The Big Book Summer Reading Challenge wrapped up on Monday. The challenge is simple: read at least one book that is 400+ pages between Memorial Day and Labor Day. (This year, May 22 and Sep 7.)

Back in May, I created a short list of hopefuls, and I managed to read one of them. I had committed to buddy reading this book. Buddy reading always increases the chances of starting a book, even if it doesn’t guarantee finishing. The other six big books I finished this summer were not on my list. Sometimes chunksters just happen.

These are the Big Books I read this summer, from shortest to longest:

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg – 416 pages 🏳️‍🌈

This was one of the Book Cougars’ quarterly readalongs for our year of Page to Screen Adaptations. The novel was published in 1987. I read it in 1991 after seeing the movie, which was a box office hit. Although I enjoyed both, I was more partial to the film. (I included the novel in a 2012 top ten LGBTQIA novels list created for a different reading challenge.)

This was my second time reading the novel and the zillionth time watching the movie. In the 1990s, filmgoers debated whether or not Iggie and Ruth, two of the main characters, are a romantic couple or just friends. I thought for sure they were lesbians. Back then, a friend told me I just wanted to see lesbians everywhere. Well, yeah. In the novel, Iggie and Ruth’s relationship — or the town’s acceptance of them as a couple — is more explicit.

During the Zoom discussion this summer, it was fascinating to hear that younger viewers who just watched the film thought there was no question that Iggie and Ruth are a couple. For them, there was nothing subtle about the portrayal of their love. A lot has changed in 35 years.

For viewers who had not “seen” the relationship back in the ’90s but do now, this shows the truth that we see things through our own lenses. It’s why books are so powerful. They can expose us to life experiences different from our own. They help us understand more of the world around us, especially when that world isn’t (or doesn’t seem to be) in our immediate neighborhood.

Obstinate Daughters by Denise Kiernan – 432 pages

I enjoyed talking with Denise Kiernan about Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution on Episode 263 of the Book Cougars.

This is a narrative history about women in America during the Revolutionary period. It ranges from shortly before the outbreak of official warfare through the Revolutionary War. Kiernan brings in not just white patriots, but loyalist, enslaved, and Native American women. Some women reappear in subsequent chapters. This got a little confusing at times, especially with women previously unknown to me. I was reading an advance reader copy with no index to consult, and so started taking notes.

Kieran explains in her intro that she is trying to do something different with this book by not writing it as a series of anecdotes or short biographies. There are also short chapters sprinkled throughout that are brief, first-person accounts of Kiernan’s trips to related historic locations. I’ve been thinking about listening to the audiobook, which Kiernan narrates.

Reading about women of the American Revolution and talking with Kiernan was a great way to celebrate America250.

Point of Origin by Patricia Cornwell – 440 pages 🏳️‍🌈

This was another buddy read and a re-read, but not the one on the hopefuls list. Point of Origin is book nine in Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series, which I’m rereading with John Valeri. The reread has been a fantastic experience so far. It’s been surprising what we do and do not remember about each novel.

Each of Cornwell’s Scarpetta novels introduces new investigative techniques and/or technologies. When I first read Point of Origin in the late ’90s, I had zero knowledge about arson and how investigators go about their work. The arson investigation captured my imagination and was a standout in the series for me. I’m happy to report the story holds up and is a good standalone, although it is stronger if you’ve read prior novels that involve the evil doer Carrie Grethen (The Body Farm and From Potter’s Field).

Something shocking happens in the book, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Cornwell handles the fallout in the next novels (which I obviously do not remember). I have always appreciated Cornwell’s character Lucy, Scarpetta’s niece who is gay. She was the first out lesbian character in a mainstream series that I read, which meant a lot back then. However, I’m still waiting for Lucy to catch a fucking break.

All We Hide by Robyn Gigl – 456 pages 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Thanks to SOHO Press for sending the Book Cougars a review copy of All We Hide, Robyn Gigl’s fifth crime novel. It was also listed as an ALC on Libro.fm, and I listened to Jen Richards’s fantastic narration.

