I love modern Swedish literature, and I love Fredrik Backman. And he did not disappoint with this novella. This story is heartbreaking and beautiful. It gets to the essence of family, and disappointment, and love, and sacrifice, and legacy.
There’s a simplicity in Backman’s writing; a compactness in conveying emotion without an excess of words. And there is a lot of emotion packed into this short story.
I haven’t returned it to the library, because I think I will read it again before I do.
Are you looking for a deep and artful look at family, trauma, and the power of redemption? This is not the book for you. If you’re looking to be entertained for a few hours over a little mystery, then you’ve come to the right place.
There’s something not quite right on Gull Cove Island, and three estranged cousins are going to figure it out. If you’re like me you’ll have it mostly figured out within a few pages of the cousins’ arrival on the island, and you’ll spend most of the book shaking your head at them not figuring it out. There was one surprise that I didn’t actually see coming, but it happens early on in the story, so you don’t have to stick around forever for it.
The writing is adequate, the characters are only mostly one dimensional, and the “mystery” is not that mysterious. But I wasn’t bored reading it.
Is this my new bar? I wasn’t bored? Where’s a good meme to describe how I’m feeling when I need it?
I really didn’t know what to expect from this book. I don’t read a lot of political books, and it’s been awhile since I’ve been into history books. But I’m attempting to expand my horizons. The title led me to believe it would be more dynamic than it was.
The title of the book really should be 11 Presidents that Screwed Up America, since one chapter, that I thought was supposed to be on Barrack Obama, also included George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
But I digress. The author claims that adherence to the Constitution of the United States should be the ultimate metric we use to judge the success of a President. If a President enacts policy (even a truly moral policy) but does so in a way that circumvents the Constitution, then he has harmed the United States as a Republic. Basically, the ends do not justify the means.
So all kinds of Presidents end up on his bad list. This isn’t a Republican vs. Democrat argument. This is a constitutional vs. non-constitutional argument: Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Barrack Obama (with a shout-out to Clinton, and both Bushes) all, in the authors estimation, trampled on the constitution. It doesn’t matter if they also did good things, they hurt the office of the Presidency by expanding it’s powers beyond what is given in the Constitution.
The book is BORING! I was so bored. But, there was tidbits of interesting information. The author does a good job of explaining exactly what each President did to violate the constitution, and how it laid the groundwork for further abuses by the office of the president. I think it helped me better understand how the founders intended for the three branches of the government to work together.
I’d give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. The writing is adequate. The information is good. The subject matter is so boring.
When I checked this book out at the library, I did not realize that it was a sequel. It can, more or less, stand alone, but there is definite character development that you miss out on by skipping that first installment. All that said, I liked it enough to want to go back and read the first one.
Highbrow literature this is not, but if you like a good melodrama/soap opera-y romp; this is definitely the book for you.
The story is engaging. The writing is sufficient; the dialogue flows well; the characters are lively. There is romance, but thankfully it stops short of being salacious.
So, about the story. The novel follows the story of Rebecca “Bex” and her prince of England husband, “Nick.” The novel starts with Nick and Bex hiding out in Scotland shortly after their wedding. Why are they hiding out? If you had read the first novel you likely would have known why, but you find out later in this novel that they are hiding out from a scandal that broke during their wedding. It follows them through several years as they navigate their roles as royals and as husband and wife.
I’m a sucker for melodrama, so I really enjoyed this book. I look forward to reading the first installment… and if there are ever any more installments, I look forward to those as well.
4/5 stars because I enjoyed it, and I would read additional installments.
I just finished this book like five minutes ago, and I’m still processing. Seriously… what did I just read?
First, I really liked this book. It was well written; the story is compelling, the characters are interesting, and it’s faced-paced.
I love a good mystery. And I was interested in reading this because it had an art-deco feel. Nothing in the description mentions the early 1900’s, but that’s the feeling I got from the cover and the description. And I’m not an aficionado of murder mystery novels, but in my mind the early 1900’s (up until the 1930’s) is the golden-age of mysteries.
And this is a good mystery. Be forewarned that this book is surprisingly bloody. The author doesn’t dwell on it; and he’s not terribly descriptive of the gore, but body count is shockingly high. If you’re particularly sensitive to suspense (I’m not), maybe don’t read this just before bed.
This book follows Aiden Bishop as he seeks to find the killer of Evelyn Hardcastle. The mechanics of why and how he is doing this is part of the mystery, all you know at the outset is that Aiden is stuck in a loop of a single day from the perspective different people witnessing the same events unfold.
The amount of detail the author is able to weave into this story from so many different perspectives is truly impressive; I can’t imagine the amount of outlining he had to do to keep all the storylines straight.
One of the things I love about a good mystery novel is trying to figure out the answer, and usually figuring it out before the end; it makes me feel smart. This one made me feel like an idiot. I had no idea where any of this was going and where it finally wound up. That’s partly because there are really three mysteries in this story: who killed Evelyn? Who killed her brother all those years ago? Why is Aiden stuck in this loop?
