European Royalty discussion

I'm in the middle of a book that sort of sucks.
Actually, it totally sucks.
I'm almost done and would really like to read something GOOD next!

I've had a hard time lately finding a something good. Seems like the past 3 or 4 I've picked up have been lacking. I thought it would be really nice to have a thread where everyone could post their FAVORITE historical fiction books. Then, when I need a recommendation I can just come here!
The rest of you can use it, too, of course ;)

I'm thinking if everyone shares their 3 favorite books we should come up with a pretty good list. I know we'll get some repeats, but I think that's okay.

I'll post mine in a bit, after I've thought about it a little more! I want to make sure my favorites are really good :)

Wonderful idea. I just finished reading Helen Hollick's Harold The King and it was excellent. Next, I would highly recommend Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh Trilogy: Here Be Dragons, Fall of the Sparrow, and The Reckoning. Third, but not last, would be Elizabeth Chadwick's The Winter Mantle about Walteof, Earl of Huntingdon.

I'll have to think (although I heartily agree with Cathie's suggestions. Reading slumps suck, a had a huge one last December when I'd been housebound for three weeks. I finally ended up picking up old favorites *comfort books* for a reread.

I think I'm ready to post my favorites...

1st is the Welsh Trilogy by Sharon Kay Penman.
Here be Dragons
Falls the Shadow and
The Reckoning

2nd has to be Gone With The Wind

And 3rd is Legacy

This is a great idea!!! my three favorite historical fiction novels are:
The Autobiography of Henry VIII With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers
Innocent Traitor A Novel of Lady Jane Grey and
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn

I'm really into Tudor history! One that i'm currently reading that I'm really starting to love is The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Its not Tudor related but I really needed a break from Henry VIII.

Great idea!

My favorites are:
The Mists of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley
Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
The Autobiography of Henry VIII With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers Margaret George

And like Aly, I am reading and loving The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George. I think I like this one better than the one about Henry. Suprising for me (Tudor fanatic) but there it is :)

My favorites:

Trade Wind by M.M. Kaye http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56...

Katherine by Anya Seton
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33...

I'll ditto Hannah but I'd also add Gone with The Wind.

Good recommendations so far!
I can't wait to see what everyone else has to say...
(hint, hint! lol)

Mandy I love this thread and I haven't responded sooner simply b/c the choosing is so difficult. So what I decided was to NOT put in the books everyone knows about like Anna Karenina or To Kill a Mockingbird or My Antonia or The House of the Spirits, all of which I adore. Neither should I mention Wild Swans Three Daughters of China since it is a memoir but it reads like fiction! So here follows a list of some really great books that aren't so well known.....and there are more than three. Depending upon the reader's mood you might choose one or another. The more the better right? As long as they are excellent reads, and I think they all are. In alphabetical order by author:

In the Company of the Courtesan A Novel
The Master Butchers Singing Club
The Shadow Lines A Novel
Saints and Villains
The Horseman on the Roof
A Soldier of the Great War
Ahab's Wife Or, The Star-gazer A Novel
The Bastard of Istanbul
The Septembers of Shiraz
The Pure Land
The Help
Sacajawea

Maybe The Pure Land and Sacajawea should get some extra stars also, but how do you pick? And what about
To Kill a Mockingbird and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Well that is certainly enough. I hope you enjoy reading from these books. They are all very different, but all fabulous in their own way!

I've seen In the Company of the Courtesan at my Barnes and Noble the last dozen times I've been in. It's on the bargain book table for CHEAP. Good to know you liked it, maybe I'll pick it up :)

After seeing a couple of rec's for it, i've put The Autobiography of Henry VII with Notes by his Fool on hold at the library. I think I'll read it next - after the Queen's Secret, which I'm reading now.

Got to second Katherine, by Anya Seton.

Nothing wrong with Plaidy - such a good introduction to historical fiction featuring some prominent women.

I'm trying not to repeat any that were already listed (although I agree with a lot of them):

The Kitchen Boy A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman

Katharine of Aragon The Wives of Henry VIII by Jean Plaidy

Roots by Alex Haley

Not historical fiction (but it is fiction and I loved it):

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Not fiction (but they are historical):

The Worst Hard Time The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

The Flight of the Romanovs A Family Saga by John Curtis Perry

Some of my favorites right now are set at the end of WWI:
A Very Long Engagement
Maisie Dobbs
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Sunne in Splendour or any Sharon Kay Penman
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

Persuasion by Jane Austen

I've just joined. What a great group to find in my wandering of the web! I write historicals, (MACBETH'S NIECE, HER HIGHNESS' FIRST MURDER) but they are my favorite reading material too, as my students could have told you due to the book reports they were assigned!
Favorites are hard to choose after a half-century of reading, but here are three I recommend.
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Sarum by Edward Rutherford (BIG book)
Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myers

Welcome to the group Peg! Glad you found us! :)

Yes, welcome, Peg!
Wonderful recommendations! Thank you for those :)

As I read people's recommendations, I find myself saying, "Oh, yeah, that was a good one!" I'm reading Sharon Kay Penman's DRAGON'S LAIR, (with Justin De Quincy) which is very good.