7. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Told in the style of a Greek epic, this—one of our new favorite classic books to read—covers the lives of three generations of a family, as well as the historical backdrop of six decades in Greece and then Detroit. The book addresses several heavy topics, all rolled into a superbly written, 544-page, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
8. 100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Though not the longest book on the list by any stretch (it’s 417 pages), this is one of the classic novels from the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author that manages to introduce a staggering array of characters, feature multiple generations of a large family, and cover 100 years of time as he explores their lives and the history of their town.
