How To Pick Which Historical Fiction Book To Read Next

One of the most popular ways to pick which historical fiction book to read next is by choosing a book based on a subject you’re interested in. Think books about the titanic, historical fiction about the Romanovs, historical spy fiction, etc. I was drawn to reading The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams in large part because it was about the writing of an encyclopedia during the late 19th century. I’m always drawn to historical fiction books about books (and books about books in general), but I’ve also recently found myself drawn to books about code breakers.

Another common method for picking a historical fiction book to read is to go by time period. Think about the all times you’ve decided to read WWII fiction, for instance. Limiting yourself to a specific time period can still leave you with a wide variety of stories to read, too. The Woman With No Name follows a female saboteur working in occupied France in WWII, while Shanghai Girls by Lisa See takes us halfway across the world to two young women trying to outrun the wave of Japanese soldiers invading China. Other books like The Tattooist of Auschwitz take readers into the horrifying depths of Nazi concentration camps. There are so many time periods you can dive into with historical fiction, including Regency-era romance, books set during the American Civil War, WWI historical fiction and even more recent books set in the 1960s.

Searching for historical fiction books by region is a great way to narrow down which books you might like to read. Let’s say you’re really interested in Korean history. Looking into books set throughout Korean history narrows down the types of books you’re interested in to a much more limited category to look through, from the incredible historical mysteries and thrillers of June Hur to Juhea Kim’s Beasts of a Little Land. You can search for historical fiction books from any place to find specific titles. Book Riot has lots of great region-specific historical fiction recommendations, including books set in Korea, China, Ireland, Nigeria, France, and Mexico, to name just a few.

Maybe just historical fiction isn’t your usual go-to. That’s okay, too. There are so many genres of historical fiction that will take you outside the realms of what people typically think of as historical fiction. Most of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s books are set in the past, but they’re equally gothic thrillers and supernatural horror stories or fantasy adventures. You can read historical fantasy, historical romance, alternate history (or even more specific: alternate history westerns), historical mysteries, and historical science fiction. Pretty much any genre you can think of probably has a historical equivalent.

There are other ways to pick historical fiction books to read, of course. You can pick a book based on the author, the cover, the title, or even a recommendation. Nonetheless, I hope these methods give you some ideas for how to go about selecting which historical fiction books to read next.

Right now, I’m reading Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, the third book in a historical fantasy series about a British professor studying the world of faeries.