I just got finished reading Household Gods by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr for a second time. I read it for the first time a long time ago. I have no idea why I am so drawn to the idea of someone from modern times being pulled back into ancient time and having to adapt. I like historical fiction anyway, but add to it a protagonist who can look at history through the eyes of someone contemporary to me and I am in reading Heaven.

In the case of the gal who gets pulled out of 1990’s Los Angeles to 2nd Century Carnuntum (in what is now Austria), love the description of how she reacts to a world full of lice, plague, and plunder. She has to cope with no longer having access to antibiotics, soap, popup tv lifts, microwaves, refrigeration, or even a concept of mediocre sanitation.

Household Gods is amazingly well written. Another book that has a similar feel is A. D. 62: Pompeii by Rebecca East. As fun as this second book is to read, it is atrociously written. The subject matter and rich details about the culture trump the bad writing, though, and I re-read it more than most any other book on my regular re-read rotation.

What put me in the mood to re-read Household Gods was that I had recently re-read Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. They put me in the mood for really good time travel stories. When I say really good, I don’t mean sappy romance time travel. I want the good stuff that shows me solid history though modern eyes.

So, now I am on the search for some new time travel books. I have a huge collection of books on the genre, but most of them are in storage and I think there should surely be some undiscovered gems out there just waiting for me to read them.