It's Monday 2/8! What Are You Reading?

How is everyone on this Monday morning? It's very cold here, and we got more snow here this weekend, but at least the sun is shining. According to the forecast, this is the last we'll see of sunshine for the next week!

We had a fun weekend, though I didn't get much done. That's OK; sometimes you need to just relax and have some fun. My health is much improved on some new treatments (and more to come), pretty much back to my "normal" baseline with chronic illness which suddenly feels--after a terrible past year--pretty darn good! So, we took a short hike on Saturday on some local trails we'd never been on before. I'm in a local Women's Hikers group on Facebook that a friend started, and I'm amazed by all the great places to hike so close to us that we've never even heard of before (we've lived here for 30 years)! 

 

It was also "warm" enough (above 40 F!) to have an outdoor visit with my father-in-law, who is 95. We were all bundled up, but we had a bit of sunshine, and he so enjoys getting out and doing this. My husband sees him every day, but his dad is really getting sick of being stuck inside and not being able to come to our house. He gets his second shot next week - yay!

 

And, of course, we topped off our weekend with the Superbowl. If you don't live in the U.S., you might not be aware of how big a deal this is here! Neither my husband nor I much cared who won last night, but it's fun to get into the group celebration spirit. We made our favorite snacks for dinner, enjoyed the ads, and chatted with friends on Facebook about the whole thing. My personal favorite ads were two in the beginning for Most Entertaining--Sesame Street for DoorDash (one of my all-time favorite SS songs!) and the Scott's one which was filled with hilarious celebrity cameos, including John Travolta doing the dance from the prom scene in Grease with his daughter (I had to rewatch it on Youtube to catch everything)--and for powerful emotion, the one with Bruce Springsteen in Kansas about meeting in the middle. The game? eh.

 

In fact, we turned the game off a few minutes early and went upstairs to read! Here's what we've all been reading this week:

I finished and thoroughly enjoyed The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, one of the older books on my TBR bookcase. It was published in 2007, and I've been wanting to read it for well over a decade! The Spellman family runs a P.I. business, with mom, dad, older sister, Izzy, and younger sister, Rae, all involved (brother David is a lawyer). The novel is written from Izzy's point of view, with a heaping dose of humor in among the cases and investigations. Izzy has a lot of issues, though she's no longer quite the mess she was when she was younger. Still, most of her relationships are very short-lived (for some reason, men don't like their girlfriends to stake them out and run credit checks on them), until she meets one guy she really likes. In fact, she likes him enough that she lies to him about what she does for a living. Of course, this approach will eventually blow up in Izzy's face, and at that point, she decides to leave Spellman Investigations, though her parents want her to work on one last case. This fun, fast-paced, witty novel was just what I needed! It's the start of a series.

Waiting for my book group book to come in at the library, I squeezed in a very short book, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. It's actually a play, and my first Wilde read. My husband gave it to me for Christmas. The play was described by a critic of the time (1895) as "a trivial comedy for serious people," and that is still an apt description! It's a silly but smart farce filled with puns, quotable lines, mistaken identities, and other fun. The basic plot is about two different men, each of whom makes up fake friends/family as an excuse to travel and escape their ordinary lives. So, John leaves his estate in the country to visit his pretend wild brother named Earnest who lives in London (and then pretends to be Earnest while in the city), while Algernon often leaves the city to go to the country to visit his "sick friend," Bunbury. As you can imagine, hijinks ensue, especially when each of the men falls in love while using the false name Earnest! It was a lot of fun and lots of laughs.

I finally gave up on waiting for the library (my requested book has shown "in transit" for over two weeks now, and our state is only 150 miles long!) and bought the e-book so I could read before book group on Thursday. This month's selection is The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, a nonfiction book. Scientists agree there have been 5 mass extinctions since life began on Earth, based on the fossil record. Many also agree that we are now entering into a sixth. I was worried this book might be dry, but ... wow. I am only on chapter 2 of 13, and it is already fascinating ... and yes, terrifying, too. Chapter 1 is about huge numbers and entire species of amphibians disappearing all over the world; I had no idea this was going on! In chapter 2, she is going much further back in time to the mastadon and reviewing the history of how humans first began to identify bizarre-looking fossils and finally came around to the idea that extinction was a thing.

