Favorite Historical Fiction in 2018 - My Year in Books

In addition to being New Year's Eve, yesterday was the end of the reading year, and I just squeaked in my last two books, hitting a total of 70 books read for the year. My original goal was 50. You can see everything I read last year here.

That 70 books breaks down into over 32,000 pages read, for an average book length of 465 pages. The shortest book I read was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at 206 pages, and the longest was James Michener's The Covenant at 1,240 pages. According to Goodreads, the most popular book I read was the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the "least popular" was Venom Doc. Apparently the average rating I gave my reads this year was 4.2.

So, what were my favorite reads of 2018?

I really enjoyed Elizabeth Chadwick's Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy, which starts with The Summer Queen. Eleanor was "one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages. Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she would go onto become queen-consort of France and later queen of England." (BBC.com) She lived to be almost 80, was married to two kings and was mother to three more (in addition to many other children), and she was a ruler in her own right. She was a strong woman in a time when women generally didn't have much power, and she is fascinating to read about. I definitely plan to read more about her in the future.

I also really enjoyed Roma and Empire by Steven Saylor. These two novels (to be followed by a third, I believe) tell the story of the early years of the Roman Empire by following two families through history, somewhat a la James Michener (although, in my opinion, more readable). The first novel follows Roman history from Rome's legendary beginnings through the death of Julius Caesar. The second follows the story through such famous emperors as Caligula and Nero. Readable and fascinating, these books definitely put Saylor on my list of authors to read more of in 2019.

A few books also piqued my interest in Genghis Khan this year as well. First was Tiger Queens by Stephanie Thornton. Thornton seems to enjoy taking somewhat forgotten women from history and telling history from their perspective; her Daughter of the Gods is another fantastic example of this. Tiger Queens tells the story of the life of Genghis Khan through the eyes of his women - wives, daughters, and friends. I particularly liked the inter-relationships between the women, as it showed the various types of strong relationships women can form. It also shows the many ways women can influence the world around them, even in a patriarchal society.

I also started the Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden, which starts with Genghis: Birth of an Empire. The first book covers the early years of Genghis' life and the beginnings of his extraordinary rise to power. He was a fascinating man, and I am three books into this series and loving it! I will also be reading more of Iggulden in 2019.


Other favorite historical fiction reads for the year included CW Gortner's The Romanov Empress, the story of Maria Feodorovna of Russia and the fall of the Romanovs; Russka by Edward Rutherfurd, a James Michener like telling of the history of Russia; The Last Days of Night, a tale of the patent battle between Westinghouse and Edison over the light bulb as told by Graham Moore, and Morgan's Run, the story of the colonizing of Australia by prisoners in the late 1700s as told by Colleen McCullough.

Stay tuned for my favorite Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Non-Fiction reads from 2018.