Today I will be talking about the reviews that have been submitted to the challenge for historical fiction. January was a good month with 17 reviews all highlighting individual books! The vast majority of them were published in the last few years and include a few new to me titles but there were also some older books. As part of today’s wrap up, I thought I might mention the older books, one book that I have read but still need to review, and one that I would possibly not have heard of if not for the challenge.

First, the older books.

I remember reading Ruth Park in high school. I loved both the book and the mini-series adaptation of Poor Man’s Orange which was shown on TV in the late 80s (showing my age now!) but I have never actually read the book or seen the movie of Playing Beattie Bow by the same author, which was reviewed by Tien who rated it as a 5/5 read. Tien said

looking at the cover, I thought it’d be something creepy (a quote at the back of the book reads, “It’s Beatie Bow – risen from the dead!”) but it’s not at all creepy! It’s a time travel tale which I adore and I love this book!

Time travel? Yes please! And now I need to read it too!

The other older book that was reviewed was The Commandant by Jessica Anderson which was reviewed by John from Musings from a Literary Dilettante. This book had been out of print for some time before it was republished as part of the Text Classics series. When a review starts off with the sentiment that “there are many things to love” about the book, goes on to talk about the writing having “ the flavour of Jane Austen, particularly in the scenes involving the female characters’ and then finishes wondering why a book like this would have gone out of print in the first place, my attention has definitely been caught.

One of the books that was reviewed during January that I hadn’t heard anything about previously was The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer by Edwina Preston which was reviewed by Annabel Smith over at Goodreads. Whilst Annabel had some reservations about the book, she did enjoy the evocation of the time setting, the characters and the mystery and finished her review by saying

I think Preston is an exciting new voice in Australian fiction and I’ll be interested to see what she writes next.

I was glad to see Rebecca’s review of The Wedding Shroud by Elisabeth Storrs this month. I loved this book, and luckily so did Rebecca. Set in ancient Rome and the neighbouring Etruscan society, the reviewer says

The research that went into the detail and flow of the story is impressive. The author doesn’t skimp on the sights, smells, and sounds either. I felt immersed in Rome, in the Etruscan society, in the time period, and in the characters.

It would be remiss of me to close of this roundup without mentioning the review that Michelle from Book to the Future wrote about Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany which was announced as one of the longlisted titles for the Stella award this week. Michelle writes of the book:

Mateship with Birds is one of those elegant, slow novels I find utterly irresistible. Within a matter of paragraphs, Tiffany’s lush narrative falls into step with the laidback rhythm of country life. But this is not some kind of sentimental, landscape-driven piece, not is it a romance novel. It’s something entirely different – a devastatingly smart, original work of fiction that speaks in an understated, confident voice.

You can find more of the historical fiction reviews at any time by clicking on the Historical Fiction Weebly page. Other authors reviewed this month include M L Stedman, Kate Grenville, Isolde Martyn and more.

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Marg has long been an avid reader of all genres but especially Historical Fiction. She has very strong memories of reading through the entire collection of Jean Plaidy novels in the school library and loves to read about all different eras and locations. Marg has been blogging about all different genres and other things at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader for more than 7 years, and was a founding member of Historical Tapestry, a group blog that has been focusing only on Historical Fiction for more than 5 years. You can tweet to her either @margreads or @historytapestry.

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me. – Alexander Smith

Over the last few years historical fiction readers have been treated to some amazing books, with Australians leading the way. Authors like Kate Grenville, Kate Morton, Colleen McCullough and Geraldine Brooks are internationally successful  writing both Australian history and the history of other countries. There has also been broader recognition of historical fiction with books like Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bringing up the Bodies winning the Man Booker and here in Australia books like All That I Am by Anna Funder and Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears sharing a lot of the big literary prizes over the last 12 months.

There were a lot of historical fiction novels reviewed for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012 and today it is my pleasure to spotlight just a few of those.

If we start with just the statistics then the single historical fiction book that received the most reviews as part of the 2012 challenge was  Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth with 9 reviews. Set in 17th century France and 16th century Italy, Forsyth takes the stories of 3 different women, and weaves a tale of the times with a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale. What is interesting about a few of the books that I will be mentioning today is that many of them cross genres and sit easily within the different definitions. For example, this book it was also featured in the Speculative Fiction round-up yesterday. To get a taste of what reviewers are saying about this book head to Bree’s review or Belle’s review.

One of the exciting things about reading historical fiction for this challenges is that, yes, there are plenty of Aussie authors who write about international history, but there are lots of authors who are writing about our own history too. Another book that received a lot of reviews as part of the challenge was Deborah Burrows’ excellent debut novel, The Stranger in My Street, with 5 reviews. Again, this is another cross-genre novel, this time with crime aspects. I originally come from Perth, and so for me there was not only the strong story but also that additional aspect of reading about home during World War II!  I am really looking forward to reading the author’s next book, the cover of which was recently revealed. It is once again set in Perth against the backdrop of the war.  See what other reviewers thought of A Stranger in my Street by reading Lauren’s review or Stephanie’s review.

Other books to have received multiple reviews (4)  include Hannah and Emil by Belinda Castles,  The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman, A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill and Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood, which is the first in the Phryne Fisher mystery series that was so successfully adapted into a TV series last year.

Turning from individual books to individual authors, Kerry Greenwood was well represented in the review stakes with multiple reviews of her backlist, most notably the Phryne Fisher crime series, being posted as part of the challenge. Another author who was very well reviewed but who I must confess to not knowing a lot about prior to this challenge was Sulari Gentill who had 10 reviews posted about her books, mostly of the Rowland Sinclair crime series set in the 1930s. Personally, I am always on the look out for new series to read so this might be a good option for this year’s challenge.

One of the best things about reading historical fiction is finding out about events that are long since forgotten until an author discovers the story and chooses to tell it to us, the readers. For example, did you know that a troupe of little people led by General Tom Thumb visited Australia in the 1870s to a sensational reaction? Jane Sullivan did, and she chose to tell that story in her book Little People (reviewed by Sally).  Did you know that there was a train that travelled across the country during the Great Depression, trying to teach farmers the latest scientific methods for improving their harvest yields? Carrie Tiffany tells the story in her book Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Thinking (reviewed by Tony). Or how about a female bushranger? Courtney Collins’ The Burial tells this story (reviewed here by Annette Hughes). Perhaps an interracial relationship between an American soldier and Australian girl during WWII is more your taste. In that case, you might like Love in the Years of Lunacy by Mandy Sayer (as reviewed by several participants including Carolyn Sully).

Hopefully with just these few mentions, I have been able to show that there are a range of great historical fiction reads that are available, whether it be straight historical fiction, or genre-crossing novels, full of both well known events and the more obscure, focusing on both international and Australian history!

If you are interested in seeing what other historical fiction books were reviewed as part of the challenge, please head over to the Historical Fiction Weebly page for 2012!

I look forward to exploring the past with you all and bringing you highlights in historical fiction as part of the AWWC for 2013!

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Marg has long been an avid reader of all genres but especially Historical Fiction. She has very strong memories of reading through the entire collection of Jean Plaidy novels in the school library and loves to read about all different eras and locations. Marg has been blogging about all different genres and other things at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader for more than 7 years, and was a founding member of Historical Tapestry, a group blog that has been focusing only on Historical Fiction for more than 5 years. You can tweet to her either @margreads or @historytapestry.