Azrael & Phoebe's
Kitty Critics' Corner
Historical Fiction
(not medieval)
in association with amazon.com
This is one of our favorite categories and here are a few of our recommendations
in historical fiction:
James Clavel - Shogun -- a novel of adventure, political intrigue
and love, Clavel's exploration of the clash between Japanese and European
cultures is masterfully told through the eyes of a seventeenth century English
navigator who is first repelled, then intrigued then becomes a part of Japanese
feudal society.
Begin
(or relive) the adventure! Order Clavel's Shogun today!
Taylor Caldwell - Dear and Glorious Physician -- one of our favorite
novels, Caldwell's beautifully written novel brings to life story of St.
Luke, Man of Medicine. Great Lion of God similarly breathes life
into the dynamic figure of St. Paul.
Alan Dean Foster - Maori - The year is 1839 when Robert Coffin
comes to Aotearoa. It is an epic tale of the life of this civilized man
in the raw wilderness of New Zealand and the European struggle to forge
a nation at the end of the world. It is the tale of the Maori people who
were never completely conquered by the European colonialists and the Maori
struggle for independence.
 Charles Frazier's
impressive first novel, Cold Mountain, is Azrael's September choice
for the coveted "boo-award"
of literary excellence! This beautifully written epic tells the parallel
stories of a soldier's Odyssean trek home to the Tennessee mountains in
the final days of the Civil War and that of the woman left behind. Some
may find the book a bit slow in the beginning, but it's well worth the effort
to get to know these characters and share their lives for a while. Order
Frazier's Cold Mountain today!
Diana Gabaldon - Outlander
-- although this is actually a time travel novel, I'll place it under historical
fiction because that's where it's heart lies. This is a wonderfully romantic
adventure novel about a a twentieth century former combat nurse who surprisingly
finds herself as an "outlander" in 18th century war-torn Scotland. This book is extremely
well researched and written and has been picked as Azrael's Boo-Award winner for June 1999.
You won't be able to wait to pick up the sequels! They are equally worthy!
Order
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander today!
Lois T. Henderson, Lydia -- Henderson brings to life, Lydia, the
seller of purple in Acts 16:14, a sucessful and influential businesswoman
in Philippi.
Victoria Holt - My Enemy The Queen -- my favorite of Holt's novels
the tragic rivalry between Elisabeth I and Lettice Devereux, who married
Elizabeth's beloved Earl of Leicester and who was the mother of the Earl
of Essex who one day would break the Queen's heart.
Order
My Enemy the Queen today!
Rosalind Laker - To Dance With Kings tells the family saga of
generations of passionate and determined women whoses fates are bound to
the palace and politics of Versailles: Jeanne who voewed that her peasant
daughter would grow up to dance with kings, Marguerite who beomes part of
the royal life of the Sund King, Jasmin who is banised from her beloved
Versailes by attempting to love the Sun King's successor, Violette who is
drawn to the darker side of life at Versailles and must face the dark consequences
of her actions and Rose who becomes lady-in-waiting and confidante to Marie
Antionette.
 Noah Gordon's Shaman, a father and
son tale which sweeps across decades of conflict and change, provides a
fascinating look into 19th century medicine. Dr. Rob J. Cole
flees his native Scotland, practices medicine in Boston before heading West
where he meets an Indian woman who profoundly changes his life and that
of his son. Order
Noah Gordon's Shaman today!
James A. Michener, Hawaii -- a monumental chronical of the history
of the Hawaiian islands and the peoples (Polynesians, anglo missionaries,
Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos) who came together to become the Hawaiians.
Order
Michener's epic tale of Hawaii today!
Margaret Mitchell - Gone With The Wind -- what can we say? One
of the best historical novels of all times (and the movies pretty good,
too ;-) If you haven't read Margaret Mitchell's masterpiece, then perhaps
you don't realize that it is so much more than a love story. Her heroine,
Scarlet, is the living metaphor for the city of Atlanta (born the same year
as she was). She is a young upstart, lacking the gentility and grace of
her Savannah and Charleston relations, but she has the vitality and stubbornness
to survive and prosper.
