History readers tend to have advanced bookworm habits. There’s just
so much goodness out there on the world’s bookshelves, digital and actual. You could spend several lifetimes just reading history and historical fiction, and you’d barely make a dent.
So this one goes out to the history buffs. We’ve put together a curated sampling of the most highly rated and beloved books of the past 10 years, sorted into historical fiction and nonfiction history (including historical biographies).
Some potential destinations, in time and place:
The Calamity Club, the new novel from
Kathryn Stockett (The Help), invites readers to Oxford, Mississippi, circa 1933.
Allegra Goodman’s
Isola tells the real-life story of a 16th-century noblewoman abandoned on a small island off the coast of New France (Canada). In
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, author
Lisa See profiles a pioneering female physician in Ming Dynasty China.
On the nonfiction side of things, you can visit the ancient Mediterranean city of
Carthage or collect ground-level World War II stories of
D-Day from the sailors and soldiers who were actually there. For a double-reverse take on books and history, check out
Evan Friss’
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore.
Click on the book cover images for more information about each title. If you want to organize your own digital shelf of history books, you can use the
Want to Read button below each image.
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