As a teen I devoured multi-generational epics and stories about the long life of the protagonist: things like a Woman of Substance and Penmarric. I gave them up when I stopped enjoying endless descriptions of clothes and patriarchal control of women but just read the 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and loved being back in that kind of sweeping saga. So my question is - what else is there out there in a similar vein but with a more contemporary sensibility (even if it's anachronistic)? I need holiday reading!