Books we've read in book club: Historical fiction

HISTORICAL FICTION

1st Century

  • The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
    Nazareth | Pub. 2020 | Read October 202

12th Century

  • Godric by Frederick Buechner
    England | Pub. 1980 | Read November 2021

16th Century

  • Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
    England | Pub. 2020 | Read May 2023 | Watched movie February 2026

17th Century

  • North Woods by Daniel Mason
    New England (Puritan colonial period–present day) | Pub. 2023 | Read November 2024

  • Silence by Shūsaku Endō
    Japan | Pub. 1966

18th Century

  • The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
    The French Revolution | Pub. 1905 | Read January 2026

19th Century

  • Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
    American West | Pub. 1972 | Read November 2021

  • Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen
    Denmark | Pub. 1958 | Read August 2025

  • The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton
    London | Pub. 1975 | Read September 2021

  • The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
    South Carolina | Pub. 2014 | Read April 2024

  • The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
    Philadelphia | Pub. 2013 | Read December 2025

20th Century

  • Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
    Iowa | Pub. 2004 | Read August 2025

  • Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
    Port Willliam | Pub. 2004 | Read January 2024

  • The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
    Korea | Pub. 2019 | Read May 2022

1920s

  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
    Moscow | Pub. 2016 | Read February 2018

World War 2

  • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
    France, Germany | Pub. 2014 | Read April 2015

  • Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleve
    England | Pub. 2016 | Read October 2016

1940s

  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
    Ohio | Pub. 1970 | Read February 2021

  • Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
    India | Pub. 2023 | Read March 2024

1950s

  • Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg
    NYC | Pub. 2019 | Read March 2022

  • My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
    Brooklyn | Pub. 1972 | Read ? (discussion was at Jenny’s house)

  • Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
    North Carolina | Pub. 2018 | Read September 2019

1960s

  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
    Brooklyn | Pub. 2020 | Read October 2025

  • The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
    Greenwich Village | Pub. 2019 | Read October 2019

  • The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
    Long Island, New York | YA | Pub. 2017 | Read June 2019

1970s

  • Another Brooklyn by Jaqueline Woodson
    Brooklyn | YA | Pub. 2016 | Read January 2017

  • Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
    Michigan | Pub. 2002 | Read July 2025

  • The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
    England | Pub. 2006 | Read February 2017

1980s

  • The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
    Chicago | Pub. 2018 | Read January 2021

  • Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
    NYC | YA | Pub. 2012

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