I am about to graduate college with a History degree, and have hardly read anything non-historical in three years. With classes plus a thesis on the Mexican-American War, History books have been my life. History is my passion, so I’ve mostly enjoyed it, but I want to branch out after December and diversify my bookshelf. Some of my favorite fiction that I have read is Crime and Punishment, The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, World War Z, and Jurassic Park.
by Impy784
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Devolution by Max Brooks if you haven’t read it yet. It’s as good as WWZ but in a different way
Happiness by Will Ferguson (the world’s most depressed book publisher coping with a self-help book that actually works – it’s hard to describe, but I promise, it’s excellent)
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (the world’s most beta male accidentally becomes an agent of death)
You need something light-hearted. Try Nostradamus Ate My Hamster or Armageddon: The Musical – both by Robert Rankin
Lonesome Dove
Look up the stuff by Feist. He’ll fill up your shelf and keep you turning the pages.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
*The first four are light, easy reads, but highly absorbing. Station Eleven, in particular, is the first in a loosely connected series, so if you like it, there’s more. The latter two are not difficult reads, but they are dense and will take some time to complete…but they are historical, and that’s your passion!
Been there, congrats! The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, The Witcher series might be good. If you want to branch out you could try reading any of the Brontes or some Agatha Christie mysteries
Check out the Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Fiction with some WII elements that have a basis in history. The whole Nazi gold in Philippines thing is just one of many decade spanning plot elements in loved about the book.
If you did the Mexican-American War, *The Vampires of El Norte* by Isabel Canas might be fun. It just came out this month or so, and takes place during the war in Mexico.
If you kind of want to round out with some modern high fantasy classics, I think *Mistborn* and The Witcher books are a good place to start. *Warm Bodies* is a personal favorite of mine, it’s a Romeo and Juliet retelling if Romeo were a zombie.
The writer of Jurassic Park also wrote Timeline, about historians forced to time travel to save their mentor/father.
Paladin of Souls is a 2003 fantasy novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, I’m pretty sure she stole quite a bit from Spanish history.
Temeraire-series by Naomi Novik. Takes place during the napoleonic wars – but with dragons. Sticks very close to historical facts, but yes, dragons are part of the war efforts. I was sceptical before reading it is a story that just envelopes you and the writing is great. Thought it might fit your interest in history and also take you on an epic fictional journey.