Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague

I knew I needed to read it before watching the movie. I remember hearing about it on the NYT book review and their best of the year. But I probably wouldn't have read it unless I knew the movie was coming out, was getting a ton of attention (thank you Big Picture podcast). All that said, I thought it was fine at best. Kind of boring. I don't need there to be a lot of plot if it's beautiful writing. But it wasn't. Just normal. Moving story? Sure. But anyone can write a moving story about a child dying. The last 5 minutes were the best part of the whole book. I suspect I would have liked it better if it'd been from Shakespeare's perspective himself. Oh and it was going to be on the NYT Book Review podcast where they do the book club round tables and I only ready one in five or six of these, so it was good timing to at least be able to enjoy that conversation in synch.