July/August 2025 Nominations > Likes and Comments

This month we will be nominating two books to be read for July and August to round out the western summer.

Nominations must include two books- a historical fiction novel and a historical non-fiction. The two books must be related somehow. Examples - fiction and non-fiction about the same person, a fiction novel about a specific event and a related non-fiction about the same event. Nominations that do not include TWO books will not be counted.

REMINDERS
NO SELF NOMINATIONS- Any member who self nominates a book, will have the post deleted and the member will be removed from the group.
NOMINATION POST MUST INCLUDE: TITLE, AUTHOR, ANDHOW BOTH BOOKS ARE RELATED - If any one of these three things is missing from the nomination post, it will not be counted.
EVERY MEMBER GETS ONE NOMINATION AND ONE SECOND - Please make sure you are clearly marking if you are nominating and/or seconding a book. Too much extra chatter in the nomination thread makes it difficult for the moderators to keep track of the books that need to be counted.
BOOKS IN A SERIES MUST BE READ IN SERIES ORDER -Book 4 in a series cannot be nominated if the group has not read books 1-3
For a complete breakdown of how the nomination process works, see this thread - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE look over the bookshelf containing all of the past group reads. Past group reads cannot be nominated again - https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

I am nominating Stormbird by Conn Iggulden and The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones.

Both books deal with the Wars of the Roses time period in 15th century England.

I nominate The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez for the historical fiction novel, and The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough for the historical non-fiction.
Both books are about the creation of the Panama Canal.

I’d like to nominate Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker about a family of glassmakers in Venice throughout the centuries from the early Renaissance for the historical fiction and John Julias Nowich’s A History of Venice for the non-fiction. Sorry I don’t know how to link to the books here!

I nominate West of Santillane by Brook Allen for the novel, and Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier by Stephen E. Ambrose for the history. The novel is about the life of William Clark's wife, Julia Hancock, while the history is about the Lewis & Clark expedition.

The book thief by Markus Zusak

I nominate The Entire Memoirs of Margeurite de Valois, Queen of Navarre and Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas.

Subject is the French Queen, Margeurite, (Margot) whose loyalties were in conflict between her mother, Catherine de Medici and her husband Henri de Navarre.

Linda wrote: "I’d like to nominate Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker about a family of glassmakers in Venice throughout the centuries from the early Renaissance for the historical fiction and John Julias Nowich’s..."

Linda, there may be a quicker or different way to link, but what I do is have 2 tabs open for GoodReads, one which would be this current page where you comment, the other tab would be the book you want to nominate. Go to 2nd tab "book to nominate" and copy the entire web address (URL?), then go back to 1st tab and paste the website you copied into your comment. Hope this helps.

I nominate The Mailbox of the Impure by Chilean author Francisca Solar

Colleen, thank you so much! I don’t know if I can edit my original comment to add the links but from now on I will follow the steps you described to link to books. I appreciate it, thanks again!

There is indeed a quicker way to link to books, though it's only available in the browser. Click the "add book/author" link on top of the comment box.

You do not need a link as long as you have both title and author. That’s enough for anyone to look up the books if they want.

Additionally if you are using the app, the “add book” feature is not available. This is why we only ask for title and author and not a link.

I second Kylie’s nomination of The Great Divide and The Path Between the Seas.

Erica wrote: "The book thief by Markus Zusak"

Will not count. See the very first post.

rochelle wrote: "I nominate The Entire Memoirs of Margeurite de Valois, Queen of Navarre and Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas.

Subject is the French Queen, Margeurite, (Margot) whose loyalties were in conflict bet..."

Will not count. See the first post.

Ariela wrote: "I nominate The Mailbox of the Impure by Chilean author Francisca Solar"

Will not count. See the first post.

I nominate for historical fiction The Collector's Daughter by Gill Paul. Novel of Lady Evelyn Herbert who in 1922 worked with her father, Lord Carnardon, and Howard Carter in the search for the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

And for historical non-fiction A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology by Toby Wilkinson. "History of the West's scramble for the riches of Ancient Egypt".

I second The Great Divide (this might be the Spanish language edition although Libby has it in English) and The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914.

I second Stormbird and The Wars of the Roses.

Im not sure why my nomination doesn’t count. One is a self written memoir and the other a novel by Alexander Dumas.

I second Stormbird by Conn Iggulden

I nominate Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray historical fiction

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey Non Fiction
Both books are about Frances Perkins

I second The Great Divide

I second Eileen's nominations of West of Santillane and Undaunted courage.

I second Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray & The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey

I nominate: Summer Queen (Eleanor of Aquitaine Book 1) by Elizabeth Chadwick 2013 : Historical Fiction
I nominate Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England by Ralph V Turner, 2011 : Non Fition

Both books are about Eleanor of Aquitaine Book

I second The Great Divide and path between the seas books in Panama Canal

Books about the Panama Canal

I second West of Santillana and Undaunted courage.

For Historical Fictionistas, Jul-Aug Group. Read, I nominate

For Fiction: A Place of Execution by Val McDermid. A historical mystery set in 1960’s
Derbyshire, England.
For Nonfiction, I nominate: Citation.
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid. The. Author of ccccrime-fiction novels examines the real-world intricacies of criminal investigations in the UK. So we have an example of a novel,and also her nonfiction-journalism working with criminal investigators. Interesting to use the same. Author, IMHO.

I second Place of Execution and Citation. Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid

I second Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray, and The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirstin Downey.

I nominate the historical fiction, “Angels of the Resistance” by Noelle Salazar, alongside the nonfiction book, “Three Ordinary Girls” by Bruce Boertje and Melissa Müller.

This pairing is about/based on the true story of three teenage women in Haarlem, NL, named Hannie Schaft, and Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, who actively participated in the Dutch resistance. If you haven’t read up on these women, I highly suggest it. Their story is incredibly inspiring and their bravery astounds me.

I have a personal tie to this story that makes me love it more— my grandmother was also from Haarlem and was a member of the Dutch resistance. Many of the stories I read here mirror things that she told me when I was younger.