Best jewish historical fiction books according to redditors
We found 182 Reddit comments discussing the best jewish historical fiction books. We ranked the 62 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 182 Reddit comments discussing the best jewish historical fiction books. We ranked the 62 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
The recommended section is just a treasure trove of amazing garbage:
Ben Shapiro
Mike Thernovich
Vox Day
This dumbass
The_Alinsky_fearer has logged on
Trump as a soviet worker
Sharia law is coming to your chipolte
The adventures of Hitler
Scott Adams: Failing is actually success
There already is book pretty much based on this. It's called 'Creation' by Gore Vidal! It's one of my favorite books. It's about a zoroastrian diplomate from the Persian Empire and his visits to China, India and, Greece!
Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Creation-Novel-Gore-Vidal/dp/0375727051
Anyone who wants to more about how Israel and the Palestinians came to this point should read Exodus. It goes all the way back to before the founding of Israel and tells how the Arabs welcomed them and were friendly with them until one Mufti managed to turn all of that to hate towards the Jewish people. It's a really good book. https://www.amazon.com/Exodus-Leon-Uris/dp/0553258478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482970368&sr=8-1&keywords=exodus+book
The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I'm reading it right now, and I absolutely love it.
I know I must be missing some, but these are all that I can think of at the moment.
Fiction:
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
White Noise by Don Delilo
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by DFW
Infinite Jest by DFW
Of these, you can't go wrong with Infinite Jest and the Collected Fictions of Borges. His Dark Materials is an easy and classic read, probably the lightest fare on this list.
Non-Fiction:
The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy
Chaos by James Gleick
How to be Gay by David Halperin
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
Secret Historian by Justin Spring
Of these, Secret Historian was definitely the most interesting, though How to be Gay was a good intro to queer theory.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-bonus-content/dp/0812983580/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346537058&sr=8-1&keywords=amazing+kavalier+clay
I think Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union fictionalizes this alternate history.
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Watership Down
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Golem and the Jinni
Winter's Tale
And as someone else mentioned The Shadow of the Wind and the follow-ups Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven - they're basically Guillermo del Toro movies waiting to happen.
I finished Hidden Bodies on Friday, and just started Unbecoming over the weekend. I picked up something easy, because I'm next on the hold list for Mischling at the library. I've been wanting to read it since it came out, so I want to be able to dive right in!
Creation
Link for Nook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-golem-and-the-jinni-helene-wecker/1112581266?ean=9780062110855&itm=1&usri=the+golem+and+the+jinni
It is the same price on Kindle as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Golem-Djinni-Helene-Wecker-ebook/dp/B008QXVDJ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418748008&sr=8-1&keywords=the+golem+and+the+jinni
I picked this up, I've heard many good things!
Have you read Gregory Maguire's Wicked or The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker? Both have a strong literary bent and a ton of allusions to other works.
Wicked is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz with the Wicked Witch of the West as a political activist protagonist. The Golem and the Jinni is about immigrant life in 1899 New York... Except the immigrants are a newly-formed Jewish golem and a just-released vaguely Bedouin jinni.
[The Yiddish Policeman's Union] (https://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel-P-S/dp/0007149832) is alternate history rather than sci-fi, but is interesting.
Altered Carbon is a popular noir styled sci-fi that you've probably already seen recommended, and has an in production Netflix adaptation.
For what it's worth, a few Jewish fantasy authors, off the top of my head:
I'm sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of just now.
Well, not too Orthodox, but ones I have on my ereader which I liked...
The ebook is also currently on sale.
http://www.amazon.com/Golem-Jinni-P-S-Helene-Wecker-ebook/dp/B008QXVDJ0/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-golem-and-the-jinni-helene-wecker/1112581266
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-golem-and-the-jinni
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky? Not quite kissing, but: http://www.amazon.com/Suite-Francaise-Irene-Nemirovsky/dp/1400096278
The Golem and the Jinni was an excellent book!
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon was a fantastic murder mystery/thriller. The writing was great, straddling the line between genre fiction and literature.
amazon link
The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
There is a book about this, called Creation, by Gore Vidal. Also, you might be interesting in reading about the idea of Axial Age.