I finished listening to a YA novel on audio called Furious Thing by Jenny Downham. I loved her earlier novel, Unbecoming, so much that I chose it as my Best Teen/YA Book Read in 2016. Lexi is 15 and is constantly told that she misbehaves and has a bad temper. She is filled with anger that often comes out at the worst times. If only she could change herself so that her stepfather would like her, her mother would love her like she used to, and maybe she'd even have friends. The only person she can talk to is her stepbrother, but now he's off at school. Lexi works hard to transform herself, pushing her anger down deep. Yeah, you know how well that's going to work! Downham has a talent for writing strong, well-developed characters and for digging deep into issues affecting many people, and this novel is no exception. There is so much more to it than first meets the eye. It was very good, with an excellent ending.

Now, I am listening to The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, an author I always enjoy. She is a Native American author who writes novels about Native American people, families, and their lives. In this case, her latest novel is based in history and the life of her own grandfather. Did you know that in 1953 Congress passed a resolution to disband and abolish all tribes, take all land from Native Americans and "relocate" them to urban areas? I didn't, and the historical backdrop here is stunning and horrifying. But, as always, Erdrich focuses in on one Indian community, a group of families, and what happened to them at that time because of that push from Congress. I also love that Erdrich always reads her own audiobooks, so the accent and cadence of her speech is authentic (this novel is about the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, of which she is part). So, far, it is immersive and engrossing.

My husband, Ken, is reading one of his Christmas gifts, taking a break from his usual thrillers to read Erik Larson's latest nonfiction book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. As the subtitle indicates, this book is focused on the year-long bombing campaign that Hitler waged on London during WWII, with a focus on Churchill's leadership of the British people during this horrific period. He seems engrossed in it already and has begun reading me interesting tidbits (always a good sign with nonfiction). Did you know that Churchill had a black cat named Nelson? Ken is enjoying it so far and already learning a lot.

 

Our son, 26, took his dad's advice and read a book he lent to him when he was home recently: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin, a prequel to the A Game of Thrones series. This one book compiles the first three prequel novellas that Martin wrote, which take place a century before the events in A Song of Ice and Fire, the first book in A Game of Thrones series. It's about a young, inexperienced knight named Ser Duncan (Dunk, for short), and his small squire, a boy named Egg. My husband and son both love The Game of Thrones (books and TV series!), and he is enjoying the book like his dad did.  

Next, our son re-read Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell so that he could read book 2 of the Spellslinger series, Shadowblack. The series is about a mage named Kellen who loses his magic and goes on a quest to reclaim it. In the second book, he is forced to live as an outlaw. The description says this series is "bursting with tricks, humor, and a whole new way to look at magic." No wonder our son likes it!

 

 

Blog posts from last week:

Movie Monday: Blow the Man Down - amusing movie about the dark underbelly of a quiet Maine fishing village

Fiction Review: Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson - fun, quirky collection of short stories with some fantasy woven into real-life stories

Middle-Grade Review: A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor - a warm and funny story of love, loss, and finding your place in the world.

Summary of Books Read in January - my reading year is off to a great start!

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?

 

 

Books Read in January

Happy New Year! I started my year off right with some excellent books! Here's what I read in January:

The River by Peter Heller (Canada) - adult fiction 

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor (CT) - middle-grade fiction on audio

 

Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky - nonfiction

Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson (UK) - adult fiction short stories

 

Beartown by Fredrik Backman (Sweden) - adult fiction

 

So, I finished five books in January. It was mostly a fiction month, but I included some inspirational self-help nonfiction to kick the new year off right! Four were adult books, and one (the only audio) was for middle-graders. I enjoyed all of these, and they were all so very different! Tough choice to choose a favorite, but I think Not the End of the World wins by a nose. I don't often read short stories, but Atkinson's writing is just so clever, engrossing, and funny that I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. You can read all of my reviews at the links above. After my December catch-up, I am so happy to be back on track with my blog now and writing reviews soon after finishing each book, instead of a month later!

Progress in 2021 Reading Challenges:
You can see all of the reading challenges I am participating in and full lists of the books read for each at the challenges link above. I have some fun ones going this year!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2021 - I read just two books from my own shelves (I also own Make Time, but I bought it in January so it doesn't count as TBR).

