Top 10 Historical Fiction Books

The setting is in France prior to the 100 Years' War and deals with court intrigue at a level I've never read in this genre. This is court intrigue, political intrigue. You have colorful characters, you have backstabbing characters, you have the rich class trying to keep power, people trying to take power. It is incredible.

I'll be honest, I did not want to love Gone with the Wind because at the heart of Gone with the Wind, it's a huge romance in the middle, and that's not something that I look for in a book or I gravitate to in a book. However, it's so, so well done in this book, this hardship.

So many people call this their favorite book of all time, their favorite historical novel of all time, the one Western you should read, and I hoped that it would live up to the hype, and it absolutely did. Gus and Call are just etched into my memory.

The setting itself is remarkable. Japan during the time of the samurai and seeing Japan through the eyes of this European was highly riveting. But, what I love most about Shogun was the cross-cultural learning that all of the characters have.

A landmark of American literature, The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, and while not a work of historical fiction at the time, it certainly is today. It's a story of perseverance through hardships. It's a snapshot of 1930s America.

The ability of Shaara to bring this battle to life cannot be understated. When Joshua Chamberlain yells, "Fix bayonets!" and charges the Confederates on top of the battle of Little Round Top, you'll feel like you're there.

So, the setting hooked me. A murder mystery set in an Italian Abbey? At that time, I was hooked right away. But even if the setting doesn't hook you, this is not a traditional murder mystery.

If for some reason I could only recommend one book to anybody for the rest of my life, it would be Pillars of the Earth. I was melancholy because I knew the book was going to end. Because even though this is a 900-page epic, I did not want this book to end.

Simmons' gripping tale introduces a fantastical element with a horror element even more horrific than the cold, icy conditions that the expedition attempts to traverse. If I had one wish that I could force an author to write something, I would want Dan Simmons to write a whole book series like this.

Additionally, he takes some of the magical elements like the sword in the stone and has a plausible explanation about how it happened and how it became this magical thing. It's one of the most inventive things I've read in my lifetime.