Katie at Books and Things always runs my favourite ‘classic’ themed readathons. There’s the yearly Victober, and last May she had a standalone 1900 to 1950 Readathon, which I really enjoyed. This year, her May readathon is focused on reading historical fiction rather than classics. Since I have plenty of historicals on my TBR, this seems like a good time to tackle them.
There are seven challenges, but none are compulsory. I very much doubt I’ll get to all the books listed here, but I’ve doubled up a couple of challenges and skipped “Read a Classic Work of Historical Fiction” just in case.
Do you enjoy historical fiction? Which periods?
—Challenges—
Read a work of historical fiction set in the country you’re from.
Theatre of Marvels by Lianne Dillsworth
Read a work of historical fiction set in your favourite historical time period to read about.
The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters.
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye.
Read a work of historical fiction set in a time period you’re less familiar with.
Out of Time, Into You by Jay Bell
Read a work of historical fiction with a speculative element.
Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis
Read a work of historical fiction about a real historical figure or a specific historical event.
The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan
Read a work of historical fiction set in a different country to the one you’re from.
Bonus: Read a work of historical fiction of over 500 pages.
Treasure by W. A. Hoffman
Foxes and Fairy Tales 
This sounds fun. I hope you enjoy Scales & Sensibility! I think I have ended up enjoying the Regency period of England the most, but that’s honestly partly because it’s done so often. Same as Victorian England… The only historical period that I can say I know I DON’T enjoy reading about most of the time is WWII Europe. It all seems to involve the war somehow, and I don’t like war fiction. (I can think of only a very war-era books that I’ve enjoyed, and they almost always focus on something besides the war.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I read a lot of Victorian too, and I do genuinely enjoy the period, but I wonder if that’s influenced by how much more Victorian material is available than a lot of others?
LikeLike
I think a lot of it is influenced by the sheer amount of material, at least for me. Having more available books means it’s more likely that I can find one that fits me exact preferences.
LikeLiked by 1 person