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Historical Fiction Recommendations

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My lovely wife gave me a Kindle Paperwhite for an anniversary present. Yay, although I just bought several paperbacks. Now I need books for my upcoming canoe trip. I prefer fiction, historical fiction is always good. Any recommendations?
 
Pretty much anything Michner.

Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Mauritan series, if you want it a little lighter. (Master and Commander, and sequels)

Kipling. Get a hold of a collection of his short stories/poetry. He's a lot more than the 'Jungle Book' stuff. (which was targeted at kids anyway).

(Kipling can be controversial. I see him mainly as a product of his culture who knew how to tell a story)

Two non-fiction Memoirs, but worth adding:

'Two Years Before the Mast' Richard Henry Dana
'West With the Night' Beryl Markham
 
Killer Angels by Shaara. Covers the Civil War battle of Gettysburg. What is fictionalized is the conversations between combatants of each side. Troop movements and actions are historically accurate. Book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. The narrative flows very well with the fictionalized conversations.
 
The "Axton Landing" trilogy by Tony Holtzman --- fiction novels based on the history of the Adirondack park, lumber jacking and Saranac as a center for treatment of TB.
 
Will D already mentioned Shara above but check out the other books written by his son after he passed. The son picked up the torch and wrote a few other Civil War, along with the Mexican War and WWI, historic fiction novels as well. I've enjoyed all of the books written by them.

You might also investigate books written by Bernard Cornwell. He's an English author who has quite a resume of historic fiction revolving around early English & Viking history. He's also written what's called the "Sharpe Series" about a British officer during the Napoleonic era as well as a few novels around the Revolutionary War.

More you say??? OK, if you really want to sink your eyes into a total immersion, check out any of the novels written by Edward Rutherfurd. He has a trilogy on the history of Ireland as well as stories that cover the history of New York City starting with the Natives and the arrival of the Dutch, the history of London, Russia and Amsterdam if I remember correctly. His pattern is to create
characters and you follow their descendants through time and events throughout the story.

Two last authors I'd recommend....James Alexancer Thom; lots of well researched novels surround the French & Indian War time frame from both the Native & Euro perspectives. The other prolific author is Allan W. Eckert; who also covers early American history from pre-F&I into the early 19th century with Pontiac's War and Techumseh.

I hope that helps. If not, well at least you know more about my other interest (LOL).

Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
I've actually read most titles mentioned, but some others are definitely in my wheel house. I'm terrible remembering authors names and I've got a place to start searching. Thanks folks.
 
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If you do a lot of reading on your kindle check out kindle unlimited. By putting in the search "canoeing" they list 168 titles that are (free) with the unlimited monthly fee. If you read more than one or two titles a month it's worth the $9.99 per month.
"Kindle Unlimited is a new service that allows you to read as much as you want, choosing from over 1 million titles and thousands of audiobooks. ... You can read on any device. It's available for $9.99 a month and you can cancel anytime. Try it free for 30 days."
 
Glenn, your post #18 states "The New York Times," without further comment. This is evidently a claim that the NYT is fiction because of its editorial decisions.

With the election a little over 4 weeks from now, I cannot just brush it off. Please, everyone, do not respond to Post #18.

I look forward to other thoughts on good historical fiction titles, especially those relating to canoes and canoe tripping.

For example, Black Robe (1985), by Brian Moore. Not for youngsters or sensitive types. First Nations peoples historically called French Jesuit priests "Black Robes." I do not know how historically accurate it is, but the story arc involves lots of canoeing.
 
DaveO, I've seen Black Robe, the movie, several times and looked forward to reading the book. After I picked it up at the library, I was surprised at how thin a book it was. And a real let-down when it came to reading it. A reverse instance "if you thought the movie was good, wait until you read the book"... oh well.

Just to re-rec Pitt's mention of The Naked and the Dead, written by Norman Mailer to rave reviews during the fifties IIRC (I did not read it at that time, Dr; Seuss was interesting then).... thinking of reading it again, maybe this will be the fourth or fifth time. Have not seen the film which I suspect will not match the raw engagement that the book brings on, taken from and elaborated upon by someone actually being there in the South Pacific islands during WW2.

After a long wait in line, I'm now third in the lineup at the library waiting for The Long Ships by Bengtsson... started at about 50th earlier this year so any day now. This got great reviews for an account of Viking life and travels, maybe something like the TV series The Vikings... don't know yet. It's been so long since I read the reviews, I've forgotten what they described exactly. Anybody reading the Arabian historian's account of a Viking chief's funeral ending with the long ship funeral pyre along with all the tremendously interesting horrors accompanying that may be in some state of anticipation.
 
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