Big Books Summer of 2025 (And Beyond)
Whenever I read Liz’s wonderful book blog, I feel immeasurably tempted to set myself a fun book challenge. On her blog, Liz takes part in several reading challenges and it looks like so much fun. So, with that in mind, I thought I’d make a challenge for myself this summer and it’s largely to nudge me towards one of my original reading goals for 2025.
I really wanted to read more big books and fewer books overall in 2025. There’s some chunky tomes lurking in the TBR corner of my bookcase and, despite my pledge to tackle them this year, I’ve not picked up many big books at all. (The Storygraph tells me I’ve read three books that have 500 or more pages so far in 2025.)
Let’s make it a Big Books Summer here at Daisybutter and Sundaze Book Café.
Little, Big by John Crowley
The Unseen Review on Substack is hosting its inaugural Slow Read course this summer, and I’m really looking forward to joining along. Our slow read title is Little, Big by John Crowley which host Jess has previously raved about. A magical realism novel that’s won fantasy fiction awards, it follows Smoky Barnable, who has fallen in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, and Edgewood, her family home, where Smoky finds himself ‘drawn into a world of magical strangeness’. From what I understand, Edgewood itself is a character of its own right here. And I’m hoping there’ll be an echo of how the house is a character in Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
Join this slow read with us at The Unseen Review here.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Speaking of Susanna Clarke, I’ve been eager to read more of her work since I read Piranesi. Well, I excitedly snapped up the copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell that I found in a local Little Free Library… almost a year ago. I’ve heard brilliant things about this book and, at over 1,000 pages, I’ve been putting it off because it is so intimidating.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is set in an alternate 19th-century London. With the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, the people believe magic to be long dead in England, that is until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, emerging to change history forever. I love me a good magic story, and I’m really excited for this one.
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
I can’t wait to read The Little Friend because it’ll make me a Donna Tartt completionist! I completely loved The Secret History when I read it some years ago, but wasn’t convinced by The Goldfinch, which I think is commonplace amongst Tartt readers. I’m hoping to time my big books’ reading to get to this one in late August, since Tartt’s books evoke such a deep, dark ambience. In The Little Friend, we’re transported to Alexandria, Mississipi, where Robin Cleve Dufresnes is found hanging from a tree in his parents’ back garden. Twelve years later, his murder is still unsolved and his family still heartbroken. So, Robin’s sister sets out to find his killer. Touted a story of loss, love, race and caste, I’m really looking forward to reading what sounds like a haunting mystery, since Donna Tartt has a great ability to conjure up eerie vignettes and haunting characters.
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
Despite his misogynistic male gaze at times, Murakami’s work is undeniably magic and elusive in a very specific way and he remains one of my favourite novelists. I was really excited to finally exit my (successful) 2024 book-buying ban and pick up his newest novel in January, yet it’s sat unloved on my TBR shelf ever since. And, I’ve heard mixed reviews about this one (although Murakami does tend to be a divisive one!).
In The City and Its Uncertain Walls, a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes. So, he sets his heart on finding her… in a dreamed-up city where her ‘true self’ lives. Described as ‘a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them’, I’m thoroughly excited to plunge myself into another of the author’s strange and surreal stories.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Finally, I’d love to close out 2025 with Hilary Mantel’s revered Wolf Hall. This chunky tome resides on my bookcase as a constant reminder of the last book I bought before we were placed into lockdown for the pandemic. I never quite got my teeth into this in 2020. I wonder why?! Wolf Hall needs no introduction, but it’s the first in a trilogy and an intricate character study of Thomas Cromwell, the man behind Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s divorce. The plan is to get to this in October for am autumn historical fiction.
I plan to focus on these big books while also reading some NetGalley eARCs on my Kindle, which are mostly shorter reads. Hopefully, this pairing of big books and exciting upcoming new releases keeps me on the straight and narrow, although it’ll definitely mean fewer monthly book wrap-ups, I think! It’s certainly going to be strange to briefly leave behind the very-gamified book count challenge, but I’m already really excited to see my year-end pages read.
