History as Compelling as Any Novel

Great novels create fictional worlds that draw us in so completely that we don’t want to put the book down. We tell ourselves, as we get to the end of a chapter, “Well, I’ll just read a few more pages to find out what happens next,” and then we find that hours have elapsed as we become swept away in the plot. Yet, many people think of history books as anything but page-turners, but this needn’t be the case.

Two examples of history books as compelling as any novel are Howard Blum’s “Dark Invasion, 1915, Germany’s Secret War and The Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America,” and Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century.”

“The Dark Invasion” tells the story of a New York police inspector charged with finding and stopping terrorists armed with bombs and biological weapons in the time leading up to WWI. Meticulously researched and all true, yet as riveting as novels by John LeCarré, David Baldacci, and James Patterson.

“A Distant Mirror” pulls us into the 14th Century. Focusing on an elegant and ruthless French nobleman born in 1340, it deals with medieval daily life, politics and wars, and the impacts of both the Church and the Great Plague. You won’t want to put it down.

So, if you think history is dull and boring, if you think only novels can be page turners, and if you think that there’s no book that could keep you up all night reading about either the 14th Century or a true story set around WWI, then you haven’t read “A Distant Mirror” or “Dark Invasion.” Get them both and enjoy!