The Young Adult Historical Fiction Society discussion

Welcome to The Young Adult Historical Fiction Society! We want to get to know you better. Tell us about yourself and the kind of books you like best.

FIRST! ;) (Sorry, I couldn't resist. LOL)

Alrighty, about me. Let's see. I'm Becky, 28, and I love all kinds of books. I moderate my own Historical Fiction group Historical Fictionistas and I love YA too, so it seems logical that Elle would invite me over here. :)

In addition to YA and HF, I love horror, classics, fantasy, SF, post-apocalyptic and dystopias. Heck, I'll read anything if it sits still long enough.

Right now I'm working on 3 different books:
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns and
Last Chance to See by the late great Douglas Adams.

Look forward to getting all chatty with you all! :)

Hi there. :)

My name is Amy and I'm a 30ish stay at home mom of 2. Unfortunately, this means you'll see me around here probably more than you might care to.

YA fiction is something I may never grow out of, and can't seem to get enough of it, although I am less partial to realistic fiction (unless it's highly recommended). Other than that, I love just about every other genre as YA, especially sci-fi/dystopian, fantasy/steampunk, pnr, urban fantasy, historical fiction, etc. I'm extremely excited to expand my reading base by adding more historical material to my finished list. This group is going to stuff me full of it, I can tell!

I also have an adult side. I don't read as much sci-fi and fantasy in the adult medium, but I do enjoy historical fiction and romance, as well as urban fantasy/pnr. Every so often, I'll even partake in some smut...scandalous, I know!

MY GOD, STACIA'S REAL NAME IS AMY. *brain explodes* That's more scandalous than the smut!

*coughs* Anyway.
Why, helloooooo there everybody!

My name is Emi, and I'm a 21 year old college student who has an unhealthy healthy obsession with YA and middle-grade books. My favorite genres are usually sci-fi, action, and fantasy, which means that I often wish I could live in books like Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. Don't judge me. If you've read the book, then you know you want to as well. Tesla cannons for the win!

I don't read a TON of YA historical fiction, but aside from the Leviathan books I do enjoy L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack/Jackie Faber series. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting to know you all, and to adding books to my TBR list! Revolution is one that I've had my eye on for a while now. :D

Welcome Becky! I'm glad you're here. I love Historical Fictionistas. It was one of the groups that inspired this one. Stacia and Emi, I don't need to tell them I'm glad they're here. They should know! :p

Hello! My name is Michelle ... but mostly I just go by Elle. Unless you're my mother. If you are my mother, who has been teaching you how to use the internet?! I'm 26 years old and I'm a stay-at-home worker so I spend a lot more time on GoodReads than I rightfully should.

I adore historical fiction, obviously, but I also love fantasy and science fiction. Particularly fairy tales and re-tellings and dystopia. If you can get the fantasy and the historical fiction in one, hey, that is even better. Most of what I read is YA but occasionally I'll dig my talons into a good adult fiction read. I'm of a similar opinion that you're never too old for YA.

Currently I'm re-reading Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy to brush up for the group read and then I'm off to Lily of the Nile and The Once and Future King.

Thanks Elle! :)

Emi wrote: "MY GOD, STACIA'S REAL NAME IS AMY..."

I could've sworn you knew this already. We have several Amy's in our Sci-Fi/Fantasy group, so I didn't want to be another one. I had a gamer character with this name, so it's the first thing that popped into my head.

Hello! My name is Kathryn and I love reading, especially YA and middle grade. I read a lot of historical fiction when I was a teen (I'm 30 now) and went off it for awhile but am back on board. My current favorite is the aforementioned Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy series and I just love the audio version narrated by Katherine Kellgren. I'm especially interested in the 19-teens and 1920s, England (!!!), and also the American Revolution era. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post here as I'm very busy with work, my own writing, and co-moderating another group here on GoodReads but this group sounds wonderful and I hope to get some great recommendations for future reads and enjoy some lively discussions either as a participant or fly-on-the-wall. Thanks for the group invite, Emi! :-)

@Stacia: Hm...it's possible that I knew, but you're right, there's WAY too many Amys on GR (no offense to any Amys!), so it's possible that I just forgot. ^^; I have that problem with Emilys in my classes--going by Emi just makes things easier for everyone. Otherwise my online gaming name is Psyoren, and I have yet to come across another one of those. xD

@Kathryn: No problem! I figured you'd enjoy it here, since you and I have a lot of fun chatting about the Jacky Faber books. Post when you can, and welcome to the group! :)

Welcome Kathryn. :)

Thanks! :-)

Yes, welcome! Welcome. So glad you're here. We've been working on this for a little bit so it is awesome to finally see posts other than mine, Stacia's, and Emi's! No offense, ladies. :)

MUCH OFFENSE IS TAKEN FROM YOUR STATEMENT, ELLE. I shall never forgive you. :)

P.S. That's why I added a smiley face at the end of the previous sentence. It's a smiley face of disappointment.

