Historical Fictionistas discussion

Have just finished reading in the midnight sun by Cecilia Ekback.Absolutely fantastic such a great storytelling, the characters almost come alive straight off the page and the vivid, harsh and haunting descriptions of man vs nature vs science vs religion and also the changing ideas of women as a role within a family. Utterly mesmerising

Zoe wrote: "Have just finished reading in the midnight sun by Cecilia Ekback.Absolutely fantastic such a great storytelling, the characters almost come alive straight off the page and the vivid, harsh and haun..."

Thanks for posting about this. I just ordered it.

^ if you like that read Wolf Winter by the same author it’s set 140 years before and it’s just as riveting it’s also set in the same place. So would definitely recommend it

I often read two to three books at the same time. I'm also reading X and Tender Is the Night.

I recently finished The Nightingale. My review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Zoe wrote: "^ if you like that read Wolf Winter by the same author it’s set 140 years before and it’s just as riveting it’s also set in the same place. So would definitely recommend it"

I actually ordered both of them. I've been on an "all things Sweden" kick lately--ever since I started learning Swedish in March.

Ahhh cool well I hope you enjoy them.

Right now am reading variet: by love divided by elizaveth st john, beyond love by d.d. marx, madness treads lightly by polina dashkova and bright from the start by jill stamm.

I decided to watch the adaption of The Last Kingdom and then read the book so I finished the adaption and have now started the audiobook. Very interesting to see the changes.

A Piece of the World – Christina Baker Kline – 3.5***
As she did in Orphan Train , Kline uses multiple time lines to tell the story. I thought Christina Olson was a marvelous character, and appreciated the way Kline took what little is known of this real woman and expanded it to weave this narrative. I liked that she focused more attention on Olson’s relationships with her family and friends than on her connection to Wyeth.
LINK to my review

I am reading A Piece of the World for one of my next book groups. I love Kline books especially her earlier books.

Last weekend finished listening to The Monk -- oh my, such fun!! The king of gothic novels -- lustful monks, naughty nuns who summon demons, virtuous girls who faint at the least provocation, and rather a surprise ending. I also read Kelly Link's collection of short stories, Get in Trouble, which I very much enjoyed, and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry -- a recommendation from my mother, and a real gem in its warmth, humor, and love of storytelling.

Now back to The Traitor Baru Cormorant -- lots of politicking so I have to take it slow and pay attention. I do love the rich world the author creates.

I’m reading[book: A thousand tales of Johannesburg: A city novel. Gives an historical and social perspective woven into the story.

Finished another excellent David Malouf story set in Queensland, Harland's Half Acre. He's one of our best Aussie authors.
4.5★ Link to my review

I am currently reading City of Lies, a new series by the author, Victoria Thompson. Some of you may remember this author write the Gaslight mysteries which took place e in Manhattan.


I am also reading The Party, a Kindle book which looks very intriguing.

Finished Dragondrums and onto the third in the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy The White Dragon to finish up this re-read of two classic SF/F series.

All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot – 4****
I am definitely *not* an animal person but Herriot’s reminiscences of his early efforts to build a veterinary practice in Yorkshire in the mid to late 1930s were delightful, if a bit repetitious. This is a re-read for me, and my rating reflects my first impressions when I first read it in the early to mid-1970s.
LINK to my review

I have a soft spot for good short stories, but not soft enough to include this collection, Skating on the Vertical by Jan English, Leary.
3★ Link to my review

The Making of the President 1960 – Theodore H White – 3***
Subtitle: A Narrative History of American Politics in Action. About a year before the November 1960 election, Theodore H White began studying the likely candidates for President. He followed them through primaries, state caucuses, the national convention and the campaign for the Presidency. It’s somewhat dated – the process is different more than half a century later. And yet, there is something timeless about this story.
LINK to my review

We read that in one of my political science classes in college, it's such a classic.

Reading “The Weaker Vessel” by Antonia Fraser. I really like it!

I’m reading The President’s Keepers by Jacques Pauw. A fascinating exposure of corruption in high places in South Africa

Jennifer wrote: "Reading “The Weaker Vessel” by Antonia Fraser. I really like it!"

Excellent book.

