The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Plot was an entertaining suspenseful view of novel writing with an absorbing story-within-a-story scheme which hiked up the suspense. I rarely care "who done it" in a mystery, but the twist was obvious as soon as her childhood was described exactly as a famous novel. Although I thought characterization was a bit weak, especially in the main characters, Anna and Jake, I still enjoyed the story, and the level of tension kept me turning pages. Also, as a native, it was fun to read about the Seattle settings.

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A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho Davies

A Lie Someone Told You about Yourself by Peter Ho Davies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A well written and complicated auto-fiction (?) story of a couple choosing to abort their probably-damaged-fetus who do eventually have a healthy child. The guilt and politics which torment them as they cope with having a new baby and the writer's introduction to fatherhood make for absorbing reading. The narrator is a writing teacher at a local college which contributes to the humorous subplot in this moving family story.

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Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first book from this popular author. I found it absorbing enough to finish, to find out what happened to the various relationships among the foursome, but I was not as affected by the prose as I had hoped I'd be. Competently written but not poetic. Interesting ideas crop up in the style alternating email with action such that a long philosophical chapter is relieved by a scene-filled action chapter. And her political ideas are solid (“My theory is that human beings lost the instinct for beauty in 1976, when plastics became the most widespread material in existence”).

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Exteriors by Annie Ernaux

Exteriors by Annie Ernaux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trenchant observations of people and thoughts while on the subway, in the mall, at the grocery. Occasionally funny, always astute and empathetic.

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The Spare Room by Helen Garner

The Spare Room by Helen Garner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started with Helen Garner Everywhere I Look and read Claire Fuller's review which is hard to top. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I was also reminded of the plot of the Sigrid Nunez What Are You Going Through about friendships under strain. Engrossing story and a refreshing Australian setting.

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Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone is right. Why did I postpone it for so long? Beautiful book, the writing, the tale, the imagination. Thanks to all who kept recommending it to me.
The author's exposition of grief is extraordinary bringing a tear to my hardened eye.
So many quotations to savor, i.e. this of his pregnant wife: "His mind is traversed for a moment, by an image of her body in its current astonishing shape, as he saw it last night; limbs, neat rib cage, the spine a long indent down the back, a cart-track through snow, and then this perfectly rounded phere at the front. Like a woman who had swallowed the moon."

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The Promise by Damon Galgut

The Promise by Damon Galgut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pleased that this family story of apartheid and beyond in South Africa won the Booker Prize this year. Absorbing tale with a surprising thread of humor running through it.

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