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, historical fiction and fantasy based in beginning of the 20th century New York - 500 pages, standalone.
This one! https://www.amazon.com/Golem-Jinni-Novel-P-S/dp/0062110845
I read this one years ago and it was really good as well: https://www.amazon.com/Alif-Unseen-G-Willow-Wilson/dp/0802121225
How about The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker?
Someone else already mentioned Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell.
Also, try The Alchemist by Donna Boyd and the Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier. Both have a beautiful and evocative way with words.
The Golem and the Jinni (fantasy New York in 1899) comes immediately to mind.
Self-published
Unpublished
Juvenilia
You might enjoy The Golem and the Jinni...It's set in turn of the century New York, and has strong cultural and religious overtones. The magical aspects of it are quite secondary to everything else.
A Winters Tale...the movie apparently sucked, but the book has stuck with me for quite some time. It's a lyrical piece of magic realism, much stronger on the realism. Another book on turn of the century New York.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell may be a bit more magic than you'd like, but it's astonishingly good. It's what Jane Austen would have produced if she'd decided to write a fantasy novel.
The Night Circus is good.
That will require some research. I use a kindle paperwhite haha.
The internet tells me it's a mostly blue and red comic panel design
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-bonus-content/dp/0812983580/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394548760&sr=8-1&keywords=the+amazing+adventures+of+kavalier+and+clay
Fantastic book, by the way. It can feel like it's dragging on at times, but an entirely rewarding experience.
The Catcher in the Rye is a pretty good gateway book for more literary fiction.
1984 and Animal Farm will probably appeal to your SF tendencies.
If you want something more contemporary, maybe try The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It has to do with comic books...
Here it is in novel form!
In case anyone's confused, he's talking about this and not this.
Last Days Of Summer
Picked this one up randomly years ago as a senior in High School. Years later and I still think about it, half convinced I imagined it because it was so good and I never hear anyone else mention it.
Maybe its not as good as I remember or something, but when I read this (and I read incessantly) no other book I've ever read hit me emotionally like this one.
*just a disclaimer, as I remember it, it isn't very "literary" in its style. That said, as someone who hates sappy, sweet-and-funny-and-sad books with a passion (I threw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close out less than halfway through) this one got to me.
For the Ismaili side, I'd recommend Assassins Legends and The Eagle's Nest (pretty much anything by Farhad Daftary is a good read). For the non-Ismaili side, there's lots of stuff but I'd actually recommend Alamut. It's a novel, but Bartol spent a decade researching the subject and the result is a really compelling look into how this could happen.
In context, you have to remember that Ismailis were stuck between Seljuks and Crusaders (both of which hated them) and no longer had a serviceable army to protect. So these lone assassins probably sounded like a great idea, regardless of what the leaders said.
That's it for Assassin Stuff. The rest is on the blind faith question...
One of the things that drew me back to Ismailism is that Hazar Imam has always encouraged us to think critically, even about his faramin (it's like page 2 of Precious Gems). Rationality, critical thinking, and the application of a personal intellect are (and always have been) tenets of Ismailism: followers of Jafar alSadiq were known as the "People of the Truth"; Hassan Sabbah (founder of the Assassins) famously asserted that "nothing is true"; and for most (if not all) Ismaili philosophers, the the soul is the intellect. That's how I keep my faith: "I think therefore I am Ismaili", "seeking knowledge is an act of worship", etc.
However, there's this subset of Ismailis that take the Pir's (or worse, the Quran's) words at face value; there are still Ismailis that deify the Imam. Some of the stories in this sub criticise that belief-set, and rightfully so: it's stupid. But I ain't about that life, y'all ain't about that life, and (importantly) Hazar Imam ain't about that life, at least not on the surface. There is the argument that he's encouraging these beliefs by not countering-them outright (like he hasn't encouraged dasond, but he also hasn't stopped it, y'know). But when you're trying to keep the faith of 20 million people, certain secessions have to be made.