Order
Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind today!
Vilhelm Moberg's
The Emigrants
(Utvandrarna) (1951) is the first of four novels by this master
storyteller's magnificent saga of Swedish
emigration to America. This book is the of Azrael's "boo-award"
of literary excellence for August.
 Some
might categorize Steven Ozment's scholarly biography, The
Bürgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in the Sixteenth-Century German Town, as
medieval, but we'd say it's clearly early modern. If you thought our society
was overly litigious -- get a load of this family!
Order
The Bürgermeister's Daugher today!
Eugenia Price - Savannah -- the first of a quartet of books telling
the story of Mark Browning, an outsider who quickly embraces Savannah as
his beloved home, and the MacKay family. The ensuing family saga of the
Savanah Quartet (our favorite of Price's series) tells the story of the
South, from the infancy of her glory leading up to and through the Civil
War.
Order
Price's Savannah and get to know Mark Browning and the MacKay's today!
Lucia St. Clair Robson, The Tokaido Road -- after the execution
of her father, Cat, the young Lady Asano, disguises herself as a traveling
priest and journeys hundreds of miles to the imperial city of Kyoto in order
to find the leader of her clan's fighting men. She has only her wits, a
six foot long naginata and her samurai training to survive the journey and
a mysterious ronin has been hired to pursue her....
Order
The Tokaido Road today!
 Lucia St. Clair Robson Walk in My
Soul tells the tragic tale of Sam Houston, The Cherokee and the Trail
of Tears. Tiana, a Cherokee woman, adept in the magic and lore of her people,
and Sam Houston, who lived as a young man among the Cherokee and later became
the father of Texas, walked in each other's souls, but were divided by their
different dreams for their own people. Another great book by Robson is Light
a Distant Fire - about Osceola, the charismatic and proud leader of
the Seminoles!
Order
Walk in My Soul today!
 Patrick Süskind - The Perfume -- this imaginative international
bestseller is a delight to the senses! Set it seventeenth century France,
it is a murder mystery in reverse, we learn the murderer from the moment
of his birth until his death and know his darkest secret: that although
he has the keenest nose in the world, he himself gives off no scent whatsoever!
The Perfume
is Azrael's choice for January's boo-award of excellence.
Order
The Perfume today!
Gore Vidal, Burr -- this review was sent in by Steve Scroggins who wrote,
"I'd like to recommend BURR by Gore Vidal. A fictionalized story that
includes many of our nation's founders. He hints at the fact that Jefferson
fathered children by his slaves years before that story made headlines.
Vidal paints a colorful picture of Aaron Burr, the man who missed being
president by one vote in the Congress (Jefferson won) and became
vice-president. Afterwards, the law was changed to provide that the prez
and VP ran for office separately.
 Anna Lee Waldo's Sacagawea is
an epic novel of the remarkable woman who guided Lewis and Clark. Daughter
of a chief, captured as a slave, sold to a French fur trader, Sacagawea
overcomes hardship to become indispensible to the Lewis and Clark expedition.
But Waldo does not conclude her tale with the expedition's completion, instead
Bird Woman's story continues to other legendary adventures.
Order
Sacagawea today!
Hebe Weenolsen's The Trial of Jenny Sykes accounts the
fascinating story of a seventeenth century medical/legal case. What happened
to young women who gave birth to a still-born without witnesses? Well, she
was accused of murder....unless someone could prove otherwise.
Franz Werfel -- The Song of Bernadette, tells the story of Bernadette
Soubirous a young shepherdess in the tiny French community of Lourdes, whose
vision of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto in 1858 brought thousands of
pilgrims to Lourdes. Werfel, who writes th is novel in the context of France's
fal l to the Nazis, creates an unforgetable story of a girl who became, against
her will, a heroine whose legend has endured. Perhaps you've seen the movie,
which starred Jennifer Jones and won an academy award as best picture?
Order
The Song of Bernadette today!
last updated 8/1/99
background set courtesy of Catstuff | 
