Unputdownables Book Club discussion

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Day the Falls Stood Still
The Pillars of the Earth
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Help

In the Company of the Courtesan

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

I've hear Memoirs is very good! I own Gone with the Wind and have seen the movie but am scared of the book! haha... looks like you really liked it LL, maybe I need to give it a good go.

Wallace - read the book - even better than the movie. And Memoirs is wonderful. How a man could get inside the head of a woman and write so intimately about "her feelings" is amazing.

I second both Memoirs and GWTW!

Ok, I'm looking forward to them both now! People on Twitter saw that I added Memoirs and started chiming in on the convo too... now I really need to read it. :)

I'm going to pop on here and say Stephen Lawhead's "King Raven" trilogy: Hood, Scarlet, Tuck, are really good books with a completely new spin on the Robin Hood story. Very, very highly recommend them.

And if anyone is in the mood for a female take on the Aurthurian saga (beware, it's a mega novel), I'd suggest you swing by Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, one of my favorite books of all time.

I don't know if they qualify as historical fiction or not, they are more like myths and etc but really good reads, regardless. Sorry if I'm "bending" the topical genre a bit with this.

LOVE The Mists of Avalon!

Just finished a HF that I loved - Follow the River by James Alexander Thom. I really did not know a lot about this book, but had to search and find one to fit a challenge task which was to read a HF which was about Native Americans. I searched and this one sounded interesting. The story was mesmerizing and based on a true story which was even more intriguing.

Zoe wrote: "LOVE The Mists of Avalon!"
Zoe, I'm glad!! It's the book that actually got me really into the fantasy genre. :)

The Other Boleyn Girl and many others by Philippa Gregory.
The Red Tent

Sarah wrote: "I'm going to pop on here and say Stephen Lawhead's "King Raven" trilogy: Hood, Scarlet, Tuck, are really good books with a completely new spin on the Robin..."

I have really been wanting to try out the "King Raven" trilogy. I keep forgetting about them b/c my tbr is so big, & they get lost with all the other books. Thanks for the reminder!

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Sarah: Women of Genesis by Orson Scott Card
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

I added These is My Words. I had not heard of that one. Sarah: Women of Genesis is on my TBR list and I have read the other two and loved them.

Linda, I think you would really like These Is My Words! I loved it!

Am I the only one who hasn't read any Phillipa Gregory? I am devouring The White Queen on audio right now.

Phillippa Gregory is a fun author! She writes really juicy HF! :)

Zoe wrote: "Phillippa Gregory is a fun author! She writes really juicy HF! :)"

I'm flying through it. Which of her others do you recommend?

I've read most of her books and enjoyed all of them, but my favorite series is '16th Century Tudor' (suprise, suprise, right?!?). That series is The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Other Queen, and The Wise Woman. Out of these, I think I enjoyed The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover the best.

Totally agree with Philippa Gregory being the queen of historical fiction, her best are the Wideacre trilogy. It is told from the viewpoint of a beastly character though, so it is tough getting through it.

I am reading The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer at the moment. It is set before and during WWII (France and Hungary). If you like historical fiction to be perfectly paced (really tricky to get it just right if you have to keep it exciting in line with historic events), this book is wonderful!