I've been more interested in fiction lately than nonfiction, so today I wanted to discuss an excellent historical novel, and probably my favorite book that I've read all year: Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants.

Although people who haven't read the book or seen the movie probably won't think "historical fiction" when they think of this book, Water for Elephants is actually a very fine example of the genre.  It's a well-researched story about a vet school dropout who joins the circus during the Great Depression after the deaths of his parents.  Although the focus of the novel is his relationship with one of the performers, and the conflicts with her husband and the owner of the circus (two different people, although in the movie they were combined into one character), history plays a large part in the setting and story.  In fact, in the afterword, the author talks about her research on the history of circuses and the way elephants were treated, which she drew on to write the novel.

Another reason why I wanted to talk about this novel today is because Water for Elephants actually started out as a NaNoWriMo novel.  NaNaWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, an event that takes place every November.  It's essentially a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel, or at least 50,000 words of a new novel, just during the month of November.  It's a big deal, with kickoff parties Halloween night (writing starts at midnight), write-ins and social meetings throughout the month, and TGIO (thank God it's over) parties at the end of the month (you have until 11:59 pm on November 30th to make it to 50,000 words, if you want to make it official that is).

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year, as I've done every year since 2006, so naturally I feel an affinity toward published authors who have done it too.  Of course, Water for Elephants is hands-down the best published NaNo novel I've read -- most participants don't take it that seriously, and just have a lot of fun with it, unconcerned with what the final product is like!

Do you have any favorite historical novels?