Britt-Marie Was Here

I love my new iPad - for almost everything but updating my blog. And it's only because I care to include the picture of the book cover in my review. If I left that out, I think I'd be okay.

Luckily, goodreads.com helps me keep a record of the books that I've read. But will I remember what each book was all about?

I loved Fredrik Backman's Britt-Marie Was Here. It is a totally memorable book, as are all the books I've his that I've read to date. Britt-Marie is the story of a 60-something woman starting over. Completely starting over. For years she's taken care of her husband, his kids and their home. All of a sudden, she has to take care of herself. 

To say that Britt-Marie is rigid would be an understatement, but I hesitate to say she has Asperger's. But you get the idea. She has difficulty with any changes to her routine. When you're starting your life over, there are plenty of changes to routine. She also struggles with basic verbal communication with others.

This novel reminds us that everyone has a backstory. Whether we know the backstory or not, everyone deserves kindness unless it is proven otherwise. Highly enjoyable and poignant read that I'd recommend.

 

Anxious People

I could not have selected a better book to finish up my 2020 reading with than Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. This quirky, humorous novel about a sensitive, important subject really helps to zoom in on what is most important in life. Our connection to other people.

2020 has been a total dumpster fire of a year. Plans needed to be shelved. I learned that people whom I considered friends had very different values than I have, making me wonder if we can still be friends. (In some cases yes, in other cases no.) Virtual contact with others became a lifeline to the outside world. And reading helped me get through the year.

Again I say, this book was the perfect book to finish on the final day of this terrible year.

Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, which I loved, and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry, which I liked (a little too much fantasy-type writing in this one), really hit it out of the park with Anxious People.

It's the story of a bank robbery gone wrong. Maybe. It's about a hostage situation. Maybe. It's a story about idiots. It's about truth.

It's about marriage, compassion, family relationships, finding meaning in life. All told through the story of a seemingly random group of people thrown together at an open house for an apartment in a small town. There's the wealthy banker, the long-time older married couple who can't stop  bickering. There's the newly married couple expecting their first child. There's the elderly woman, the real estate agent, the rabbit. 

We meet Nadia, therapist to the wealthy banker. Jim and Jack, the cops called to bring the hostage situation to a safe conclusion, are important characters in the story, too. Every single character in the tale, except for perhaps the hostage negotiator, has a story of his or her own. Each has longings, each has a desire, whether acknowledged or not, to be connected to others. I'd be hard pressed to give a better explanation than this without giving away much of the novel.

As in Backman's other novels that I've read, the characters are quirky. As you might know by now, I love quirky characters. He doesn't come right out and tell the story. He lets the story evolve. It's full of surprises and the reader wondering, "Hey, why didn't I realize that before?" It's important to read Backman novels carefully to be able to put all the pieces together.

I don't know that I'd say that Anxious People was the best book that I read in this terrible year. But it was in the top ten and it was the best book to finish the year with.

Happy New Year!
Happy reading!

 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

I loved A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and really expected to love My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. I just liked it.

Elsa is 7 years old and she's different. Very different. Her grandmother is truly different. And she's Elsa's best and only friend. Elsa's grandmother is her safe haven. She's created that safe haven through fairy tales set in the Land of Almost Awake that she tells Elsa late at night. That she tells Elsa in a secret language.

Elsa's parents are divorced and Elsa experiences much that children from "broken homes" experience. Her father is remarried to a woman with children of her own. And while Elsa's mother doesn't appear to be remarried, she's living with a man and they are expecting a new baby. Without Elsa's grandmother around, Elsa struggles to figure out where she should fit in to her new families.

Right before Elsa's grandmother dies, she asks Elsa if she's willing to do a scavenger hunt. Elsa agrees. This leads Elsa on adventure after adventure with the people who live in her apartment building. She learns all about her grandmother and about her neighbors. And she learns the basis of the fairy tales.

I wouldn't recommend it, but I also wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading it either.

I loved Elsa. And while I didn't love her grandmother, I admired her a lot. She was a woman of strength and character even if she was a pretty rotten mother to Elsa's mother. I loved Elsa's descriptions of her parents, her parents' partners and her neighbors. Elsa was mature beyond her years but in a way that I could accept.

What I didn't love about this novel was the fantastical nature of the fairy tales. While this novel was realistic fiction at its finest, I'm not a fan of fantasy. And much of the writing really reminded me of a fantasy novel.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter

When The Emperor of Shoes expired off my iPad while I was on vacation, I had to come up with something to read - quick! I scanned thru all the books I've accumulated through Amazon First Reads and ultimately selected to download The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter by J.S. Draggsholt.

