Best Historical Fiction

Want a good book to read? In the novel King's Shadow by Elizabeth Alder, Evyn the main character gets his tongue cut off which lead to a series of horrible, unfortunate events that are full of excitement, adventure, betrayal, and death. People can find all these things in the novel and more and that is why people should definitely read it! King's Shadow is a great book worth the time people spend on reading. It's interesting plot, characters and intriguing dialogue will suck people in and...Read Full Story

The early 1960’s… America had elected the youngest President in U.S. history. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" was the challenge issued to young and old alike. Nightly news brought rioting and violence into our homes, either supporting or opposing Black civil rights. Through the miracle of television, taped footage showed our President being killed, then TV broadcast it’s first live murder days later. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich days of...Read Full Story

And they lived happily ever after...Those were the words I waited for, and remember most clearly as a little girl snuggled up next to Mom, as she read us our fairy tale before putting my sister Pat, and I to bed.  Once upon a time, during the worst crisis of my life, I began to type.  There had to be a fairy tale somewhere to rescue me.  Jeff was a knight in shining armor, rugged, handsome, thoughtful and true.  Beth was a fair young maiden, loved by her family, beautiful, pure and naïve.  It...Read Full Story

Is it fair for a writer to take the life of a real person, switch it around, add bits, fill in the gaps--in short, make a fiction of it?That's what I've been thinking about lately, as Claire Holden Rothman's interesting The Heart Specialist has been discussed around me. Abbott was one of the first female physicans in North America, fighting unsuccessfully to get a medical education at McGill, but finally suceeding at Bishop's University. She did pioneering work in the study and classification...Read Full Story

The Given Dayby Dennis LehaneThroughout his excellent private detective series and his superlative stand-alone mysteries, Mystic Riverand Shutter Island,Dennis Lehane has explored how individuals become who they are.This theme is also the bedrock of The Given Day,Lehane's most ambitious novel.While it retains some elements of crime fiction, The Given Dayleaps into historical fiction with ease and grace, exploring the beginnings of the 20th century and culminating in the 1919 Boston Police...Read Full Story

I’ve always been fascinated by the past. Ancient civilizations, mysterious ruins, grand temples, and archaeological sites – they all provide a window into helping us understand the past. But how much do we really know? When did Native Americans really arrive in the New World and how? Did the Egyptians sail to other parts of the world and teach other civilizations how to build giant pyramids? Were the Portuguese the first to sail around the world and map it? These intriguing questions have...Read Full Story

The JourneyI'm a big fan of stories that cover the early pioneer days of U.S. history. Growing up reading the Little House on the Prairie Seriesby Laura Ingalls Wilder, I always pictured myself traveling west across the vast expanses of untamed wilderness, through the big woods of the Midwest and across the Plains to the Rocky Mountains. Well, I never did - simply because I live in the Rocky Mountains - but I still love stories that cover this amazing time in the history of the United States...Read Full Story

The Olympics are coming to China this summer and a lot of eyes are on the country as it emerges as a world power. China now is responsible for 14% of the world’s economy, and consumes over half of the global demand for metal and one-third the demand for oil. There are over 1 billion people living in China, and the population keeps growing each year. So how did China come to be such a giant in the world simply beyond being the fourth largest country in the world? This is an especially...Read Full Story

The Innocent TraitorI've always been a fan of historical fiction. Not only do they give you a personal, unique perspective on how that period in history might have unfolded, but it also lets you relive that period in time - at least in your mind. The history of England is one of those periods where historical fiction almost does a better job then straight history books. The interpersonal relationships between the royal family, the political jestering of the elite class, and the social...Read Full Story

Elsie Lee is an author that I keep on my bookshelf to read over and over. I never seem to tire of her intelligent, witty heroines. I discovered Elsie Lee back in the 1960s and 70s, when romantic suspense novels were big sellers with Mary Stewart publishing titles like The Ivy Tree. The market was saturated with writers hoping to achieve a similar success. Few really stood out from the crowd. Elsie Lee built up a loyal readership in the romantic suspense genre with titles like The Drifting...Read Full Story