Read Online: Historical Fiction
The House Girl (2013)
3.5 - I didn't hate it, but didn't love it. I much preferred the chapters about Lina, although they were very unrealistic and simplistic. I mean everything just worked out way too easily for her, there is no way she would've been able to find all of these connections in a few days. And to just st...
The Aviator's Wife (2013)
Anne Morrow's story, as told through Benjamin's eyes, reflects a lot of issues beyond the primary details surrounding her marriage to American hero Charles Lindbergh and the infamous story behind the kidnapping/death of their first child. It will make for a good book club discussion which is one...
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010)
Am I the only one who had to restart this novel three times? It is set in a very unfamiliar place (the artificial island of Dejima, off Nagasaki) in an unfamiliar time (late 18th century), and filled with characters from all kinds of places, with all kinds of stations in life--in short, a bit har...
The Silver Star (2013)
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls is about two sisters, Bean and Liz, around ages 12 and 14 respectively, who have a mother that neglects them either totally out of her own selfish needs or mental illness, there are hints at possible bipolar disorder. There also some hints that the older daught...
The Orphan Master's Son (2012)
Multiple characters and multiple timelines were sometimes confusing. Story didn't hold my interest. One thing, made me grateful we don't have work camps. But the storyline is okay. The majority of the beginning leads you to believe he'll discover who he is or more about his parents. But no. Skips...
The Dovekeepers (2011)
Normally, stories which switch narrators mid-stream annoy me. "The dovekeepers" was going down that road, but Alice hoffman did a very good job of connecting the characters and making each of their stories gripping. I was entertained by the novel; moreover, i truly believe myself a smarter man ...
The Lowland (2013)
I am surprised by how disappointing I found "The Lowland." For about 100 pages, in the middle of the novel, I was interested in seeing how the characters' fates unwound. But that is entirely too small a percentage of a 350 page book. Most of the time, their circumstances and internal struggles we...
The Sisters Brothers (2011)
I liked this book a lot and the pacing was fantastic. As a period piece it really immersed me in the time period and I genuinely cared for the main character. The dynamic with him and his brother was interesting and I liked that they were rivals but still cared for each other. The last quarter ki...
Death Comes to Pemberley (2011)
[library audiobook, plot summary elsewhere]A disappointment, after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Maybe I have to read, or listen to, the real Pride and Prejudice to fairly judge these as more than a spoofing entertainment. The reader was pretty flat. The Elizabeth Bennett character had no colo...
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (2010)
This book was a birthday gift to me from my boss with the intention of giving me a good beach read. All I can say is it's a perfect book -- whether at the beach, at home, on a plane, in the mountains . . . you get the idea. I must warn you, though, that you need to read it when you have some ti...
The Round House (2012)
I decided to read this because it is a National Book Award winner and because it has so many good ratings on goodreads. It is simultaneously a mystery, a coming of age story, and a portrait of a Native American reservation in the 1980s. There are some very complex, interesting characters here and...
The Interestings (2013)
One of those books that would resonate differently for each person at various times in their lives. The high school anxieties and desires around friends rang true, tho the work questions posed by Ethan - what gives you the most fulfillment? - strikes a chord with me now. But most of all, the ques...
Questo bacio vada al mondo intero (2010)
It took me quite a while to get in to it but once I did I was so glad that I'd persevered. The prose is beautiful, even lyrical in places. His style reminds me rather of John Banville's in that there is a crisp turn of phrase and a spareness to it but, in McCann, I feel there is more of a warmth...
The Invention of Wings (2014)
This is really good. I wish the author's note had been published at the front of this novel instead of at the end. I kept thinking all the way through the book that it had to be based on experiences of real people, but since I'm not much of a historian, it would have been good to have this litt...
Half Broke Horses (2009)
Pseudo biography of her grandmother who worked hard, lived in real time, not OCD about cleaning a ranch since ranch life was meant to be dirty and that alone depicts a sensible nature to me. Few times she considered to play over work, it was intense (fly an airplane for downtime? Only because it ...