Because I have a hard time letting go of a great read and committing my time and emotions to a new one, I love a big, fat book. My choices could all occupy first place, so I’ll list them according to girth.
At 843 pages, Lonesome Dove more than qualifies and instantly committed me to the long haul. The writing is simply great, and the plot head spinning. The main characters, Augustus McCrae and W.F. Call, are aging Texas Ranger retirees who are stoic, brave, and restless.
It’s their foolish restlessness that gets them in serious trouble as they determine their best move is a cattle drive through drought and storm and hostile Indian territory, where Blue Duck, a truly scary dude who loves no one, has no alliances, and is fueled only by a deep, malevolent desire for vengeance, is always lurking.
I fell in love with McMurtry’s two old heroes and their ragtag crew of cowpokes and was heartbroken when I turned the last page.
Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a powerful, triumphant portrayal of the American West as it really was. From Texas to Montana, it follows cowboys on a grueling cattle drive through the wilderness.
It begins in the office of The Hat Creek Cattle Company of the Rio Grande. It ends as a journey into the heart of every adventurer who ever lived . . .
More than a love story, more than an adventure, Lonesome Dove is an epic: a monumental novel which embraces the spirit of the last defiant wilderness of America.
"Riveting" best describes The Covenant of Water. At 715 pages, it easily qualifies. Set in southern India, Verghese’s Covenant offers lush lyricism, a vivid setting, characters who are at once noble and flawed, and an agile, gripping, multi-layered plot. The combination rapidly propelled me through the pages, Verghese’s lucid prose doing all the work.
As I closed the book on the final page, I didn’t suffer from my usual sense of loss because Abraham Verghese’s earlier masterpiece, Cutting for Stone (667 pages) now teeters on the top of my to-read pile.
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret
“One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”—Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com
The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of…
At just under 500 pages, this barely qualifies as a big, fat book, however the complexity of the plot, the characters - heroic in their striving and endurance - the rich setting, and the beautiful, and sometimes stabbing, simplicity of McBride’s prose met my standards and gave me an unforgettable read.
Simply put, I loved it and cried as I read the beautiful, fully earned and realized ending.
“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review
“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for…
A literary suspense, it introduces Abby Bannister, the founder of Gimps Serving Gimps. A major gimp herself and champion for the rights and independence of people faced with physical and mental challenges, she is being interviewed for a spot on the local news.
The interview draws the attention of three people: her best friend, a gay gimp looking for love in all the wrong places; Abby’s long-lost cousin, now homeless, who has an ax to grind and sees Abby as the perfect grindstone; and a self-declared angel of mercy who believes Abby is in need of his special services. As Abby whizzes around Tucson in her souped-up electric wheelchair, she is oblivious to the grave danger she is in.
