Blog Posts by Subject: Historical Fiction

"So all in all there wasn't anything really wrong with my life. Except that, like most everyone else's I knew about, it had a big gaping hole in it, an enormous emptiness, and I didn't know how to fill it or even know what belonged there."

What would you do to fill a similar existential hole? How does a spot of clandestine, government-sponsored time travel sound? Welcome to June in the Reader's Den! This month we're reading the classic time travel tale and novel of New York, Time and Again, by Jack Finney. This is a book that will appeal to lovers of historical fiction as well as to science fiction fans, and there's a fair bit of mystery and romance 

Readers who think historical fiction is blah or boring STOP RIGHT THERE! This list of books, set in Nazi Occupied France, is filled with fast paced adventure, high stakes thrills, nail biting tension, whirlwind romance and daredevil girls who are cool under pressure.

Welcome back to the Reader's Den — this is our final week discussing David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Last week we covered part two of the novel, which focused on the midwife, Orito's abduction to the Mount Shiranui Shrine. This week we will finish up with the last three sections of the book, which include chapters twenty-seven through forty-one, in which Mitchell once again presents new narrators. The first is the slave called Weh, who narrates a short chapter exposing many of the hardships of his daily life. It is from his perspective that we learn Jacob has been working to translate the Japanese scroll containing the edicts of the shrine.

Welcome to week three of May in the Reader's Den! This week, we continue our discussion of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, focusing on Part II — chapters fourteen through twenty-six.

Welcome back to the Reader's Den! This week, we will be talking about part one - the first thirteen chapters - of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. With the exception of the opening chapter, the entirety of part one is told from the perspective of Jacob de Zoet during the first months of his residence on the island of Dejima, off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.

Welcome to May in the Reader's Den! this month, we are discussing The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the fifth novel from British author David Mitchell.

Okay, I confess, I am a history geek and an Anglophile, meaning I am sucker for anything with a bit of British history and culture. However, that doesn’t mean dry, boring or high brow. I still insist that the historical novels I read be interesting, fun to read, and perhaps romantic, and if they have magical elements, even better! The fairies, witty dialogue, and romance may pull you in, but you finish the book with a better understanding of history and society without even realizing it.

Who says that all historical fiction is dull and boring? If done correctly, historical fiction is not dull at all. It's time travel in a book. Who hasn't imagined being transported back through time to experience what life was like during a different period in history? I particuarly love reading stories that are completely out of my realm of knowledge and experience and have a sense of the romantic about it—novels about war, warriors and (ahem) gladiators tend to fit that bill.

"Get out," he said.
"I'm staying."
"I don't need you."
"Don't be a fool. You need someone."
"Not you."
The boy lifted his head from the table. "Don't you talk like that to this nice lady," he slurred.

A decision had to be made.  This argument occurred during the United States Civil War, 1861-1865, in the historical fiction My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira.  Her protagonist, Mary Sutter is a young midwife determined to become a surgeon in nineteenth century America, when a woman doctor was an anomaly.  But the times were not ordinary...