Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion
Monthly Group Reads
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JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2015 are our Read a Group Read Book You Missed Months!
I think its a great idea! Now which book or books to pick out of the 6,257 I missed :P
I know one I definitely need this incentive to get to. But I may do more than one. I'll wait until I have listed all the books in this thread. Then make my selections. :)
P.S I will post to announce that I have added the list of books to the first post in this thread. So nobody misses the list once it is posted.
I think I will go with
Pompeii by Robert Harris for my Ancient book and
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for my Medieval pick. This will be a good start to the back catalogue reading I was planning for next year anyway.
Great idea. I gotta think which one I'll pick, but I love the concept!
I might use this opportunity to finish a few of the books I'd started at the time; provided I get the time. heh
Great idea! I've only been around since October, so I've missed a lot of great books. What would the people who've been around longer say are the must reads from this year?
Dawn wrote: "Would probably help to have company! :)"Very true ;)
Beth wrote: "Great idea! I've only been around since October, so I've missed a lot of great books. What would the people who've been around longer say are the must reads from this year?"Oooo..I'll have to think about that. One off the top of my head that Dawn already mentioned is
PompeiiI'll think of some more when I get a chance tomorrow.
The good thing is, all the group read threads stay open forever anyway, so as we pick some and read them we can visit those threads to add our thoughts. Or we can post them in this thread. Whatever takes our fancy. :)
I was planning to reread Eagle in the Snow soon anyway, as the climactic battle took place around the end of the year.
Beth wrote: "Great idea! I've only been around since October, so I've missed a lot of great books. What would the people who've been around longer say are the must reads from this year?"I personally would pick these three as my favorites from this year:
A Burnable Book,
I, Claudius &
Roman Blood
I think I may read A Burnable Book. I did pick it up when it was $1.99 a little while ago, so now seems like a good time. Thanks for the rec, Dawn!
The list is now posted...PLEASE SEE THE FIRST POST IN THIS THREAD FOR ALL THE GROUP READ BOOKS SINCE THE CREATION OF THIS BOOK GROUP.
I have only listed to October 2014 as the November and December 2014 books are still active anyway.
The list goes oldest group read to newest.
Hope you find some books on the list to read in January 2015!
The lis
Decisions. Decisions. I guess I'm going to just close my eyes, point at my screen, and hope I don't pick one I have already read.
I'm going to do The Gates of Rome. I have to. I have owned it forever and time got away from me when it was a group read. I didnt fit it in.
Actually, going through them, I've read nearly all of them. Only a few that I haven't read. But I'll read Gates of Rome, as mentioned, and maybe have another go at finishing In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
Did you notice whether you had read more of the ancient vs. medieval?? I seem to have read quite a few more of the medieval reads and I was wondering if it had been the opposite for you??
Yes. I've read about 35% more Medieval or Later than I have read Ancient. I knew it would ge around that though, because I avoid Roman stuff. :)
Oh right, I forgot about the Roman stuff. I'm at about 50% more medieval. Which makes sense for me as those tend to be my preferred eras.
I think loving Pride of Carthage and Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae lit an interest in me for non Roman. I wish there more books to choose from like those. Ones that aren't written like pulp fiction. I'd read more Ancient if there were more of them around. Epic, intelligent Ancient HF. I think I've picked the eyes out of the Ancient books for the polls. Whats left are hard to source or not high on the quality scale.
I'm impressed you've been finding any ancient books for the polls myself. It is too bad there isn't more variety to choose from.
It sure isn't easy to find Ancient Poll books. Surprising really how few quality ones are written in the pre 6th century settings.
Terri wrote: "It sure isn't easy to find Ancient Poll books. Surprising really how few quality ones are written in the pre 6th century settings."Especially without a Roman theme.
Which reminds me, I found an Alexander/Aristotle book that I wanted to mention to you The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon. I actually think it might be too 'sexy'? for us but thought you might keep it in mind anyway. I like the idea that it's from Aristotle's POV. I imagine that it will be a hard to source book though as it's written by a Canadian.
Dawn wrote: "Terri wrote: "It sure isn't easy to find Ancient Poll books. Surprising really how few quality ones are written in the pre 6th century settings."Especially without a Roman theme.
Which reminds..."
There's a U.S. edition of The Golden Mean and I found it at a library.
I also selected Martyr by Rory Clements from the list of group reads.
It's going to be great fun hearing what everyone thinks of the books they're picking out. Especially the older ones like Martyr. July 2012 we had that as a group read.
I just read that one Simona, I thought it was really good.
This is a great idea. I am going to read A Burnable Book and one of the Bernard Cornwells, not sure which yet
Wow, I hadn't realized there were so many Cornwell choices!
I need to read The Name of the Rose someone next year. It might as well be in Jan. I'm also interested in Roman Blood but I have a couple of long ones for next month.
Sarah wrote: "I need to read The Name of the Rose someone next year. It might as well be in Jan. I'm also interested in Roman Blood but I have a couple of long ones for next month."Sounds like you'll have company if you do Name of the Rose in Jan. :)
Terri wrote: "I think loving Pride of Carthage and Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae lit an interest in me for non Roman. I wish there more books to choose from ..."I enjoyed those 2 you mentioned but they are not favorites. I think what Roman stuff I haven't read is not what I'd call quality, so I'll either have to reread what I consider "good stuff" or wait until a new volume in a series I'm following comes out. And-- I prefer Roman settings AFTER Nero.
I've discovered more of the ancient Greeks; they are **somewhat** similar to the Romans and I haven't exhausted them yet. I DO think Alexander, like Caesar, is way overdone and I try to avoid both but can't always succeed,
I found The Golden Mean in the library, also. " Sexy"? I read the book and If there was too much, that aspect didn't make much of an impression on me.
That is very good to know, sometimes it's hard to tell from the summary how much sex there will be and whether it will be distracting or not.
Dawn wrote: "That is very good to know, sometimes it's hard to tell from the summary how much sex there will be and whether it will be distracting or not."Rereading my review it says I was "uneasy" with it at the time but at a distance I don't remember anything.
I will definitely try both "A Burnable Book" and "Silk Road" in January. Both sound really interesting.
Ooh..I just loaded Silk Road onto my new Kindle Voyage. (early x-mas gift from Mr. Kimber) so I'll definitely make that one of my reads next month. Yay!
*pats Mr Kimber on the back* he's a good boy for getting you a book related present. :)
Kimber wrote: "Ooh..I just loaded Silk Road onto my new Kindle Voyage. (early x-mas gift from Mr. Kimber) so I'll definitely make that one of my reads next month. Yay!"I'm positevely envious about this Kindle Voyage. I say this Mr Kimber is a keeper :)
The Name of the Rose is on offer at $ 2.73 (for Italy, maybe for other countries is even less) at Amazon, for Kindle.
Full price for Nam of the Rose in Australia. Can an American check Amazon to see if it is on sale there?
Oh, I saw in another thread that it is on sale in the US and Canada too. Good for any eReading folk planning on reading Name of the Rose in January. :)
The Name of the Rose is 2.99 for Kindle on Amazon U.S.
Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction
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In the months of January & February, we'll have no group reads. Sometimes we need incentives to get to past group reads. By dedicating a special month to these books, we can all work on some of them together.
The List of Past Group Reads. (Oldest to newest: DEC & NOV 2014 excluded as they are still active anyway)
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