Tales in Time 

Our 2024 Reading Challenge invites you to read one book each month from, about, or set in a different historical period!

We'll be providing monthly lists of suggestions, as well as passports for readers who would like to visit all twelve eras with us and earn a chance to win a timely prize!

January - Classical Antiquity

February - The Medieval Period

March - The Renaissance

April - The Enlightenment

May -The Industrial Revolution

January - Classical Antiquity - (~800 BC - 500 AD)

Works Written in Classical Antiquity

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
•  Metamorphosis by Ovid
• The complete Greek drama; all the extant tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comedies of Aristophanes and Menander
•  Histories by Herodotus
•  The Works of Plato
•  The Illustrated Egyptian Book of the Dead

Works of Nonfiction About Classical Antiquity

• Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece by Leslie and Roy A. Adkins
• SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
• The Twelve Caesars: Tales in Power by Mary Beard
• Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization by Richard A Billows
• D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Paran D’Aulaires
• Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David
• Pompeii: The Day A City Died by Robert Etienne
• The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
• The Silk Road: A New History by Valerie Hansen
• Red Land, Black Land by Barbara Metz
• Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Works of Fiction Set in Classical Antiquity

• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
• Clytemnestra by Costanza Cansati
• Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
• Asterix Omnibus by Rene Goscinny
• I, Claudius by Robert Graves
• Dictator by Robert Harris
• The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds
• The Iliad: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds
• Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
• The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
• House of Odysseus by Claire North
• Amber and Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz
• River God by Wilbur Smith
• House of Names by Colm Tóibín

February - Medieval Period- (500 AD - 1450 AD)

Works Written in the Medieval Period

• Beowulf trans. Seamus Heaney
• Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory
• The Song of Roland
• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Canterbury Tales: A Modern Retelling by Peter Ackroyd
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight trans. Richard Armitage
• The Lais of Marie de France

Works of Nonfiction About the Medieval Period

• How the Irish Saved Civilization by James Cahill
• The Year 1000 by Valerie Hansen
• The Anglo-Saxon World by Higham and Ryan
• Beatrice’s Last Smile: A New History of the Middle Ages  by Mark Gregory Pegg
• The Dark Queens by Shelly Puhak
• Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
• The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England edited by Nigel Saul
• The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts by Mary Wellesley

Works of Fiction Set in the Medieval Period

• Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
• Agincourt, The Grail Quest Series, The Last Kingdom Series, The Saxon Series, The Warlord Trilogy by Bernard Cornwell
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Ecco
• The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
• The Invention of Fire by Bruce Holsinger
• The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters
• Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett
• The Justin De Quincy Series or The Henry II Series by Sharon K. Penman
• Matrix by Lauren Groff
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
• Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
• Bea Wolf  by Weinersmith and Boulet
• Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike

March - Renaissance Period

Works Written in the Renaissance

• The Divine Comedyby Dante Alighieri
• Don Quixoteby Miguel de Cervantes
• Praise of Follyby Erasmus
• The Princeby Niccolo Machiavelli
• Paradise Lostby John Milton
• Utopiaby Thomas More
• Hamlet,The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, or The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Works of Nonfiction About the Renaissance

• Bosworth,1485 by Michael Jones
• The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: A Tudor Tragedyby Leanda de Lisle
• Shakespeare’s Restless Worldby Neil MacGregor
• The Borgiasor The Tudors by G.J. Meyer
• The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan Englandby Ian Mortimer
• The Italian Renaissanceby J.H. Plumb
• The artist, the philosopher, and the warrioror The Medici: power, money, and ambition in the Italian Renaissance by Paul Strathern

Works of Fiction Set in the Renaissance

• Equal of the Sunby Anita Amirrrezvani
• A Knight in Shining Armorby Jude Devereaux
• The Game of Kingsby Dorothy Dunnett
• Marvelousby Molly Greeley
• The Other Boleyn Girland The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
• The Weight of Inkby Rachel Kadish
• The Night Shipby Jess Kidd
• Mirror, Mirrorby Gregory MacGuire
• Wolf Hallby Hilary Mantel
• Hamnet: a novel of the plagueby Maggie O’Farrell
• An Instance of the Fingerpostby Iain Pears
• The Tournamentby Matthew Reilly
• The Elephant’s Journeyby Jose Saramgo
• Lentby Jo Walton

April - Enlightenment Period

Works Written in the Enlightenment

• Lyrical Ballads by Coleridge and Wordsworth
• Robinson Crusoeby Daniel Defoe
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights)by Antoine Galland
• The Vicar of Wakefieldby Oliver Goldsmith
• The Federalist Papersby Alexander Hamilton
• The Declaration of Independenceby Thomas Jefferson
• The Complete Poetical Worksof Alexander Pope
• Gulliver’s Travelsby Jonathan Swift
• Candideby Voltaire

Works of Nonfiction About the Enlightenment

• Passionate Mindsby David Bodanis
• Who’s Black and why? A Hidden Chapter from the 18th Century Invention of Raceedited by  Henry L Gates, Jr. and Andrew S. Curran
• “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs” : Thomas Jefferson and the empire of imaginationby Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf
• The Faith of the Founding Fathersby David L. Holmes
• Mozartby Paul Johnson
• Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: Britain and the American dream by Peter Moore
• Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nationby Cokie Roberts
• The ideas that made America: a brief historyby Jennifer Ratner Rosenhagen
• Galileo: The Genius Who Faced the Inquisitionby Philip Steele
• The idea of America: Reflections on the birth of the United Statesby Gordon S. Wood

Works of Fiction Set in the Enlightenment

• Caleb’s Crossingby Geraldine Brooks

• The Miniaturistby Jessie Burton

• Girl with a Pearl Earringby Tracy Chevalier

• Shōgun: A Novel of Japanby James Clavell

• The Sharpe Novelsby Bernard Cornwell

• A Tale of Two Citiesby Charles Dickens
  
  
• The Three Musketeersby Alexandre Dumas

• The Poldark Seriesby Winston Graham

• Rootsby Alex Haley

• The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Heretic’s Daughterby Kathleen Kent

• The Crucibleby Arthur Miller

• Witch Childby Celia Rees

• Quicksilverby Neal Stephenson