And I never figured out any of them. Not a one.
The only thing I would change about this book is I would have liked a bit more explanation regarding what happens if Aiden ever escapes this loop. Where does he go? Who is he? What does he do? Unfortunately you never find that out.
Why do I enter giveaways for this genre? I think it’s because I want to like self-help books. I want to gain wisdom. I want to be taught something that will make my life better… but man, they make it so hard. So. Hard.
And this book is no different.
I mean, this book really isn’t terrible… the writing is sufficient, I suppose. But really, it’s just a bunch of cliches wrapped up in secular humanism with a few personal anecdotes. Put good thoughts out into the universe and you’ll get good things back. You have ancient wisdom within you, just listen to it.
It’s just so… inane. And boring.
So, if you’re really lost in life you might find this book helpful. If you need to be told to take a chance it might be worthwhile. If you need to be told to stop being a doofus, maybe you do need to read this. Otherwise, I’m not sure it’s really worth the time.
So… I HATE being cold. hate. hate. hate. hate. Hate being cold. Which is why we live in the balmy paradise of NYC.
Just kidding. We live here because this is where God has placed us for the time being, I really do hate being cold though. But here’s the thing, if it’s going to be cold, I think it should snow. At least it will be beautiful while I’m freezing my tuchus off. But we live in southern Brooklyn, not far from the Atlantic ocean, so we rarely get much snow. A dusting here and there, but in the three years we’ve lived here we’ve only had one decent storm, but even then it only lasted a day, and had melted within a day of that. But, for the last week they’ve been calling for a big snow storm, like 6-10 inches big storm. Of course I have been skeptical because, well, we don’t get much snow here. So my lovely Lewis and I made a bet. If we get just a dusting of snow he has to serve me a bowl of rocky road ice cream. And if we get at least two inches of snow, I have to serve him a bowl of rocky road ice cream. Yeah, for as long as we’ve been married, whenever we make a bet on anything, we bet on a bowl of ice cream.
I’m in the midst of losing our current bet, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Lewis and I drove down to Brighton Beach because neither of us had ever been to the beach whilst in the midst of a snow storm.
As much as I hate being cold, I have a commensurate love of the ocean. And if we lived somewhere warmer than NYC, I’d like to think I’d spend more time down by the water. I also love the quiet of the falling snow. I find so much peace in these two things. Which is why I shouldn’t have been surprised when I started crying when we were down by the water. Seriously, tears just started rolling down my face. It was so beautiful. At 41 years old it’s not often that you get to experience something entirely new, but tonight I did. And it was so beautiful. The only thing that would have made it better is if we had been alone on the beach and could have experienced the serenity of falling snow in the quiet. There are a couple of things that are hard to find in the city: quiet and darkness. I miss both of those things sometimes.
Finally! As I mentioned in my last blog I was currently reading three books, so I finally finished one. When I read the jacket of this book, I thought, ooh, fun, a time travel book. I haven’t read many time travel books, but it sounded intriguing and I was looking to step outside my reading niche.
I was a little disappointed that it had ghosts; I’m not a fan of ghost stories, but (thankfully) that was a pretty small part of the story. I also didn’t realize that this was just one in a series of books; while I enjoyed this book, I’m not sure I liked it enough to invest more time in the series.
The rundown is this: a young woman (Xanthe) has the ability to “hear” objects, specifically she can hear objects that have a story to tell about their previous owners. She doesn’t hear words, but they sing to her or vibrate, or something like that. It is this ability that draws her to a particular piece (a chatelaine) — I had never in my life heard of a chatelaine, so of course I looked it up. It was a basically a decorative tool belt for women used during and prior to the Victorian era (I’ll post a photo below).
So anyway, this chatelaine calls to her… turns out it’s somehow connected to a ghost that threatens her if she doesn’t help her daughter… in 1605. So Xanthe takes up the ghost’s daughter’s cause (because that’s not confusing) and travels back in time. Shenanigans ensue. I won’t spoil the book any further by detailing said shenanigans, you’ll have to read it yourself to find out exactly what they are and how they play out.
I liked this book. It was generally lighthearted, somewhat of a mystery (though I didn’t find some of the resolutions totally satisfying), with just a hint of romance for good measure. The writing itself was good; although I find that to be so subjective (for example, I, very typically, love Jane Austen. However, my extraordinarily well-read friend, Katherine, cannot stand Jane Austen). So when I say a book is well written, what I mean is that the story makes sense; there aren’t a ton of overtly glaring plot holes; the grammar is fine; it’s written well regardless of how I feel about the story… wowee, I am off on some tangents today.
