Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge June Statistics (and for the first 6 months of the year!)

Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in June, there were 70 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 20 participants. There were 69 individual titles reviewed, written by 66 different authors. There were 5 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 11 or just 1.

So which book was reviewed more than once in June? 

Last year The Women by Kristin Hannah was the most reviewed book for the whole year. This month, it was reviewed by both Bree from All the Books I Can Read and by myself. This book certainly made both of us feel a lot! 

There were also two other authors who had more than one book reviewed. 

I reviewed The Diamond Eye and Margaret from Books Please reviewed Signal Moon which is a short story. Both are by Kate Quinn.

Bev from My Reader's Block has been working her way through the Redmond and Haze mystery series by Irina Shapiro and reviewed the first three books. They were Murder in the Crypt,  Murder at the Abbey and Murder at the Mill.

I wonder what books will be featured next month!

It is hard to believe but we are half way through the challenge already for 2025, so I thought it would be interesting to look at the stats for the first 6 months and see what stands out. 

So far this year there have been 366 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 32 participants. There have been 335 individual titles reviewed, written by 292 different authors. There are 3 reviewers who have reviewed 25 or more books each with Laura from Laura's Reviews having contributed an astonishing 53 reviews so far! Thank you to everyone who has shared their links with the challenge.

There are 3 books that have all been reviewed 3 times for the challenge. They are The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn, The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry and The Versailles Formula by Nancy Bilyeau.

Agatha Christie tops the list of authors who have been reviewed most with 10 reviews, followed by Kerry Greenwood who has been reviewed 6 times, and Kate Quinn and Patrice McDonough who have both been reviewed 4 times. 

And so far there have been 29 books reviewed that have the words death or murder in the title! What a bloodthirsty bunch of readers we are!

It will be interesting to see what changes over the next 6 months when I do the statistics for the whole year!

If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, it isn't too late to join us! All the details can be found in the sign up post.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Six Degrees of Separation: All Fours to War and Peace

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This month's starting point is All Fours by Miranda July which is nominated for 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Nominated or not, it's a book that I am really not interested in reading based on the things I have heard about it!

My first link is based on the number 4 and takes me to The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. This is the second book in the Nursery Crimes series, which I seem to have enjoyed a lot when I read it 19 years ago (my review)

My next choice used the word bear as the link and is The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. This is a book that I started on audio years ago and have never quite finished. One day.

This time, I am using the nightingale as connected to The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. This is a book that I also listened to on audio but the difference is that I did finish it! 

Next, I am using the word nightingale as my connection to The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon. How does that work you might wonder? Well, this book tells the story of a young woman who went to the Crimea to work alongside Florence Nightingale. (my review)

This week I have been reading The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn, which is partially set in and around Sebastopol during WWII.

And next, we make a leap to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The connection on this one is probably a bit obscure but I chose it because one of the characters in The Diamond Eye carries a copy of War and Peace around with him on the battlefield. This also acted as a reminder that I am a bit behind on my chapter a day readalong!

I am pretty sure that there is no way that I can link All Fours to War and Peace to come full circle! Another time!

Next month, the starting point is 2025 Stella Prize winner, Michelle de Kretser’s , Theory & Practice.

Will you be joining us?

The Women by Kristin Hannah

 

I wasn't really in too much of a hurry to read this book. However, I have been talking about it a lot as there were a couple of people at the readers retreat I went to recently who raved about it and so I moved it up the TBR list.  It also fit the theme for this month for my read on a theme book club as the theme was 1960s. I had already read one book, but I think I would surprise the group if I only turned up having read one book. Ironically, it turned out that three of us had read this book!

This book seems to be very divisive. It won the Goodreads Choice award for Historical Fiction and was nominated for and won a bunch of other awards. It was also the most reviewed book for last year's Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host. And yet, if you spend time in any historical fiction related groups you will find many people who really, really dislike it, as in with a passion! So, where did I land? I am firmly in the I loved it camp.

Frankie McGrath has led a sheltered life growing up on the island of Coronado near San Diego in a wealthy Catholic family. She has just started nursing but really, this is something to do until she meets the man of her dreams, gets married and has kids like all good Catholic girls. 