2021 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - January was Once Upon a Time, and Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson was a short story collection with elements of fantasy and mythology.

Back to the Classics 2021 - No classics in January (but I'm reading one now!)

2021 AtoZ Reading Challenge - My first time doing this challenge, and since it's January, all 5 books fit into different letters of the alphabet. I also got the January mini-challenge: a book purchased in 2020 (The River by Peter Heller).

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2021 - this is a unique one, with 50 quirky categories. Here are the ones I checked off this month (it's easy at the beginning!):

1. Book you've seen on someone else's bookshelf: Beartown by Fredrik Backman
2. A genre hybrid: Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson
3. Book set mostly or entirely outdoors: The River by Peter Heller
4. Book about fresh starts: A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor
5. Book by a blogger, vlogger, or other online personality: Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky

2021 Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Just one of my books in January was nonfiction,
Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, and it counted for the Self-Help category.

Diversity Reading Challenge 2021 - Two of my books in January were diverse, but I did not hit the January mini-challenge.

Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge - I traveled to Canada, the UK, and Sweden in my books last month.

2021 Literary Escapes Challenge - I added just one state, CT.

And finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! Stop by to print out this month's Bingo card and play along. In January, I filled 18 spaces on my bingo card:

 

Spaces Filled:

The River - shelf love, thrilling

A Home for Goddesses and Dogs - not in a series, secrets, free book, moons on the cover, audio book

Not the End of the World - dystopia or post-apocalyoptic

Make Time - read a physical book, new to you author, nonfiction

Beartown - book club read, over 400 pages, blue on cover, diet or exercise, library book, multi-POV

Free Space

What was YOUR favorite book read in January?

Middle-Grade Review: A Home for Goddesses and Dogs

On audio, I recently finished listening to a middle-grade novel I have been wanting to read, A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor. I loved her novel Waiting for Normal so much that I almost drove off the road laughing and sobbing and reaching for the box of Kleenex while listening to it! I also enjoyed her YA novel, The Things You Kiss Good-bye, so I was excited to listen to her latest novel about a lost young girl who finds a new home.

Thirteen-year-old Lydia has just lost her mother to a heart condition. It was just the two of them for a long time, with the specter of her mom's advancing disease, so Lydia and her mom were very close. Now, a few days after her death, Lydia moves to Connecticut to live with her mother's sister, Aunt Brat, and her wife, Eileen. The two women share a home with an elderly man, Elloroy, who owns the property, and they also have a dog and soon add another. Lydia wonders, "Isn't one rescue at a time enough?" There is a lot for Lydia to adjust to: a new home in a new, rural town in a new state, new school, new friends, and of course, the loss of her mother. Plus, Lydia doesn't think she's "a dog person," and the new dog, christened Guffer, is a hard dog to like. He barks a lot, pees all over the house, and seems fearful of strange things. The home's human residents wonder what he endured before to make him this way. Little by little, Lydia begins to settle into her new home, making some new friends in the close-knit small town, feeling more comfortable, letting go of some secrets, and even falling in love with Guffer.

As always, Connor writes beautifully about loss and love and ordinary life with warmth and humor. Her stories always feel so real, peopled by quirky three-dimensional characters living with challenges big and small, and finding joy in their lives in spite of those challenges. Lydia and her new family felt like old friends by the end of the book. The audio was excellent, narrated by actress Patricia Santomasso, in a voice that sounded perfectly like 13-year-old Lydia. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with Lydia and her new found-family.

416 pages, Katherine Tegen Books

HarperAudio

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Or you can order A Home for Goddesses and Dogs from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: Not the End of the World

One of my favorite books of all time is Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, so last Christmas, my son gave me a volume of her short stories, Not the End of the World, as a gift. I started out just dipping in and out, reading one story at a time here and there, but I found I enjoyed the book far more when I committed to reading it straight through, usually reading one story each day. I really loved this collection of unique, clever, strange stories that mix real-life and elements of fantasy.

