I'm curious about everyone's all-time favorite historical fiction books! List your top 5 here...

Mine are (in no particular order):

1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( I think this could count as HF...?)
2. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
3. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
4. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
5. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

As you read more HF, and this list changes, be sure to come back and give us an update! This is a great place to look for recommendations :)

Wow, this was much tougher than I thought it would be. Here's mine, in no particular order, mostly since I couldn't possibly put them in order.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Blue Star A Novel by Tony Earley
Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull
A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

And I'm sure someone is going to come along and mention a book that makes me smack myself on the head and say "Why didn't I remember that one?"

LOL! I know what you mean, Dorie. I had one heck of a time whittling mine down to 5. And now I feel like a traitor for leaving off Outlander and The Other Boleyn Girl :)

OFF WITH HER HEAD! :P

LOL!!!

*gulp*

*runs off to hide*

LOL... I haven't read either one of those yet, although Allison is determined to get me to read Outlander, and I am looking right at The Other Boleyn Girl as I type. (Well, not really, I'm looking at the screen as I type, but I can see it if I shift my gaze...)

You can come out of hiding L, I promise to put the guillotine to work ONLY for spammers. For now.

Oooo yes, you need to read Outlander, B! That is one book (series) that is SO much fun to discuss as you read! You'll have plenty of us here dying to drool chat with you as you go along. You need to meet the infamous Jamie :P

*swoons at the very thought of Jamie*

I'm itching to read Outlander as soon as I finish The First Man in Rome except I work with a guy named Jamie and the thought of drooling over a Jamie kinda grosses me out. :)

This Jamie will definitely have you changing your mind, Felina!

There will be no comparison whatsoever, Felina! Just you wait and see... ;)

It's been a very long time since I picked up any of the Outlander series (just lost track of the new ones), but I have to agree that Jamie is drool-worthy!

My top 5 (This is hard!):

The Book Thief
Ahab's Wife Or, The Star-gazer A Novel
A Northern Light
Skeletons at the Feast
Gone to Soldiers

That list is heavy on the WWII books. 3 out of 5!

Oy. This is a hard one.

1. Possession A Romance by A.S. Byatt
2. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
3. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
4. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
5. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

I am 100 pages from finishing Outlander!!! I was sceptical of reading such a long book, but I could not put it down, and I can't stop thinking about it!!! The best book I have read this year for sure!!! I LOVE JAMIE!!

Just think Summer, you have thousands of pages ahead of you. LOL!

1. Shogun - James Clavell
2. The Seeing Stone - Kevin Crossley Holland
3. The American Boy - Andrew Taylor
4. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
5. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

This is hard!
I think mine would be...

1. The Mists of Avalon
2. Gone With The Wind
3. The Birth of Venus
4. Memoirs of a Geisha
5. Outlander

How has no one said Gone with the Wind yet? Anyone read it and love it as much as I did?

I haven't read it, but I just bought a used copy. Is it weird that I hate movie covers but I think it's really cool that this one has a vintage movie poster as the cover? I would add it in here, but I can't find one like it in our system. I'll try to remember to add it in here later, after I add my copy in.



Scarlett's still swooning, but I just like the old movie poster.

I read Gone with the Wind back in the summer of 1990. I remember the date because that's the year I graduated from high school, and my best friend gave me a really cool, old copy of GwtW for graduation. I remember enjoying it and would really love to read it again someday. Scarlett and Rhett are two of my very favorite fictional characters.

Oh god, that is a hard one,

hmmmm i would say and this is not in order

Gone with the Wind
Adventures of Kaviler and Clay - Michael Chabon
I Claudius - Robert Graves
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

This list will change in about an hour I'm sure, mainly because I haven't put Cross Stitch aka Outlander. And I wanted to put the Iliad by Homer in there but I wasn't sure if that counted as historical fiction.

I would say the list looks like this so far:

Hawaii - James Michener
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Shogun - James Clavell
The Winds of War - Herman Wouk.

Not in any particular order

The First Man in Rome
Shogun
The Memoirs of Cleopatra
Morgan's Run
The Joy Luck Club

No I have to change some of it.

Second version, still not in order

Gone with the Wind

To Kill a Mockingbird

Adventures of Kaviler and Clay by M Chabon

I Claudius - Graves

Book Thief - Zusak

Here are my top 5:

1. Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie
2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
4. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
5. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Has anyone read Queen of Camelot? I am always recommending it to friends, but no one seems to have heard of it. It is completely amazing!!

No but I will have to look it up. What is it about?

Queen of Camelot is the story of Guinevere's life, told from her perspective. It focuses on her marriage to Arthur and the love triangle among Arthur, Lancelot, and her. It is incredible! I can't say enough good things about. I've read the classic Arthurian legends like The Once and Future King and The Mists of Avalon, but this is by far my favorite. You become so attached to the characters...it had me laughing and crying.

Kimberly, I just added it to my TBR. It looks great.

Lyn wrote: "Kimberly, I just added it to my TBR. It looks great. "

Great! I would love to know what you think of it, so let me know.

