I’d never heard of A Man Called Ove (2013) by Fredrik Backman until my book club decided it was our next book. It is a Swedish novel, translated into English, and it has also, apparently, been turned into a film. As a New York Times bestseller with four and a half stars on Amazon, it seems to be a book that many people have enjoyed. I found the idea of an old, grumpy man finding a community and becoming happier appealing. There were also parts of the […]
No yeah it’s what you think it is
I straight up did not realize this wasn’t set in the US until, like, the last chapter, so whoops for my American centralism. That it takes place in Sweden does change some things, but not a lot. And it was unnerving to realize that some of our darkest realities are no better on the other side of the Atlantic. The book jacket bears out the broad plot. Beartown is a small hamlet and it is dying. Jobs are down, alcoholism is up, and all they […]
“Words are not small things.”
“Sooner or later any sports team has to decide what it really wants to achieve, and Beartown is no longer content merely to play. They’ll replace Sune with the coach of the junior team, for one simple reason: when Sune talks to his players before matches, he gives long speeches about them playing with their hearts. When the junior team coach stands in the locker room, he says just one word: ‘Win.’ And the juniors win. They’ve done nothing else for ten years. It’s just […]
I love when Goodreads tells me there’s a sequel!
This is the fourth Fredrik Backman novel I’ve read, and probably my second favorite (A Man Called Ove places 1st). It’s about a small town that lives and breathes hockey (think Friday Night Lights, but it’s really cold). We have two main hockey players: the rich kid who was born into it, and the son of an immigrant with massive natural talent. Then something terrible goes down at a party, and we see how a town like Beartown can cope with that. This book has a lot […]
More audiobooks
The Lying Games – 1/5 Stars Well I thought this book was pretty bad. It’s a 1/5 because what I thought was absolutely horrendous about the mystery became merely annoying by the end. For one, the stakes were so incredibly low for the actual crime, until they tightened toward the end, but mostly because, well, you can have a low stakes kind of book…so many contemporary novels are that way, but the writing has to be good enough to carry it. That’s what’s going in […]
The Power of Story
Best for: Anyone who likes a little whimsy in their storytelling In a nutshell: Almost-eight-year-old Elsa’s grandmother has died, and sent Elsa on a treasure hunt. Line that sticks with me: “You’d quickly run out of people if you had to disqualify all those who at some point have been shits.” (p 315) Why I chose it: I enjoyed “A Man Called Ove” very much, and when I purchased it the bookseller said this one is even better. Review: This book is a lovely look […]
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