Reading I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. Sort of a mystery, about a woman who disappears after being involved in a car wreck that kills a child. Interesting turns, takes place in Wales, very picturesque .Haven't finished yet.

Sheila, historical fiction is my favorite as well but I'm having a hard time lately finding books that have good reviews that I haven't already read.

Want to share your favorite historical fiction?

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley

I am rereading September by Rosamunde Pilcher. It's been many years since I read it so it's completely fresh. It's cozy and wholesome and perfect for escaping stress and politics.

Justerrilynn, maybe I've said this here before (??), but if you like historical fiction try the Penny Vincenzi trilogy "The Spoils of Time". Three HUGE books, set in England and later in New York, they begin during the Edwardian era, through the 20s, the Wall Street crash & Depression, WWI, on through to WWII. I think the last book ends in the 60s. They primarily center around a family, the Lyttons, who run a Publishing House in London. The matriarch is a blueblood of aristocratic heritage, with the requisite house in the country, etc., etc. Parts of it are very Downton Abbey-ish. It's light fiction with some drama thrown in (not 'too' light, not Harlequin Romance IYKWIM) - certainly not the best books I've ever read - but I really enjoyed them all the same. And I love BIG books/series that I can really get lost in.

Another series that is similar is the Cazalet Chronicles.

For those interested in historical fiction, a friend said she loved the
Clifton Chronicles set in England, 1920s through maybe 1970s (I didn't
read them, so this is not a recommendation, just a comment :) ). Just
finished 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in
Benghazi. On the bookshelf are The Sympathizer, D Day Through German
Eyes, and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. The last two
are non-fiction for a WWII history class.

cattyles I absolutely love Rosamunde Pilcher's books. I have read most of them twice. Winter Solstice is a very comforting book.

I love them too! I can't wait to reread them all. They are just what I need right now. They make me feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder's books did when I was a young girl. Safe and comforted.

I just started The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I had reserved it at the library, but there were something like 95 people ahead of me. It was so long ago, I forgot!

I love historical fiction. The Penny Vincenzi trilogy sounds right up my alley, but I'd have to buy them to have a hope of reading them in time.

Suite Francaise is a novel about people coping with the Nazi occupation of France in the early 1940's. It's amazingly well-written. The author was a keen observer of human behavior. The text is from the notebooks of Irene Nemirovsky, who had been a successful author in Paris but was hiding in a small village in France. Nemirovsky, who was Jewish, died in Auschwitz in 1942.

Thanks for the historical fiction suggestions all!

I also found this historical fiction list. I have already read several and they were great.

https://www.abebooks.com/books/features/50-essential-historical-fiction-books.shtml

Need to narrow something down as it's almost bedtime and I must have a book.

Yogacat, I loved Suite Francaise! I read it many years ago. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres.

I'm slowly working through my book challenge. I have about 8 books left, but I don't know that I will finish all of them. Several of the categories just don't interest me at all. I started back to work part time a couple of months ago and have less time to read, so I've found it difficult to pick up books that in categories I don't typically care for (like dystopian, sci-fi, etc). It dawned on me though yesterday, that I could easily listen to audio-books at work. I work alone 2x/week and usually just listen to music. Today, on a whim, I downloaded one book I'd had on my list for my challenge, and only have an hour left. The book fulfills the category, "book I read in high school" - I couldn't for the life of me think of anything I read back then that might be worth reading again. I'd picked up a copy of The Outsiders this summer for my teenage son and today thought, hey, I wouldn't mind reading that again. I checked and my library had a downloadable audio version, so I listened to it all day at work and on my drive home - I wanted to keep listening, but will finish it tomorrow.

The Outsiders was one of my favorite books as a teen.

Thanks for that link, justerrilynn. I've read several, most I've never heard of.

You are welcome Aok! There are also some great suggestions in the comment section below that list. I ended up picking Hawaii by James Michener and can already tell this is going to be fantastic.

Cattyles, I too love Rosamunde Pilcher and have reread The Shell Seekers a number of times. September was one of my favorites too.

I'm still reading One Thousand White Women - The Journals of May Dodd, having started it and then putting it down for awhile. It's fiction, but I think it does accurately portray a good deal about the Cheyenne tribe and it's becoming quite interesting to me now.

Robert Barnard's "Corpse in à Gilded Càge" just arrived in today's mail. A "very funny spoof of British upper classes" that came highly recommended.

Someone last month mentioned by David Baldacci

Memory Man. Not usually my type of book, but it is great and can't put it down. Not too bloody or graphic, but very interesting thriller. Looking forward to the sequel as well.

Guess we have all had other things to focus on so not a lot of reading going on.. I finished the Accidental Empress which I really enjoyed. Good historical fiction

The author also wrote

The Traitor's Wife (about Mrs. Benjamin Arnold). I am going to add that book to my list.

I plan to start Hilbilly Elegy today- was on hold for a long time at the library.

I think after that will be Snow Falling on Cedars for book club. (got great reviews, I thought I had read it but checking the story line- I have not)...

I read the Clifton Chronicles this summer, all except the new one that just came out. It is light but engaging reading, except for when they spent too much time on politics. Because I am missing Longmire, having just finished watching the latest season on Netflix, I just started reading one of the books the series is based on. It's quite different from the TV program but so far I like it.

I just finished Sarah Waters' The Paying Guests. Waters is an interesting author for me--I have adored some of her books and found others unpleasant. The Paying Guests was suspenseful.