All We Hide features Lieutenant Lauren Kelly, who has had a decent career in the police department where her father had also served. That is, until she transitioned. Her father is now in a care facility for dementia, and she finds herself pushed into a corner handling cold cases.

Her boss is hoping she’ll quit, but instead, Kelly starts investigating the murder case of a trans woman whom she tangentially knew in high school. Back then, Kelly was in the closet, and her dad was working this murder case. All We Hide is an engaging investigative story that also looks into what it’s like to be a trans woman, showing what Kelly is going through internally and relationally with her family, coworkers, and society.

Gigl manages an impressive, seemingly effortless balance between the police procedural and the investigator’s emotional experience. I look forward to reading more from this new-to-me writer.

Wake Now in the Fire by Jarrett Dapier and AJ Dungo – 464 pages

This Young Adult graphic novel is another book that I read as part of a Book Cougars’ quarterly readalong. We chose this as a companion read for Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which had been a primary readalong pick.

Wake Now in the Fire is a fictionalized account of real events that unfolded after the Chicago Public School system attempted to ban Persepolis from all classrooms. It is a deep story that puts teens at the center, showing the coordinated actions they took to fight back against book banning while also dealing with daily life and family struggles.

One of my favorite lines/panels is a teen thinking, “Is this a school system for humans or just a bunch of warehouses for our bodies?”

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee – 656 pages

Like millions of people around the world, I have been anxiously awaiting the release of Min Jin Lee’s third novel, American Hagwon. It is set to be published on September 29th. I was grateful to get an advance reader copy.

If you enjoyed Free Food For Millionaires and/or Pachinko, pre-order it now or reserve a copy at your library. American Hagwon is the story of the importance of education for Koreans, told through the saga of one family and those who touch their lives. John, Helen, and their three children live variously in South Korea, Sydney, and multiple states in the US. They are often separated by work and education. I enjoyed reading every sentence of this novel and missed the characters when I finished.

Min Jin Lee shared this note on her website:

Almost a decade ago, I started to write American Hagwon because I wanted to understand why education is so important to Koreans everywhere. After I wrote it, I realized that I wanted to know how to live a wise life in a world that was changing too fast. American Hagwon is the novel I’ve most wanted to share with my readers, because as a reader myself, I needed to figure out how to live, struggle better and flourish when the odds feel against us.

11/22/63 by Stephen King – 1, 121 pages

This was the book on my hopefuls list that I had committed to buddy reading with my friend Rachel.

I love King’s early work but haven’t been as attracted to his more recent novels. I’m also not all that interested in the Kennedy assassination or conspiracy theories. I did enjoy the Bill Hodges Trilogy, so I’m not averse to reading King’s new work.

11/22/63 started calling to me in recent years, because different types of readers I know praised it. People who tend to read mainly classics, or horror, or mystery, or thrillers all told me they enjoyed this tome. When people who liked it added that they don’t usually enjoy time-travel stories, I became curious. When Rachel suggested it as a buddy read earlier this year, it didn’t take much arm twisting to get me to say yes. Not that she’s the arm-twisting type.

Anyway, I’m glad I did read this one. It was interesting to see how the time travel conventions worked in this universe. I don’t want to say any more about that out of fear of spoilers. The pleasure of a book like this is the unfolding. I also learned some interesting facts, like that Lee Harvey Oswald moved to Russia after his discharge from the Marines. I can imagine how conspiracy theories might grow out of something like that.

What kept me reading?

Surprisingly, the love story at the heart of this novel was a big part of what kept me turning the pages. King isn’t known for writing realistic women. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing for King that his male and female characters can sometimes seem so unequal. In this case, Jake from 2011 has historical, cultural, and mental health knowledge that Sadie from 1963 does not. To make the stakes higher, she was raised by abusive parents and recently escaped an abusive husband. The fact that King’s 2011 male protagonist fits so very well with a woman from 1963 could be good grist for an English/Gender Studies paper.

So, that’s my Big Book wrap-up. Thanks to Sue and Melinda for hosting the challenge again this year!

I’d love to hear what Big Books you read this summer, intentionally or not. Please let me know in the comments. Feel free to leave a link if you’ve posted about them in your corner of the internet.