Top Ten Tuesday: Historical Settings

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten Historical Settings You Love/ Ten Historical Settings You’d Love To See or Top Futuristic Books You Love/Ten Futuristic Societies I’d Love To Read in Books — basically this week is all about the past or the future….spin it however you choose!

For this post I’ve decided to focus on the past. I like reading futuristic books, but it’s really hard for me to pinpoint what about them I like. Unlike most of my Top Ten Tuesdays, this list is actually in order of preference.

10) The French Revolution – I can’t actually think of any books that I’ve read in this time period, but it definitely appeals to me. I learned a bit about this time period in high school and it seems like a time when paranoia was high and spies were everywhere.
9) 1980s High School – Not really that long ago, but they didn’t have internet or cell phones or Spotify…how did people even live back then?
8) The Middle Ages – Knights and jousting and a lot of horse riding. Sometimes includes a damsel-in-distress, but more likely a damsel dressed as a knight.
7) 1950s America – It seems like life was so much simpler in a lot of ways back then. The country was in a rebuilding stage after WWII and the Great Depression.
6) Elizabethan England – The courts and the opulence. Politics and intrigue. Every book I’ve read from this time period has had so. much. drama.
5) The Victorian Era – Specifically the late 1800s. Think Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices series or The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. This is really similar to the Regency Era, but there are some subtle differences. I feel like women have more of a role in society in this era. And if you want to throw some steampunk in there? By all means, go for it.
4) World War I – I’ve only read one book in this time period (In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters) but I loved it and I was so interested to learn more about WWI and the Spanish Flu and everything that was going on at this time.
3) The Roaring Twenties – Flappers and mobsters and prohibition and speakeasies. When I think about the 1920s I just picture a ton of glitz and glam and wild parties. Basically old-timey Gossip Girl.
2) Regency Era/Jane Austen – This is approximately the early 1800s. I love reading about the balls and the politics and the romance of this era.
1) World War II – What is it about this time period? It’s not too far in the past, but far enough that it feels like it was a lifetime ago. There was so much going on in the world at this time. So much possibility for drama.