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A little girl finds a penpal at The Mailbox in the Forest. Author Kyoko Hara shows how to make friends in unlikely places.
3.5★ Link to my Mailbox in the Forest review with several illustrations

Sequoia National Park is a perfect setting for the thriller Vanishing Edge by Claire Kells, where glam-campers have - yep - vanished!
3★ Link to my Vanishing Edge review

To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delferfield
Set near the end of WW I. A man, seriously injured in the war, takes a teaching position at boys boarding school. It is at the school where he begins to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Kristina wrote: "To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delferfield
Set near the end of WW I. A man, seriously injured in the war, takes a teaching position at boys boarding school. It is at the school where he begins to..."

Kristina; Hope you enjoy this novel by one of my favorite authors! The mini-series was on PBS (late 1970's or early 1980's) and was a wonderful adapdation. If you like Delderfield's writing style you might also enjoy Diana.

Carolyn, did you read an ARC of Jane and the Year without a Summer? I thought it wasn’t coming out till February. Waiting with bated breath! Off to read your review.

Currently reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

Currently reading Freedom Dues by Indra Zuno (arc), but considering I set myself a hefty goal of 150 books for the reading challenge, there are sure going to be multiple other histo -fiction books in that list.

Not opened yet, but on the nightstand already (as in: on the e-reader ):
When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler
A Man (Uomo) by Oriana Fallaci (A re-read)
The Violinist of Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel
Death in Delft by Graham Brack
and I'm finally going to finish the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( took me such a long time that I'll probably first re-read the earlier books again. Edit: ! not a long time because they were bad! They're great! But I was initially waiting for the Dutch translation and that took forever. Thus, I went on to other series, genres and authors. Now he's finished, I'm finished w/ my former reading projects & I'm just going to read all of them in English).

And maybe, just maybe, I'll revisit some old classics from my Secondary School time. I've always been an avid reader, so unlike my fellow students back then, I actually chose "difficult" and "large"(gasp, over 200 pages!, how dare she! ) books and - shocker- read them. If anyone is interested in some Dutch classics, these two are among my favorite Literary Dutch titles:
1. A modern (90's) classic: Harry Mulish' The Discovery of Heaven (links to bible, mythology & history. De Ontdekking van de Hemel) &
2. Louis Couperus' The Hidden Force (De Stille Kracht. Published in 1900, plays in the former Dutch Colonies,Java Indonesia)


. .

currently listening to And Both Were Young

Thanks, Queen of Swords! I realize I have never read any Dutch fiction—yet another glaring hole in my education. The Discovery of Heaven sounds up my alley.

I’ve been rereading some secondary school-assigned books as well lately. Somebody, maybe Mark Twain?, said you can never reread a book because you are a different person each time you read it, and I am finding that to be so.

The Summer of Kim Novak by Håkan Nesser 4☆

Set in 1960's Sweden, Nordic noir coming of age murder mystery story. I sometimes struggle with translated to English books but this one was really good. The feelings, attitudes, expressions came through loud and clear. I didn't know for sure 'whodunnit' until it was revealed at the end. Good read!

Thank you, Peggyz! I’ll try the Diane book!

Just started Bewilderment44] I enjoyed Richard Powersprevious book The Overstory

Finally getting to The Pillars of the Earth after having it on my TBR for years.

I am reading . I am really enjoying this series. It is a light easy read, I enjoy the 1920's time period and all the discussion of fashion, women working and education. Hope to read more in series.

Set in 1940's in a girls boarding schook, I just finished And Both Were Young by Madeleine L'Engle. This is my first book by her, but I enjoyed this one very much so I don't think it will be the last.

Finished The Ravine: A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed

Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/4432862289

I went astray from historical fiction and began reading the Daniel James Brown's nonfiction book Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II. I'm mid-way through it. A riveting story. Well researched and well written. A compelling read.

Kathryn, I’d love to hear what you think of Bewilderment.

I've decided to read some of the 'good' books I somehow missed when they were published, and the 1995 Pulitzer winner, The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields was one. What a writer! A life in a century!
5★ Link to my Stone Diaries review

Another in the Little People/BIG DREAMS series for children is the stunningly colourful Pablo Picasso by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara. The illustrations by Teresa Bellón are outrageously wild - as was the artist himself, of course. Loved it!
5★ Link to my Pablo Picasso review with several of the striking, detailed illustrations

I enjoyed Isaac Asimov's aptly named short story The Gentle Vultures about aliens waiting for us to blow ourselves to kingdom come. I share his anti-nuclear-war sentiments.
4★ Link to my review of Gentle Vultures with a link to this very short story online

Reading Isabel Allende’s Island Beneath the Sea. Not loving it—Allende’s approach to storytelling keeps me at arm’s length emotionally.

Traitor in the Ice is a very solid historical mystery set in Jacobean England. Really captures the politics of the era. My **** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Maiden of All Our Desiresis set in a 14thC abbey. Interesting theological tensions among the women there—and one really irritating priest. My **** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Jayme wrote: "Finally getting to The Pillars of the Earth after having it on my TBR for years."

That's on my TBR for 2022! Though I currently have so many so- called must- reads on my list, in different genres, it is always a question if I'll truly get to it. How are you enjoying it thusfar?

You're welcome, Abigail!
I really love that quote from Mark Twain (or whomever). Totally relate! I always love it when I suddenly notice new things in books, or when they all of a sudden hit me differently on an emotional level (or not at all this time around).

When it comes to "misses in our education"...I probably have a gazillion. Like the fact I have yet to read a Dostoyevsky f.e. Or Tolstoy's War and Peace. Several years on my TBR List (Like, for 20yrs or so, Iol ) but in the end they always lose their spot for whatever reason.

