Who wants to recommend a book to me?

[[deleted user]]

I highly recommend Innocent Traitor, a historical fiction about the tragic and traumatic life of Lady Jane Grey.Innocent Traitor

[Kurt]

JenC. wrote: "It's so hard to pick one, but I'll recommend City of Thieves.

"

I'll second this choice.

[Kurt]

I’ll recommend Kurt Hanson’s The Imperialist: A Novel of the Hawaiian Revolution.

[SandyC]

I highly recommend Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

[Gianna]

Sandy wrote: "I highly recommend Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese."

I second both of those!

[Melodi | booksandchicks]

So...I've read unbroken, a fine balance and someone knows my name and really enjoyed all of them. I hope you're enjoying the recommendations! I think I'd say a fine balance was my favorite, probably because I haven't read much about India.

[Bea]

Ensiform wrote: "Have you ever wanted to help compile someone's summer reading list? Now you can!

As a summer side project, I'm going to read fifteen books not of my choosing. Who will choose? You will, if you'r..."

One new book that just came out I recommend highly. A historical novel titled "A Song In My Heart" includes CD with a musical score written and composed by Roma Calatayud-Stocks. Here is her website: www.RomaStocks.com with reviews, synopsis, and more. I enjoyed it immensely!

[Gordon]

I'm reading David Gemmell's Sword in the Storm. Okay it's technically fantasy (Set in a Roman/Celt like world), but it's very 'grounded'. It's a gem, absolutely unputdownable!

Sword in the Storm

[Ensiform]

I thank each and every one of you and may well read some of these; however, the original post says that I was compiling a list of fifteen, which I did post on this thread but will repost here:

1. Owls Do Cry, Janet Frame
2. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
3. Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
4. Sarum, Edward Rutherland
5. The Gun Seller, Hugh Laurie
6. Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Mark McShane
7. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson
8. The Seven Sisters, Margaret Drabble
9. City of Thieves, David Benioff
10. Embers, Sandor Marai
11. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
12. Black Hearts, Jim Frederick
13. No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin
14. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand
15. Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

"#1: Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame

Finished. Review is here
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

#2: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Re-read it! The review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

#3 Thief of Time -- everyone should read at least one book by Terry Pratchett.

Finished. Review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Am currently reading Sarum, an 893-page monster that is not my cup of tea. But I'll finish it.

[Chrissie]

Jeeze, Sarum ought to count as three books.....
Are you going to pick a favorite? I want to know what you think of No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II since I suggested that one. :0) This is quite fun!

[Terri]

I was wondering why people kept posting recommendations in this thread...:0
I feel for you on Sarum, Ensiform. Not a great book to be stuck in if you don't like it. I couldn't force myself to keep going when I read it. Gave up on it approx around the halfway point.

[Janice]

It's great to see an update on your project Ensiform. I don't think I could slog through Sarum so I will wish you good luck on that one.

[[deleted user]]

My favourite Phillipa Gregory novels are :
book:The Wideacre Trilogy|80620]
The Other Boleyn Girl

I recommend them to anyone who like Historical fiction.

[Ensiform]

Kimberly said:

I recommend reading Sarum The Novel of England it's an excellent book though I've only gotten a third of the way through it!

While I was dubious about a recommendation about an unfinished book, this project is about taking on all comers. And Sarum is now complete. Although I wasn't impressed initially, my final impression was mostly positive.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Zoe]

A fascinating thread :)
The recommended books can cover more than a few summers ;)

[Ensiform]

Becky wrote: I'm going to recommend The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie. I loved this book. It's funny and smart. :)

Finished. Review is here.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Rusty]

Moloka'i! Of 135 books since January 1 this is the best!!!!

[Gordon]

Robert Fabbri's Vespasian: Tribune of Rome is well worth a read. My review is below:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

[Lori]

I loved . It was a fascinating book covering a few generations with characters who had ambiguous motives. Very good stuff and makes me want to take on the book that Pears was first known for: . It's on my TBR list.

[Ensiform]

Ivan wrote:

Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Finished! Review:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Ensiform]

Hayes wrote:
... will recommend the second best thing: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Finished!

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Kathleen]

Leonardo's Swans, by Karen Essex. With Lionardo daVinci at the core of the book, the story also features in two historical women of power. Very good.

[Ensiform]

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble. She is a serious fiction writer, but this novel is light and well-crafted, it will make you smile.

Finished. It did not make me smile. It made me aggravated.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Priya]

My book'Middle Time' deals with medieval south India and 1996 Chennai. it is a historical murder mystery.Middle TimePriya vasudevan

[Allison]

Just finished A Separate Country, after reading Widow of the South by Robert Hicks. I would recommend both, great reads!

[Ensiform]

JenC. wrote: It's so hard to pick one, but I'll recommend City of Thieves.

