Publisher’s Weekly – Marc Schultz

The historical novel is a perennial fixture in the book business, a nimble genre that works its way into all corners of  the storytelling ecosystem: bestseller lists, hot new subgenres, movie adaptations and, of course, the literary canon. Historicals make up more than half of the just-released longlist for the UK’s Orange Prize for woman-penned fiction, and scripted historicals are in full force on TV (Downton Abbey, Mad Men) and at the movies (2011 Best Picture winner The Artist was one of four historicals nominated for the honor—five, if you count Midnight in Paris). This week, they’re also all over the On-Sale Calendar.

I’m a huge fan of historical novels! There’s something fun and thrilling about taking historical fact, throwing in fictional characters or turn-of-events, and creating a new piece. Sometimes the novels can be silly, and other times there are gems that convince you of plausibility.

This list contains historical paranormal, historical romance, historical fiction, historical mystery, and even “straight-up” history in the nonfiction list. Michael Morpurgo (author of War Horse) is also mentioned in his latest young reader book about a cat on the Titanic.