The staffers of Fiction, Movies and Music and Adult Reference read a lot of books in 2012, and we thought we would share our favorites. Here are our picks for historical fiction:

“Bring Up the Bodies: a Novel’’ by Hilary Mantel
The sequel to award-winning Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history and follows the dramatic trial of the queen Anne Boleyn and her suitors for adultery and treason.
Recommended by Susie and Andrea

"The Cove: a Novel'' by Ron Rash
Living deep within a cove in the Appalachians of North Carolina during World War I, Laurel Shelton finally finds the happiness she deserves in Walter, a mysterious stranger who is mute. However, their love cannot protect them from a devastating secret.
Recommended by Ellen

“The Dovekeepers: a Novel’’ by Alice Hoffman
A tale inspired by the tragic first-century massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.
Recommended by Mary Ann and Susie

“The Flight of Gemma Hardy: a Novel’’ by Margot Livesey
After a difficult childhood, Gemma takes a job as an au pair for Mr. Sinclair's niece at Blackbird Hall, where she begins a journey of passion and betrayal, redemption and discovery.
Recommended by Susie and Jo

“The Good American’’ by Alex George
A story of immigrant hope, the German Meisenheimer family is caught up in the sweep of history over a hundred years as they find their place in the Midwest of America.
Recommended by Haley

“Home’’ by Toni Morrison
When Frank Money joined the Army, he left behind his cherished and fragile sister, Cee. After returning from the Korean War, his shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger.
Recommended by Jo

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharrartt
A novel based on the true story of a woman who was offered by her parents as a tithe to the Church as a young child and who triumphed to become a powerful abbess, composer, prophet and polymath.
Recommended by Sonia and Susie

“In Sunlight and in Shadow’’ by Mark Helprin
Returning home after serving in World War II to run his family business, paratrooper Harry Copeland falls in love with an heiress who risks everything to break off her engagement to another man.
Recommended by Andrea

The Light Between Oceans: a Novel by M.L. Stedman
A childless couple lives quietly running a lighthouse, until a boat carrying a dead man and a baby washes ashore. Tom wants to report the man and infant, but Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own.
Recommended by Connie

“Live by Night: a Novel’’ by Dennis Lehane
In 1926, Joe Coughlin defies his strict law-and-order upbringing by climbing a ladder of organized crime that takes him from Boston to Cuba where he encounters a dangerous cast of characters.
Recommended by Connie

“The Orchardist” by Amanda Coplin
When gunmen and two feral, pregnant teens show up on a gentle orchardist’s property in the Pacific Northwest, they set him on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.
Recommended by Connie

“Sandcastle Girls’’ by Chris Bohjalian
Parallel stories of a woman who falls in love with an Armenian soldier during the Armenian Genocide and a modern-day New Yorker prompted to rediscover her Armenian past and uncover a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.
Recommended by Jo

“Shame the Devil” by Debra Brenegan
A novel based on the remarkable and true story of the nineteenth-century novelist, journalist, and feminist Fanny Fern, described as the Oprah Winfrey of her time.
Recommended by Andrea and Connie

“The Shoemaker’s Wife: a Novel’’ by Adriana Trigiani
Two star-crossed lovers, Enzo and Ciro, meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love
changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I.
Recommended by Jo

“The Song of Achilles’’ by Madeline Miller
Patroclus, an awkward young prince, follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear.
Recommended by Connie and Susie

“The Snow Child: a Novel’’ by Eowyn Ivey
In a moment of levity, a childless couple on the Alaskan frontier build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they glimpse a girl running through the trees.
Recommended by Jo

“Sutton: a Novel’’ by J.R. Moehringer
A fictionalized account of Willie Sutton, one of the most notorious criminals in American history, traces his life, his doomed romance with his first love, and his surprise pardon on Christmas Eve in 1969.
Recommended by Connie

“The Testament of Mary” by Colm Tóibín
A provocative imagining of the later years of the mother of Jesus finds her living a solitary existence in Ephesus years after her son's crucifixion and struggling with guilt and anger.
Recommended by Ellen

--Jo Hansen, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.