In case you haven’t noticed, it’s midyear check-in time, and in all corners of the bookish internet, we’re taking a look back at the first half of 2024 in new releases. The “Best Books of the Year So Far” lists are piling up — in fact, they started about a month before the halfway point of the year. This is a great way to get an overview of the very buzziest titles, but that only scratches the surface of the incredible books in a wide range of formats and genres that have come out this year. That’s why it can be more useful to seek out round up lists of the genres, formats, and topics you’re most interested in as a reader, like the best queer books of the year so far.
In that spirit, Goodreads has put together a list of 48 of the best historical fiction books out in the first half of 2024. These are the titles that have been added to the most “Want to Read” shelves on Goodreads and the ones that are getting good ratings by users — only titles with a 3.5 average rating or above are included. They’re arranged by time period, from 412 BCE all the way up to 1987. (And if you disagree about that being historical fiction, Goodreads says, “Yes, we regret to inform you that the 1980s are now firmly considered historical fiction. Time is a cruel mistress.”)