The question I'd really like an answer to is: out of everything that Hazar Imam is doing, how much is meant to carry on the Tariqa (knowledge leads to divinity, etc) and how much is just to appease his followers? Because he needs us as much as we need him.
I hope that answers your question. If not, I totally don't mind getting into specifics.
Well duh, otherwise you wouldn't be posting in this subreddit, but there's a lot of different types of fantasy/scifi. Do you tend to like adventure novels a la lord of the rings, 'farmboy becomes savior' novels like the wheel of time. Do you like suspense? Or do you typically enjoy more 'character driven' stories? Etc. Fantasy is really just a setting.
Imajica by Clive Barker is a mystery/horror novel that generally gets strong reviews and the audiobook is 37 hours long so you get a lot of bang for your buck.
The golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is a character driven novel about a Golem and jinni who are both learning to live in a early 1900's new york city. It's also over 30 hours long.
Others mentioned ready player one and the martian. Ready player one is great. The primary criticism you'll see is that it's too 'fanservicy' to eighties/videogame themes. It's the 50 shades for video game nerds. The martian is also great, though chances are you saw the movie. It's a suspense novel about a man stuck on mars.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union: http://www.amazon.com/The-Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel/dp/0007149832
Is it just called Alamut?: https://www.amazon.com/Alamut-Vladimir-Bartol/dp/1556436815
The second part reminds me of Michael Chabon's book, Yiddish Policeman's Union
Great book on the topic
Sorta related? http://www.amazon.com/The-Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel/dp/0007149832
Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. The world-building and character development here is really thorough and very engaging. Chabon is one of my favorite writers.
http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel-P-S/dp/0007149832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289938003&sr=8-1
Top 5 off those shelves would be:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Alt History detective novel by a Pulitzer winner
http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel-P-S/dp/0007149832
The Atrocity Archives - Lovecraftian spy thriller and IT hell
http://www.amazon.com/Atrocity-Archives-Laundry-Files-Novel/dp/0441016685/
Books of Blood - A compilation of Clive Barker's nasty little 80s horror anthologies
http://www.amazon.com/Books-Blood-Vols-Clive-Barker/dp/0425165582/
Perdido Street Station - Steampunky fantasy with excellent worldbuilding that's apparently a good example of the New Weird, whatever that is and however it differes from the Old Weird
http://www.amazon.com/Perdido-Street-Station-China-Mieville/dp/0345459407
American Gods - Gaiman's mythology based urban fantasy; a modern classic
http://www.amazon.com/American-Gods-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380789035
As for the Weird Tales collection, it's Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors. It sets out to present the best tale from each year of the magazine's original run. Published in 1988 and edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (as if the eldritch gods didn't inject enough unpronounceable names into the mix) you've got everyone from Isaac Asimov to Seabury Quinn to good ol' HPL himself with "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
http://www.amazon.com/Weird-Tales-32-Unearthed-Terrors/dp/0517661233
Not quite the $1 deal I got from the library sale, but not as outrageous as some of the out of print prices on Amazon.
Read The Golem and the Jinni - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008QXVDJ0 TWO immortal protagonists for the price of one. Plus it is a wonderful story.
Wow your taste is all over the place and we like the same types so if its ok, im going to link a few different ones. I picked ones not Already on your list.
I hope some of these help a little!
Amazon
Google
iBook
B&N
Kobo
Almost done with Suite Fraçaise by Irène Némirovsky, which is one of the earliest novels written about WWII since it was being written as the war was happening (the author later died at Auschwitz).
Getting ready to start The Girls by Emma Cline for next month's EM Ladies book club event.
I just finished The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew. It was really good, but really sad. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed reading The Help.
Gentlemen of the Road
Yiddish Policemen's Union
The Book of Esther (Though this one got a little weird at the end)
Suite Française (Irène Némirovsky) is probably the most recent one I've read that is set in Paris. This is an incomplete book. What's neat about it is that it's literature, but in the style of a symphony. And you can totally see the Overture and a the first part of the Allegro movement.
