Historical Fictionistas discussion

Hi all... I'm a little bit slacking here (as usual!).

Go ahead and nominate two books you'd like to read with the group in Sept/Oct. Link to the title please, and give a short reason for your nomination. :)

I'll take noms until Friday August 27th, and then we shall vote!

I will be nominating The King's Mistress by Emma Campion because it looks like it would be a great story with a different type of point of view, and The Turtle Catcher by Nicole Helget because I really enjoy personal war stories...

I would like to nominate

1. The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell, for the same reasons as the last nominations...I think people will really enjoy it and I think it is on a few people's tbr lists.

and

2. Godiva by Nerys Anne Jones, because it is not something I would usually read and I bought it recently. So, now I need some buddies to read it with.

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. Yeah, it's technically a Young Adult historical, but I still wouldn't suggest it to anyone younger than sixteen. The story follows several characters in their late teens and early twenties around Manhattan circa 1899: Including but not limited to three socialites, one rakish rich boy, and a disgruntled maid. It's dishy without being trashy, and I had lots of fun reading it.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory because who doesn't love Tudor fiction? I read The Other Boleyn Girl a year and a half ago, and I enjoyed it immensely despite the fact I can't really remember too much about it. Mayhaps that's because I read most of it during a 30 hour trip from New York to Sydney. I do recall wanting to know more about Catherine of Aragon, though.

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk Because the culture of the East in a subject of personal interesting to me, and I have heard this is really good book. Also I have been told that art plays some role within the book, and I love art history, and art in general and find books which deal with art in any way to be particularly fascinating.

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie Really I just think that this book sounds like it could be quite interesting and it also has an Eastern influence to it.

I think reading Godiva by Nerys Anne Jones would be cool also. It is a fictional account based on the legend of Godiva - supposedly riding down the street naked.

I am not sure of another one to suggest..

I second The Constant Princess

I'm nominating these two:

The House at Riverton
Fortune's Rocks

I am nominating
1/ A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
The rich fictional narrative is woven through the factual military maneuvers and political games at the end of WW II, sharing a little-known story of a group of Italian citizens that sheltered more than 40,000 Jews from grueling work camp executions. Rather than the bleak and hopeless feeling that might be expected, the novel has the opposite effect; it reminds us that just as there will always be war, crime, and death, so too will there be good people who selflessly sacrifice themselves to ease the suffering of others.

2/The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
Nothing in Lakshmi's childhood, running carefree and barefoot on the sun-baked earth amid the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon, could have prepared her for what life was to bring her. At fourteen, she finds herself traded in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the fascinating land of Malaysia. Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality and a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful. Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to wrest from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength.

Not getting as many nominations as last month.

I'm still trying to figure out what to nominate...I'm having a hard time making a decision.

Terri wrote: "Not getting as many nominations as last month."

That just means I get to pick arbitrarily. :P

I nominate The Creation of Eve

Sorry... that's by Lynn Cullen.

Linda, I love A Thread of Grace and Rice Mother looks SOO interesting. Excellent choices.

The War at Troy by Lindsay Clarke
I like to read about the Trojan War... what more can I say?

I will nominate the following because they have been on my list to read for awhile and they sound really good:

Losing Julia
Push Not the River

I nominate The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - hilarious and touching all at once.

Nikki wrote: "I will nominate the following because they have been on my list to read for awhile and they sound really good:

Losing Julia
Push Not the River"

Nikki, this is my favorite nomination post ever! Both of these are A-MAZ-ING books. :D

I have been wanting to re-read A Tale of Two Cities for the longest time. I haven't read it since high school and I know I'll get more out of it now than I did then.

The Constant Princess sounds good too.
I wouldn't mind The Enchantress of Florence either since I've been wanting to read Rushdie but don't really know how to approach him.

Now the noms are rolling in. :-)
Was quiet at first, but there's been a sudden dash as the deadline nears.

Silver wrote: "My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk Because the culture of the East in a subject of personal interesting to me, and I have heard this is really good book. Also I have been told ..."

I'll second (third?) the Enchantress of Florence-- that sounds fantastic.

You're welcome Becky, I try lol. Maybe one of the books will win, but I doubt it. Either way I should be reading them both in the next month or so. I look forward to them both!

OK... I'm closing out the nominations and putting up the poll!

I know they didn't... I couldn't send invites out. :(

But no, I don't think that we'll do a re-vote. Most of the people who voted are the people who participate!