I didn't managed to get Once and future king, but I did get Mists of Avalon, and why I was there I lots of DVD's as well.

I haven't read alot of the books on most of your lists so have to go add them to my ever-growing TBR list!

I had to giggle about "swooning" over Jamie. I always laugh when gushing about the Outlander series that I have a crush on a fictional character! Every woman needs a Jamie Fraser in their life!

so far this would be my list:

1.Outlander actually the whole series!
2.The Bronze Horseman
3.Memoirs of a Geisha
4.Into the Wilderness
5.Rebecca

don't know if you really consider Rebecca HF but I loved it when I was younger and want to read it again.

Hi Lisa, I've never heard of The Bronze Horseman--it looks really good! I've added it to my TBR :)

I really enjoyed it. Set in Leningrad during the war. Its the first of three in a series but it stands alone well. I haven't read the other two yet.

Ok so here are a few of mine. No particular order:

The Thirteenth Tale
Memoirs of a Geisha
Heavens War
Mr. Lincoln's Wars A Novel in Thirteen Stories
The Last Secret of the Temple

HF is my favorite genre but I have just realized from making this list that I haven't read enough of them! Gotta get on that.

Oh my, just five. I am going to just name them without thinking too much, which means I will have to come back later with apologies for forgotten books.

1. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
4. Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund
5. The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates or The Good German by Joseph Kanon

In no particular order:

The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Count of Monte Cristo
Outlander
Rebecca
Persuasion

Good to see everyone's favorites. I hadn't realized how many books I didn't know of!

OK, I knew I'd have to come back. The Outlander series is absolutely one of my favorites, but I'm going to put it in a category all by itself, like best historical fiction books with a rocking good love story involving a Scottish Highlander hunk.

Like how you think Kathy!

Lisa wrote: "I really enjoyed it. Set in Leningrad during the war. Its the first of three in a series but it stands alone well. I haven't read the other two yet."

The third is absolutely rubbish I would just leave it when you finish the second. Simmons hadn't meant to turn it into a trilogy at all and that is quite obvious because the ending in my book pretty much makes certain of that. But she decided to bring it back again and it stinks. A bad case of an author flogging a dead horse either to make money or because she can't let it go.

Personally I think she'd have done better to stick with writing just the one book. I really liked The Bronze Horseman, a lot. The third book... one of the worst books I have ever attempted to read. Complete and utter rubbish.

Anyway, I shall try to put that filth out of my mind now. I find it very hard to imagine how it got a 4.09 rating on GR which is why I don't pay attention to the GR rating.

My favourite histroicals:

1. Shogun by James Clavell
2. Atonement by Ian McEwan
3. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
4. The American Boy by Andrew Taylor
5. The Seeing Stone and the rest of this series by Kevin Crossley Holland

Glad to hear your comments on the book Fiona. Even after reading just the little descriptors on the books I could see that maybe she was stretching it. I enjoyed the Bronze Horseman alot and really feel it stands on its own.

Okay, I'm going to have to put 'The American Boy' on my TBR list. It sounds great. Thanks, Fiona!

yay!

It is known as An Unpardonable Crime in the US though just so you know.

I have no idea what has happened to Simmons in her last few books. They are becoming triter and triter. With such great novels like the Bronze horseman, Tully, and Girl from Times Square (last two not HF but still worth a go) she's seems to have lost her mojo.

I really liked Tully and The Bronze Horseman - though in part my tastes have changed since then.

I despised The Girl from Times Square. Too emotionally manipulative and empty for me. You could really feel the depth of feeling between the characters in TBH and Tully - Tatianna and Alexander (the characters, not the book) especially.

But in TGITS - I'm sorry but I really didn't like it and only read it because I was in middle of deadlines and it brought a kinda release from all that.

It's such a shame.

Fiona wrote: "yay!

It is known as An Unpardonable Crime in the US though just so you know."


Oh, thanks! You've just saved me from months of searching for the wrong title!

No problem! It's sooo frustrating the GR search especially when US/UK have different titles. What's daft is you search for An Unpardonable Crime here and you come up with The American Boy!

Lisa wrote: "Like how you think Kathy!"

Thanks, Lisa. LOL

Fiona wrote: "I really liked Tully and The Bronze Horseman - though in part my tastes have changed since then.

I despised The Girl from Times Square. Too emotionally manipulative and empty for me. You could re..."

I totally get what you are saying! Most of her novels are completely emotionally manipulative. I read it on a beach some where in Queensland, :), so wanted something more empty. My tastes have changed too.

Love all the recommendations!
My top three are ones that I have (literally) read half a dozen times. The other two are ones that I really enjoyed and couldn't put down when I was reading them.

1. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
2. The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
3. Grammercy Park by Paula Cohen
4. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourne
5. Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourne

Oooo, love to see the Deanna Raybourne books in your top 5, Caroline! I'm REALLY looking forward to reading those. I also have The Tea Rose that I need to get to eventually. I've read A Northern Light by her and loved it.