I thought Newton's Cannon (Gregory Keyes) was interesting, although it was between Paris and Versailles.
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (Michael Scott) has portions in Paris.
There are also the usual lineup: Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables, Three Musketeers.
Loved The Golem and the Jinni. Gave me my first book hangover in a really long time.
Since you've indicated that you're interested in cultural aspects as well as hard-nosed history I'll recommend for you 'Suite Francaise', a collection of two novellas by Irene Nemirovsky.
She was a Jewish woman of Russian descent living in Paris during the war who wrote fictionalized accounts of the flight of upper-middle class Parisians from the occupation. She was captured and perished but her daughters salvaged the manuscripts and they were translated in to English a few years ago.
Although the specifics of these novels are fictional, the names of the individuals etc., they are heavily based in direct personal experience.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-04-09/entertainment/0604070404_1_suite-francaise-novels-nazi
http://www.amazon.com/Suite-Francaise-Irene-Nemirovsky/dp/1400096278
Not all within the last five years but,
Await Your Reply. Best if you don't read anything about it before you start.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
A Suitable Boy
The Ghost Writer
I can't recommend it enough.
I would say The Golem and the Jinni.https://www.amazon.com/Golem-Jinni-Novel-P-S/dp/0062110845/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469853610&sr=8-1&keywords=helen+wecker
Or The Magicians by Lev Grossman. https://www.amazon.com/Magicians-Novel-Trilogy/dp/0452296293/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469853727&sr=8-2&keywords=the+magicians
If anyone is interested, Leon Uris' Mila 18 is a fantastic novel based specifically on the Jewish resistance in Warsaw.
The Golem and the Jinni was just excellent. Fantasy set in 1920s New York.
I read a book that tells it like it actually happened: [The Yiddish Policemens Union] (http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel-P-S/dp/0007149832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301463937&sr=8-1)
> supporting BDS is humanitarian not anti-semitic..thats the accusation from the apartheid state apologists.
It's not merely that people are criticizing a few specific aspects of what Israel is doing while maintaining the overall context that the nation is under attack and has been since its founding. Rather it's that that context is completely ignored and so much of the BDS sentiment is expressed with an extreme fervor and outright hatred for the Jews that it reeks of anti-Jew racism. To hear some people tell it, the Palestinians have never sent operatives to blow up buses and they've never fired rockets at Israel.
Because so much of that anti-Israel sentiment is completely devoid of any context of how the Palestinians and Arabs have acted against the Jews in the past. It's also just assumed that the Jews invaded the land and took over as opposed to moving into and often purchasing unoccupied wasteland and terraforming it into productive land through blood, sweat, and tears, nor that the British were governing the area and designated the area for the Jews; that concept never even occurs to the anti-Israel people. You would think that many of the anti-Israel people never heard of The Mufti, the PLO, Palestinian terrorist attacks, or how the Arabs tried to or at least intended to genocidally exterminate the Jews in the 1940s and 1960s. That sort of willful ignorance by people on the Left is anti-Jew.
The BDS folks need to read Exodus and The Haj, excellent historical fiction novels to expose themselves to a different perspective.
Haxan by Kenneth Mark Hoover is a pretty good Weird Western that needs more love/reviews. Also give these a try:
The Goblin Emperor
The Library on Mount Char
Academic Exercises - ($2,99 right now!)
Uprooted
The Golem & The Jinni
The Incorruptibles
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler
Well since no one else has taken you up on this...
I was not able to find much for .99 but here are three (all under 3.00), any of which I would very much enjoy if you feel so inclined and are willing to change your 99 cent policy haha!
The Golem and the Jinni,
Tolkien's Letters, and/or
The City Stained Red.
Thanks for your kind consideration!
Would this book be okay, used is A-OKAY! YAY BOOKS AND YAY YOU!
What kind of books do you like to curl up with?
ALL OF THEM.
I just like reading. Reading's my favorite.
And physical copies. Because dat book smell. So good.
I'm currently reading Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni and it is super good.
Perhaps you might enjoy this book.
I did, as did the Pulitzer Prize committee.