YAY! And it's one I own so I can participate.

Meeeeehhhhh, she's okay. *shrugs*

Thank you Heather for the wonderful book you sent me!!!! ♥

Honestly, I can't wait to read it. It was next on my list to read for the HF Challenge, but I was so pooped after reading Shogun that I couldn't knock another one off of my list.

Losing Julia sounds good! Looking forward to reading it.

Hi my name is Squirt and i just joinded today! And I also think Losing Julia would be a good book to read!

Seriously?

@Chris, what do you mean??

Tasha wrote: "@Chris, what do you mean??"

...as in, I seriously missed the voting? I don't know how I did that. Slipping in my old age, I guess.

Chris wrote: "Seriously?"

Sorry Chris... Invite thingy was broke. :(

But you'll like Losing Julia... I hope. Frank is awesome. :D

I'm not going to pull my punches here. Seeing as we're all friends and can speak our minds. :-) Don't hate me friends.
I can't think of a more uninteresting book to me than Losing Julia.
There! I said it.
When I saw it won, my first thought was. Oh crap, not another modern war story. And then I read the blurb on it and thought, Oh crap, and a romance/love story too! EGAD!

So there you are folks. Just putting that out there. Levelling up the Yin and yang on this book selection.

Peace out. :-)

LOL... I thought the same thing when I first saw it Terri. A friend of mine sent it to me on a whim for Christmas, and from the cover and the blurb, I was like "Umm... ok. Not really interested."

But then I got into a kind of funk and picked it up... and I was really surprised by it. I didn't think that I would like it at all, even though I DO like war stories, and it surprised me by how much I really DID like it.

I like ancient history war stories, but not modern. And I can't stand long lost love stories. :-)
I am afraid, I am more into berserkers than tearjerkers.

Smells like a re-read for me. I read it way back in 2004 and loved it. But I'll have to read it again to refresh my memory and be able to participate in the discussion.

Don't feel alone Terri, the book doesn't interest me either.

Julie wrote: "Don't feel alone Terri, the book doesn't interest me either."

Thank goodness :-) there is someone else.

Crazy... :P

Hopefully people will want to read this book... It's one that I really enjoyed, although I certainly understand thinking that it looks particularly uninteresting, because I thought the same thing before I read it. :P

Losing Julia would work for the following challenge tasks as well:

10.2 - Read about a war within the past 500 years.
15.6 - Read a HP Group Read.
20.3 - Read a HF with a woman's name in the title.

Of course nobody is required to read the group read book, but if you want to give it a try, there's some incentive. ;)

I just got Losing Julia out from the library. I checked out the rating for this book on GR since the opinions on it here seem so different. The GR community gave this book a 4.10 rating! For me, that made the book more enticing ;) Also, I'm definitely using it for the challenge.

Awesome... I can't wait to see what you think of it Tasha!

I was wondering if you guys might have a good idea about how I can go about purchasing this book. I usually just buy books from the bookstore (usually with a coupon so it's at a discounted price.) But, this book is not in stock at the major chain stores. It's also not available at my local used-book store and I don't like using the library (please don't get mad at me for saying that.) I only say that because I like to keep my books after I've read them. If I were to purchase a book online, what do you recommend? I don't know if I want to send my money to a big national store if there is a small store out there that would really appreciate the business. I'm in Chicago and would prefer that it come from somewhere very close by. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Ooh... I don't know, Amy. I'm not familiar with Chicago at all. I hope you find a copy though!

@Amy, Try this site, I found some cheap copies!

http://product.half.ebay.com/Losing-J...

Tasha wrote: "@Amy, Try this site, I found some cheap copies!

http://product.half.ebay.com/Losing-J..."

Thanks! I'll take it into consideration.

Barbara wrote: "Read Losing Julia a few years ago. I was disappointed. It sounded better than it read."

I had no expectations when I read it. I probably would never have picked it on my own based on the cover. But I was surprised at how much I liked it, and how much I liked Frank.

Amy wrote: "I was wondering if you guys might have a good idea about how I can go about purchasing this book. I usually just buy books from the bookstore (usually with a coupon so it's at a discounted price.)..."

When I buy online I usually use The Book Depository
http://www.bookdepository.com/ or
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/?gcli...

If your buying from BD its best to look at the book your after on both sites (even though they are the same) as sometimes its cheaper on one than the other..
Its also free shipping!! :)