Another Six of My Favorite Historical Fiction Reads of the Year
- The Bossy Bookworm
- Apr 18
- 7 min read
Six More Great Bossy Historical Fiction Reads
I love to spend Fridays obsessing over my favorite reads, and I loved reading so many historical fiction books last year, this is my third list of favorites in that genre.
You can find the first list of my historical fiction favorites here, and you'll find Six More of My Favorite Historical Fiction Reads of the past year here.
If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think!
And if you're interested in My Very Favorite Bossy Reads of Last Year across all genres, check out the titles at this link!
What are some of your favorite historical fiction reads?
01 James by Percival Everett
Percival Everett's James is a fascinating retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of enslaved Black character Jim, who here demonstrates intelligence, ambition, defiance, unbridled fury, and the ability to wrest control of elements of his life.
In James, Percival Everett's retelling of the Mark Twain novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we hear a version of that novel's story told from enslaved Jim's point of view.
James is secretly teaching other enslaved people to read; sneaking to delve into the library of books in the big house, including works of philosophy by John Locke (he also holds imagined arguments and discussions with noted philosophers during several delirious moments of the story); and is an expert code-switcher who tailors his language to follow white people's expectations of a submissive Black person.
James is beleaguered by the ignorance, skewed power structure, and cruelty of the white people surrounding him. Through a stint as a performer in a minstrel show; a pivotal encounter with versions of the scam artists from Huckleberry Finn, the Duke and Dauphin; and the making and losing of allies and enemies, Everett turns multiple situations from Huckleberry Finn on their heads, frequently empowering James to shift the course of events.
Yet the true horrors of life as an enslaved Black person in the deep South at the time of Twain's novel are brutally evident, and Everett doesn't shy away from depicting the resulting abuse, casual cruelty, and, often, death of Black enslaved people at the hands of white people. The trauma on the page is difficult to read, but more difficult to consider in its origins, as it is rooted in horrifying fact and reality.
I listened to James as an audiobook.
Please click here for my full review of James.
02 Light to the Hills by Bonnie Blaylock
Blaylock's story centers around a packhorse librarian in 1930s Appalachian Kentucky and adds layers like a complicated past, second chances, mining tragedy, a bad guy who's pure evil, mountain justice, and the promise of a happy ending.
In Bonnie Blaylock's Light to the Hills, it's 1930 in the Kentucky Appalachians, and Amanda Rye is a traveling packhorse librarian, a widowed young mother, and somewhat of a local to the region, albeit estranged from her pastor father and her mother due to past scandal.
Amanda makes a special connection with a mountain family on her route that's facing tough times despite their double work at the coal mine and their small farm. The MacInteers--tough yet tender mother Rai, her clever daughter Sass, playful young adult Finn, and a hardworking father as well as the family's younger children--are hesitant to accept any semblance of help. But Amanda brings them reading materials, apples for treasured pies, and some joyful company, and a deep friendship develops.
Blaylock celebrates tough women, stand-up men, and never-ending hard work. Mining's dangers aren't glossed over, and tragedies abound. But Light to the Hills seems destined to provide happy endings. Blaylock offers up second chances at love, avoidance of punishment for our heroes' missteps when they tell the truth about others' wrongdoings, and a heartwarming chosen-family element (one of my favorite themes).
The story showcases a love for books and the power of the written word.
The bad guy in the story is pure evil, and there's little doubt he'll get a comeuppance by the story's end. The mountain justice that's carried out by the women was thrillingly shocking.
Please click here for my full review of Light to the Hills.
03 The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff's beautiful and brutal novel The Vaster Wilds follows a young servant girl running from the Jamestown colony's disease and starvation; she reveals her secrets while scrabbling for survival in the unforgiving wilderness.
The world, the girl knew, was worse than savage, the world was unmoved. It did not care, it could not care, what happened to her, not one bit. She was a mote, a speck, a floating windborne fleck of dust.
Lauren Goff's novel The Vaster Wilds begins in the Jamestown colony in the early 1600s. A servant girl is fleeing her early colonial household in the brutal aftermath of plague and starvation.