Her family is very patriotic and proud of their history of serving their country across generations. When Frankie's brother joins up to go to fight in Vietnam it is celebrated. That night, a conversation with one of her brother's friends changes her life completely when she is reminded that women can be heroes too. Frankie decides to follow in her brother's footsteps and head to Vietnam as a nurse.

To say that the conditions in Vietnam shock the sheltered young girl is an understatement, but it isn't long before Frankie finds her feet and becomes an exceptional theatre nurse under horrific circumstances, thanks in no small part to her friends Barb and Ethel. She sees a constant stream of men coming to the field hospital, many of whom will not survive, but she is also sees the suffering of the Vietnamese civilians who she also provides medical care for. They perform surgery whilst being under attack, she loses people she loves, she works herself to the point of exhaustion, and finds moments of great joy despite the adversity. 

After two years, Frankie returns home to a country that is against the war, who have been known to call returned service men things like baby killers, and to a family that is not proud of her. Suffering from what we would now easily identify as PTSD, Frankie struggles to settle back into civilian life. Even her nursing skills which have been honed under intense conditions are not recognised and she has to start her nursing career from the bottom. 

Isolated, suffering from PTSD, not sleeping, Frankie begins to spiral and soon is taking drugs and drinking way too much. She needs to find what it is that is going to centre herself and try to build a new life before she destroys herself completely. 

A while ago someone asked in a comment what the difference between a 4.5 and a 5 star rating is for me. A book doesn't have to be perfect, and this one isn't. The last chapter had me rolling my eyes at how neatly things were wrapped up. However, my response to that question was that it all comes down to the feeling I get when I close the book. If I have loved a book it will be a 4.5, but if I am completely emotionally drawn in and close the book with a contented sigh then that will be a 5. While I didn't close this book with a sigh, I did close it with tear filled eyes. Even the bloody acknowledgements made me cry!

What this book did do is make me feel....a lot. Mostly it made me feel angry. I was angry with Frankie's family, especially her father, I was angry with the system, I was angry with the men she got involved with (yes, you Rye!), and I was angry with the soldiers who were in Vietnam but wouldn't acknowledge the fact that the nurses deserved recognition too. 

It probably didn't help that recently we have been watching the Ken Burns documentary about Vietnam where the events that were happening both in Vietnam and back in the US were shown from the protests against Vietnam to the political grandstanding and so much more. That did help me with some of the events in the book. For example, at one point, Hannah mentions the Tet Offensive but I had already watched the documentary episode where this was covered. 

I have read a couple of Kristin Hannah books now with the other one being The Alice Network. I am going to go back and read her backlist if this is the kind of response that her writing can create!

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.

Rating 5/5

Top Ten Tuesday: Books set in another time

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's them is Books Set in Another Time. You may be aware that I host the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, so I have decided to share 10 books that were reviewed more than once in last year's Historical Fiction Reading challenge. Most of these were reviewed three times during 2024, with the last two being reviewed four and five times respectively! There were 600 individual titles reviewed for the challenge which is impressive! You can find more statistics from last year's challenge here.

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

The Household by Stacey Halls

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

James by Percival Everett

Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Have you read any of these? I have several of these on my TBR pile.

Do you love historical fiction? Do you love reading challenges? It's not too late to join us. All the details can be found here!

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge statistics for December and the whole year!

Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

This month I am also sharing the stats for the whole of the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge!

First, December. 

In terms of the books read in December, there were 58 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 19 participants. There were 56 individual titles reviewed, written by 52 different authors. There were 4 reviewers who shared 5 or more reviews this month. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 12 or just 1.

So which books were reviewed more than once in December? There were two.

The first, somewhat fittingly given the Season, was Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. This was reviewed by Barbara from Stray Thoughts and Laura from Laura's Reviews. Click on the links to see their thoughts!

The second was Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd which was reviewed by Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and Helen at She Reads Novels. The links take you to their reviews.

I do have to be careful when I do these statistics as this month we had two different books with the title Euphoria, so it did look like there was another one, but there wasn't!

I already shared this in the Facebook group but there were a lot of books with a variation of the word murder in the title this month. Maybe there is every month, but it jumped out at me this month. There were 8 of those titles, plus another one with the word Death!

