Are you intimidated by big books? You know the 500 page kind. You could be missing out on a good read. Today Author and English Professor, Carole Barrowman has some suggestions. She says be patient and set a goal of 10 pages a day or by the end off summer. If it is not enjoyable, stop reading it.
Here are a few suggested reads and descriptions from Carole:
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
Kingsolver’s novel won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Set in Southern Appalachia, this beautifully written and socially relevant book chronicles the life of Damon Fields, who’s wry perspective on his world (and ours) is full of wit and wisdom and sorrow. This is Kingsolver’s imagining of David Copperfield, which Dickens wrote to bring attention to the horrors of poverty in 19th century England. I promise this book will have you laughing, cheering, and getting really angry that even in the 21st century we still treat the poor, especially children, with such savagery and neglect.
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Press)
This lush, gorgeous novel deserves time to experience every page. It’s an epic story about the lives of a family who live on the southwestern coast of India (the wettest region of the continent). Water is everywhere in their lives. Yet each generation has someone in the family who drowns. The main character is Ammachi (eventually the family’s powerful matriarch), but she’s 14 when we meet her and on her way (over water) to an arranged marriage. Like Kingsolver, the novel also chronicles a place as much as a family.
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books)
This big book is mind-bending, heavy-duty science fiction. It’s for readers who enjoy tackling big dystopian stories that linger and haunt you after you put it down. Think N.K. Jemisin, Ursula K. Le Guin, or any Blake Crouch novel. Survivors of a deteriorating world discover their Utopian island community, Prospera, isn’t what they thought it was at all. I almost gave up in the first sixty pages but took my own advice and stayed with it. It’s so worth the pay off in massive twists, big philosophical ideas and compelling characters.