I love historical fiction. I can see you're thinking about the trashy romances. Try something by Ann Rinaldi. True, the age set is probably like 13-16, but they are very well-written and I still enjoy them at 18. She's one of my favorite authors, actually.

I love To Kill a Mockingbird. Have you read...oh, crap, what's it called...I wrote an essay on it for my AP exam...um, its characters include Tea Cake and a beautiful black woman who goes through three husbands, Halle Barry did a movie version, wow, I can't recall the title for the life of me. It was good though.