Dear Ms. Butterfly,
As a 71 year old man, my recommendations may not be considered viable, but here are three:
'The Passage' by Justin Cronin. I absolutely love long books and this one certainly meets that criteria. This tale is of an amazing journey of individuals, and of the entire human race, through dark and terrible times. There are many players is this story, but each will etch themselves on your mind.
'The Host' by Stephanie Meyer. No, not the vampire crap, but a wonderful tale about how we, as a species, adapt to an alien intruder... and then learn who we truly are as Humans... and how we can teach ourselves to love.
Ok, here's where you tell me I'm full of poop, my very favorite of all...
The 'Bloody Jack' series by L.A. Meyer (and I most strongly recommend the Audio Book version as read by Katherine Kellgren.) This series of books has it all! Everlasting love, danger, horrible circumstances, wonderful circumstances, impossible odds,
and a personal and emotional history lesson of some of the major events, and individuals who have shaped our world history. Everything we read for, is found in this series.
For what it's worth... and trust me, it's not much, I've been member of Mensa for over 50 years (and yes, my mind is not as crisp as it once was and that may not be a bad thing as can relax more.) I've retired twice but still go around the country helping to fix nuclear plants which have problems.
I've had some educational problems which came to light after I read Rachel Carson's "The Sea Around Us" when I was 6 years old. At that time I was growing up in a jungle in Okinawa in 1949. My 4 classmates were trying their best to decipher why Dick ran after Jane while I was trying to understand why we should save the ocean.
Hope you let me know what you think,
Sincerely, Mike Kiernan