2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Hosted by: Historical Tapestry

Aim: Read any kind of Historical Fiction, including Fantasy, Young Adult, etc. As simple as that! Challenge crossovers are allowed.


My Goal: Renaissance Reader - 10 books


Comments: I have settled on this reading level in part because I like the way it sounds, in part because this gives my a comfortable and strain-less reading goal, and in part because I actually have a some Renaissance-based fiction to get through.


My Alterations: to make this more interesting for myself, I was inspired by the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge to pre-select the books I will attempt to read as part of Historical Fiction Reading Challenge! Now, unlike with the TBR Pile challenge, I do not consider these selections obligatory. In other words, failure to complete them all will not automatically mean failure to complete the challenge, as long as I will have read other books to make up the number I have committed to. Still, I think it will be quite interesting to compare my actual read books tally at the end of 2013 with what I had in mind at the start of the year!

Books I plan to read as part of this challenge:

(All of them are from my TBR pile, unless otherwise marked.)

1. Karen Essex, Leonardo’s Swans - completed
2. James Cowan, A Mapmaker’s Dream
3. Sarah Dunant, In the Company of the Courtesan
4. Sarah Dunant, The Birth of Venus (*a reread)
5. Marina Fiorato, The Botticelli Secret
6. - completed
7. Andrew Miller, Pure
8. - completed
9. Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen (* ebook)
10. - completed
11. Michelle Moran, Cleopatra’s Daughter (* ebook)
12. - completed
13. Robert Graves, I, Claudius (* ebook)
14. - completed
15. Philippa Gregory, Wideacre
16. James Clavell, Shogun
17. Leonid Solovyov, The Tale of Hodja Nasreddin, Disturber of the Peace (* a reread)
18. Kate Williams, The Pleasures of Men (* ebook arc)
19. - completed
20. Toni Morrison, Beloved