I love books who combine great storytelling with a background of accurate history. For example David Grann's The Wager, or Alex Haley's Roots. My focus is on the story telling, but I love to learn something about history while reading – regardless if stone age or 19th century, Rome or Australia.
Hit me.
by delayedTermination
7 Comments
Robert Graves’ *I, Claudius* and *Claudius the God* are classics. They are a pretty immersive picture of the lives of Roman emperors.
They’re “accurate” in the sense that they are based on historical records written not long after the lives of the people in the stories, although those records are considered to be exaggerated when it comes to the juicy gossip and scandals because they were written by historians who were painting the dynasty as being on the wrong side of history. They’re still a good jumping-off point.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
The Revolution of Marina M by Janet Fitch
Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin books are fictional people in a carefully researched Napoleonic world. (As is War and Peace, for that matter).
Technically non-fiction, but large sections of Isabella Wilkerson’s Warmth of Other Suns read like a novel.
I’d go with Carmen Boullosa’s Texas! It’s a great novel about a little known Mexican invasion of Texas. I love the floating narrative voice where you see the points of view of so many people.
I’m also a fan of the Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall books. You’ll really learn 16th century British court politics!
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell and Henry Vlll
The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn.
Set in 19th century Hawai’i.
The Magus, John Fowles
Isola, Allegra Goodman
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
Barkskins, E Annie Proux
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amory Towles
The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan