One of my challenges this year is to read through the decades, one book a month, beginning in January with the 1910s and finishing up in December with the 2020s, all books from my existing collection. The only book from the 1910s that I own but hadn’t yet read was Howard’s End by EM Forster. Having enjoyed both A Room with a View and Maurice, I had high expectations. But—I didn’t love it. All of the characters were insufferable and Forster himself spent SO MUCH TIME waxing on philosophically about England, the classes, the sexes, marriage, etc. that the plot gets mired down beneath it all. Set in the early 20th century, and with two sisters who are half German, there’s also that sense of innocence/naïveté and impending doom, unbeknownst to the characters or even the author himself. I watched the film afterwards, and it is excellent, distilling much of the overdone ruminations in the novel down to their essence, without (to my mind) losing Forster’s meaning. And of course, being a Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala film, it is beautifully made with exceptional actors. So my recommendation is to skip the book but watch the film! (But do read Forster’s other books.)