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[luke77]

Hi everyone,

This book rec request is pretty vague, because I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for. I've had trouble lately finding pleasure reading books that I actually like, which is usually not a problem.

I recently read "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End" by Ken Follett, both of which are what I guess I'd call "historical fiction" novels, set in medieval Europe. I guess what I'm looking for is other novels with unique historical/geographic settings — part of what I liked about these books was the description of everyday life in these settings, because I was somewhat ignorant as to what life was like in that time in place. The only similar books that I've read along those lines that I liked were "The Story of Valentino Achak Deng" , "Emma's War", and "Blood and Vengeance: One Family's Story of War in Bosnia", by Chuck Sudetic. These are all nonfiction while the Follett books are fiction, so I don't really have a preference for one or the other. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Luke

[llanfair]

Anything by Sharon Kay Penman, especially the Here Be Dragons trilogy and the trilogy that begins with When Christ and His Saints Slept.  Brilliant reconstructions of life at many levels in the medieval period, beautifully written, and carefully researched.

[nerdasaurus]

The Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte is super. I especially liked The Club Dumas, The Flanders Panel, and The Seville Communion.

[rowan1]

The Camulod Series by Jack Whyte - starting with The Skystone is an interesting take on the Arthurian Story from a well researched perspective of the Romans and their departure from england.  The later books in the series get a little odd but the early ones that look at Arthur's great grandfathers are great.

[hmaria1609]

Eleanor Hibbert wrote many wonderful novels under her various pseudonyms, her 3 most famous are Philippa Carr, Victoria Holt, and Jean Plaidy.  A number of Plaidy novels have been reissued recently.

[big_giant_head]

Anything by Sharon Kay Penman, especially the Here Be Dragons trilogy and the trilogy that begins with When Christ and His Saints Slept.  Brilliant reconstructions of life at many levels in the medieval period, beautifully written, and carefully researched.

Chime.

[big_giant_head]

I've been enjoying Bernard Cornwell's current series, too (The Last Kingdom, Sword Song, Pale Horsemen, Lords of the North); set in Alfred's England, but the characters are Viking as well as Saxon.  I'm less pleased with the Sharpe series, simply because it's sort of bare-bones...too much action, not enough why and wherefore, if you know what I mean.  Not enough narration and detail.

But he got a lot better with The Archer's Tale and its sequels, and his Saxon Chronicles are great fun to read, too. 

I'm certainly not a historian of any stripe, so I can't tell you how good his research is. 

[daurousseau]

The Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser detail "The Great Game" (England's attempt to control South Asia) in a very amusing and historically accurate way. And show the utter folly of trying to "win a war" in Afghanistan.

[sibyl]

I've quite enjoyed Colleen McCullough's long-running (and just plain long) series, The Masters of Rome.  The first book, The First Man in Rome, was published in 1990 and the seventh book, Antony and Cleopatra, came out last year.  There may be rather less focus on everyday life than you want -- and the series focuses on the elites anyway -- but there's good stuff there.  I'm no classicist but I know just enough to be happy with her research.

[ordinary]

Ditto on the Flashman books.  Novels with extensive footnotes - gotta love it!

I've been enjoying a series of mystery novels set in Japan during the 1690s by Laura Joh Rowland.  I have no idea if they're historically accurate, but they appear so to me! 

[flashman]

Dittos to the Flashman series and Jack Whyte's Camulod series.

I also really enjoyed Bernard Cornwell's series on King Arthur (The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur).

[onion]

From an entirely different era--
I really loved Caleb Carr's books The Alienist and Angel of Darkness.  They are both murder mysteries that take place in 19th century New York City.  I also like Kevin Baker's books: Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row, all also about NYC.  Both Carr and Baker were History grad students, if I'm not mistaken, and their books are painstakingly researched and the characters are engaging. 

[malcha]

I've enjoyed Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series -- A Free Man of Color is the first one.  They are mysteries, set in 19th century New Orleans.  I like Patrick O'Brian (Napoleonic era) a lot, though the series went on too long and went downhill.  I skim a lot of the more seamanly parts, but I love the conversations.

[jonesey]

I really loved Caleb Carr's books The Alienist and Angel of Darkness.  They are both murder mysteries that take place in 19th century New York City.  I also like Kevin Baker's books: Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row, all also about NYC.  Both Carr and Baker were History grad students, if I'm not mistaken, and their books are painstakingly researched and the characters are engaging. 

Carr has a BA in military and diplomatic history from NYU; no grad school (although he was a VAP at Bard for a three semesters teaching military history).

I highly recommend The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss.  It takes place in 1792 and does a remarkable job of showing what the early years of the United States were like.  Liss has a PhD from Columbia in English, and wrote three other highly successful novels while in graduate school. 

[daurousseau]

If you enjoy literature, a fine history of the rise and fall of the German bourgeoisie is recorded in the Thomas Mann trilogy Buddenbrooks, Magic Mountain, and Dr. Faustus.

Then there are all kinds of candidates for history of the interwar period 1919-1939. For Germany, I like Erich Maria Remarque best. It's not scholarly history, but it's narration from first- and second-hand experience. For the U.S., John Dos Passos U.S.A. is pretty good, if you allow journalistic rendition of events as history.

B. Traven's novels bring the Mexican Revolution of 1914 to life.

None of these is remotely like history fiction the genre.