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Search found 31 matches
- Sun October 9th, 2011, 9:12 pm
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What are you reading October 2011?
- Replies: 185
- Views: 17648
- Fri September 23rd, 2011, 11:41 pm
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What Are You Reading? September 2011
- Replies: 145
- Views: 14793
It's not historical fiction in the traditional sense, but The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick is making me think about how history can always have turned out much differently. Written in the early 60s, it's a thoughtful alternate history in which the United States lost WW2 and is a weakened...
- Sat September 3rd, 2011, 7:46 pm
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What Are You Reading? September 2011
- Replies: 145
- Views: 14793
I just started Lumen by Ben Pastor. In 1939, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a American priest from Chicago and a German army captain investigate a nun's death. It's good so far with well-drawn characters. Reminds me a little of Alan Furst's books, but with more of a mystery/crime plot. [quote=""fljustice"...
- Sun August 14th, 2011, 6:37 pm
- Forum: By Author's Last Name A-F
- Topic: The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1449
The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook
Thomas Danforth has a lot to get off his chest, and he tells it to Paul Crane. As The Quest for Anna Klein begins, its 2001 in New York City in the aftermath of 9/11. Crane, a young researcher, wants to take harsh vengeance on Americas enemies. The elderly Danforth can relate. Hes spent much of...
- Mon July 18th, 2011, 2:09 am
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What are you reading? July 2011
- Replies: 177
- Views: 16395
I'm getting into Die A Little , the first of Megan Abbott's historical crime noir novels with a female POV. The writing's good but it feels more like a literary novel than a crime/mystery story so far, with no real incident to move the plot forward almost a quarter of the way in. I'm a sucker for th...
- Sat June 11th, 2011, 7:11 pm
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What Are You Reading? June 2011.
- Replies: 178
- Views: 16187
A Little White Death by John Lawton. It's the third in this historical mystery/espionage series with London detective Frederick Troy. This time outsider Troy tries to solve murders amid postwar political intrigue and a Cold War spy scandal in Britain. It's a jump in time to an older Troy, but I'm e...
- Thu June 2nd, 2011, 4:33 am
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What Are You Reading? June 2011.
- Replies: 178
- Views: 16187
- Sat May 21st, 2011, 8:19 pm
- Forum: Archives
- Topic: What are you reading? May 2011
- Replies: 216
- Views: 18940
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson. A comically pompous expat in Tuscany and his expat neighbor get mixed up in various hijinks. It's funny and awkward and hard to pull off as a writer, with dueling first persons. It's not historical fiction, but some of you might enjoy it, I thi...
- Wed May 18th, 2011, 3:53 am
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Purpose to historical fiction?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 5340
[quote=""DianeL""]That puts it well (and more succintly than I did, certainly!) - the point of historical fiction is to leave our immediate world. I've always preferred entertainment that takes me somewhere unfamiliar. Still, a part of that is because I like to learn about worlds I do not know. That...
- Sat May 14th, 2011, 6:02 pm
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Purpose to historical fiction?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 5340
First off, it's entertainment. To be taken away. For me, it's a form of travel. But historical fiction can have a purpose analogous to science fiction, which takes the possibilities made real by hard science and asks "what if?" By the same token, I think historical fiction takes what we know as (mor...