Middlemarch, George Eliot
This 600-page tome took me a full two weeks to finish but it was totally worth it. And before you say, ‘weren’t you reading books by women only?’, let us remember that George Eliot was the alias of Mary Anne Evans. So. Set in the provincial town of Middlemarch in mid-1800s England, the novel follows the lives of various women, and a few men, as their interactions and non-interactions (aka presumptions) shape their lives and the lives of others. Middlemarch is set apart from other similar novels of the era by the very characters whose lives it follows: most novels up until this point were written about, or from the perspective of, rich or upper class members of society, and Middlemarch, while it does have some modestly rich characters, also portrays the lives of society’s middle class and poorer members as well. Pair this with a higher than average number of women characters and it makes for quite a pleasant read.
Normal People, Sally Rooney
On the opposite side of things, I devoured Rooney’s less-than-300 page book in a matter of three days. I tend to read the back cover description before starting most of the books I read (a polemical topic if there ever was one), and because of a rather dull, unremarkable description of the book, I was not expecting to be as blown away as I was. But I felt emotionally raw after finishing this book, which follows the lives of two people who cannot stay away from each other, as good or bad as that might be for each of them. Both of the protagonists have unhealed emotional trauma, which during the book they try to make progress with, in various ways, and I feel that there is a lot, perhaps too much, left unsaid, that could have made the novel more complete. But then again, maybe the inclusion of all those details would leave the reader with the impression of knowing too much, and not being able to handle the fraught relationship the protagonists have.