Last week I suggested that reading shorter works could kickstart a reading habit stalled due to short attention span. But maybe you’re a reader who wants a loooooong read. Short novellas have fast pay off, but the reader does have to do the work of getting into the world created by the author. A long book lets you do that feat of imagination once and then reap the benefits for hundreds of pages. If you want to get lost in a long story, here are a few doorstops to immerse yourself in.
Vagabonds by Jingfang Hao – 100 years after Mars gains its independence from Earth, they send a group of Martian students to Earth, essentially as exchange students. Five years later those students return to Mars, and grapple with dissatisfaction over their return and questions as to why they were sent.
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell – Part rock n’ roll drama, part coming-of-age story of four musicians, this rollicking tale immerses the reader in the 1960s London music scene.
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell – The stories of three generations of three families weave together in and around the Old Drift, a colonial settlement near Victoria Falls, to tell a richly imagined and compelling story of the past, present, and potential future of Zambia.
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas – Half-fae, half-human party girl Bryce has great friends and a good job. When a demon murders her closest friends, Bryce jumps at the chance to team up with a Fallen angel to investigate the deaths.
Deep River by Karl Marlantes – This sweeping family saga begins when a trio of Finnish siblings immigrate to Washington State in the early 1900s. The eldest, Ilmari, owns a farm and blacksmith shop. Brother Matti works in the booming logging industry. And younger sister Aino arrives and begins working with the Industrial Workers of The World (aka the Wobblies) to unionize the lumberjacks in the face of exploitative lumber companies.
The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox – In this immersive read Taryn, an author of a book about different threats to libraries, finds herself caught up in a search for the Firestarter, a legendary scroll box rumored to be able to survive the burning of any library. Alongside a dogged young police detective, Taryn’s search pulls them through a magical gate to other worlds, and into a centuries-old conflict.
~ posted by Andrea
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