Here are some books I’ve read recently, when I found time between revising my dissertation, as well as the next books on my To Be Read list.
Books I’ve Read
Virgins by Diana Gabaldon
I read the first five of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels while I was knee-deep in dissertatin’. I love the Outlander books (and the TV show ain’t too bad, either). They are great escapism, they’re romantic without being traditional romances, and they’re historical fiction, which is right up my alley.
A while back, after I read the first Outlander book, I was scrolling through the Outlander series on Amazon and saw that Gabaldon had written spin-off novels and novellas. The novella Virgins caught my eye because it’s a prequel of sorts to the first Outlander book.
A Storm of Witchcraft by Emerson W. Baker
I studied the Salem Witch Trials when I wrote Her Dear and Loving Husband, but since
Down Salem Way is also set in Salem during the 17th century, I found that I needed to learn more about that time.
I reread old favorites by Marilynne K. Roach and others, but I was happy to discover Baker’s book. Baker examines myths about the witch trials and holds them up to the light of the most recent research, and sometimes the two don’t fit. Some of what we’ve come to believe about the witch hunts may not be true.
I was under the impression that there wasn’t much new to say about the Salem Witch Trials since they’re one of the most studied times in American history, but Baker has proven me wrong. If you’re interested in the Salem Witch Trials and you’re looking for a historian with something new to say, read A Storm of Witchcraft by Emerson W. Baker.
Books On My TBR List
Yesterday I searched for historical novels set around the Salem Witch Trials and I found a few that caught my eye. The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe both came highly recommended and I’m looking forward to reading them.
When I’m writing historical fiction, I enjoy reading other historical novels set during the same period because it helps to bring the facts of the period to life in a way that a nonfiction book doesn’t, at least not for me.
For me, historical fiction serves as a TARDIS
, allowing me to travel through space and time to any given point in history. With fiction, you get sights, sounds, emotions, and tension. That’s why I write historical fiction. It uses a different part of the brain than when I’m writing history-based nonfiction.
I enjoy writing history-based nonfiction, and I enjoy reading it, but sometimes history books feel like a list of names and dates and facts, which is not always interesting, even when it’s a subject I want to learn about.
The more I as the writer feel as if I’ve traveled back to the time period I’m writing about, and the more I enjoy my visit there, the more my readers will believe the journey–or at least that’s what I hope will happen.