Readingthepast

In her histories and fiction, Alison Weir has been particularly dedicated to Henry VIII, his six wives, and other royal family members, but her latest two novels have been departures about Tudor figures who weren’t royalty. First was The Cardinal (2025), about the unlikely rise and sudden fall of statesman Thomas Wolsey, the king’s lord chancellor.

Now we ha...

Feminist writer Schatz knocks it out of the park with her debut novel about a young woman in late ´60s California who—like so many from her generation—gets trapped between the contrasting values of American counterculture and a society that denies her agency over her own body and choices.

Fall is the big season in book publishing, and when it comes to historical fiction, readers have much to look forward to. This is the latest of my regular previews of upcoming historical novels that interest me personally, and there are 18 this time. I started out with 12, then added a few more, and a few more… and decided to set a limit or I’d never get this post finished! Whic...