Transport Yourself to Another Time Period With Historical Fiction

If you're like me, you're probably already a bit done with 2021. 
After all, we are still in a pandemic and our democracy continues to be challenged. So it makes sense to wish we could whisk away to a different era altogether. Maybe an era so far removed from our own that we can barely make a comparison. Maybe an era and a story, where we are tested, not feeling so helpless to change things, so hopeless that things will change. 

Fortunately, we're in luck!
The world of literature has gifted us with just the escapism we need in historical fiction.

Let's steer clear of the dark days of the Civil War and the French Revolution, oui?

Some of these I've read, some still wait in my To Be Read pile. 

Most are newer titles, but some are older must-reads.

Greek and Roman Era:

A retelling of the Trojan war from the point of view of the women it most affected.

I LOVE Miller's writing, and can't wait to read this one she wrote prior to Circe. 

                

    

Dark Ages/Medieval:

Ken Follett's newest promises an exciting saga of Vikings, Early English, Welsh, and Norman clashes.

The author of Fates and Furies has come out with something that seems a bit of a departure for her, and a story I would love to have told (if I had the talent Groff has). Her latest novel tells the story of Marie de France, a medieval author I read a ton of in college--in French and English💚 

           

     Earlier Americas:

This came out a few years ago and I have gotten it from the library several times, but it is always due back before I can get to it! It takes place in 1893, in the harsh Arizona Territory. By the author of The Tiger's Wife, which I loved.

King Louis XIV sanctions a program to send destitute women to Quebec to help settle his new colony and this tells the story of one of those women. It promises to be full of adventure! 

I pre-ordered this for its October release date.

         

   Turn-of-the-Century to Roaring '20s:  

*Local (Ohio) author alert*

I can't wait to read this telling of the journalist Nellie Bly and how, in 1887, she went "undercover" as a mentally ill patient to investigate the treatment of patients in an insane asylum. 

Impeccably researched novel of Jazz Age Chicago--need I say more?

The fates of three women unfold against the backdrop of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I have yet to read any of Meissner's books, but just about all of them are in my TBR pile!

I loved this family adventure of the Turner sisters. Among the frolics on and off the vaudeville stage, they also learn some hard lessons and cannot avoid some heartbreak. 

          

Emerging Australia:

 Three women's stories are told in this novel that begins on a seafaring journey to the newly colonized Australia and follows them as they make a life in this brutal land.

                     Colonial Africa:

*Local author alert*

Another of my favorite books! McClain tells the story of Beryl Markham, the English-born Kenyan aviator and adventurer. This book will definitely transport you to another land and era.

                WWII:

This just came out and is sure to be an exciting and insightful story about the last London debutantes before WWII. 

*Local resident alert*

This book is fascinating, romantic, epic, and dark. Orringer recreates the world of WWII Paris and Hungary. The characters are unforgettable and the writing is rich and beautiful.

This one is next up for me (at least as of today:) Survival in the wilderness and Nazis!

            Other and Mixed Time Periods:

The author of A Gentleman in Moscow has set his latest novel in 1950s America using multiple points of view.

This came out earlier this year and the reviews have been great. It takes place in three different time periods, telling the story of a castle protected not by men, but by women.

Do you have any of your own recommendations?