Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is:
Top Ten Historical Settings You Love/ Ten Historical Settings You’d Love To See or Top Futuristic Books You Love/Ten Futuristic Societies I’d Love To Read in Books — basically this week is all about the past or the future….spin it however you choose!
I do love historical fiction, but I almost decided to skip this week’s topic. Part of my problem is that I enjoy reading about lots of different times and places, but if I read too much of any one in particular, it’s like sensory overload, and I end up having to avoid it ever after. Problems, problems… what’s a reader to do?
Still, I have certain favorites when it comes to historical eras and faraway lands. Here are my top 10, along with a stellar example or two for each:
1) Scotland, 1700s, especially around the time of the Jacobite Rising.
Top pick: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (obviously)
2) Colonial America
Top pick: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
3) Civil War
Top pick: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell or I Shall Be Near To You by Erin Lindsay McCabe
4) Women’s suffrage movement (US) – early 1900s
Top pick: The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters
5) World War I – battlefield dramas or hospitals or post-war mysteries — all good!
Top pick: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear or In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl
6) World War II
Top pick: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr; The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult; The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes… (the list is endless, but these are three recent ones that I read and loved)
7) Tudor England
Top pick: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
8) Australian history
Top pick: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
9) French Revolution
Top pick:Â A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
10) 1400s Spain
Top pick: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks or Incantation by Alice Hoffman
Do you have any recommendations for historical novels set during my favorite eras?
Please share your links so I can check out your TTT posts!
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
I really need to read GWTW and The Thorn Birds has been on my list FOREVER. I watched the TV movie when I was younger and I was obsessed.
The TV version of The Thorn Birds was amazing! I’d love to track it down and watch it again. I wonder if it still holds up?
My favorite time period to read about is WWII. I do believe that a couple of the ones on your list are also on my top ten this week. 🙂 I also love reading about the Civil War, specifically women who dressed like men and fought in the war. I have read I shall be near to you and loved it. Great list! Here is my top ten: http://bookbinges.blogspot.it/2016/02/top-ten-tuesday-historical-settings.html
I’ve loved so many WWII books, but I find that I need to take a break and really leave space between them, or I start feeling burned out. I have a non-fiction book about women in the Civil War that I want to read (just have to convince myself to start!). Thanks!
The last WW2 books I read was All The Light We Cannot See and it was a fantastic read, I’m so pleased it’s on this list! đź’•
Oh, it’s such a fantastic book. My book group ended up reading it as well, and then I convinced my husband to give it a try. There’s so much to think about and discuss!
I love Gone With the Wind so much! I thought the movie was good but then I read it!
It’s been so long since I last watched the movie. I think I’m due for a re-watch!
I’m thinking the same for the book!
Ooh yeah, I loved that People of the Book one.. also All the Light We Cannot See. Basically any touch of magic and I’m in, haha. Great list 🙂
Thanks! People of the Book was so amazing — I always end up recommending it to people.
I love novels set during the war/s. Salt to the Sea is set during WWII and is amazing and beautiful
I can’t wait to read Salt to the Sea! Just waiting for my hold to come through at the library. 🙂
I still need to pick up Outlander. It’s been on my TBR for forever! Nice list 🙂
My TTT
Thank you! (I think Outlander finds it way onto most of my TTT lists — I’m a little obsessed.) 🙂
Great list, Lisa! So many of these books are on my TBR. I definitely recommend picking up Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks if you haven’t already; it’s his masterpiece.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve read one book by Sebastian Faulks, but not Birdsong. I’ll check it out!
Great list! In retrospect I think I should’ve just listed the world wars instead of listing down WW2 because many of my favourite books and books that really grabbed my attention were set in those times.
I’d love to read more books set sometime in Australian history and 1400s Spain; perhaps I have read more set in the latter but I just can’t remember any titles atm…
My TTT
Thanks! This was a fun topic… I do love historical fiction!
Such a great list! I love a lot of these as well! Here’s my TTT: http://wp.me/p4Q518-CZ
Thanks!
I love WWII based fiction, there are so many great books based in that time period!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/top-ten-tuesday-42/
I agree, I’ve read some great ones — and have more on my shelf!
Oh me too!
Gone With the Wind is undendingly beautiful, isn’t it? I read that TWICE last year, I love it so. Rhett is so unique and mysterious… he was probably my first #historicalcrush. *hehe* My TTT.
Grace @ That Peculiar Fangirl
Oh wow, twice in one year for Gone With the Wind? That sounds amazing, actually. It’s been a long time since I last read the book, and I probably should read it again (although I feel like I could probably recite parts by heart by this point!). Ah, Rhett… such a dreamboat. 🙂
I didn’t even mean to reread it, it just somehow ended up back in my hands and my eyes flew through the pages… hehe. I FELT SO FRICKIN BAD FOR MELANIE THE WHOLE TIME. Sure, she didn’t have too much of a personality, but she was still a human! That pooooooor woman. :O
Of course Scotland is top of the list! 🙂
Of course! 🙂 I seem to find an excuse to include Outlander on just about every TTT I write.
I love this list! There are a few titles I need to add to my TBR list! Have you read The Killer Angels? It’s set during the Civil War and it alternates between Confederate and Union POVs during the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg. Ugh, so good.
Thanks! I’ve never read The Killer Angels, but it’s one of those books that people have been recommending to me for years. 🙂 I really should check it out.
Awesome picks! I still need to get to Bringing Up the Bodies! 🙂
Check out my TTT.
It’s so good! Can’t wait for the 3rd book to come out!