The Border Book Club

[Troubadour]

I finished RJ Ellory's "The Anniversary Man" a week or so ago. It had me completely gripped. My heart was racing most of the way through! It's about a serial killer... quite graphic and unsettling, but very, very good. I've moved on to Harlan Coben's "Caught" now, which looks promising.

I picked up a biography of Bill Clinton at the library the other day, which I am going to start after "Caught". Does anybody have any biographies or autobiographies they would like to recommend to me? I'm particularly interested in historical and political figures.

[Freypower]

Biographies? Where do you want me to start?

Nicholas & Alexandra - Robert K. Massie
Churchill - Roy Jenkins
The Queen - Bem Pimlott
Cromwell: Our Chief Of Men - Antonia Fraser
Mary Queen Of Scots - Antonia Fraser
The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Antonia Fraser
Hitler - Ian Kershaw
Memoirs - Mikhail Gorbachev
The Arrogance Of Power (Nixon) - Anthony Summers

[sodascouts]

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey is also very good.

[EaglesKiwi]

Does anyone here like historical fiction & have some to recommend?

[sodascouts]

Oh, I love historical fiction! Right now I'm reading Phillippa Gregory's Red Queen because I enjoyed The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin Lover, and The White Queen so much. However, I recommend staying away from her Wideacre series (the books are overlong and boring) and The Wise Woman (one of the worst books I've read in a long time).

[Freypower]

My daughter has read Philippa Gregory but I go all the way back to Jean Plaidy; that's old.

I suppose you could classify Tolstoy's War & Peace in this category; it is IMO the greatest book ever written but probably not for everybody.

And then there is Gone With The Wind. Need I say more?

I strongly recommend Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth & World Without End.

I also recommend Margaret George's The Autobiography of Henry VIII.

I even have Australian books to recommend - Grand Days & Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse, about the founding of the League of Nations. My mother went to school with Frank Moorhouse & my copy of Grand Days is autographed.

My husband would recommend the entire Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser.

The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

And how could I leave out the second greatest book ever written, Joseph Heller's Catch-22. (I think WWII qualifies as 'historical' these days).

[Ive always been a dreamer]

And there is my personal all-time favorite - Dr. Zhivago

[EaglesKiwi]

Woohoo, thanks for all the suggestions!

I will concur with FP's recommendation on Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth (brilliant) and World Without End (which is a semi-sequel - a little "the same" but still very good).

I'm going to try out some Philippa Gregory and Frank Moorhouse first up, then go through some of the others. I did try War & Peace when I was at school, but didn't really have the patience for it then.

FP - you mention Jean Plaidy - have you read any of her "writing as Philippa Carr" books? The series is referred to as "Daughters of England" and the first one is set in Henry 8th's time, each following book is written by the next generation.

[Freypower]

Woohoo, thanks for all the suggestions!

I will concur with FP's recommendation on Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth (brilliant) and World Without End (which is a semi-sequel - a little "the same" but still very good).

I'm going to try out some Philippa Gregory and Frank Moorhouse first up, then go through some of the others. I did try War & Peace when I was at school, but didn't really have the patience for it then.

FP - you mention Jean Plaidy - have you read any of her "writing as Philippa Carr" books? The series is referred to as "Daughters of England" and the first one is set in Henry 8th's time, each following book is written by the next generation.

I knew about both her pseudonyms of Philippa Carr & Victoria Holt. I tried Victoria Holt but that was 'gothic romance' stuff which didn't interest me. I didn't read any of the Carr books. But someone else I should have mentioned is Georgette Heyer who specialised in the Regency period (a la Jane Austen). Once you read one, however, you had read them all. They were all the same (there were a lot of them).

[EaglesFanatic]

I just bought Long Ago And Far Away-James Taylor; His Life And Music written by Timothy White. It looks great! Has anyone here read it?