8 Big Books to Read Over Winter Break

Anna Karenina is widely regarded as one of the world’s best novels—and longest at a whopping 964 pages. Nearly 150 years old, Tolstoy’s classic has stood the test of time, remaining cherished today for its memorable characters and imaginative prose. 

Largely a realist novel—with elements of tragedy, literary fiction, psychological novel, historical fiction, and more—the story follows a woman named Anna, as she flees her empty marriage to Alexei Karenin for the passion of Count Vronsky.

Rather than judging his characters or offering any sort of moral lesson, Tolstoy allows the reader to form their own judgment, beyond the mere archetypes of hero and villain. Anna Karenina depicts humans as deeply flawed, complex beings, with fears, desires, and ambitions—how could such a message not resonate today?

The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois is often cited as an intimidating read, not only for its nearly 800 pages but also for its exploration of complex, difficult topics. When it comes to confronting injustices like the enslavement of Africans, the hostile takeover of Native land, and countless forms of abuse, there will never be enough words to heal those open wounds.

Raised in the city, but spending her summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, Ailey has always struggled to feel like she belongs. To make sense of her identity, she first turns to her past: her mother, who arrived from Africa in bondage, and the uncovered stories of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—who forged their ways in the deep South.

Reading much like poetry, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois seeks to make sense of a whole history, embracing generations of heritage and experiences, a legacy of oppression and independence, and ultimately capturing the story of America itself.

If, somehow, you haven’t had the chance to step into the spellbinding world of Outlander before, what better time than during the cozy winter months? It’s 1945, and former combat nurse Claire Randall has returned from the war and joined her husband on a second honeymoon. 

While walking through a cluster of standing stones, one of many in the British Isles, she is magically transported to Scotland in the year 1743, as a Sassenach—an outlander—where a war rages. 

Here, she will find a love greater than she could ever imagine, in James Fraser, a Scots warrior, inevitably splitting her between two different men, from very different times. 

Like Anna Karenina, Middlemarch is a book many of us have been meaning to read. Virginia Woolf famously called it “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people,” so perhaps it’s better to have waited.

The novel is largely concerned with the feelings and pastimes of youth, so it makes sense that someone actively living those experiences wouldn’t want to read about them. 

But with age comes the capacity to reflect meaningfully on the past, and that is precisely what Middlemarch offers—at the modest cost of 912 pages. 

An intriguing blend of historical fiction, gothic, and mystery, this Booker Prize-winning novel, set during New Zealand's 1860s gold rush, is a true page turner. Though well over 800 pages, The Luminaries makes time fly with its mix of Dickensian plotting and an astrological framework.

The year is 1866, and young Walter Moody has arrived in the goldfields of New Zealand, seeking his fortune. But upon his arrival, he stumbles upon twelve men gathered to discuss a series of peculiar events: a wealthy man has gone missing, a prostitute has attempted to end her life, and a fortune has been discovered in the home of a drunk. 

Before long, Moody finds himself pulled into a spiralling web of mystery, where nothing is as it seems, and shadows lurk in every corner…

With NOS4A2, Joe Hill firmly established himself as a horror author in his own right, stepping out from the shadow of his legendary father, Stephen King. 

Within its pages, the novel delivers a terrifying blend of supernatural suspense and spine-tingling thriller, introducing one of the most terrifying villains: Charlie Manx.

If you love a good scare, this one is for you—and also has a TV series tie-in for when you inevitably race through it. The story follows Charlie Manx as he kidnaps children and steals their souls, taking them to the nightmarish realm of Christmasland. 

But Vic McQueen, the only person ever to escape him, returns to confront Manx when he kidnaps her son.

Buckle in: this is an epic standalone high fantasy novel that many have called a feminist successor to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. With expansive world-building, kickass female protagonists, dragon lore galore, and a divided kingdom, the story is full of twists.

For a thousand years, the House of Berethnet has ruled Inys, but assassins are closing in on Queen Sabran the Ninth, who is unwed and without a daughter to inherit the throne. Rising to the position of lady-in-waiting, Ead Duryan is an outsider, but she wields secret magic to protect Sabran. 

Beyond the kingdom, Tané has trained as a dragon rider since childhood, yet she faces a choice that will alter her path forever. All of this and more unfolds across 848 thrilling pages…

At 944 pages, we’re closing this list off with the longest in the bunch. A sprawling, surreal novel, Murakami’s 1Q84 is set in an alternate 1984 Tokyo, where a young woman named Aomame enters a parallel universe. 

At the same time, an aspiring writer named Tengo is working on a ghostwriting project, and as he becomes increasingly involved in his subject, he loses his sense of reality.

Over a single year, Aomame and Tengo’s lives weave and converge, with events including a dyslexic girl with a vision, a religious cult involved in a shoot-out with police, a shelter run by a wealthy man, and so much more. 

A love story, mystery, fantasy, and dystopian, all at once, there is much to be pulled into in 1Q84—so much so, you won’t want to leave the world Murakami wields after the last page.