Finished Sharpe's Rifles By Bernard Cornwell. My first introduction to Richard Sharpe. A quicker read for me than I had expected, the pace in the story is relatively fast despite the slog of difficult marches for the troops. Enjoyed it overall. Interesting characters.

I am reading two books which are very different. One is the first book in a new series by Victoria Thompson who previously wrote the Gaslight mysteries. This first book in the new series is City of Lies.

The second book was advertised on Amazon and is real good. It is The Party by Robyn Harding. It asks the question what could go wrong at a sweet 16 party with 5 young women?

My computer's been on the fritz and it's amazing how much I've become accustomed to marking my reading habits on Goodreads - and how lost I feel without it!!! I've become really anal about recording my reading on both this site and on my library's Bibliocommons page - it's like I'm not actually reading it if I can't keep track of it in cyberspace!

Just finished up a couple of good ones - The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve, historical fiction and Swiss Vendetta by Tracee de Hahn, a mystery. Also finished slogging my way through The German Girl and rewarded myself with a little light hearted, mental bubblegum with My Not So Perfect Life.

Now, on to Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson, one of the selections for my library's Mock Printz discussion. I see lots of YA in my future!

Dodsworth, by Sinclair Lewis, excellent observations on the American abroad. Then I wanted more Lewis so I had to re-read Babbitt -- poor George, so constrained and confused and unhappy. Then, still in the mood for skillful depictions of character, I did a quick re-read of Hotel Du Lac.

Oh, also As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride. Diverting but shallow -- pages and pages of how wonderful everyone was to work with and how amazing it was to be part of such a special movie. Which, yes, sure, but I was hoping for a bit more in-depth.

I’m reading Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

I finished reading "The lavender Garden" and starting "Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovitch

Michele wrote: "Dodsworth, by Sinclair Lewis, excellent observations on the American abroad. Then I wanted more Lewis so I had to re-read Babbitt -- poor George, so constrained and conf..."

Have you seen the 1936 film version of Dodsworth? It's really good.

Great mystery in Far North Queensland, Crimson Lake by Aussie author Candice Fox, who writes a fine story. Her own outrageous story is the stuff of fiction, so I included a link to an interview with her in my review.
4.5★ Link to my review

Just finished the Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor!! Great book.

The Magician’s Assistant – Ann Patchett – 3.5***
What I have come to love about Patchett is the masterful way she draws her characters. The story unfolds in bits and pieces, much as it would in real life. You don’t tell everything at once to someone you’ve just met, and likewise Sabine and Dot each keeps some things to herself. The environment also plays a role; Sabine is a different person in Los Angeles than she is in Nebraska.
LINK to my review

I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that I can't read anything that requires concentration. I hope to return to Goodreads soon.

Yeah, I can relate (my brother died this month). Do what you have to do, Elinor.

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."

So sorry for your loss, Elinor. Go heal.

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."

Sorry for your loss, Elinor. That's really difficult to endure, especially during the holidays. Sending you healing thoughts.

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."

Elinor, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss.

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."

Terribly sorry to hear of your devastation, Elinor. The lovely thing about the Goodreads community is that you can drop in anytime and be sure of a welcome. This might be a time that poetry would suit you better than a novel. I hope the best for you,

I just finished Walden. The first chapters filled me with enthousiasm, as you can read in the early reflections on this book that are already posted in my comments below.
Then, I confess, the purely descriptive chapters about nature, from the middle of the book to the penultimate chapter, bored me to so much that I forced myself to read this book until the end.
It's not that I don’t like descriptions, quite the opposite. But for me, they must be either poetic, or bring the author to a reflection, or interact with the feelings of the author, or move the reader. In Walden, it seems to me, the descriptions are purely from the domain of biology, which is far from being my centre of interest.
In the chapter The Ponds, I thought I was dying of boredom!
"There have been caught in Walden pickerel ..."
Then follow lines and lines describing this fish to lead to:
"The specific name reticulatus would not apply to this; it should be guttatus rather. "
What to say? When ichthyology (Greek terms: ἰχθύς, ikhthus, "fish" and λόγος, logos, "speeches" ... Yes, I learned some Greek at school, but that's Wikipedia!) So, when ichthyology is not your passion, the chapter "The Ponds" is as long as a fishing day without fish ... and without a book!