It wasn't exactly what I expected. While it was mostly set in Sweden and the main character was totally Scandinavian, it made me realize that young mothers across the globe have more in common than the differences they might have. I could have plunked Ingrid Winter into New Jersey and the story would have made perfect sense.

This was Book #1 in a series, but it didn't seem like it. Ingrid and her husband have a little phrase they'd recite to each other when they were trying to connect. It seemed as though there should have been some back story. Actually, it seemed the back story was missing from most of the key points in the plot.

The book was silly. Ingrid Winter has a wild imagination but it seems as though she also has some skeletons in her closet. But why?

The language was very easy to read. The names were easy to follow. The translation was very well done.

But would I recommend it? Nope. Not really. Especially not to folks who buy a nice new house prior to selling - or listing - their current homes.

The Continuation of Stieg Larrson's Millennium Series

I read the original 3 Stieg Larsson Lisbeth Salander books, the first three of the Millennium Series, several years ago for book club. Same book club selected book #5 as our June title.

Stieg Larson published The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in the series, back in 2008. I read the books out of order. 1, then 3, then 2. Three, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the best. I didn't love it. I liked it. And I liked it better than the other two.

After being unable to get through my Jo Nesbo book a few months ago, I was reluctant to read another Scandinavian author. I wasn't bothered by the fact that I hadn't read the 4th book, The Girl in the Spider's Web, since I had no problem reading book 3 before #2, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

I'm wondered if I'd remember enough of the series for it to make sense. And I wondered what I'd feel about this book in the series being penned by a different author.

I remembered plenty. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye could easily be a standalone book, although having read earlier books in the series made me a whole lot more familiar with the characters. No problem there.

And truth be told, I think I preferred David Lagercrantz's writing style better than Stieg Larsson's. It wasn't that different, but just enough different for me to notice a preference. Then again, it could be that I preferred the translator who worked on this book better than earlier translators.

A lot in the book seemed very timely. Talks of disinformation and fake news. Fake tweeting. Hacker attacks. There's reference to a stock market collapse. I'm assuming it's fictional since I'm pretty sure a collapse not too long ago would be something I'd remember. But I found the explanation of the collapse pretty interesting. It describes the stock market as being  all about faith and dreams and anxieties and convictions.

Crime fiction is not a genre I'd pick up on my own but I try to read everything my community book club reads even if I'm not going to be attending the meeting. (Have I ever mentioned that I lead the community book club?) I am curious what others thought of the book but so far no one is talking.

I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who read and enjoyed any earlier books in the Millennium Series.

A Man Called Ove

Sometimes when I know I can't make it to a book club meeting, I just don't bother reading the book. I'd heard so many good things about A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman so I was determined to read it no matter what. (It's probably a good thing that I wasn't going to the book club meeting since the book wasn't available to me until the day before the meeting. It was a quick read, but not that quick!)

A Man Called Ove is about a 59-year old Swedish curmudgeon who really comes into himself after two major life events, two losses to be more precise, and with the help of his new neighbors. The book proves my thoughts on life - that connection with others is one of the keys to a meaningful life. The reader gets to see that Ove's life takes on new meaning once he's personally connected to his neighbors, both young and old.

One thing that struck me as I was reading the book was that Ove is 59 years old. Now that isn't old! I had to remind myself frequently that I wasn't reading a book about an 80-year old man. He's... well, he's... okay, basically my age. One point made in the book is that life looks different when you're looking at your future life being shorter than what you can look back upon. But that doesn't mean that you're old - or that life is over. I took it as a reminder that I need to live life as best I can until the last possible minute. Frankly, some people are just old souls and I believe that with Ove's fairly sad upbringing, he was naturally an old soul with a strong sense of right and wrong.

I loved the cast of characters. I loved getting to know Ove's neighbors (both people and animals) and I loved the nicknames he called each one of them by, sometimes in his head, sometimes out loud. I loved that they were able to draw together as a community after so many years of being disconnected. I could very easily picture Ove's friendship with Rune, the man a few houses down who moved in with his wife the same day that Ove and his wife moved in, years earlier.

Ove's changes were realistic. People can change. Sometimes it's too late but other times it's not too late. Ove's story is somewhere in between.

The book is humorous at times and bittersweet at others. It was a quick easy read and I'd recommend it to nearly anyone who enjoys reading character studies.