Question of the Week: What is your favorite time period in fiction books?

My favorite time period is actually not a time in history that I would have wanted to live through, but it makes for very riveting reading: World War II in Europe. Why? I love the suspense and action involved with spies and members of the Resistance. Aid raid sirens, ration books, secret hiding places--the horrors people had to live through are heartbreaking, but it fascinates me to read stories about people who fight back and triumph over evil.

I recently finished Snow on the Tulips, which is set in the Netherlands near the end of WWII, and it gripped me from the very first page. Cornelia wants nothing to do with the war after losing her husband on their wedding day, and she helps hide her younger brother Johan in a secret spot in her home, afraid of losing him to a German labor camp. Johan comes home one day with a wounded Resistance fighter named Gerrit, and Cornelia has no choice but to hide Gerrit and nurse him back to health. With the Gestapo constantly knocking on doors and searching homes, Cornelia lives in fear but can't bring herself to kick Gerrit out.

I'm in the middle of reading All God's Children, a story about an American living with her German relatives in Munich in 1942. She hides a Jewish family in her relatives' apartment while they're out of town, but things get complicated because a German army doctor is also living in the apartment. I can't decide which of the two books I like more!

What's your favorite time period? Are you a fan of historical fiction? Do you prefer to stick with contemporary stories? Or are you all about the future?