Friday, December 27, 2013

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - It's a Wrap!


2013 was the first year that I really signed up for reading challenges in a big way (i.e., more than 1!), and I picked the ones that I knew I would do well in. 

I loved doing the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Historical Tapestry.  Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and it overlapped nicely with my TBR Pile Challenge.  I modestly made the goal of reaching the Renaissance level but blew by that and made it all the way to Medieval.

Here were the levels:
20th century reader - 2 books
Victorian reader - 5 books
Renaissance Reader - 10 books
Medieval - 15 books
Ancient History -25+ books

And here is what I read...not in order read but in order remembered:
  1. Madame Tussaud, by Michelle Moran
  2. The Testament of Mariam, by Ann Swinfen 
  3. The Whiskey Rebels, by David Liss
  4. The Ninth Daughter, by Barbara Hamilton - the first in a mystery series with Abigail Adams as the slueth
  5. Cleopatra's Daughter, by Michelle Moran
  6. Thanksgivingby Ellen Cooney
  7. Katherine, by Anya Seton
  8. Sunne in Splendour, by Sharon Kay Penman
  9. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
  10. The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier
  11. Frenchman's Creek, by Daphne du Maurier
  12. The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory
  13. The Pursuit of Mary Bennet, by Pamela Mingle
  14. 1876, by Gore Vidal
  15. The Testament of Mary, by Colm Toibin
My favorites were Madame Tussaud, Katherine, The Sunne in Splendour, The White Queen (I also read The Red Queen but didn't really review it), The Last Runaway, and 1876.  The only disappointments were The Whiskey Rebels and Cleopatra's Daughter and Frenchman's Creek.

I will definitely be signing up for this challenge again in 2014.

3 comments:

  1. Not only did you blow past your goal, you read such a wide variety of time periods. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations, Jane on this challenge and the TBR Pile challenge too! I've read just three of these books, and I have some of the others sitting unread on my shelves - The Sunne in Splendour is definitely near the top of the pile to read next year.I'll be signing up for this challenge again next year too - happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on accomplishing so much through this challenge! That is an impressive list of books.

    Too bad Cleopatra's Daughter was disappointing.That concept had much potential.

    ReplyDelete