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North America

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Sun September 7th, 2008, 8:38 pm

It was so long ago I dont remember. Though I do know some people are turned off becuase its an Oprah book.
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Calgal
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Location: Northern California

Post by Calgal » Sun September 7th, 2008, 8:56 pm

How about Cold Mountainby Charles Frazier or Louise Erdrich's work like Tracks and The Beet Queen?

Cuchulainn
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Post by Cuchulainn » Tue September 9th, 2008, 1:54 am

C.C. Humphrey's "Jack Absolute" books are good read.

Calgal
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Water for Elephants

Post by Calgal » Thu September 11th, 2008, 8:39 pm

Though not exactly historical, Water for Elephants astonishes as it recreates both the traveling circus and depression era America with flashes forward to modern times. Sara Gruen's work is both imaginative and gripping, full of action, satire, and nostalgia. Pretty much the most enjoyable historical I have read since The Girl with the Pearl Earring with its combination of grittiness and lyricism.

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diamondlil
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Post by diamondlil » Thu September 11th, 2008, 8:42 pm

I loved that book! I will post my review of it when I get home tonight (if I remember)
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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Thu September 11th, 2008, 9:13 pm

I consider Water for Elephants to be historical. The author was not born at the time when the novel is set, during the Depression, so had to write it from research. My favorite thing about that novel was the portrayal of the elephants. Loved them!
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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Leyland
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Location: Travelers Rest SC

Post by Leyland » Thu September 11th, 2008, 9:24 pm

Robert Morgan has written novels worth discovering.

"Morgan is among the relatively few American writers who write about work knowledgeably, and as if it really matters. . . . You begin to feel, as you sometimes do when reading Cormac McCarthy's or Harry Crews' early novels, that the author has been typing with blood on his hands and a good deal of it has rubbed off onto your shirtsleeves. . . .his stripped-down and almost primitive sentences burn with the raw, lonesome pathos of Hank William's best songs." The New York Times Book Review, Dwight Garner

Gap Creek is probably his most well known:

Gap Creek - Appalachian life works in fire, flood, swindlers, sickness, and starvation--a truly biblical assortment of plagues, all visited on the sturdy shoulders of 17-year-old Julie Harmon. "Human life don't mean a thing in this world," she concludes. And who could blame her? "People could be born and they could suffer, and they could die, and it didn't mean a thing.... The world was exactly like it had been and would always be, going on about its business." For Julie, that business is hard physical labor. Fortunately, she's fully capable of working "like a man"--splitting and hauling wood, butchering hogs, rendering lard, planting crops, and taking care of the stock. Even when Julie meets and marries handsome young Hank Richards, there's no happily-ever-after in store. Nothing comes easy in Julie Harmon's world, and their first year together is no exception.

Throughout the novel, Morgan chronicles Julie's trials in prose of great dignity and clarity, capturing the rhythms of North Carolina speech by using only the subtlest of inflections. Clearly the author has done his research too--the descriptions of physical labor practically leap off the page. (Suffice to say, you'll learn far more about hog slaughtering than you ever dreamed of knowing.) Yet he resists the temptation to make his long-suffering characters into saints. Julie simmers with resentment at being her family's workhorse, and Hank flies into a helpless rage whenever he feels that his authority is questioned. In novels like The Truest Pleasure and The Hinterlands, Morgan proved his ability to create memorable heroines. In Gap Creek, he writes with great feeling--but not a touch of sentimentality--about a life Julie aptly calls "both simple and hard." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Other titles:

Boone: A Biography
The Truest Pleasure
This Rock

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Fri September 12th, 2008, 3:07 am

There's also
1,000 white women (which has been sitting on my shelf for over ayear now)

I too would consider Water for Elephants HF.
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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Fri September 12th, 2008, 1:42 pm

I just finished a series by Celeste De Blasis and while strictly considered romance her historical research and details step her books up a notch or two. Starting in England early 19C the three books cover the family's move to Maryland, buying a farm and raising horses to race, events leading up to and through the Civil War and it's aftermath. The last book details the events after the war, the suffrage movement, labor strikes and more. The series in order,

Wild Swan
Swan's Chance
A Season of Swans

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Divia
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Post by Divia » Fri September 12th, 2008, 8:59 pm

hmm. Do you think I would enjoy it?
News, views, and reviews on books and graphic novels for young adult.
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