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Sometimes I feel like not liking fantasy limits my choices so much. I've just never been into it.

I do like thrillers but not the series. I like stand alone ones and not cop oriented.

Do you remember anything you just loved? Loved the writing and the story and didn't want it to end?

Part of my new beginnings is to read. My husband felt like reading was only for once one has accomplished much and has engaged in physical activity. He didn't believe in reading in the daytime, especially is the weather is good.

I want get back to my old self when reading was a huge part of who I was.

Now I just want something terrific to read.

Do you like historical mystery fiction? I just finished a series by Charles Todd about a detective inspector in England after World War I, which was fascintating and well-written. The detective has been in the war and has sysmptoms of PTSD but he is very intelligent and the crimes are complex and difficult to figure out. The author has two series, one is based on the male detective and another based on a female investigator.

Also, I enjoyed some of the Georgette Heyer historical fiction. Some are mysteries and I liked most of those, not crazy about the romance ones. They are much lighter than above series. Her mysteries are "stand alone" books, rather than a series.

[This message edited by Bebecat at 7:40 AM, October 15th (Thursday)]

Always loved Dick Francis.

If you are intrigued by ancient Egypt at all then I will give my standard recommendation for my favorite book EVER (and I've read a lot):

River God, by Wilbur Smith

It is technically part of a series but you can easily read it as a stand alone. I do enjoy the "sequel" of sorts, called The Seventh Scroll, which involves some modern day archeologists pursuing events that took place in the first book. There are other books in the series but I didn't like them nearly as much.

Wilbur Smith writes with a lot of vivid detail so the story feels very alive on the page. I can picture the people and places in his books as thought I'd seen them in a 3-D movie. Terrific historical fiction. If you decide to check it out, enjoy!

Philippa Gregory on the wars of the roses/cousins war: https://www.goodreads.com/series/55424-the-cousins-war.

Now I know why I can't get the wars straight - every family had at least one Henry, Edward, Richard, Elizabeth....

I enjoy Philippa Gregory's books, too. I loved the Wolf Hall books.

Also loved The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies (Martin Millar) - most folks classify it as a light, comic read, but if you know a bit about Classical Greece, it has a very serious and poignant undertone. For me, it was about making ethical/moral choices, and the search for happiness. The themes of the Ancient Greek philosophers.

There is a few good books I read lately. Not sure if they are your type of books but I read. They are all general fiction

The Secrets We Kept by Lily Velez

Shatterproof by Rianne Moss (There is some grammar errors, but the story it's self very gripping)

The Lie Of You by Jane Lythell

[This message edited by regretandshame at 5:09 PM, October 17th (Saturday)]

Really good and really long historical fiction - Margaret George I read the Autobiography of Henry VIII in high school; she was writing about the Tudors before they became hip. I also really liked her Memoirs of Cleopatra and her Mary, Queen of Scotland.

I really liked Colleen McCullough's Song of Troy. She wrote The Thornbirds, and if you haven't read it, it is worth the read.

I like PD James. Not historical, really, but realistic mysteries that are very smart.

I always recommend Outlander by Diana Gabladon. It is the first in a series and once I started it I didn't come up for air until I was done

Historical Fiction

All books by Edward Rutherfurd. He weaves fictional families whose lives intertwine over the course of centuries while writing the history of their country/city.

Sarum

Russka

London

The Forest

Ireland

New York

Paris

The Princes of Ireland

The Rebels of Ireland

I second that Edward Rutherford recommendation! His books consume me.

It is not a mystery, but "The Pillars of the Earth" was a wonderful book about building a cathedral in the middle ages and the politics and people's lives, etc. I re-read that every few years.

The Moor's Account was pretty good, I just finished it.

The Great Train Robbery by Crichton is a good read.

If you'd be willing to read non-fiction that reads like fiction, there's In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie. I'm sure you have at least heard of the former, and the latter is much more interesting that it sounds if you're not into history. I've recommended it to a wide array of people who all enjoyed it.

The Meaning of Night - Michael Cox

Victorian England - A story of betrayal and treachery, of death and delusion, of ruthless obsession and ambition.

The Meaning of Night" is presented as a genuine narrative from the mid-19thC, complete with footnotes from a modern-day Cambridge professor. I found the footnotes sufficient to maintain the idea that this is "real" but not distracting.

This is a story full of memorable characters and glorious descriptions, a gripping tale very well told. I've read it twice now and enjoyed it both times.

The Hangmans daughter is a great series, I think there are 5 of them now.

They are about a Hangman, and his life, and family. Little did I know that Hangmen were also medicine men of sorts.

The books always have a mystery of one sort or another, and the Hangman, and his daughter, and her dandy dr husband solve them.

They are quite good.

Author is : Oliver Potszch

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

Europe from 1937 through ww2, especially in Paris and Budapest. Extraordinary. One of the best books I've ever read. Great characters. Real struggles. Both dark and inspiring. True historical fiction.

I enjoy the books of M.M.Kaye. Each is stand alone and they are light mystery/romance books set in the post WW2 era. They are pretty historically correct since they were actually written during that time. Very similar in tone to Mary Stewart books. These are older books and may even be out of print. If so, I am sorry, but you might find them in a used book store.

The best researched historical fiction I have ever read are the Flashman books by George McDonnald Fraser.

Written in the first person, the books follow the career of an unprincipled cowardly cad through the course of many major events of the 1840s onward. Major events covered with impeccable research include, The Charge of the Light Brigade, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, the Indian Mutiny, Custer's last stand at Little Bighorn, the Taiping Rebellion and the destruction of the Summer Palace.

The research was so well done, and the attitudes of the 19th century so vividly portrayed that many reviewers thought that the books were authentic memoirs from a real person.

It's old, but Lincoln by Gore Vidal. Another good Vidal book is Creation.

I Claudius is a good read about ancient Rome.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is good too.

[This message edited by redsox13 at 12:56 PM, December 7th (Monday)]

Have you read Fall of Giants by Ken Follett? I am on book two in the series (Winter of the World), and it is amazing!