Book Lists: History/ Historical Fiction/ Fiction in a Historical Context

List of books I would recommend in the history/ historical fiction/ fiction in a historical context category. I have attempted to arrange this in a chronological order.  History is much more than a bunch of dates and events. A Raider from the North stays much longer with you than school history text books and so do its learnings

Some of the books below are actual works on history, other are more dramatized accounts of it and a few merely use it as a backdrop in the narrative which involves common yet unforgettable people

Sr. no.	Book/ Series	Author	Brief Review
1	The Conqueror Series	Conn Iggulden	The story behind the all-conquering Mongols brought to life.  Impossible to put down once started.
2	The Emperor Series	Conn Iggulden	The story behind Rome and how a Ceaser becomes an Emperor. Roman history at its best.
3	The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire	Edward Gibbon	A non-fiction which picks off where The Emperor Series drops off and describes the journey to the ultimate fall of the Roman Empire.
4	Empire of the Mughal Series Raiders from the North Brothers at War Ruler of the World The Tainted Throne The Serpent's Tooth	Alex Rutherford	A series one should catch after reading the Conqueror Series, as the Mughals are after all descendants of the Mongols. Over 5 books will capture the personalities that shaped the course of the India during the Mughal reign
5	Pillars of the Earth World Without End	Ken Follett	A peep into the life in Medieval Europe through the life of 4 central characters a mason, a priest, a noble and a forest dweller.
6	Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies The Mirror and the Light (yet to be released)	Hillary Mantel	Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell a powerful minister in the courts of King Henry VII. Rare feet of two books of the same series winning the Man Booker prize
7	Buddha (Comics)	Osamu Tezuka	A series of manga comics on the life of the Buddha
8	The Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama: Holder of the White Lotus	Alexander Norman	The history of successive Dalai Lama’s and the evolution of Tibetian Buddhism
9	My Name is Red	Orhan Pamuk	Best way to explore Turkey’s history. You don’t get a nobel for nothing.
10	Ibis Trilogy	Amitav Ghosh	A story set in Colonial times just before the opium wars with the characters of an ordinary village woman, a zamindar, an American sailor and an opium trader
11	The Glass Palace	Amitav Ghosh	A beautiful story on the link between Burma and India set in historical backdrop of a British invasion and extradition of the Burmese Royal Family
12	The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich	William L. Shirer	A must read account on Nazi Germany and World War II
13	The Diary of Young Girl	Anne Frank	Does not need an introduction.
14	The Discovery of India	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	A broad view of Indian history, philosophy and culture. The TV series is also a must watch
15	India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s largest democracy	Ramchander Guha	This one is on the reading list
16	Century Trilogy	Ken Follett	As the name suggests covers the 20th century in the lives of its characters and their descendants in 3 books .  An insight into the trials and tribulations of its characters in a backdrop of wars and conflict which marked much of the 20th century

Note: A range of mystery/ thriller/ war stories are built around the back drop of the world wars, the cold war and the various dictators that have reigned over the past century. These are not  covered here. I have also not covered any biographies here (pst… so no Mein Kampf or My experiments with Truth here”), which are often the best “ his+ stories”. I hope to cover Biographies separately.  

I welcome recommendations of similar books, especially in locations and times I have not covered here e.g. ancient Greece , ancient Egypt, American history and the large void before the Mughals in Indian History.