This week’s Geek is all about historical fiction…

See, I like historical fiction well enough, but don’t profess to love it. See, I get in a tizzy when I feel the plot or characters are too modern for the time period, and I end up throwing the book across the room in a huff. I also don’t use my fiction to learn about a historical period (I’m bad in that I actually read for fun and not to learn. Shame on me.), and so I’m not really sold on one period in time as opposed to any other (save my fascination with Arthur books, but that’s more fantasy than history…).

There have been, occasionally, historical fiction books that I have enjoyed. So, I’m going to attempt to answer this question:

A member of your book group, Ashley, mentions that she almost ever reads Historical Fiction because it can be so boring. It’s your turn to pick the book for next month and you feel it’s your duty to prove her wrong. What book do you pick?

• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See: a good portrait of a woman’s lot in life in China.
• Liszt’s Kizz, by Suzanne Dunlap: especially good if one is a musician, but captivating for anyone.
• An Instance at the Fingerpost, Ian Pears: One of the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time, and a fascinating look at Oxford in the 17th century.
• The Queen’s Fool, Philippa Gregory: my favorite of hers (that I’ve read). A brilliant portrait of life as a Jew in England during Mary Tudor’s reign.

For the record, these are YA:

• Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer: we all like pirates; you put a girl in there, and it’s brilliant fun.
• Ten Cents a Dance, Christine Fletcher: It’s not far gone history (only WWII), but it’s a powerful book.
• Ophelia, Lisa Klein: Does Shakespeare count? I liked this telling of Hamlet; it actually made the play make sense. It’s a good book, too.
• Luxe, Anna Godberson:Actually this is really bad historical fiction (one of the ones that make me cringe), but I had a whole lot more fun reading it than I should have.

Hopefully, there will be one in that list someone will enjoy. 🙂 As for me, I realized while going through my lists that I haven’t read historical fiction in quite a while. Maybe I’ll have to fix that…