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Original poster

To ask for recommendations for a really long amazing book?

222 replies

theotherfossilsister · 27/04/2022 19:52

Something I can immerse myself in. I like historical fiction (Wolf Hall and BUTB, The Crimson Petal and the White, All the Light We Cannot See) but open to anything big and brilliant and immersive.

Oh I also love The Cazalet Chronicles which were recommended on here, and really enjoyed I Claudius despite thinking it would be dry (it wasn't dry.)

Any recommendations please?

OP posts:
Wolverinah · 27/04/2022 20:09

Taranta · 27/04/2022 20:07

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Definitely this, one of my absolute favourite books.

StellaOlivetti · 27/04/2022 20:09

I loved the Forsyte Saga.

Original poster
theotherfossilsister · 27/04/2022 20:10

Follet and Harris sound good. I loved I Claudius so much and would love more of that era

OP posts:
Veralil · 27/04/2022 20:10

A Little life.

DesdamonasHandkerchief · 27/04/2022 20:10

War and Peace. No really, it's amazing just need to speed read the philosophy and second epilogue!

Original poster
theotherfossilsister · 27/04/2022 20:11

StellaOlivetti · 27/04/2022 20:09

I loved the Forsyte Saga.

I saw the TV adaptation and really liked it. Maybe I should give it a go. Great villains I remember.

OP posts:
Original poster
theotherfossilsister · 27/04/2022 20:12

Yes to the Neapolitan Trilogy too. I read the first one and loved it.

OP posts:
ElaineMarieBenes · 27/04/2022 20:12

A Place of Greater Safety (Mantel)

My Name is Red (Pamuk)

Water Music (Boyle)

All great historical novels - enjoy 😉

Veralil · 27/04/2022 20:12

I am Pilgrim is very good and the Dark tower Stephen King series ,

Tq231442 · 27/04/2022 20:13

Lol no. It does illustrate the kind of weak-willed behavior and victimizing we're seeing right now. Regardless, I always try to read all kinds of books, even if I don't really agree with the message (although I did with this one).

Happy reading, whatever you end up choosing!

NorthFaceofthelaundrypile · 27/04/2022 20:13

Home going by Yaa Gyasi, chronicles the slave trade and the after effects up until now.
It follows two half sisters one is captured as a slave, the other marries a slave trader. It follows their family lines and what happens to each generation.
it’s so cleverly done.

DorotheaDiamond · 27/04/2022 20:13

theotherfossilsister · 27/04/2022 20:07

@DorotheaDiamond eleven books sound like heaven

You won’t regret them I promise!!!

newbiename · 27/04/2022 20:14

Kate Mosse Languedoc Trilogy.
CJ Sansom Shardlake series.

Mollyplop999 · 27/04/2022 20:15

The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons. Absolutely brilliant.

HighInPolyunsaturates · 27/04/2022 20:15

Robert Harris also wrote Pompeii which I loved too.

I do think you'd like the Cicero Trilogy.

Interesting about the prequel to Pillars of the Earth, I'm going to give that a shot!

Onceuponatimethen · 27/04/2022 20:16

A little life is sad at times but no more so than Wolf Hall! When it was almost finished I never ever wanted it to end

i agree with pp Secret History by Donna Tartt

newbiename · 27/04/2022 20:16

A Dance to the Music of Time is a 12-volume roman-fleuve by Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid-20th century - Wikipedia

FlowerArranger · 27/04/2022 20:16

DesdamonasHandkerchief · 27/04/2022 20:10

War and Peace. No really, it's amazing just need to speed read the philosophy and second epilogue!

Oh yes!

And Middlemarch.

MoMuntervary · 27/04/2022 20:17

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. It's technically fantasy but very gently so and reads rather ike historical fiction. It's also beautiful written and frequently funny. Definitely long and immersive.

Wild Swans is a long, compelling and often heartbreaking biography and autobiography of three generations of women that elucidates the socio-political history of China during the period through which they lived.

I also loved The Women's Room. It's an entirely fictional account of the 'awakening' of one woman and her friends that also charts the rise of feminism in the US from the 40s through to the 60s.

Oh, and A Suitable Boy. Not much history (but the social/cultural background of India during that period is there throughout) but it is definitely long and transportative (if that's even a word!)

DesidaCrick · 27/04/2022 20:18

I liked the Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.

HighInPolyunsaturates · 27/04/2022 20:18

@NorthFaceofthelaundrypile Homegoing is one of my favourite books - absolutely loved it. Was eye opening about race and slavery and history and womanhood. Amazing.

Also The Red Tent is an absolute classic. One of the few books I re-read from time to time.

Haus1234 · 27/04/2022 20:18

Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead which was on last years Booker list - a fictional story of an early female aviator but with a lot of actual historical context.

bellac11 · 27/04/2022 20:21

Edward Rutherford historical novels about the development of nation states China and Russia (Russka) also about Sailsbury (Sarum), New York and Paris.

The Russian one is phenomenal

StellaOlivetti · 27/04/2022 20:21

Oh yes definitely agree about The Women’s Room. It sounds so trite to claim it changed my life, because my battered copy has THIS NOVEL CHANGES LIVES on the cover, but honestly I believe it did. And very satisfyingly long!

WhatNoReally · 27/04/2022 20:22

I second (or third) a suitable boy.
Also Infinite Jest is amazing (although parts are hard going)

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