It is okay, Emi. I know you're trying to be tough to cover your devastation over the fact that I will no longer be flooding your inbox with "Oh, btw!" statements.

*wipes a tear away* You caught me.

First things first...WHAT THE HELL? Stacia's name is Amy?!

Okay now that I have that out of my system...on to the not so introduction introduction.

Hi. I'm Hillary. If you don't know me, I'm sorry! :P
I'm 27, a florist, student, and avid reader. I love Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical Fiction, Urban Fantasy, PNR, and well as Stacia said sometimes smut...but that is because it sneaks up on me in the form of PNR! Seriously totally sneaks up on me! However most of my readings tend to be more YA. I am YA at heart, and shall probably stay that way.

I should totally get back to work now...but I needed a break. People pay me to play with knives and flowers...morons.

I must admit I don't remember being told Stacia's name was Amy, haha. Now I'm going to have to go look it up. She is a tricksy little Stacia! But, on the subject of Stacia's name, she always changes the suffix so we should expect her to keep it interesting. :p

Now lets get to the scary business ... WHAT?! Who in their right mind is giving Hillary money to play with knives?!

Welcome! Yay! I'm glad you are here too!

Hey everyone! Great idea you have here! (Thanks for the invite Emi!) Historical fiction is a genre I've tried a couple times but haven't totally immersed myself in yet. Hopefully this group will remedy that!

I am 21 and a college student (unfortunately) and I live in California. I love reading young adult books of all genres, but my favorites are sci-fi, fiction, and apocalyptic. I'm excited to be part of this group.

P.S. I happen to like the name Amy, but I might be a bit biased :)

Thanks for the invite Stacia/Amy! :)

My name is Wendy, I love historical fiction (both YA and adult). It's one of my favorite genre's, butI'm pretty much open to read any kind of fiction (except anything my mom tries to lend me, I'm a brat that way, haha).

I'm 32 and I have a 7 year old daughter, a husband, dog, and cat. I work as an accounts manager for a publishing fulfillment center (which is a fancy way of saying customer service Representative).

I like long walks on the beach and intimate dinners, ha! Just kidding... well actually I do like that stuff, it's just not relevant, ha.

You're not the only other Amy though! I think we have 2 others in our other group. We could form a club.

I could have taken a guy name. Oh, the internet. You can even change your sex.

Hey I'm Ottilie, i'm a writer, college student, and a literary junkie (a name from another group). I love being on here and getting new books to add to my lists. I'm on here a lot...yay books and procastenation!

Also thanks for the invite Stacia and I did not know you were using a different name, but I don't blame you, Ottilie is actually my middle name

I think this group is a great idea! Thanks for the invite Emi.

My name is Veronica and I am 22 years old and currently finishing the last two months of my college career! I absolutely love young adult fantasy and science fiction, but historical fiction is definitely something I am interested in. Can't wait to get to read some awesome books!

Ugh lucky Veronica!! I have another year!!

Welcome Wendy and Ottilie. :)

Glad to see the both of you over here!

Veronica, you don't even know how jealous I am of you! I gave up on graduating after I changed my major. I have way too much school left!

Welcome Amy! Welcome Wendy! Welcome Ottilie!

I hope you get some more YAHF exposure, Amy. I think HF has a lot to offer but it seems people are intimidated by it, for some reason. Maybe because historically the word history has been synonymous with boring. :p

I think people will be pleasantly surprised by the width of this genre so I'm glad we have a good mix of HF fans and readers with a budding interest.

Wendy, you'll come to find that most of this group (from personal experience) excels at being irrelevant. I, for one, think there is no inappropriate time to talk about ones love for long walks on the beach. :D

Ottilie, I had a feeling you'd end up joining. A little bird told me this would be right up your alley.

Haha probably I read all over the place, but I have a soft spot for YA and Historical fiction so putting the two together is fun! I will be having a lot of fun here :)

Haha I saw the list on another page and I was excited!

Oh damn! I missed Veronica. Hello darling! Welcome! What degree are you graduating with, if you don't mind my asking?

PS: This is like a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club reunion. Who knew you were closet historical fiction lovers? :p

Hey all! I'm Maree. I think I recognize the core group from the YA SciFi/Fantasy group, which I recently joined and went nuts over. :)

I just graduated from college last May and have been enjoying jumping back into YA literature, which I love, instead of all the high brow stuff I've been reading (which is also great, disclaimer!). I'm still really into discussion though, so I can't wait for that!

I also haven't read many historical fictions, but I'm looking to expand my horizons a bit, so here I am!

I like warm chocolate chip cookies and root beer....

Hello Maree! Welcome! Glad you're here and ready to discuss. Yay!

Mmm... root beer. Root beer floats! Even better!

