Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Book Chat: Favorite historical novels.

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jessica at Sweet Green Tangerine has chosen history as this week's Book Chat topic. She asked us to share our favorite historical books, fiction or non-fiction. Today, I'm going to share one of each.


First, isn't this the perfect literary quote for this week's topic? I feel like historical fiction gives people in the past a chance to tell their story again, or from a different point of view, especially because I feel like a lot of characters in historical fiction novels meet premature or untimely deaths.

I was originally planning to only write about the new Catherine the Great biography that I read last month, but then I finished The Book Thief yesterday and couldn't resist adding it in here. I'm not very good at book reviews — I'm never quite sure what to include or how to properly convey my feelings about the book — so I'm just going to link to the brief reviews I've already written for Goodreads. They're only 2-3 paragraphs each, but I didn't want to make this post super long, so pop over and take a look!


First up: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Robert K. Massie
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Photo via Date a Girl Who Reads Tumblr

And now for my historical fiction pick: The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
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Also, did anyone else read the Dear America or Royal Diaries books when they were young? Those were the best!! I would definitely read one even today.

Happy almost-weekend! I'm probably en route to visit my college friends as you read this, so I couldn't be more excited for the weekend ahead of me. :)

6 comments:

Jessica Bucher said...

I wrote about the Book Thief too. It's so good!! One of my all time faves. I like your point about historical fiction giving characters new life. Its one of my favorite genres. Thanks for participating!
I know you're busy so I added your link for you. Have a nice trip!!

Erinn said...

I must read the book thief. I'm doing your book challenge and I really want to read that but I'm having a hard time picking which books I want for which category....

Erika said...

My favourite genre is historical fiction. I love imagining peoples lives during traumatic historical times. I tagged you in a blog award if you feel like playing along!

Unknown said...

The Book Thief is great - you really get to think about how lucky you are compared to a small girl during the war.. :)

Sarah said...

I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger.

Check it out girl.

:) Happy Weekend

Jamie said...

Great quote!