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: Just Some of the Most Reviewed Books from the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Bookish Goals for 2024. However, don't really have that many goals, other than tryig to review all the historical fiction novels I read, and I am already behind on that goal! I am therefore going rogue and instead sharing some of the books that were reviewed multiple times during the 2023 Historical Fiction Challenge. On the weekend, I revealed  the book that was reviewed most during the challenge (five times) and the three books that were reviewed  four times. You can see those books here along with other statistics.

Today, I will be sharing the five books that were reviewed three times, and then five (out of the 75) books that were reviewed twice.

First off, here are five books that were reviewed three times:

A Marriage of Fortune by Anne O'Brien - It has been an age since I read any historical fiction with a medieval setting.

Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb - This book tells the story of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor - This sounds like a very interesting story

The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau - Love this cover!

The Romantic by William Boyd - This book was longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

And here are five books  that were reviewed twice which I have picked for various reason to share today

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - I loved, loved,loved this book when I read it a couple of years ago.

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane - This is another book that was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. She is an Australian author, and I feel like she probably goes under the radar a little bit here.

Weyward by Emilia Hart - This was the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Historical Fiction in 2023.

The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson - I really liked this book when I read it last year.

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson - I keep on being reminded that I really need to read this book!

If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, why not join us. t's not too late to join this year's challenge. All the sign up details are here!

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge December stats (and full 2023 stats too!)

 

 

Each month I share the statistics for the previous month for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Given that we have now finished with 2023 this month's post will be all the statistics for December and then the statistics for the full year! I always find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I think I have visited everyone who shared a link for December. although I think I moved away from some Wordpress blogs before the comments loaded due to the pop-up they have. Even if it looks like I didn't leave a comment, I still visited I promise!!

In terms of the books, it was a good month in December for reviews with 55 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 1 participants. This is 7 more than for the same month last year.   There were 4 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 10 or just 1. 

There was just one book that was reviewed more than once this month and that was The Romantic by William Boyd, a book that was longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction this year. This month it was reviewed by both Kay at What Me Read and Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review blog.

There were 2 other authors who had more than book reviewed. 

Agatha Christie who had 3 different books reviewed this month. Sleeping Murder was reviewed at Shellie Loves Books, Murder on the Orient Express was reviewed at Laura's Reviews (in graphic novel form) as was Endless Night. Interestingly, there was another book that features Hercule Poirot but by another author, which is part of a series authorised by the Agatha Christie estate.

Verity Bright's books Murder on the Cornish Cliffs and Death on a Winter's Day were reviewed at A Darn Good Read and Shellie Loves Books respectively. I do love the covers on these books.

And that's it, so let's look at the stats for the whole challenge year. Are you ready?

During 2023 there were a total 846 reviews added to the challenge. This compares to 841 reviews in 2022 and 775 reviews during 2021. The 846 reviews were for 748 individual titles written by 609 authors and submitted by 43 different reviewers.

Let's start with the month by month numbers: 

February was the month with the highest number of reviews at 91 and October was the lowest with 34.

In terms of the books, there was one book that was reviewed more than any other during 2023, with 5 reviews submitted. That book was .....

There were 3 books that were reviewed 4 times. They were

And then there were 5 books reviewed 3 times, 75 books reviewed twice and 664 titles that were each reviewed once.

In terms of authors, one author was reviewed significantly more than any and that was Agatha Christie who was reviewed 26 times, partly because quite a few of the participants were participating in the Reading Christie year long challenge. And yes, I am putting aside the discussion of whether she counts as historical fiction or not as I leave that to the participants discretion.

The next most reviewed authors, who were all reviewed 7 times were Kate Morton, D E Stevenson, Georgette Heyer, Roseanna M White and Verity Bright.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the challenge during 2023. Our highest number of reviews submitted was a whopping 70, but whether you contributed that many or just 1 I am grateful to you all for your participation.

It's not too late to join the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the January link post to add your reviews here.

I am looking forward to seeing what people share during 2024.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge March statistics

 

Last year I started sharing statistics each month for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, and my plan is to continue to do this again this year. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! This month I have been around and visited most of the reviews and added several books to my TBR list.

In terms of the books, it was another really good month for reviews with 88 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 25 participants. This is 12 more than for the same month last year. There were 85 individual titles reviewed, written by 83 different authors. There were 8 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1.

Let's move onto the books. There were three books that were reviewed twice during March.

 

The first is Goodnight from Paris by Jane Healey which was enthusiastically reviewed by Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review and by Susan at Reading World

The next book to be reviewed twice is Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb which was also reviewed by Davida as well as at Laura's Reviews. This book is the story of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's tempestuous relationship.

The third book to be reviewed twice was The Book Spy by Alan Hlad. I have requested this one from my library based on the reviews I read at Laura's Reviews and also Becky's Reviews. WWII librarians who are spies sound like my kind of read!

There are two authors who both had two books reviewed being Lauraine Snelling and Trish MacEnulty. Barbara from Stray Thoughts reviewed 2 books which actually comprise 5 novellas, all set in North Dakota in the early 1900s and featuring Norwegian immigrants. The first collection comprised 3 novellas called Dakota Dream, Dakota Dream and Dakota Dusk. The second collection is the final 2 novellas called Dakota December and Dakota Destiny.

Yvonne from A Darn Good Read reviewed two books by Trish MacEnulty which are the first two books in the Delafield and Malloy Investigations historical mystery series. The first book is The Whispering Women and the second is The Burning Bride.

Recently the shortlist for the Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for 2023 was announced, so I thought I would share the books from the longlist which have been reviewed for the challenge so far. I have noted the books which have made the shortlist

The Romantic by Willian Boyd

These Days by Lucy Caldwell (Shorlisted)

My Name is Yip by Paddy Crewe

The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan (Shortlisted)

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (Shortlisted)

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry (Shortlisted)

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane (Shortlisted)

Ancestry by Simon Mower (Shortlisted)

I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnanbalam (Shortlisted)
The Settlement by Jock Serong

Cathy from What Cathy Read Next has read several of the listed books including The Romantic, I am Not Your Eve and The Settlement.

Is anyone else planning to read any of short or longlisted books for the Prize?

It's not too late to join the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the March linky to add your reviews here.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Top Ten Tuesday - Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction longlist

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week it is a genre freebie, so I thought I would share the longlist for the Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. I have been tossing around the thought of doing some kind of mini challenge within the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge but I haven't yet worked out what that is going to look like! Maybe I will have figured out by the time the shortlist is announced

To be completely transparent, I haven't read any of these books, or even these authors but there are a number of them that have caught my eye. There are also a wide variety of settings amongst this list, from Tahiti to Australia, to Belfast and London and more.

The Romantic by William Boyd

These Days by Lucy Caldwell

My Name is Yip by Paddy Crewe

The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane

Ancestry by Simon Mower



And given that the long list has twelve books on it, here are two bonuses

I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnanbalam
The Settlement by Jock Serong

If you love historical fiction, you are more than welcome to join other fans of the genre in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2023. The sign up post is here.

Have you read any of these books?