I didn't think Sally Rooney was for me. But because I recorded a What Should I Read Next episode with a guest who called Rooney her favorite author, I sampled this one—and then I didn't want to stop reading! I was captivated by Rooney's skill at portraying the quietly devastating interactions between Connell and Marianne, Irish teenagers who begin an on-again, off-again relationship (though they wouldn't call it that) in high school and whose paths continue to cross when they move on to university in Dublin. Her unusual style suits the story, and the acuity with which she probes friendship, trauma, and mental health is striking.

From the publisher: "Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. Written with gemlike precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth and the messy edges of female friendship."

Amazon named this a Best Book saying: "It feels slightly disingenuous to call Beautiful World, Where Are You 'classic Rooney,' as Sally Rooney has written only three novels. But her previous novels, Conversations with Friends and Normal People—the latter of which was adapted into an excellent Hulu limited series—display a voice so sure and formed it’s easy to imagine Rooney as a mature (in age) and prolific writer. Rooney is neither, yet she knows her vast talent well and is confident in showcasing it. The complicated humans at the center of Beautiful World, Where Are You are Alice, a best-selling novelist; Felix, a working class man whom Alice meets in the seaside town in which she is renting a house; Eileen, Alice’s friend and a literary magazine assistant who has recently gone through a breakup; and Simon, Eileen's childhood friend with whom she's had a long flirtation. Rooney is gifted at capturing conflict between friends and lovers. She also manages fresh observations on life, relationships, and sex. And that makes Beautiful World, Where Are You You classic Rooney."