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Category: Historical Fiction

Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth

Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth

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Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth is a mishmash of different genres: we’ve got supernatural horror, historical fiction, queer romance and a modern riff on fame and the movie industry. Plain Bad Heroines is also meta-fiction as it is about a book that sets off a chain of events in the past that are written about in a book in the present that is being turned into a movie. I can see why people would be drawn to this novel, because it does sound interesting on the face of it, but I would have liked it better if I had not been so annoyed by the narrative voice employed by the author and if it did not have such an abrupt ending.

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Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

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The last book of 2021! I was pleasantly surprised by Rivka Galchen’s Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, so I am glad to finish up the year with a good book. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is based on the real-life Katharina Kepler, mother of famed Imperial Mathematician Johannes Kepler, who was accused of being a witch in early 17th century Germany.

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Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

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I have read two of Curtis Sittenfeld’s previous novels; the first was American Wife, which is based on Laura Bush’s life (the wife of George W. Bush), and Eligible, which is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in Cincinnati. I enjoyed reading both of those novels; they are both character-driven, interesting reads, although Eligible ventures into absurdity towards the end. I had been very interested in reading Rodham since it was first published last year, not so much because I am a fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton, but because by now I trust Sittenfeld to write a good book. And Rodham is a good book. I cannot tell you how close Sittenfeld’s Hillary Rodham is to the real Hillary Rodham Clinton, but it is a super fascinating “what if?” novel that I highly recommend. The premise of Rodham is this: What if Hillary Rodham had never married Bill Clinton?

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Lilia by Linda Ganzini

Lilia by Linda Ganzini

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One of the categories for the Indigo 2021 Reading Challenge is “A book by a local author”, so I went to my local independent bookstore in search for a book by a local author. It was slim pickings unless I wanted to read about the Okanagan (which I do not since I have lived here for over eighteen years). I picked out Lilia by Linda Ganzini not so much because I wanted to read another book about World War II, but because Lilia is a true story based on Ganzini’s mother’s childhood growing up in fascist, Nazi-occupied Italy during World War II. It turned out to be a very interesting and inspiring story.

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The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

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I really enjoyed Stuart Turton’s first novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. If you like murder mysteries, I highly recommend it. It is set in the 1920s at a country manor and is about a man who has eight days to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, the heiress of the family that owns the manor, the twist being that he wakes up each day in a different body of the guests and servants at manor. It is a highly original novel, which does take a strange turn towards the end, but it is still good. The Devil and the Dark Water is Turton’s second novel, and I had been looking forward to reading it. It is not as original as The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, but it is a worthy follow up.

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Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

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Five Little Indians is a novel about surviving a residential school, only to be faced with trying to survive in the world outside the residential school. It is a complicated story written in a rather simple style, which I think makes it somewhat easier to read. I cannot say I enjoyed reading Five Little Indians; who can enjoy reading about the abuse Indigenous children suffered at the hands of the Canadian government and the Catholic church? But I think it is important for books like Five Little Indians to be written and read so that white people understand the effects of their racism and cultural genocide on their victims.

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Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

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I picked up Cloud Cuckoo Land rather impulsively from Costco a few weeks ago. I was definitely interested in reading it at some point as it is a novel that involves multiple timelines and multiple characters that are somehow all interconnected, but I did not intend on reading it so soon because my TBR pile is completely out of control. This novel sounded just too interesting to put off, though. Thematically, it was not what I was expecting as it is a novel about the destructiveness of human nature, specifically as it has manifested in climate change. But it is also about finding hope for our future. I cannot say that I one hundred percent enjoyed reading Cloud Cuckoo Land as it triggered my climate anxiety, but it is a fascinating and richly told novel. It is also long; it took me about two weeks of pre-bedtime reading to get through it.

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Matrix by Lauren Groff

Matrix by Lauren Groff

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Evie making her Bibliokitty debut!

Lauren Groff is another one of my favourite writers whose novels I always look forward to reading. The Monsters of Templeton is one of my favourite books that I have reread a few times. Matrix is Groff’s latest novel, released at the beginning of September. It is unlike anything Groff has written before. Her previous novels have more contemporary settings, but Matrix is set in an abbey in the 12th century and is about a young woman who is forced to become a nun. It reads like a beautifully composed dream, or perhaps a prophecy, and I found it completely fascinating and engrossing.

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The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

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Have I mentioned that I like historical fiction? I really, really like historical fiction. Ken Follett can be relied on to write some pretty good historical fiction novels, whether it is the Kingsbridge series or the Century Trilogy. The Evening and the Morning is part of the Kingsbridge series, which started with The Pillars of the Earth. The Pillars of the Earth is set in twelfth-century England in a town called Kingsbridge. It is about a prior who wants to build the greatest cathedral the world has ever known, so yes, religion plays an important role in the Kingsbridge novels. There are two sequels to The Pillars of the Earth: the first one is called World Without End and it is also set in Kingsbridge but at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Some of the characters in World Without End are descendants of the characters in The Pillars of the Earth. The second sequel is called A Column of Fire and is set in the sixteenth century. The Evening and the Morning is the prequel to The Pillars of the Earth. It is set at the beginning of the eleventh century and is about how the town of Kingsbridge was founded. These novels could each be read on their own or in any order, but I do highly recommend you read all of them if you like historical fiction.

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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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I have been hearing a lot about Taylor Jenkins Reid in the last couple of years. People really seem to like her novels, so I decided it was about time I read one. I was going to read Daisy Jones & the Six, but then I heard about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and the plot sounded more like it was up my alley. Based on this novel, I can understand why her novels are so popular. The story certainly has a tabloid quality that people like to devour, and she practically bludgeons the reader over the head with foreshadowing that will keep you reading instead of doing the prudent thing and going to bed at a decent hour. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is certainly an entertaining read, but am I blown away by it? No, not really. I was expecting it to be more original, more profound than it actually is.

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