Some historical fiction: [Saturday Night and Sunday Morning] (http://www.amazon.com/Saturday-Night-Sunday-Morning-Sillitoe/dp/0007205023)
[Armageddon] (http://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Novel-Berlin-Leon-Uris/dp/1453258396)
[Mila 18] (http://www.amazon.com/Mila-18-Leon-Uris/dp/0553241605)
[Russian Hide and Seek] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0091420504/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=)
[The Man in the High Castle] (http://www.amazon.com/The-High-Castle-Philip-Dick/dp/0547572484) There's also a TV show based on this book. Haven't gotten around to watching it all, but watched the first episode and really enjoyed it.
[In the Garden of Beasts] (http://www.amazon.com/In-Garden-Beasts-American-Hitlers/dp/030740885X)
Other books: [Something Wicked This Way Comes] (http://www.amazon.com/Something-Wicked-This-Way-Comes/dp/0380729407)
[The Girl With All the Gifts] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Girl-With-All-Gifts/dp/0316278157)
[1Q84] (http://www.amazon.com/1Q84-Vintage-International-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0307476464)
Edit: I like to read!
Edit2: Added more books and included amazon links to all of them. Would add more, but don't want to overload you with recommendations :p
It's The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, and we're discussing it on February 21st.
I really enjoyed the book and finished it earlier today. It's not something I would have chosen for myself but I couldn't put it down. Can't wait to discuss it!
Marguerite Yourcenar--author of Memoirs of Hadrian, which is totally awesome, don't be turned off by the inordinate amount of time she spends at the beginning talking about ancient dieting preferences, it feels like she put that there to get vacillating readers to spend their time elsewhere. Her other book, The Abyss, is about a medieval alchemist and is excellent in every imaginable way.
Mary Renault--I've read a bunch of her books about ancient Greece and loved them all. The Persian Boy, probably her most famous character, made it into the otherwise lame Oliver Stone movie about Alexander the Great.
Steven Pressfield is so good I used Gates of Fire to get a kid who said he hated reading to get into the habit of reading books--he came back to me a few weeks later and told me he loved it. One of Pressfield's audiobooks is read by the dude who was the good senator in Gladiator and was quite a fun listen.
These last three are relatively well-known, but there are two lesser-known books you might take a chance on. One is Sea of Lentils, about several perspectives on the discovery of the New World, including the native Indians, an hidalgo on one of Columbus's voyages, a slaver who invents the Triangle Trade, and the dying King of Spain. A shame this perfect (but challenging) book isn't better known.
Then, forgive the horn-tooting, but there's my own book, Queen of the Silk Road, about medieval traders engineering the total destruction of Korea. Only click the link if you want to have your mind blown.
Although, I do highly recommend The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
Awesome WWII era book
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Summer-Updated-Ed/dp/0061564818/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239829630&sr=8-1
Michael Chabon?
*edit: link to Amazon. Buy this book, people.
Try something different, here are a few suggestions:
Creation by Gore Vidal. It is historical fiction set in the 5th century BC. A man travels the ancient world, seeking out knowledge and enlightenment from the Greece to India to China.
Wikipedia states, "As noted in Vidal's own introduction, it can be considered a "crash course" in comparative religion, as during the story, the hero sits down with each of the religious/philosophical figures (apart from Socrates) and discusses their views."
edit: while you are at the Amazon page, check out Vidal's other historical fiction, such as Julian, and Hollywood.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0312370849
Sarah's Key. Also, there's a movie by the same name that was excellent.
I'd recommend The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. It's not a distant future sci-fi, it's more alternate history version of modern day, but enough of a difference that things feel unique.
This book?
No, because I am a voracious reader. But sometimes I start something and it doesn't grab me, so I put it away and come back later and am enthralled. The Yiddish Policemen's Union was like that for me. And The Black Dagger Brotherhood series as well. Just couldn't get into them, but now I preorder them and devour them as soon as they come out.
I read on my Kindle more than dead tree books these days, because it's lighter and more convenient, and I can adjust the light or fonts as I need!