Upon being on her own for the first time, she discovers that she is capable of cleverness in the wild as she dives deeper and deeper into the unforgiving wilderness. She manages to problem-solve enormous challenges and, against all odds, survive. Her life in the wild consists of scrabbling for sustenance and carving out shelter; floating deadly cold rivers; and fleeing from wild strangers and beasts.
Hers is a brutal existence buoyed only by meandering thoughts of the past--including her life's one tender connection, to the young daughter of her former household, her former charge--and her growing wonder at the mysteries of the natural world, which are wonderfully imperfect and beautifully wrought by Groff.
I listened to The Vaster Wilds as an audiobook.
For my full review, check out The Vaster Wilds.
04 Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
Lisa See offers a vivid peek at the lives of women in 15th century China, complete with a fascinating female-doctor element that kept me captivated.
No mud, no lotus.
Lady Tan's Circle of Women was my first book club read of 2024, and wow, does this one start off with a bang. Full-force details of foot-binding, and See doesn't stint on the page time spent on the topic. Whew!
Tan Yunxian's grandmother is one of only a few female doctors in 15th century China, and Yunxian is learning all she can from her beloved family matriarch.
See presents Yunxian as a feminist in many ways, but doesn't allow her to feel more modern than might seem plausible. She resists some of the constraints put upon her, particularly those credited to tradition rather than wisdom, yet she feels authentically of this time period.
I love a female-doctor and medical storyline, and I was particularly captivated by that aspect of Lady Tan, including the treatments, techniques, and beliefs that feel of the time period at hand.
I listened to this as an audiobook.
Click here for my full review of Lady Tan's Circle of Women.
05 The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd
The Final Act of Juliette Lloyd is a historical fiction art-focused mystery told in two timelines. I found the story immensely satisfying.
In The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby, Ellery Lloyd (the husband and wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos) offers a gorgeously wrought historical fiction mystery in two timelines.
In 1938, runaway heiress and aspiring artist Juliette Willoughby gives up her inheritance (and dark family history) for love, then disappears into Europe with surrealist painter Oskar Erlich.
She works tirelessly on a painting that garners significant interest, while Oskar's work doesn't get the attention he was hoping for. The tension between Juliette and Oskar begins to drive them apart, and Juliette begins to fear that her family has tracked her down in Paris.
Then Juliette and Oskar perish in a Parisian apartment fire--along with Juliette's brilliant painting.
Fifty years later, Caroline and Patrick, two Cambridge students who are falling in love, are also on the hunt for dissertation topics. They stumble upon a treasure trove of items belonging to Juliette Willoughby--and indications that the famous Paris apartment fire was no accident at all.
The modern-day timeline follows Caroline and Patrick through twists and turns, through the ins and outs of the art world, to the eventual collapse of their relationship (minor note: this occurs off page, and I found it somewhat unsatisfying).
The mysterious appearance of what seems to be a Juliette Willoughby original, followed by a tragic death within Caroline and Patrick's circle, bring the two back together, fueled by their knowledge of Juliette's motivations and their desire to understand the past more fully.
I was intrigued by the structure, and I liked the gradually revealed elements of Juliette's painting and of her past. This was immensely satisfying historical fiction.
I listened to The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby as an audiobook.
For my full review of this book, please see The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby.
06 The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
The Other Valley is literary fiction with a captivating setup: three adjacent valleys, each of which is a different timeline of the same world--and the complicated repercussions if interactions occur between them. Duty, love, redemption--I loved this.
In Scott Alexander Howard's The Other Valley, teenaged Odile lives in an isolated community that's bordered by two worlds: one in which her same community is living in the past and one in which it's living in the future.
Quiet Odile and her classmates are readying to apply for apprenticeships, and as she considers applying for the powerful Conseil, which makes decisions about who is allowed to anonymously travel between the worlds to observe loved ones from a distance, she accidentally sees and identifies visitors to her own world--and they're the parents of her young love.
The Other Valley builds from a captivating premise and kept me hooked--through despair, love, duty, and resignation--with quiet power until the slightly twisty ending, which I loved.
Howard's literary speculative fiction explores fate, free will, changing the past and implications for the future, and other fascinating issues.
Click here for my full review of The Other Valley.