There is something so great about really big books.
I know some people can find them intimidating, but the rest of us can see they are clearly
the best kinds of books.
Because not only can you use them as a doorstop, or a weapon, or maybe a makeshift stool if
you don't want to sit directly on the ground, they also keep you busy reading for so much
longer.
And that's all I ever want to be doing anyway.
So in this Book Break video, I have got 7 recommendations of really good, really big
books that will keep you busy for weeks.
And I'm going to go through these in ascending order, finishing with the longest.
So starting with an impressive 658 pages, we have The Other Bennet Sister by Janice
Hadlow.
And I actually made a whole video with Janice Hadlow, which I will link here and in the
description box, where we talked about our favourite of the unpopular Jane Austen characters.
Because this book, The Other Bennet Sister, is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, all
told from the perspective of Mary Bennet, the least popular Bennet sister.
And this book is so much fun, from Pride and Prejudice mega-fans or even if you've never
read the original before, this is such a great story.
So the first section kind of retells the events of Pride and Prejudice, but through the eyes
of Mary Bennet.
It will totally change the way you feel about a lot of the events in that book, and then
as the book goes on we branch out and see what might have happened to Mary Bennet beyond
the end of Pride and Prejudice.
So as a massive Jane Austen fan I loved this book so much.
Janice Hadlow's writing is so spot on in terms of sounding like Jane Austen's writing, and
as you can see from the length of this book, there are a lot of adventures to follow Mary
on.
Next in at 670 pages, we have The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, and this is such a classic
Kate Morton book, with parallel timelines, secrets, and all hinging around a beautiful
old building, in this case Milderhust Castle.
So in The Distant Hours, our main character Edie is trying to uncover the secret of her
mother's past, who lived at Milderhurst Castle 50 years ago as an evacuee.
And I always love Kate Morton's books so much, how all the different secrets and puzzle pieces
just fall so perfectly into place.
And this many pages can hide a lot of secrets.
Next up we has NOS4R2 at 689 pages.
This is written by Joe Hill, who was the son of Stephen King, so no surprise, this is a
very good horror story.
So this is about a vampire-like villain called Charles Manx, who kidnaps children and takes
them back to a place called Christmasland, where he turns them into creepy vampires.
And our protagonist is a woman called Vic McQueen, who narrowly escaped him as a teenager,
and now years later he's come back to kidnap her son.
Who by the way is called Bruce Wayne.
So this is a really good mix, it's a genuinely very creepy book, but also a lot of fun.
Now if you're after a long nonfiction book, Machiavelli by Alexander Lee comes in at 760
pages, so this is a biography of Machiavelli, but one that shows a much more sympathetic
side to him than we usually see.
So this book literally follows him from cradle to grave, and this is the most thorough biography
of Machiavelli you will ever read.
As well as being this amazing portrait of the age that he lived in.
Now, at a massive 800 pages we have Tombland by C.J. Sansom, and again I did a whole video
on this, which you can click through to here or I'll put it in the description box, where
I retraced the characters' steps around Norwich.
So this is historical fiction, it's set in 1549, two years after the death of Henry VIII
and the whole country is sliding into chaos.
Their current king is just an 11 year old boy, and rebellion is stirring.
So this book is a great retelling of Kett's Rebellion, as well as just this really vivid
historical fiction that brings the city of Norwich at that time so amazingly to life.
It feels like you can visit the city without actually having to step foot there.
And they just keep getting longer, because at 1070 pages we have The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett.
And this is just the first in a series of equally long books so there is a lot to keep
you busy here.
So this one is set in the 12th century and it's about the building of a fictional cathedral.
So there is so much interesting stuff here about the development of Gothic architecture,
but it's also about the fortunes of this fictional village called Kingsbridge where the cathedral
is being built, set against the real historical context of that time.
And finally, definitely the longest book I have ever seen, The Catholic School by Edoardo
Albinati, is 12066 pages long, and isn't it a beauty?
But this is a shocking book, so it's a novel but based on a true crime, when three very
well off young men, who'd graduated from this very prestigious Catholic school in Rome,
brutally raped, tortured and murdered two women.
So this book is set in that school in the build up to that crime, and it explores themes
of.
masculinity and the power that men can so easily wield and misuse, as well as looking
at the dark underbelly of the upper middle classes.
So if you'd like some more historical fiction recommendations, I've put a whole playlist
together here, but right before you click through, I'd love you to leave a comment answering
a question we've been talking about in the office.
How do you read your really big books?
Do you have a special reading position to make it easier?
Maybe lying on your bed with the book on the floor?
Do leave us a comment and let us know and then click through for more Book Break videos.