I finally got through Barkskins by Annie Proulx. She is a great writer, but what a slog. I enjoyed parts of it and learned some things from it, but it was way too long and had too many characters IMO. By the end I was literally skimming. YMMV, a good friend of mine loved it.

I am now reading The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams. I saw the author on PBS NewsHour, and it made me want to read the book. It is about some of our national parks, and I have found it to be very spiritual and healing for me.

Really enjoying Hillbilly Elegy. It reminds me of Glass Castle- the kind of memoir that is just so amazing . Just amazing life stories and so different from the folks I encounter. Definitely a worthwhile read and so eye opening.

Rosesstink, I have The Lord of the Flies in my nightstand pile right now. It was DS#2s summer reading: I found it cleaning out his closet last weekend and thought, "I should re-read this!"

I just finished The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay. I found it thoroughly enjoyable. It was light, and fun which I was in the mood for.

I also finished up an Elly Griffiths mystery, The Woman in Blue(Ruth Galloway #8). I picked it up because I loved the other Ruth Galloway mysteries I read, but I never really got into this one- it had a religious theme and I wonder if that turned me off. The ones I previously read and enjoyed more, were more impacted by the professional archaeologist aspect of Ruth's character.

I gave up on The Boys In the Boat. I had it two weeks and made it about 100 pages. So much backstory! The life story of every main character. I kept waiting for the story to start, but it didn't. My digital loan from the library ended, and I didn't try to get it again.

I had the book Fragile by Lisa Unger show up in my mailbox yesterday. I think maybe my sister sent it. It looks good, I'll give it a go.

I am currently reading "Before I go to Sleep" by SJ Watson. A friend just read it and he made it sound very interesting, intriguing.. but truthfully, I enjoyed his rendition more than I have enjoyed reading the same unfold.

I previously finished A Gentleman in Moscow and cannot give it more praise.. it's a character-driven tale and that is really the best part because they truly charming and interesting characters!

I had planned to read The Nix next but I am going to put that on hold.. not yet sure what will come next. I'll keep checking back to look for inspiration. :)

"I gave up on The Boys In the Boat. I had it two weeks and made it about 100 pages. So much backstory! The life story of every main character. I kept waiting for the story to start, but it didn't. "

Same for me! It was a book club pick and I just couldn't slog through that book, it really was endless--and I also was so bothered by the authorial tone of pity for the poor suffering students when IMO anybody who had enough money to be in college in the depression was not poverty stricken.

Our November book club selection was Between the World and Me and coincidentally we met to discuss it at lunch ON election day. Very intense book; can't say it was an 'enjoyable' read but it was a thought provoking and sobering one.

I started Memory Man and then life, the election, the post-election blues and more life interrupted. As I told a colleague today I haven't eaten a vegetable or read a book in almost 2 weeks and I'm suffering for the lack of both!

I also started Wolf Winter based on a recommendation here but not sure I'll continue, it seems very bleak and dark. I'm not exactly up for hopeless at the moment ;).

Waiting for quite a few other recommended books from this topic-A Gentleman in Moscow, Hillbilly Elegy and the latest Longmire.

My sister gave me an advance copy of The Mothers which is now out and getting rave reviews so anticipating that as well.

I just finished Three Sisters, Three Queens by Phillipa Gregory, which was mentioned on one of our book threads, I believe. It's different from most books that I choose; I'm not much interested in royalty or European history or the middle ages, but I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal. I guess this author has a series of books about other royals, but they aren't chronological, so it wasn't necessary to have read the others before this one.

I read the Boys in the Boat and while I agree it was slow in parts, I must say I was deeply moved by the circumstances the main character overcame. Running, just because someone is in college does not mean they don't come from poverty-stricken circumstances (there are kids in college today who grew up in homelessness). I'm not sure how far you read in the story, but the main character absolutely was living in poverty. His father abandoned him when he was 15 y/o (mother was dead). I'm fairly sure he was on scholarship - at one point, I think he was living in a spare room in the boat house. Anyway, I did struggle at times to get through it, but overall liked the story, but could easily see others giving up on it.

I'm currently listening to The Underground Railroad on my iPad. I work for a caterer and spend Tues/Wed each week cooking all by myself in a commercial kitchen. I never listened to books really before but decided to give it a try and am now on my third book. I'm enjoying the story, but it seems very long and drawn out. I wonder if I would've stuck with it if I were actually reading it. At home, I just started The Tea Planter's Wife, by Dinah Jefferies.

I just read Family Life by Akhil Sharma - not sure if I heard about it here or not, but it was a wonderful little book; highly recommend.

I don't think I posted about Britt-Marie Was Here when I finished it earlier this month. Oh, I loved that book! By the author of A Man called Ove, which I can't wait to read now.

After reading glowing reviews here I just finished the 2 Amos Decker books by David Baldacci. I'm so conflicted! I absolutely inhaled both of them, and was riveted throughout.

But the plots were ridiculously convoluted and in both books the basic premise just made no sense. And in the second book (spoilers ahead) the repeated plot device of having a bad guy literally slip into the hero's bedroom to disgorge important exposition then conk the hero on the head and leave, followed by the plot device of having the bad guy summon the hero and sidekick to a remote and hidden location to, you guessed it, disgorge important exposition then blow himself up..um yeahno.

(Spoilers over)

I suppose it's a credit to the author that he is so good at characterization and zippy plot sequencing that one can thoroughly enjoy reading a story that just doesn't really hang together. So a big thank you to those who suggested the books even as I'm scratching my head still at some of the twists and turns Mr. B came up with!

And of course tomorrow we can start a new monthly thread-maybe some holiday gift book suggestions???