 

Atkinson is known for thoughtful books populated by in-depth characters, with bits of whimsy woven throughout, and this collection of stories highlights her range. Most are set firmly in the real world, some with a strong fantastical element, some with a small magical twist, and some entirely real-world. In Charlene and Trudi Go Shopping, some unnamed apocalyptic event is happening in London in the background, while the two young women in the title attempt to go about their normal lives, chatting about silly luxuries and shopping with a comical ignoring of the real-world crisis occurring. Those two reappear in the last story, Pleasureland, as conditions have continued to worsen and their ability to pretend otherwise is fading. Evil Doppelgängers features a young man named Fielding who works in a newspaper office and starts missing whole days in his memory, as he suspects he has a double who is having much more fun than he is. Heidi takes in a stray tomcat in The Cat Lover, never suspecting what will happen in the weeks to follow or how her life will change. In Dissonance, a single mother and her two ungrateful teens live solitary lives in the same household (and frequently think unkind thoughts of each other), until a horrible accident jars the daughter out of her complacency. A young boy named Arthur is left entirely in the care of his nanny, Missy, as his rockstar father and Romney, his celebrity-obsessed mother, ignore him. The pair get closer and closer as they spend more time together until ... oh, I don't want to ruin it.

 

These stories are each unique, thought-provoking, immersive, and surprising, with Atkinson's accomplished writing and sense of humor. Once I began reading the stories one after the other, I realized there were connections between them--characters who appear in multiple stories (Romney is often mentioned), events or places that are referenced multiple times--so that it is clear these stories all take place in the same world. While I'm not a big fan of straight-up fantasy, I loved these stories which all take place in the real world, though sometimes with small (or large) fantastical elements popping up in surprising places. I laughed a lot and always looked forward to reading the next story. This wholly original, amusing, unpredictable collection left me satisfied and thinking, "Why don't I read short stories more often?"

244 pages, Little, Brown and Company

NOTE: The writing, tone, and fantasy elements in this book reminded me of another short story collection I thoroughly enjoyed, Get in Trouble by Kelly Link.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order Not the End of the World from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Movie Monday: Blow the Man Down

I was looking for something on the lighter side (as opposed to a classic thriller) for our Saturday night movie, so we chose the dark comedy Blow the Man Down. I heard about it on Pop Culture Happy Hour, one of my favorite podcasts. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it was an amusing story about the dark underbelly of a quiet Maine fishing village.

Mary Beth (played by Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla (played by Sophie Lowe) Connolly, two young adult sisters, have just lost their mother. The three of them lived together and ran the Connolly Fish store in the small Maine coastal town of Easter Cove. The girls are grieving over their mother's death, as the whole town attends the funeral and a reception at the house afterward. While the men of the town work in the water, fishing and lobstering (with sea shanties sung at various points during the movie!), it's a small group of older women who seem to run things. Susie (played by June Squibb), Doreen (played by Marceline Hugot), and Gail (played by Annette O'Toole) walk around town together, keeping an eye on things and watching over the newly orphaned young women. Then there's Enid, played by Margo Martindale, who dresses much too nicely for this cold, remote place and runs the local "Bed and Breakfast" aka brothel, which is a well-known secret in town that is tolerated. The night after the funeral, Mary Beth, who has plans to attend college next year, goes out to the local bar to blow off some steam and ends up in a bad situation with an even badder guy. One thing leads to another, and the guy ends up dead (harpooned) on the docks. She runs home in tears and tells her sister what happened, and the two girls set out to cover up the crime. But there are really no secrets in tiny Easter Cove.

So, clearly, this movie begins with some really dark stuff: death of a beloved mother, violence, and murder. But as the sisters try to cover things up, and the three older woman walk around town and gather at kitchen tables, things turn a bit farcical, though it always keeps that dark edge. It reminded me a bit of a Coen Brothers film. Other than the two police officers (and the dead thug), it's a mostly female cast, and they are outstanding in their roles. The plot gets a bit twisty (but not too complex), as the scared girls try to keep the police (and everyone else) from finding out what happened. Despite its dark themes, it's a fun, original movie that was very entertaining. It has an unheard-of 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Just be prepared to get sea shanties stuck in your head!

Blow the Man Down is an Amazon Original movie, so it is available exclusively on Amazon.

