I'm currently reading a book that weighs in at 560 pages. It's quiet a hefty tome in size. Sometimes Big Books can be daunting, but other times you just want a nice, thick and juicy novel that you can sink into. Big Books are great for the fall and winter, when you can make a cup of tea (or spiked hot cocoa), snuggle under a blanket, and read for hours.
Here is my last of Big Books that you my find enjoyable. I've linked reviews of the books I've read.
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. Her husband is two centuries away, she is related to her lover's mortal enemy, and her neighbors think she's a witch. In this unforgettable novel of time travel, Diana Gabaldon fuses wry, modern sensibility with the drama, passion, and violence of eighteenth century as she tells the story of one daring woman and the man who loves her.
The Crimson Petal and the White
Michael Faber
At the heart of this panoramic, multidimensional narrative is the compelling struggle of a young woman to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. Faber leads us back to 1870s London, where Sugar, a nineteen-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, yearns for escape to a better life. Her ascent through the strata of Victorian society offers us intimacy with a host of lovable, maddening, unforgettable characters. They begin with William Rackham, an egotistical perfume magnate whose ambition is fueled by his lust for Sugar, and whose patronage brings her into proximity to his extended family and milieu: his unhinged, childlike wife, Agnes, who manages to overcome her chronic hysteria to make her appearances during “the Season”; his mysteriously hidden-away daughter, Sophie, left to the care of minions; his pious brother, Henry, foiled in his devotional calling by a persistently less-than-chaste love for the Widow Fox, whose efforts on behalf of The Rescue Society lead Henry into ever-more disturbing confrontations with flesh; all this overseen by assorted preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all stripes and persuasions. [My review here.]
The Memoirs of Cleopatra
Margaret George
Bestselling novelist Margaret George brings to life the glittering kingdom of Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, in this luch, sweeping, and richly detailed saga. Told in Cleopatra's own voice, this is a mesmerizing tale of ambition, passion, and betrayl, which begins when the twenty-year-old queen seeks out the most powerful man in the world, Julius Caesar, and does not end until, having survived the assassination of Caesar and the defeat of the second man she loves, Marc Antony, she plots her own death rather than be paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome.
Kushiel's Dart
Jacqueline Carey
Here is my last of Big Books that you my find enjoyable. I've linked reviews of the books I've read.
Diana Gabaldon
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. Her husband is two centuries away, she is related to her lover's mortal enemy, and her neighbors think she's a witch. In this unforgettable novel of time travel, Diana Gabaldon fuses wry, modern sensibility with the drama, passion, and violence of eighteenth century as she tells the story of one daring woman and the man who loves her.
Michael Faber
At the heart of this panoramic, multidimensional narrative is the compelling struggle of a young woman to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. Faber leads us back to 1870s London, where Sugar, a nineteen-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, yearns for escape to a better life. Her ascent through the strata of Victorian society offers us intimacy with a host of lovable, maddening, unforgettable characters. They begin with William Rackham, an egotistical perfume magnate whose ambition is fueled by his lust for Sugar, and whose patronage brings her into proximity to his extended family and milieu: his unhinged, childlike wife, Agnes, who manages to overcome her chronic hysteria to make her appearances during “the Season”; his mysteriously hidden-away daughter, Sophie, left to the care of minions; his pious brother, Henry, foiled in his devotional calling by a persistently less-than-chaste love for the Widow Fox, whose efforts on behalf of The Rescue Society lead Henry into ever-more disturbing confrontations with flesh; all this overseen by assorted preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all stripes and persuasions. [My review here.]
Margaret George
Bestselling novelist Margaret George brings to life the glittering kingdom of Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, in this luch, sweeping, and richly detailed saga. Told in Cleopatra's own voice, this is a mesmerizing tale of ambition, passion, and betrayl, which begins when the twenty-year-old queen seeks out the most powerful man in the world, Julius Caesar, and does not end until, having survived the assassination of Caesar and the defeat of the second man she loves, Marc Antony, she plots her own death rather than be paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome.
Jacqueline Carey
The land of Terre d'Ange is a
place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the
land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed
of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young
woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into
indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel
Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission...and the first one to
recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to
forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Phèdre is trained equally in the
courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the
ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as
she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very
foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and
honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge
of despair...and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin;
they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre
will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear. [My review here.]
Paulina Simons
The golden skies, the translucent
twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of
eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen
grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who
share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and
parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler's armies attack
Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad. Yet there is light in the
darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a brave young officer in the Red
Army. Strong and self-confident, yet guarding a mysterious and troubled
past, he is drawn to Tatiana—and she to him. Starvation, desperation,
and fear soon grip their city during the terrible winter of the
merciless German siege. Tatiana and Alexander's impossible love
threatens to tear the Metanova family apart and expose the dangerous
secret Alexander so carefully protects—a secret as devastating as the
war itself—as the lovers are swept up in the brutal tides that will
change the world and their lives forever.
Jean M. Auel
This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people,
relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel’s
magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans,
and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful
Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the
young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she
is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own
kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly--she is one
of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but
Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb,
the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the
Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal
and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her
differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding
hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and
is determined to get his revenge.
Other Big Book Titles:
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
North and South - John Jakes
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
The Stand - Stephen King
The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery
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