There were a number of authors where there were reviews shared for more than one of their books.

Barbara from Stray Thoughts shared two novellas from Amanda Dykes, and I have to say that the Tin Can Serenade one sounds really good to me!

Barbara also shared her thoughts on two books by Roseanna M White - An Honorable Deception and Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor. 

Finally, there were two reviews shared for stories written by Charles Dickens. Alexis at Goodreads read La battaglia della vita which is The Battle of Life. I read The Chimes, which is one of Dickens lesser known Christmas stories. And yes, I do read for this challenge, I just don't often get to highlight myself in these posts (;-))

So those were the stats for December. Let's get to the stats for the whole of 2024!

In terms of the books read and reviewed in 2024, there were 665 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 34 participants. There were 600 individual titles reviewed, written by 502 different authors. There were 7 reviewers who shared 30 or more reviews this month with our top contributor being Laura from Laura's Reviews who contributed an amazing 101 reviews!. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 101 or just 2.

This compares to 846 reviews in 2023, 841 reviews in 2022 and 775 reviews during 2021

So which book was reviewed the most during 2024? To be honest, I am not completely surprised given that this book one the Goodreads Choice award for Historical Fiction and has appeared on many best of lists. I will say though, it does seem to be a very divisive book. People either really, really love it, or they really don't!

Drumroll please!

The book with the most reviews during 2024 was The Women by Kristin Hannah

The next highest number of reviews was for The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonsen which was reviewed 4 times.

There were then 8 books that were reviewed three times:

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd

James by Percival Everett

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn

The Household by Stacey Halls

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

As I mentioned earlier, it can be a little tricky sometimes with books with the same title. Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein was reviewed 3 times, but there was also another book with the same title as well by C J Barker.

Here's a breakdown of review by author numbers

5 reviews - 1

4 reviews - 1

3 reviews - 8

2 reviews - 84

1 review - 548

If we look at the authors who were reviewed multiple times, then Agatha Christie is the runaway winner with 19 different reviews contributed. I don't think that is a surprise given that quite a few people are doing both this challenge and the Read Christie challenge.

Other honourable mentions go to Roseanna M White who had 6 stories reviewed. Amanda Dykes and Verity Bright both had 5 stories reviewed!

There are a couple of little anomalies here. Kate Quinn writing solo was reviewed 3 times, but she was also reviewed 3 times for her collaboration with Janie Chang! Similarly, Hazel Gaynor and Aimie K Runyan were reviewed both as individuals and for their collaborative novels. There are probably others as well, but those are the ones that stood out to me.

Here's a breakdown of review by author numbers

19 reviews - 1

6 reviews - 1

5 reviews - 2

4 reviews - 6

3 reviews - 27

2 reviews - 56

1 review - 408

And here is the breakdown for the number of reviews for month

Oh, and for the record, there were 42 different books reviewed that had some variation of the words death and murder in the title! I am thinking of adding this into the monthly stats!

This year I added a column for the times I thought "oh, I would like to read that" when I read someone's review. That happened 68 times! And how many did I actually read - just one. Just goes to show that this challenge is bad/good for your TBR pile, depending on your perspective!

So now we look forward to the 2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. If you are interested in joining us, the sign up post is here. We would love to see what you are reading!

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: Winter books

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books or Covers that Feel/Look Like Summer (You can interpret this in a number of ways. Maybe the covers or titles are obviously summer themed, but maybe the feeling the book gives you is all warm and summery. Maybe the book cover colors look summery or the story itself takes place in the summertime. Or maybe the titles you select are favorites that you re-read every summer when you were on break from school.) Now because we are in the Southern Hemisphere I am twisting this to be about winter.  One of the other reasons for twisting it is because winter is the theme for my read on a theme bookclub this month so this exercise might help me to decide what book I am going to read for bookclub!

So here are just some of the winter books I have on my Kindle so far:

Five Winters by Kitty Johnson - Doesn't this cover scream winter!

The Winter Dress by Lauren Chater - This is probably the book that I was leaning towards reading, but I am just not sure if I can fit it in!