It's Monday 2/1! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday! We are in the midst of a nasty Nor'Easter storm here in the mid-Atlantic/East Coast. We got a few inches of snow yesterday, some sleet/freezing rain/ice falling right now, and more snow coming, into Tuesday. Here in Delaware, this is a BIG one for us, and the population was predictably crazy yesterday in preparation. Sorry, but I grew up in the snowbelt of Western NY, so I do find it amusing when people in Delaware clear the grocery shelves when a few inches of snow are predicted, and schools are closed (in normal times) for just a hint of snow. This storm is actually pretty big. My husband and I were out for our first shift of clearing the driveway this morning, trying to get the snow cleared before that layer of ice falls - once it is capped off by solid ice, it becomes very tough/impossible to shovel!

Super cold out today and snow/ice still falling!

I had a busy week and got a lot done. My own goal-setting process in January plus some new motivation to focus better in 2021 plus some tips I learned from Make Time are adding up nicely to better productivity, with more time spent on priorities and less time on social media! The only downside is that I didn't get to blog visiting until Sunday evening, so I only made it to a few blogs before my husband gave me the eye to put the laptop away and watch a TV show with him. I will try to get to more blogs this week; it's on my list!

Priorities means more than just work--I also made time this weekend to take a walk with a friend at our local nature center. I'd had some blue days last week (possibly a side effect of new treatments for my Lyme disease, as I adjusted the dosing). Being outdoors, seeing brilliant blue skies and sunshine, and talking nonstop with my friend were just what I needed! It was surprising beautiful out for the day before a storm.

Lovely day Saturday: sunshine, and brilliant blue sky!

Onto books! Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

I finished Beartown by Fredrik Backman, just in time for book group on Zoom. In a remote small town in Sweden, surrounded by forest, youth hockey is at the heart of the town. In fact, the town is failing economically, and most people see hockey as their way back to a thriving community. Decades ago, Peter Andersson led the town's junior hockey team to the national championship and then headed off to Canada to play in the NHL. Now, Peter is back and in charge of the hockey program in Beartown, and a new young star named Kevin seems to have the same kind of talent that Peter did back in the day--maybe even more. The junior team is headed for the national semi-finals, and they have a shot at winning. But the whole town is counting on them, and that means a lot of pressure on this group of teen boys and the adults who coach them. The novel opens with a brief and mysterious passage about a teenager shooting someone else, so there is quite a bit of tension in knowing that violent act is coming. That's not the only foreshadowing, and this novel has another violent act at its center. I enjoyed Backman's A Man Called Ove, and Beartown was excellent--a thoughtful and complex look at human nature--but much, much darker. There was a lot to talk about. You can read my full review, including an excerpt and a sample of the audio book, at the link.

I needed something light after Beartown, so I pulled out one of the older books from the back of my over-stuffed TBR bookcase: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz. It was published in 2007, and I've been wanting to read it for well over a decade! The Spellman family runs a P.I. business, with mom, dad, older sister, Izzy, and younger sister, Rae, all involved (brother David is a lawyer). The novel is written from Izzy's point of view, with a heaping dose of humor in among the cases and investigations. Izzy has a lot of issues, though she's no longer quite the mess she was when she was younger. Still, most of her relationships are very short-lived (for some reason, men don't like their girlfriends to stake them out and run credit checks on them), until she meets one guy she really likes. In fact, she likes him enough that she lies to him about what she does for a living. Of course, this approach will eventually blow up in Izzy's face, and at that point, she decides to leave Spellman Investigations, though her parents want her to work on one last case. This fun, fast-paced, witty novel is just what I needed!

On audio, I am listening to a YA novel called Furious Thing by Jenny Downham. I loved her earlier novel, Unbecoming, so much that I chose it as my Best Teen/YA Book Read in 2016. Lexi is 15 and is constantly told that she misbehaves and has a bad temper. She is filled with anger that often comes out at the worst times. If only she could change herself so that her stepfather would like her, her mother would love her like she used to, and maybe she'd even have friends. The only person she can talk to is her stepbrother, but now he's off at school. Lexi works hard to transform herself, pushing her anger down deep. Yeah, you know how well that's going to work! Downham has a talent for writing strong, well-developed characters and for digging deep into issues affecting many people, and this novel is no exception. It's very good so far and engrossing--I just want things to work out for Lexi!

