Pretty sure someone out there is fully aware of my addiction to historical fiction, because there are THREE — count them, THREE — books that dabble in that genre coming out between now and March that I desperately need. NEED, I say! I’m so excited about them that I’m going to blog about all three right now before I explode. I mean, hello! These books are about some of my favorite historical events/people/places! Yes, I’m really lame and have pet subjects within the realm of history. For example, World War II. I like any book about people living through WWII, maybe because my own grandmother was a teenager in the occupied Philippines during that time and her stories sparked an interest in me from childhood. I never get tired of the resilience that is always evident in a story set during this period — whether its about the London Blitz, Hiroshima, or the Holocaust, it doesn’t matter. These stories contain so much life, persisting in the face of death, and above all serving as a reminder that hope is something you can’t quench. Definitely love me some 1939-1945. Oh, but anyway, I digress! Onward to the books!

No One Is Here Except All Of Us by Ramona Ausubel
Release Date: Feb 2, 2012

“In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years- across oceans, deserts, and mountains-but now, it seems, there is nowhere else to go. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it, and soon our narrator-the girl, grown into a young mother-must flee her village, move from one world to the next, to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future. A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, No One Is Here Except All Of Us explores how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.”

Um, okay, I already love this!!! First, note the year: 1939. WORLD WAR II. There are many stories of Jews in hiding during the Holocaust, but this is the first I’ve read of an entire village attempting it. And that last line in the summary, concerning the way storytelling is used to survive and create your own truth, is so beguiling that I can hardly remain in my chair. I must have this book. MUST.

Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt
Release Date: Feb 7, 2012

“As the bombs of the Blitz rain down on Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new wartime life. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods – a book of ancient Norse myths – and her inner and outer worlds are transformed.

How could this child know that fifty years on many of the birds and flowers she took for granted on her walks to school would become extinct? War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that A.S. Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark work of fiction from one of the world’s truly great writers.”

London Blitz + Norse Mythology + Post-Apocalyptic Plot = YES. This sounds brilliant. I was the world’s foremost mythology nerd in elementary school, so anything myth-related immediately snags my attention. I really want to read more A.S. Byatt; I downloaded the sample chapter of her novel The Children’s Book and soooo want to the entire book now but I’m waiting to purchase in case there’s a library copy. (I spend way too much of my pocket change on e-books nowadays…) Another novel of hers, Possession, was awarded with the Booker Prize and also made into a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow in 2003. Btw, A.S. Byatt is Dame Antonia Byatt. If the Queen loves her, I also love her. The end.

Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison
Release Date: March 6, 2012

“St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family—including the headstrong Prince Alyosha. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s miraculous healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to Aloysha, who suffers from hemophilia, a blood disease that keeps the boy confined to his sickbed, lest a simple scrape or bump prove fatal.

Two months after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha grieve the loss of their former lives, finding solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, they tell stories—some embellished and some entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s many exploits, and the wild and wonderful country on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand.”

Hold the phone — this novel is about that most tragic of families, the Romanovs. Oh. Heck. Yes. The mystery of the missing Anastasia (and the awesome animated movie~) is only one thing I find compelling about the Romanov story. Now we’re throwing in a star-crossed love as well??? IS IT MARCH YET???

And now that I’ve shared those with you, I’m off to impatiently wait for them to come out. *flailing arms*