Winter Beginnings by Elise K Ackers - This is the third book in the Return to Me series. I haven't read the others so this is not likely to be my choice this time.

Winter Men by Jesper Bugge Kold - I think I probably picked this one up as part of the world book promotions that Amazon has most years.

A Winter Ballad by Barbara Samuel - I really enjoy reading Barbara O'Neal's books so I fully expect to enjoy this book as well, although it does look very retro!

Now onto the options that I don't already own:

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah - I have only read one Kristin Hannah book which I enjoyed. I really should read more.

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio - See that sentence above about Kristin Hannah. Substitute the name of Sarah Jio and you will see my thoughts on this book.

Winter in Paradise by Erin Hildebrand - I know that Erin Hildebrand is a book club favourite, but I haven't read her yet. Yes, I know that I should have!

The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin - Ihad this book on my shelf for years, but I don't think it survived the last cull. It would have been perfect for this theme.

Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill - Last night I dreamt of Manderley  - Yes, this book is about that Mrs de Winter who we originally met in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and it might make for interesting conversation.

I am not sure if this has helped me choose a book or made it more difficult. 

Top Ten Tuesday: 2021 Releases I Was Excited to Read But Didn't Get To

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is 2021 Releases I was excited to readd but didn't get to. Now, it's going to be a very short post if I just say all of them, so let me work through some of my posts from last year!

Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon - I have been invested in this series for at least 20 years. Normally by this stage I would have bought the book the first time I saw it in the shop and finished it. I will read it at some point I am sure.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - I really enjoyed Red, White and Royal Blue so I was very excited about this book coming out.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - I have several books still to read by Kristin Hannah. I did intend to read this one!

The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley - I have listened to all of the Seven Sisters books and they are all very long books. I am just not sure when I am going to have time to listen to this one.

From the Ashes by Kristina Gruell - This is the first in a series written by a friend of mine who I met on the forums for Sara Donati back in the day.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - I haven't actually read Andy Weir before, but the movie of his book The Martian is one of my all time favourites.

The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper - This author wrote one of my few 5/5 reads for last year so I really should read this one.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr - I loved All the Light We Cannot See and I have heard good things about this book too.

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - I have heard such good things about this book

Still Life by Sarah Winman - Several people I know have raved about this book. I just started it this week and so far so good.

Have you read any of these books?

Top Ten Tuesday: Most reviewed books in the 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a free choice so I have decided to share the Top Ten Books That Were Reviewed for the 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge!! I should add a disclaimer to say that I have only done the statistics up to the end of October, so there is still time for the final top ten to be shaped!

As at the end of October we had 570 different titles, 653 different reviews which featured 458 reviews. I will be sharing more statistics once we get to the end of the year.

In the mean time, here are the Top Ten titles reviewed as part  of the challenge so  far:

Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Isabelle and Alexander by Rebecca Anderson

Sisters of the Resistance by Christine Wells

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

The Merchant and the Rogue by Sarah M Eden

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell

If you love historical fiction and love reading challenges, why not join us for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge! The sign up post is here.

Have you read any of these books?  What was your favourite historical fiction read this year?

Top Ten Tuesday: My Autumn TBR

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books on my Spring TBR, except that it is autumn for us.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn - I am cheating a bit as I am already reading this, but I am thoroughly enjoying it so wanted to mention it.

How to Mend a Broken Heart by Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is an auto read for me!

The Life She Finds by Maggie Christenson - I read the first three books in this series in quick succession early this year. Now I need to read book 4.

Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen - A new series for me.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry - I really enjoyed Beach Read when I read it last year so looking forward to this one.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah -  Can not wait for this book!

The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman - I read and loved The Heirloom Garden last year. If pressed I would go so far as to call it my favourite book of 2020 so I am very much looking forward to this one.

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary - After loving her first book, and enjoying the second, I am looking forward to this one.

The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley - The final book in the Seven Sisters series. I just need to hurry about and finish listening to the audio of The Sun Sister.

From the Ashes by Kristina Gruell - Full disclosure. I have been friends with this author for many years, to the point that we have met up with her and a couple of others on our last couple of trips. Whilst I am not necessarily a gaslamp fantasy reader, you do want to support your friends right.