Speaking of Chunksters...Some Great Historicals

 On Monday, I dove headlong into Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness, which is just a hair under 900 pages. Published in 1998, it's the first in a series of historical fiction set in a locale not far from my home, in the northern zone of what passes for the Mohawk Valley today (along the West Branch of the Sacandaga River). The novel begins in 1792, during George Washington's administration, as Elizabeth Middleton, recently transplanted from England, begins a new life with her father, a judge and patent landowner in the wilderness settlement of Paradise. She is a spinster at the age of 29, and is determined to open the first school in Paradise and to remain single. Until she meets Nathaniel Bonner, that is. Nathaniel is kin by marriage to the Mohican Native Americans. Lots of detail about Mohican culture and the clash of cultures in New York in this ear, but I won't elaborate, yet will suffice to say that this is an incomparable page-turner, very well-written, historically accurate, and think EPIC SAGA! If this book sounds familiar, I did mention the book in the tour of my bookshelves last winter. Finally, finally I'm reading it. I heartily recommend and am now 300 pages in.

In December, I was truly thrilled to read Ken Follett's new historical epic, The Evening and the Morning, published Fall 2020, and which is a prequel to his all-time best-selling book, The Pillars of the Earth. The 950 pages passed so quickly as I became wrapped up in this tale of 10th and 11th century-England, struggling to overcome and recover from Viking raids and former conquest. Really strong female and male characters were a great plus here. Also, just so you know, the hardcover was a joy to read, with extra leading between each line and a very readable font. 

Alas, I had to set aside Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light, the third book in her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, a book of about 868 pages or so.  I loved the first two books!  I so badly want to read it, but in the first difficult! 80 pages, many, many male characters (nobility, mostly) are presented and are important, but, I'm sorry to say this, I felt there was no attempt to characterize this large group of men as individuals. I found it impossible to distinguish one noble from another. And they were, in historical reality, individuals. So why is that?? It drove me bonkers, especially so, because I wanted so badly to read the end of this trilogy. Sigh. I will try again, probably this summer. But Wolf Hall and Bringing up the Bodies were top-flight!