At first I didn't see the word 'root' and thought she said she liked warm chocolate chip cookies and beer.

Then I started thinking about beer floats. Somehow I think a beer float would be kind of gross.

Elle wrote: "Oh damn! I missed Veronica. Hello darling! Welcome! What degree are you graduating with, if you don't mind my asking?

PS: This is like a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club reunion. Who knew you were closet ..."<


I don't mind you asking Elle. I am getting my degree in accounting, which sounds boring, but I really enjoy it! I can always live out the adventure and fantasy in the books I read. :)

Ick, yeah. Although I think we've got mostly adults here, I think I'll still stick with root beer with my ice cream. :D

Hi, everyone! All of my friends call me "Cardinal." It is easy to remember and if someone says it in a crowded room then I am the only one who turns around and that's awesome.

My cousin is a well-known and respected history teacher and he and I wrote a bunch of screenplays for various producers that deals with historic heroes and legends. The film and TV industry is a nightmare so I adapted the screenplays to books. They are not as descriptive as I'd like, but they are a very quick read while getting to know interesting stories (such as the true story about the 16 year old girl who saved George Washington's life).

I love American and World history and am looking forward to lots of suggestions from others.

I never thought of using my middle name (Michon)... if I change it now everyone I chat with will be confused, lol.

Welcome Scott! Good to have you. I am sure there will be loads of suggestions and great reads here.

@Wendy - When I joined GoodReads I went by my full name Michelle. But no one really calls me Michelle so I changed it to my nickname and people seemed to adapt pretty well. But Wendy is a nice name and you're the first one I've seen in any of my groups (that I can recall).

I've only come across one other Wendy, and that's how I became Wendy F, lol. I'll keep it, it suits me.

Yay! A new group to be ridiculously excited about! Thanks for the invite, Emi! :D

I'm Berit and I *may* have a slight book addiction, fed by the fact that I work at a publishing house and they fill up a dumpster full of books EVERY WEEK and we can take as many as we like, because they are going to the pulp mill to be recycled. It breaks my heart to see so many books that will be destroyed, but it fills my bookshelves at the same time, so it's kind of a love/hate situation...

I love any book that takes me to another place, be it far-away planets, enchanted forests filled with fairies and dragons, Regency romance novels with feisty debutantes and rakes, prehistoric Earth, or parallel universes. I'll occasionally read a nonfiction book, but they are few and far between.

I like historical fiction, but I don't read enough of it, so this group is going to do excellent things for the variety on my bookshelves. :)

Oh, and Berit is my middle name (but I use it in real life).

Apparently there is something called a Guinness float. It's the only beer float I'd even consider tasting.

Berit, I think it would be awesome to work in a publishing house! I would love being surrounded by books. I do agree that it would break my heart to see all those books destroyed, but unfortunately you can't save them all.

Welcome to the group, Berit! Agreed. Heartbreaking and wonderful at the same time. You must have a lot of book shelves. Or one spectacularly large one.

The Guinness float sparked my curiosity and I had to Google it. It does sort of resemble a root beer float.

Berit wrote: "Yay! A new group to be ridiculously excited about! Thanks for the invite, Emi! :D

I'm Berit and I *may* have a slight book addiction, fed by the fact that I work at a publishing house and they f..."

That's similar to where I work. I work for a company that handles the storage and shipping for about 250 different publishers. The first time I saw pallets of books being destroyed I felt sick to my stomach. It's so common here. We have a whole aisle full of books that are going to our pulping facility for destroying. It's very very sad.

That's really sad! I bet the people here would love all those books, too. :(

Haha, thanks for the pic, Elle!

Maree wrote: "That's really sad! I bet the people here would love all those books, too. :(

Haha, thanks for the pic, Elle!"

Yes! I was appalled when I first started working here. I thought that they could at least donate them to school libraries or women's shelters or non-profits or SOMETHING. But apparently in the business world, that is like shooting yourself in the foot. We do donate some stuff, but I wish we could do more. :(

That Guinness float actually looks really delicious...I just might have to try it sometime! After all, Guinness chocolate cake and Guinness gingerbread are both fantastic...

I know of only 2 or 3 publishers here that actually donate their books. My mom says that all the time, why don't they donate to the library, but alot of them would rather destroy. It's all about money, sadly.

Why is destroying them better than donating them, money-wise? Just the cost of transportation?

From the publisher's point of view, if they donate books to a library, that library will then not buy the book, meaning the publisher won't be making money off the library.

We do donate to a few non-profits that don't buy books, since they're not part of our target market. We also gave a lot of books to a friend of mine working with women and children's shelters in Uganda because there is no way he'd be buying our books. If it were up to me we'd donate all of the dumpster books, but sadly, I'm only a lowly junior editor...

As Wendy said, it's alllllll about the money. :(

Well at least you've rescued some of them. Silver linings, I guess.