Baltimore Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
readers... come in
First - hi. Long time no see. I've been lurking but haven't had much of a chance to post recently.
I'd like to buy my mom a book or two for Christmas as "filler" presents. She has decided that she really likes historical fiction. The only book I know for sure that she read was Water for Elephants, but she is not beyond a deeper book. I thought I'd get her The Kitchen House, that we read for book club and I really liked. Does anyone have any historical fiction books that they really like?
In case you were wondering, her other present is 2 Pampered Chef cooling racks. Riveting, I know. 
Re: readers... come in
I'm not even sure that this would qualify as historical fiction since I'm not a big reader of that genre, but a friend was telling me about this book she was reading and it popped into my head when I read your post.
http://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0609608444
It sounds interesting and I think I may even consider reading it even though it's not usually my thing.
Outlander. Hands-down, the best damn historical fiction book (and series) ever. It sounds bizarre, and I resisted reading it for forever, but I am SO glad I caved. The books are phenomenal. The 20th anniversary edition of Outlander is out now, as it so happens.
The Help is wonderful and a great daughter-mother gift. Some of my other personal favorites are Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follett and any of the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory, like the Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance (which I like much more than the new Plantagenet books).
Of course there's the Outlander series...but I'd be a little skeeved out about giving that to my mother.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
Lol...I *so* was not commenting on your post!! I started writing before your response was up.
That being said, if you don't feel weird about giving your mom a book with a load of very, very hot scenes, I'll ditto this as my hands down favorite.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
This. The series is incredible.
I'm also really enjoying Sarah's Key - it's an interesting mix of modern day and historical.
... every single day of forever.
LOL I borrowed my mom's copy of Outlander. (I only read the first three though - loved the first one, loved the second one, and thought the third one was just okay and never picked up the 4th one, but I have it in my basement.)
Suite Francaise is really good (about france during World War II.) Loving Frank (about Frank Lloyd Wright) is also pretty interesting.
I found the Swan Thieves to be very interesting - its not really historical fiction but theres a lot of flashback in it. It's from the same author as The Historian, which is also really good and an interesting twist on Dracula.
I loved Alison Weir's "Innocent Traitor" and "Lady Elizabeth" (her Tudor fiction is much better than Phillipa Gregory's b/c Weir kind of knows her stuff a bit better ha at least in my opinion) but her 'Captive Bride" or Captive Princess or Queen or whatever (about Eleanor of Aquitaine) was horrendous. I laughed the whole way through (she is not so good when it comes to the sex scenes.)
If you can find it, Celia Garth is one of my favorite books ever, about Charleston during the American Revolution.
I just read City of Thieves for book club about Leningrad during World War II. That was a pretty fast read and it was REALLY good.
Looks like it's available for pre-order on Amazon with a December 6th release date!!
And ditto Alison Weir's Innocent Traitor. That book was amazing.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva. I LOVE all of his books and they rest of them have kind of a historical fiction slant to them.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is one of my all-time favorites. If she hasn't read it yet, Atonement by Ian McEwan is great. And March by Geraldine Brooks -- especially if she's familiar with Little Women. (March is about Mr. March, the father in Little Women.) E.L. Doctorow has also written some amazing historical fiction... The March is my favorite by him.