Free books: Historical Fiction
Chains (2008)
I was recommended this book by my teacher. This is an excellent book that gives an accurate account of what it would be like to be a slave as a child here in America during the Revolutionary War. The story follows Isabel, as she is sold to a bad family with her sister, after being promised free...
Vespers Rising (2011)
A great segue from one series to another. Being a lover of back story the multiple viewpoints in multiple time periods really appealed to me. After 10 books of hearing about it there was a certain degree of satisfaction involved in actually seeing the epic Cahill sibling fight. And getting some i...
The Painted Girls (2012)
Recent winner of the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen fiction for 2014, Cathy Marie Buchanan transported me to another place and time with this story of sisters surviving all the odds against them in 1880s Paris. I love it when a book prompts me to do more research and I've spent the week...
The Heretic's Daughter (2008)
Kathleen Kent's writing style reminds me of Margaret Atwood, who I enjoy. This book is slightly depressing and melancholy, but it has a lot of life and heart as well. I was a little confused by the way it was put together... is the protagonist writing the whole thing to her posterity? Is she just...
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (2010)
As with the first book in this series ("The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie"), "Weed's" great appeal and entertainment stems from Flavia. Her observations and insights are often hilarious and spooky at the same time. Dare I say: if all 11-year-old children were this bright, the world would a...
Girl in Translation (2010)
3.5 stars. Realistic fiction. Kimberly Chang and her mother come to New York from Hong Kong dreaming of a new and improved life. They experience terrible living and working conditions while trying to keep their heads above water financially. Kimberly struggles for years as she tries to maintai...
Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Deluxe Boxed Set (2010)
The great thing about this trilogy is that each book is its own kind of novel. Girl with A Dragon Tattoo is a whodunit, The Girl who Played with Fire is a crime thriller, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is a political intrigue. Placed in sequence, you never get bored, because as the sto...
The House Girl (2013)
3.5 - I didn't hate it, but didn't love it. I much preferred the chapters about Lina, although they were very unrealistic and simplistic. I mean everything just worked out way too easily for her, there is no way she would've been able to find all of these connections in a few days. And to just st...
The Aviator's Wife (2013)
Anne Morrow's story, as told through Benjamin's eyes, reflects a lot of issues beyond the primary details surrounding her marriage to American hero Charles Lindbergh and the infamous story behind the kidnapping/death of their first child. It will make for a good book club discussion which is one...
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010)
Am I the only one who had to restart this novel three times? It is set in a very unfamiliar place (the artificial island of Dejima, off Nagasaki) in an unfamiliar time (late 18th century), and filled with characters from all kinds of places, with all kinds of stations in life--in short, a bit har...
The Silver Star (2013)
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls is about two sisters, Bean and Liz, around ages 12 and 14 respectively, who have a mother that neglects them either totally out of her own selfish needs or mental illness, there are hints at possible bipolar disorder. There also some hints that the older daught...
The Orphan Master's Son (2012)
Multiple characters and multiple timelines were sometimes confusing. Story didn't hold my interest. One thing, made me grateful we don't have work camps. But the storyline is okay. The majority of the beginning leads you to believe he'll discover who he is or more about his parents. But no. Skips...
The Dovekeepers (2011)
Normally, stories which switch narrators mid-stream annoy me. "The dovekeepers" was going down that road, but Alice hoffman did a very good job of connecting the characters and making each of their stories gripping. I was entertained by the novel; moreover, i truly believe myself a smarter man ...
The Lowland (2013)
I am surprised by how disappointing I found "The Lowland." For about 100 pages, in the middle of the novel, I was interested in seeing how the characters' fates unwound. But that is entirely too small a percentage of a 350 page book. Most of the time, their circumstances and internal struggles we...
The Sisters Brothers (2011)
I liked this book a lot and the pacing was fantastic. As a period piece it really immersed me in the time period and I genuinely cared for the main character. The dynamic with him and his brother was interesting and I liked that they were rivals but still cared for each other. The last quarter ki...