Interested in history? Enjoy reading about other times and places but prefer a contemporary writing style? Try the following…
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - Medieval England, Historians, Plague, Time Travel, Oxford Time travel series
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - Victorian England, Historians, History, Chaos Theory, Time Travel, Oxford Time travel series
Possession: a Romance by A. S. Byatt - Victorian England, Academics, Poetry
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - World War II, Italy, Africa, Romance, Espionage
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - World War II, Code Breaking, Adventure, Allan Turing, Information Age
The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson - Restoration England, Epic Adventure, Scientific Revolution, Commerce, Trade
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - Six different narratives, multiple settings ranging from Colonial New Zealand, to 1970s California, to a future-Korea. Postmodern
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk - 16th C Istanbul, Mystery, Art, Minaturists, Postmodern
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay - Moorish Spain, El Cid, Reonquista, Doctors, Historical Fantasy
The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay - Byzantium during the reign of Justinian and Theodora, Mosaicists, Charioteers, Court Intrigue, Historical Fantasy