I truly hope you'll enjoy The Discovery of Heaven. The Dutch Feminist Movement had huge issues with this book back then (understandable btw). Let's say it's a novel that has many layers & can be discussed for hours. And not just because it is huge... One thing though: I've heard several times that the English translation of the book is horrible, not being able to accurately and creatively translate Mulish' prose, as well as the fact that it has weird typo's that create factual mistakes (60 million Jews dying in Holocaust instead of 6. Trust me, he wrote 6. His mom was a German Jew and he lived through WWII). Perhaps a more recent print won't have these issues, but I'm not sure.

Thanks for the warning, Q of S. So sad about the careless translation! Having a skilled translator is so important. Unfortunately, despite my Dutch heritage I can’t read the language—all I know is a couple of swear words I picked up as a kid!

Juhea Kim's debut novel Beasts of a Little Land is a fascinating look at Korea under Japanese occupation, told through the lives of two children, a young girl who grows up to become a courtesan and actress and an orphan peasant boy who becomes a fighter for Korean independence.
I would have liked a bit more emotional depth in the characters so I cared about them a bit more, but the historical aspects appear to have been well researched.

review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Abigail wrote: "Unfortunately, despite my Dutch heritage I can’t read the language—all I know is ..."
^^I wondered! The name 'Bok' is very Dutch. And in this case rather funny, especially considering we talked about secondary school reading material. My first serious boyfriend's last name was Bok!

Too bad you didn't get any Dutch lessons...though don't underestimate the usefulness of swear words in any language ;).
Hopefully you'll enjoy the book, despite the crappy translation.

Yes, my great-grandfather, Edward Bok, emigrated to the United States in the nineteenth century. I’m sure your Bok boyfriend was some sort of fifth cousin! One of my aunts married Dutch fifth cousin, a Roland Holst, and it was from listening to him and his brother talking that I picked up a stray word or two.

Women's words - finally found? Imaginative Aussie author Pip Williams's young character, Esme, wants to put together The Dictionary of Lost Words. Why were all the ignored words for, by, and about women considered dirty? (Many still are.)
4★ Link to my Dictonary of Lost Words review

I am reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. It is good so far I am about quarter way through. Some of chapters get a big bogged dialogue that is not needed but overall plot is quite interesting.

Abigail wrote: "Yes, my great-grandfather, Edward Bok, emigrated to the United States in the nineteenth century. I’m sure your Bok boyfriend was some sort of fifth cousin! One of my aunts married Dutch fifth cousi..."
Love all this stuff! My dad is thinking of doing geneology work with our family name, since my brother is the last male in the
line and had a daughter. (His idea would then be for me -as a former journalist, writer and historian [former because of serious illness] - to write a book about any and all interesting figures that he'll come across.)

Bw, your aunt chose someone with an interesting name. Considering it is his full name there's obviously no relation, but the entirety of his first & last name is also a famous last name (Roland Holst) in Dutch literature. Henriette Roland Holst & Adriaan Roland Holst >> the King & Queen of Dutch poetry, for starters. Nominated for a Nobel in Literature even. Schools and buildings are named after them.

okay... back to books!

Finished Island Beneath the Sea, which I admired more as it went along. Taking a break from seriousness with Right Ho, Jeeves; P. G. Wodehouse’s effervescent talent always leave me gasping with delight.

Kristina wrote: "To Serve Them All My Days - R.F. Delferfield
Set near the end of WW I. A man, seriously injured in the war, takes a teaching position at boys boarding school. It is at the school where he begins to..."

I read this a few years ago and very much enjoyed it! I went to an all-boys Catholic high school, so the setting of this book resonated with me.

The house of the Mosque (het huis van de moskee) by Kader Abdolah, an Iranian-Dutch author.

I am finishing it tonight and I am deeply impressed, can't put it down! It is the type of book I love: a book that takes you to another place and time.

It tells the story of the people who live in the house of the mosque and the bazaar, and through their personal stories the big changes Iran underwent in the late 20th century, mainly focussed on the 1979 Islamic revolution. It is beautifully written, poetic sometimes with a dash of magic ealism at the very end. A great mix of recent history and literature!

I am impressed by this particular history and moved by the characters, who follow different paths under the circumstances of history, Sometimes forced, other times out of free will and the beliefs they develop in the course of the book. It is a book about struggle of beliefs and of coping with change,

Now off to read the last pages….

Finished Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone #9 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Wow ended on a cliffhanger! Love this series although if she takes another 7 years to write #10 I'll be close to 80 :)

Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Finished Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone #9 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Wow ended on a cliffhanger! Love this series although if she takes another 7 years to write #10 I'll be close to 80 :)"

I thought it strange she did end it with the "hanger." I'll be 83, if another seven years. 😎

Eric wrote: "Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Finished Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone #9 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Wow ended on a cliffhanger! Love this series although if she takes a..."

Eric; We'll just end to stay healthy! :)

I just finished Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale .. I've always been interested in the Donner party, but I didn't think this would be the first book I'd read about it. It's a different format than I'm used to but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I would read more by this author.

Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Eric; We'll just end to stay healthy! :)"

I'll drink to that! :))

Eric wrote: "Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Eric; We'll just end to stay healthy! :)"

I'll drink to that! :))"

Darn auto spell! That was suppose to say: "We'll just need to stay healthy! :)"

Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Darn auto spell! That was suppose to say: "We'll just need to stay healthy! :)""

I did understand, but did not want to misquote you. One of the reasons I refuse to own a smarty pants phone. I work from a laptop.

Cheers!

I much preferred Violeta to Allende's previous title, A Long Petal of the Sea. The first-person narrator made all the difference for me.

My **** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...