My husband, Ken, finished one of his Christmas gifts and his most-anticipated one: The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Lee's brother). This is Ken's favorite author and all-time favorite series, and each year, he looks forward to reading the next book (which conveniently is always released before Christmas). This book is #25 in the Jack Reacher series. It takes place in Tennessee, where Reacher encounters a nerdy IT guy being beat up and intervenes. He discovers the man has been accused of a cyber attack on the town, but he says he is innocent. Reacher decides to find out what really happened. Ken says he noticed a slight difference with the addition of the co-author, though he still enjoyed this complex, twisty novel. 

Now, Ken has turned to another Christmas gift, taking a break from his usual thrillers to read Erik Larson's latest nonfiction book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. As the subtitle indicates, this book is focused on the year-long bombing campaign that Hitler waged on London during WWII, with a focus on Churchill's leadership of the British people during this horrific period. He seems engrossed in it already and has begun reading me interesting tidbits (always a good sign with nonfiction). Did you know that Churchill had a black cat named Nelson? Ken is enjoying it so far and already learning a lot.

Our son, 26, took his dad's advice and is enjoying a book he lent to him when he was home recently: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin, a prequel to the A Game of Thrones series. This one book compiles the first three prequel novellas that Martin wrote, which take place a century before the events in A Song of Ice and Fire, the first book in A Game of Thrones series. It's about a young, inexperienced knight named Ser Duncan (Dunk, for short), and his small squire, a boy named Egg. My husband and son both love The Game of Thrones (books and TV series!), and he is enjoying the book like his dad did.  

 

 

Blog posts from last week:

Fiction Review: The River by Peter Heller - outdoor adventure thriller that my husband and I both enjoyed.

Nonfiction Review: Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky - some great tips and ideas for new year inspiration

Fiction Review: Beartown by Fredrik Backman - dark story that examines the intricacies of human nature

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?

 

Fiction Review: Beartown

Last night, my book group met on Zoom to discuss Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I enjoyed Backman's A Man Called Ove on audio last year (one of my Best Books of 2020), but this is a very different kind of novel. Beartown is a dark story that closely examines the intricacies of human nature and what happens when a tragedy occurs.

Beartown is a remote small town in northern Sweden, surrounded by forest, where youth hockey is at the heart of the town. In fact, the town is failing economically, and most people see hockey as their way back to a thriving community. Decades ago, Peter Andersson led the town's junior hockey team to the national championship and then headed off to Canada to play in the NHL. Now, Peter is back, has his own kids, and is in charge of the hockey program in Beartown. A new teen star named Kevin seems to have the same kind of talent that Peter did back in the day--maybe even more. The junior team is headed for the national semi-finals, and they have a shot at winning. The whole town is counting on them, and that means a lot of pressure on this group of teen boys and the adults who coach them. The novel opens with a brief and mysterious passage about a teenager shooting someone else, so there is quite a bit of tension in knowing that violent act is coming. That's not the only foreshadowing, and this novel has another violent act at its center. 

Ample foreshadowing and that chilling opening sentence make this a very suspenseful novel, as the reader waits for the bad things to happen, knowing that the tense build-up to the big game will not end well. But this is far more than a typical suspense novel, as the author digs deep into the complexities of human nature. While the violence and darkness at the heart of the novel were too much for some of our book group, we all agreed that the author did a great job developing full, three-dimensional characters--not just a few main characters but dozens of people in the town, including teens, adults, coaches, and townspeople. This is not just a novel about hockey but about the "boys will be boys" culture that is created from myriad sources in our society. The author writes deeply and thoughtfully about that, as well as conflict, violence, and how a whole community can create a harmful culture. Here, he considers the power of hate:

"Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.

So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing that happens is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe--comforting facts, ones that permit life to go on as normal. The third is that we dehumanize our enemy. There are many ways of doing that, but none is easier than taking her name away from her."

That passage is applicable to so much more than hockey and what happens in this novel. Backman's writing, deep characterizations, and thought-provoking concepts at the heart of this story are what make it so special, in spite of (or because of) its darkness. Our book group had a great discussion covering a wide range of topics, and I think this book will stay with me for a long time. That said, I admit I reached for a light, funny novel at bedtime last night to cleanse my reading palate!

415 pages, Atria Books

HBO has adapted the novel into an original series that will begin streaming on February 22. I don't know how close the TV show will stick to the book, but the trailer sure captures its intensity:

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, describing the town and one of the players, and/or download it from Audible (it's a great sample that provides a feel for the novel).

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Or you can order Beartown from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.