Before I say anything else, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to those essential workers who are still showing up every day and keeping life going during this global crisis. I hope in the near future, when the rest of us are back at work, you will get a turn to rest and read.
For those of us hunkering down at home for the foreseeable future, here’s our chance to knock out the most formidable Read Harder Challenge of 2020: task number 16, a doorstopper (over 500 pages) published after 1950, written by a woman. If you are intimidated by lengthy books, ebooks can remove some of the anxiety because they don’t put any extra weight in your hands as a reminder of how large the task is.
“Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” is 846 pages in paperback, and every one of them is filled with magic. I was happy to keep reading and reading because I didn’t want to leave the world built by author Susanna Clarke. This is a great choice for fans of fantasy fiction. Set in early nineteenth century England, it’s the story of two men who alternately spar and collaborate in their efforts to bring magic back into the world. In the process, they unleash forces they don’t understand.
Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” is 
relatively short, for this challenge, at 546 pages. The story in this novel spans three decades in the life of the Price family, beginning with a disastrous 1950s mission to what was then the Belgian Congo, where the zeal of the family’s patriarch far outstrips his cultural understanding. After the family comes apart at the seams, his wife and daughters spend the rest of their lives trying to undo the damage done to and by their family.
There are some compelling nonfiction options for this task as well. “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin examines the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, focusing especially on his tactic of filling his cabinet with political adversaries and his remarkable accomplishment of persuading them to work together to save the union.
In “The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson 
looks at America’s Great Migration, the movement of large numbers of Black Americans from the rural south to northern cities between the years 1915 and 1970, as they sought better jobs and living conditions. This migration of six million people influenced every aspect of American life — arts, politics, sports, etc.
For more ideas, see the DBRL catalog list or Book Riot’s suggestions. Many are available in digital formats. The doorstopper challenge might seem daunting, but I have confidence in us. Let’s do this thing.
