Interested in history? Enjoy reading about other times and places but prefer a contemporary writing style? Try the following...

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Medieval England, Historians, Plague, Time Travel

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Victorian England, Historians, History, Chaos Theory, Time Travel

Possession: a Romance by A. S. Byatt
Victorian England, Academics, Poetry

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
World War II, Italy, Africa, Romance, Espionage

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
World War II, Code Breaking, Adventure, Allan Turing, Information Age

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson
(Quicksilver, The Confusion, System of the World)
Restoration England, Epic Adventure, Scientific Revolution, Commerce, Trade

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Six different narratives, Multiple settings ranging from Colonial New Zealand, to 1970s California, to a future-Korea. Postmodern

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
16thC Istanbul, Mystery, Art, Minaturists, Postmodern

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Moorish Spain, El Cid, Reonquista, Doctors, Historical Fantasy

The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay
(Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emporers)
Byzantium during the reign of Justinian and Theodora, Mosaicists, Charioteers, Court Intrigue, Historical Fantasy