Finished! Great book.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Tarrin]

#1 Historical Fiction based on Reviews right now on Amazon. I am very excited to share that my book has just moved into first in it's category beating out 15,000 other books. Here take a look for yourself http://tinyurl.com/3tfwpa3 . I hope you will give it a read!

[Ensiform]

Candiss wrote: I'd like to recommend Embers by Sándor Márai. It's considered a masterwork of Hungarian literature, and it isn't well-known outside that country, except in certain circles. I really enjoyed it.

Finished.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Tarrin: "in it's category"? Really?

[Tarrin]

Funny I saw that, this is why I pay so much money for editors. BTW most authors are horrible at grammar and spelling, otherwise there would not be so many editors.

[Becky, Moddess]

Oy... Well, be that as it may, Tarrin, I'm going to ask you once again to follow the rules and not post about your book, giveaways, etc until you are an active member in the group. You've made 5 posts in the group so far, and all of them have been about your book in some way.

Again, the rule states: "1) Advertising & Spam:
Advertising your book, blog, website, giveaway, etc is permitted - provided you are an active member of the group and participate in discussions, and/or group reads, and/or challenges, etc.

This rule has not changed, however I am rewriting it to make it more clear what our expectation is. This rule applies to all group members - readers and authors alike. We do want people to share their information with us, but this group is for reading and discussing historical fiction... not a billboard. We will post reminders, delete threads, and remove users from the group as we deem necessary."

Please follow the rules or you will be removed from the group.

Thank you.

[Tarrin]

Becky how was my last response doing that in anyway, I was responding to Eni. I misunderstood your rules earlier, I apologized and agreed not to do it. Is this really worth all this wasted time and fuss on that post? Take me off here if you want, I don't want to cause bad blood.

[Becky, Moddess]

I'm referring to your post #79, Tarrin, where you've recommended your book, again.

We have rules so that the group is not overrun by advertising and giveaways, etc by people who do not otherwise participate in the group. We have quite a few authors, publishers, publicists and bloggers in the group, and everyone is welcome to let everyone else know about whatever they want to advertise about -- with the caveat that they must otherwise participate first. Whether that participation is in book discussions, challenges, games, making a list or just chatting, that doesn't matter to me, but this group does not exist as free advertising space.

It is worth the "wasted time" and "fuss" (as you put it), because we are here to read and discuss historical fiction, not be advertised to or seen as potential buyers. We consider authors who only join groups so that they can upsell their books to be spammers, and if that is what you joined the group to do, it is not appreciated or welcome here.

The rules are clear. If you choose not to follow them, you will be removed from the group. That is up to you.

[Tarrin]

I see what happened, I posted #79 at the same time I made the other post you got upset about and you must have missed it and thought I was doing it after you told me to stop. That is not a new post and it was before you scolded me. I thought you were upset about #80. You have already chastised me before and I have not posted contraband posts since then.

If your goal was not to fill up the thread with stuff your members don't want to read you might want to rethink this strategy of having this debate on here.

I have now spent over 30 minutes of valuable writing time on this thread that was completely unnecessary.

[Becky, Moddess]

My "strategy" is to address issues where I see them. And this is not a debate.

[Tarrin]

Becky, I understand. I did not realize that was the rule when I posted it. I should have read the rules before I did, and for that I own up to that, I have apologized a few times over now. I just did not understand why you were threatening to bounce me out a second time when I had not posted anything new and was following your rules. I am fine letting it go if you are. Your message is received, I do enjoy reading the posts on here even if I don't talk much.

[Becky, Moddess]

That's fine with me. Thank you. :)

[Nada]

On top of my favourites, i would recomend "The Seed" by Fola.
It's a new book, just released last July, worth the read...

[Ensiform]

Lesley wrote: My recommendation is A Fine Balance.

Review is here, and I'm rather proud of this one:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Ensiform]

That's eleven down, four to go.

All the rest of the titles in the list are quite long, and since my job has started up again, the progress might be slow, but I am going to read them all.

[Ensiform]

Thought I forgot about this, didn't you?

Terri wrote: "I'm going to throw a curly one out there as I enjoy a lot of non fiction as well as hf. I think this book is an important read.

Black Hearts One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death by Jim Frederick"

Review is here.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The next book is No Ordinary Time, by Doris Goodwin. It won the Pulitzer and seems a very good read, but it's 630 pages. There are so many 400-800 page books on this list, I wonder if some people were messing with me in adding them.

[Bea]

A Song in My Heart

If you like the Arts, history at the turn of the 20th. century, and various cultural perspectives this is a great book. A rare find.

[Terri]

Oh, 4 stars? Terrific, Ensiform. Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death is a special book about a horrific chain of events that led to...well, you know..you read it.

I think it is an important read. I am over the moon that you thought highly of it too.

While Green is a disturbed young man, and would have possibly gone bad even if he hadn't been a deployed soldier, given the environment of stressors and the lack of quality leadership it certainly added fuel to his fire.