Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel Outstanding historical fiction (which is not a genre I tend to favor); the start of Thomas Cromwell's rise is seen alongside the dissolution of Henry VIII's marriage to Katherine of Aragon. It's brutal, long (lots of characters to keep in mind, all of the important ones real people), and intriguing, with politics and religion taking center stage in Tudor England. One of the best fiction novels I've read, and, yes, it took me a long, long time to get through it (with no updates for a long time), but I'm glad I did. This is what great fiction should be.