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If you enjoy sweeping historical novels then you may want to dig into A Long Petal of the Sea (2020), one of the most recent books by the prolific Chilean-American author Isabel Allende. And if you especially appreciate books that shed light on dramatic past events less likely to be on our reading radar than, say, World War II, A Long Petal of the Sea just might be calling your name.

How would a twelve-year old boy survive losing his entire family of origin, mother, father, and older brother, in plane crash? How would he cope with being the only survivor of the crash, which took, in addition to his family, nearly two hundred passengers and crew? How could anyone survive this?

A Burning (2020), Megha Majumdar's debut novel, follows three characters in the wake of a firebomb attack at a railroad station in a Kolkata slum.

In her latest book, The Half Moon (2023), Mary Beth Keane tells the story of a married couple in crisis, thanks to circumstances beyond their control. Economic turmoil, infertility, and the shifting values of a younger generation of consumers—these things and more have fractured the lives, loyalties, and love of Malcolm and Jess Gephardt.

Ruth Ozeki's latest novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness (2021), is a big book in terms of length. It's a big book, too, in terms of the ideas and issues with which it deals, including Zen Buddhism, mental illness and the systems that surround its treatment, the nature of reality, and the pressures of the marketplace and capitalism.

I've now read the book and also listened to the audio book of I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai. I scarcely had a break between my reading of, and listening to, this novel. When it became available, I seized the day, as it had been on hold for some time and, I knew, would probably go back on hold again.

Kaitlyn Greenidge's Libertie (2021) might be called a coming of age novel, given the fact that the book explores the issues and challenges of establishing and sustaining identity against all odds.

If you’re looking for a sprawling novel that spans much of the twentieth-century and enters the twenty-first, features an array of distinctive points of view and complex relationships, ventures to far-flung places, and explores big ideas, then I invite you to consider reading Maggie Shipstead’s most recent release, Great Circle (2021).

You may have already watched the Oscar award-winning movie, Women Talking (2023). If you have yet to read the novel of the same name by Miriam Toews, upon which the movie is based. I'm here to encourage you to do so!

I first read the prolific and multi-award-winning author Louise Erdrich back in 1984, when her debut novel Love Medicine (1984) was released. I remember being blown-away by the book, as, sad to say, it was the first time I'd read a novel by an author of American Indian descent.

Prior to her latest novel, Matrix (2021), Lauren Groff was best know for her previous book, Fates and Furies, the story of a marriage set over the course of recent decades, a favorite book of President Barack Obama in 2016, a New York Ti

So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980) was published in the 1980's, when author William Maxwell was 71 years old.