Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

Blackout and All Clear are two volumes of the same story, so I will review them together as the single book that they are. It's kind of like how The Lord of the Rings is one book spread across three volumes due to length. This means you need to buy two books though, so is it worth it? If you enjoy history, then absolutely. And unless you dislike awesome books, you will most likely like these. Somehow I managed to avoid hearing of Connie Willis until now (apparently I've been living in a cave), but she has won Hugos and Nebulas and I hope she does again for these books. They are awesome. But wait, you say. I thought you said they were good for history buffs? Are they historical or science fiction? They are about time traveling historians, so the answer is yes. It involves time travel, but mostly it's a day-in-the-life story of regular people in England during World War 2. The author makes life in this critical time in history come alive. The book is full of interesting historical information about the war and what England was like during it.

Of course, books succeed or fail based on the characters. Fortunately, Blackout and All Clear have an excellent cast of wonderful characters that you learn to care about, both historians from the future and 1940 contemporaries. The story is also good, with the right amount of humour and tension.

Go read these books. You may want to start with her earlier books about time travelling historians, Fire Watch (a short story), Doomsday Book, and To Say Nothing of the Dog. I recommend at least reading Doomsday Book first.

Format recommendation: Audiobook. The narrator, Katherine Kelgren, is excellent, especially with Cockney accents which are funny. She does a great job with both British and American accents. She has a perfect voice for this type of story. The books are also available on the Kindle.

Age recommendation: Mature teens and older. By mature, I actually mean mature, so you won't find the historical daily life account to be too dry (not "mature" as in video games that are rated M, where the ESRB means "offensive", not "mature"). These books are very tame content-wise. There is one strong bad word in a historical quote in a chapter heading, but other than that the language is very mild, although one character uses references to deity to swear.