Six Great Bossy Historical Fiction Reads
I loved so many historical fiction books last year. Here are just six of my favorite reads--some of which cross genres into mystery, science fiction (time travel), fantasy (legends) and literary fiction. Please stay tuned for more lists of Bossy historical fiction favorites!
If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite historical fiction reads?
01 A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
I love Liang's books, and this departure from her romantic comedies is inspired by the Chinese legend of Xishi. It's full of danger, deceit, noble sacrifice, bravery, and love.
I would light the fire. I would heat up this whole room. And when that didn't work--I would burn this kingdom down to ashes, turn all its men into smoke. I would, I would.
Xishi is a beautiful young woman who makes her village in the region of Yue proud, for she will almost certainly make a good marriage match.
But she catches the eye of the well-known young military advisor Fanli, and as she becomes trained in playing music and hiding her emotions, she becomes the key to an elaborate, traitorous plan: to overturn the kingdom of Wu, empower her own people, and avenge her sister's death.
She rises through the ranks of palace concubines and gains almost unfettered access to the king, all the while well aware that if she is revealed to be a traitor, not only she and Fanli but their homeland will be destroyed.
I love Liang's characters and their voices, and I was intrigued that A Song to Drown Rivers was a reworking of an early writing piece of hers.
The ending is fanciful and strange; the tone of the book doesn't seem to be leading to a too-convenient happy ending, and as expected, Liang provides a complex set of conflicts to consider at the story's close: duty, corrupt power, the suffering of the common people, regret after retribution, and life-and-death struggles that don't always end well.
Click here for my full review of A Song to Drown Rivers--and for links to my Bossy reviews of other Ann Liang books.
02 Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1) by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs is a formidable, dogged, whip-smart investigator working to ferret out the truth in the aftermath of World War I in this irresistible first installment of Winspear's 18-book historical fiction series.
She knew she was out of bounds, but this was nothing new to her. She had spent much of her life out of bounds, living and speaking where, according to some, she had no business.
Maisie Dobbs begins Winspear's series as a thirteen-year-old servant in a Belgravia mansion, but Maisie ultimately trains as a psychologist, with a World War I wartime interlude serving as a nurse, before turning her fascination with humans and her keen eye for detail to becoming an investigator--despite the fact that a female entrepreneur investigator is an unheard-of position for the time.
The mystery of the book centers around a post-war haven for soldiers mentally and physically harmed by The Great War. But the mystery takes a back seat in the book to Maisie's explorations of human motivations, her interest in others' behavior, and her unorthodox methods of ferreting out the truth.
I was dissatisfied with (and didn't fully buy into) the ending of the book, but I loved Maisie's overall headstrong manner and her rejection of societal limitations. I look forward to reading the next books and to seeing where Maisie goes next.
Check out this Greedy Reading List for Six Historical Fiction Mysteries to Intrigue You.
Click here for my full review of Maisie Dobbs.
03 The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Whalebone Theatre begins with offbeat children's performances on a lazy, decadent English estate in the 1920s and builds to the young-adulthood of each of three characters, which are deeply shaped by World War II.
The war and all its deprivations seem relentless, but for Cristabel, there is a strange and guilty thrill running through it, for it is exactly this thinning of the ordinary that allows the unordinary through.
Joanna Quinn's debut novel is a hefty 558 pages, and the story sweeps through time from the 1920s malaise of the children and the excess of the adults on a secluded English estate, Chilcombe Manor, on to World War II, as experienced by a community of family and friends.
The beginning of the book moves quite slowly, which is fitting for the decadent, ongoing series of lavish dinner parties, hangovers, persistent hangers-on, and malaise occurring for the adults, who are largely without pressing business or life missions where they might direct their generational wealth. The children are largely unattended during this time, but their bonds to each other are solidified.
The pacing of the story picks up, appropriately, when World War II begins to shift the world, exerting changes that finally trickle down to Chilcombe and its inhabitants. I loved reading as the children come into themselves--in fits and starts--as young adults, and I came to care deeply about them, their roles in the wartime efforts, and their potential for various happy-ever-afters.
Click here for my full review of The Whalebone Theatre.
04 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This captivating story involves time travel, but it's primarily about deep human connections, complete with fantastic, funny banter; awkward adjustments to the time period; and love and deep heartbreak. The ending is wonderful.
In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious job: she'll be a handler for expats--and paid very handsomely for her work.
But the expats the government is gathering aren't necessarily from another country. They're from other times in history.
The main protagonist's focus in her work is Commander Graham Gore (a character based upon a real figure from history), who has been whisked from a desperately failed expedition in 1847 to the book's future setting.
In order to be a "bridge" for Gore between his past and the present, she'll have to explain why she's showing so much skin, why it's not healthy to smoke all day, and what a washing machine is.
But the bridge and her client are building bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange, heartwarming, steamy, fraught, and just lovely.
For my full review, please see The Ministry of Time.
05 Rednecks by Taylor Brown
In this mix of fictional and fascinating historical elements, Brown crafts a character-driven story of the shocking, widespread, deadly West Virginia Mine Wars and thousands-strong labor uprising that took place in 1920 and 1921.
In Rednecks, Taylor Brown presents a historical novel centering around the real-life events of the 1920 and 1921 West Virginia Mine Wars. Ranging from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, which pitted 10,000 desperate, fed-up miners against greedy, ruthless coal operators, state militia, and the U.S. government.
What brings the book to life are versions of the real-life figures of Mother Jones (the elderly woman once called The Most Dangerous Woman in America) and the sharpshooter Sid Hatfield; and characters like Doc "Moo," a Lebanese-American doctor (inspired by Taylor Brown's great-grandfather); Big Frank, a black World War I veteran fed up with fear and intimidation; and Frank's feisty grandmother Beulah.
The true events that inspired the book are shocking and often read like fiction--the cutthroat, sometimes deadly efforts of coal-company enforcers to subdue rebellion; the years of suffering for thousands of vulnerable mining families; and the hopeless trudge forward in a cycle of poor health, hunger, too-little pay and carefully orchestrated poverty, extremely dangerous work, and, often, death. By the time the uproar and intensive violence that shook West Virginia begin to take shape, Brown has laid the groundwork for the uprising.
For my full review of this book, please see Rednecks.
06 We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein
Grodstein tells a poignant, powerful story of the Warsaw Ghetto--of making a life within its prison walls and of finding resistance and even love in the face of despair.
As Lauren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves begins, it's November 1940, and Adam Paskow is one of the thousands of Jews newly imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. He teaches English to children and adjusts to the shock of living in a flat with many other people--and understanding that this is his new reality.
The heart of this story was inspired by the real-life project aimed at preserving the testimonies of Jews in the Ghetto, code named Oneg Shabbat. Stories of various characters are interwoven through the historical fiction novel and add depth to the story.
Adam finds love in unlikely places, recalls his life, and finds ways to try to make a difference in the face of despair. Grodstein presents this incredibly difficult situation through various characters' attempts to accept impending doom, their wavering hope, and the incredibly powerful bonds they build to each other.
I listened to We Must Not Think of Ourselves as an audiobook.
Click here for my full review of We Must Not Think of Ourselves.
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