Historical Fiction

North and South
Love and War
Heaven and Hell

So North and South is one of my favorite historical fiction series every. Being a History major I've always had a soft spot for the Civil War, don't ask me why. I think it's the drama, the brother against brother, the father against son, the splitting over values. Anyways so there's the civil war aspect and then there's just the plain old soap opera plot line to it. It's great. I think I really have a soft spot for it because I was introduced to it through my aunt in France watching the miniseries. So North and South in French, me interrupting every ten minutes to clarify what was going on as I was only ten, and just plain old Patrick Swayze, and girls in cool hoop skirts with curly hair. What more does anyone need. Anyways as I said before I'm not a great literature reader but if it's juicy stories you want that entertain and amuse to no end I'm your girl and this is your series. Also helps to like the historical references. I always love them cause I go it could of happened, we don't know! It could have happened. Of course it didn't but nice to know it could've.

So I read the Kent Family Chronicles after North and South. John Jakes is great at the historical soap opera. If you liked North and South then I really recommend this as it's even more involved and you get to enjoy the characters for longer but since it is so long there are some boring parts you have to push through. The one I mainly remember was in book 3 where I stopped for six months but then finally went back to and 5 pages later the amusement was back on. The plotline is basically following one family from Revolution to the turn of the 20th Century He was supposed to take the family to the 1960s, but I think he ran out of gas. The first two books are the best, with the whole colonies and revolution thing, but you come to love the characters so the rest are great as well. There was also fan wishes that the family be connected to the Kents in Kansas who found Superman. A way to corny but none the less entertaining idea for me to contemplate.

So I know, I know everybody usually hates Gone with the Wind, calls it an over popular dribble but well as I said before, civil war, pretty dresses and this time Rhett Butler/Clark Gable. Yes I first fell in love with Gone with the Wind on video, but the book with more detail and insight into Scarlett still has a wonderfully rakish Rhett. Oh the bad boy that everyone wants to have love them. In theory I love the bad boys, but in reality they're way too self centered. However if I had to pick one it would be Rhett. Anyways so everyone knows the plot line of GWTW, the book just gives us more details and frankly I just love that self centered Scarlett. I always secretly wish I could be the type of person who knows what she wants and goes after it. Except for that whole silly obsession with Ashley. This book however is only for those who seriously love the movie and wish to know more details about the characters.

As for Scarlett the book, a sequel written by Alexandra Ripley, it's only for those who want a version of what might have happened to Scarlett and Rhett and is at it's core a glorified fanfic. It's good reading for a long plane ride. While it is even worse dribble than that which GWTW is claimed to be it still holds a special place in my heart for the sheer audacity of trying to continue GWTW and the alternate ending it does give us. Still as usual with me it is a soap opera at heart. Oh how I love the drama in peoples lives that is way more interesting than mine.

This book was first recommended to me by my High School French teacher, Mrs. Pantzer. Ahhh Mrs. Pantzer sometimes I miss her enthusiasm over anything French. Anyways she recommended it because it set in France between the time of Louis XIV and the French Revolution. It follows one girl and then follows her daughter and then her daughter. Again another family affair. Either way it's an entertaining romp, with pretty dresses lots of mothers and daughters cat fights and misunderstandings and plenty of famous historical characters. Mrs. Pantzer told me that there was another good book by her but I have yet to ever find it, as Rosalind Laker herself is hard to find, but one day, one day it will be read and I will again go, "Ohhhh Mrs. Pantzer."