Then, the chapter "Higher laws" promised to raise my thought a bit.
But I found Thoreau’s lack of pleasure which I had already noted in my first comments below.
I was especially questioned by the passage about the food. Thoreau doesn’t seem to become partly vegetarian by taste, but by reluctance of the work it is to empty and clean a fish.
"Having been my own butcher and scullion and cook, as well as the gentleman for whom the dishes were served up, I can speak from an unusually complete experience. The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness."
Thoreau admits to having no pleasure:
"I had rarely for many years used animal food, or tea, or coffee, etc.; not so much because of any ill effects which I had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my imagination."
And this is so contrary to the French romantic poets who were able to combine pleasure, work, poetry and high thoughts: Théophile Gautier, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Balzac, Flaubert or George Sand, all of them had, without necessarily being greedy, had pleasure to eat or drink.

And this reflection of Thoreau without pleasure on the fact of being vegetarian reminded me of another great French vegetarian: Arsene Houssaye (1814-1896), director of the French Theater (La Comédie Française) and friend of the aforementioned authors. This is how he writes about what he eats:
"I advocate Champagne wine, and I still firmly believe in the visible or occult forces of vegetable life. The gold of the wheat, the gold of the bunch, the gold of the olive oil, the gold of the butter worked by the robust hands of the farmer’s wife, all these golds are turn into red blood by the miracles of the stomach. Into red blood also, are transformed green colors. The luxuriance of the fruit-wall, the apricot, the plum and the peach, the pears on the branch; cherries, strawberries, and raspberries, which laugh in the path with their ardent lips, also have their living forces. Now, since the lazy and greedy cow takes the trouble to graze for us, let us drink her milk with fervor: it is the white life that will flow red in our veins. "
Isn’t this an obvious pleasure of vegetarian, there? No deprivation, but joy, poetry, colors!

But Thoreau has nevertheless such beautiful and high thoughts:
"The universe is wider than our views of it. "
Is not our own interior white on the chart? black but it can prove, like the coast, when discovered ... explore your own higher latitudes ... Nay, be a Columbus to a whole new continent and worlds of you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. "
Thoreau is right when he writes:
"I learned this, at least, by my experience: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life that he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. "
And he fills me with enthusiasm here:
"In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. "

Therefore, in spite of long, too long passages which maybe some readers will find poetic, but which personally left me as indifferent as when I was in maths or biology class! Despite that, please read Walden, it’s worth it! And when, like Thoreau did, a writer putt his thought into practice by living two years in a cabin, it’s no big deal to spend hours reading him, it’s not a waste of time, far from it! Because I didn’t tell you everything about Walden!
That is why I give 5 stars to Walden, so that other readers plunge, not into the pond, but into Walden, a most unusual book.

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I know how you feel.

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Yeah, I can relate (my brother died this month). Do what you have to do, Elinor."

I am sorry to also read of your loss. Take care.

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."
My heartfelt condolences!! I am facing in the near future similar circumstances and already mourning the loss of the parents I knew & loved.

Finished The German Girl. A solid 3 stars for writing but the slice of history presented was enlightening.

Almost done with a suspense novel Cut and Run by Carla Neggers

My sincere condolences on the loss of your mother.

Kathy wrote: "D.B. wrote: "Kathy wrote: "D.B. wrote: "
Approximately forty pages into Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe So far, it's equally ex..."

Kathy wrote: "D.B. wrote: "Kathy wrote: "D.B. wrote: "
Approximately forty pages into Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe So far, it's equally ex..."
Seems they were fascinating women, Kathy!

Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dearest friend that..."

So sorry, Elinor.

Jackie wrote: "Elinor wrote: "I'm going to have to opt out of group participation for a little while. My dear mother, aged 93, died on November 22 and I am so grief-stricken at the loss of my biggest fan and dear..."

Elinor, so sorry for your loss. May I offer my deep condolences.

Thank you so much, everyone, for your condolences. I know losing one's mother is a common and shared experience and I appreciate your kindness.

Beth wrote: "Just finished Lilac Girls, 5 ⭐️'s! On to A Thousand Splendid Suns."

Two of my favorites!