Back to the subject at hand… For a book that switches back and forth between modern times and 1605, I think the continuity of the storyline was pretty good. I understand the concept of time travel, but I was a little perplexed by some of the logistics of it as it plays out in this book’s universe. For example, if she (Xanthe) is able to travel through time, why is she limited to a linear progression in the 1605 timeline that she enters? Why does she always return later in the timeline rather than just return right when she left? And why is there such urgency from this dang ghost when all of this has already happened?
Anyway, I don’t think the characters are as well developed as they could be, but, since this is a series, it’s possible (hopeful??) that the author would flesh them out more in the following books.
Overall I would recommend this book for an escape from reality with some lighthearted fare. And who can’t use a little bit of an escape from the dumpster fire that is 2020, am I right?
Seriously? What happened to November?! I’m sure I did something… but clearly nothing noteworthy, otherwise I would have written about it. I haven’t posted any book reviews because I’m currently reading three books… it would probably be helpful to finish one of them.
I’ve made a couple of quilts (I’m learning a lot), I’ve been practicing making bread (I’m getting better), I attempted to make a crepe cake (pretty disastrous), I made a lemon meringue pie (it tasted good, looked terrible), I made a pumpkin pie and an apple pie for Thanksgiving, and attempted a new cookie (pretty tasty).
I think I epitomize the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Sometimes I’m a little disheartened by this fact… I’ve always wanted to be really good at one thing! But being okay at a bunch of things is okay too, I suppose.
Pie for Thanksgiving
in-progress quilt
Amy’s Cookies (chocolate shortbread with peppermint Hershey’s kisses inside)
I’m not a huge fan of non-fiction. I don’t mind history books or biographies (even then, I’d rather a good novel), but personal development books are the lowest on my list. But every now and then I come across a title that sounds interesting… usually I’m disappointed. This was not one of those times. I loved the anecdotal nature of this book; I appreciate story-telling on a personal level.
This is an easy and quick read. Filled with heart-warming stories, this book is a lovely reminder of little ways we can change the world. Some of the stories are personal to the author, recounting how people helped him and his wife during her cancer treatments. Other stories detail the history behind some incredible non-profit organizations, or how small acts of kindness spread much further than the single recipient.
My only quibble with the book was toward the end when the author mentions his decision to quit going to the synagogue when he was a teenager. It was weirdly placed in the book, and didn’t really have relevance to the overall story. It just seemed like an awkward jab at religion in general; when the book was clearly written from a secular perspective.
Overall I would recommend reading this book if you’re looking to be inspired or if you’re looking for new ways to serve others.
I should start this post by saying that I don’t actually like bananas that much. I like the idea of them, I guess. Or I like them in certain scenarios, like smoothies, banana pudding, and fruit salad. But to just eat a banana? Blech. And yet, I always buy bananas. My husband does eat them, but usually not fast enough, so I throw the brown bananas in the freezer.
And they sit. And they sit.
I’m always going to “make banana bread.” But I never make banana bread. Seriously. I’ve literally never made banana bread. They just sit in my freezer until I run out of room, and I might use them in a smoothie, but more likely than not, they eventually get thrown away.
I hate throwing away food.
Anyway, we have a member in one of our congregations that is in a nursing home. The pandemic has been really tough on her since she can’t have visitors, and she’s not really able to leave the nursing home either. We receive her mail for her, so Lewis was going to take her mail to her and I decided I wanted to make a special treat for her. I opened my freezer to see what ingredients I had available, and this is when I spied several bunches of brown bananas, just sitting there, mocking me.
I scanned the internet for recipes for banana bread, but none seemed to have all the ingredients that (in my mind) should go in banana bread…. so I made up my own. So here it is, along with photos of the process. At the end of the post I’ll mention some things that I would change.
Ingredients:
8 frozen bananas (thawed)
1 cup of sugar
1/2 a cup of brown sugar
1/2 a cup of butter (softened or melted)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of mini chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped walnuts
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease two loaf pans (I use coconut oil)
I always just throw my bananas into the freezer with peel and all, so I run the bananas under hot water until they are slightly softened; I peel them and then fully thaw them in the microwave for a minute or two.
Mix thawed bananas (along with juices) with softened butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla
Mix in eggs
Stir in all dry ingredients
Add chocolate chips and walnuts
Divide batter between two loaf pans
Bake for 60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean
Frozen bananas (also when I realized I don’t have any microwave safe mixing bowls)
thawed bananas and juices
Mixing the bananas and sugar
Sugar
Brown sugar
Vanilla
Eggs
Flour
Mini chocolate chips
Mixing in
Walnuts
Cinnamon
In the pan
Fresh out of the oven
Slice of bread
Things I would change: I think I would use more brown sugar and less white sugar, and cut down the total amount of sugar by just a bit (maybe 1 1/4 cup instead of 1 1/2 cup). I would do two teaspoons of cinnamon, instead of one. I would add another 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I would add another teaspoon of vanilla. I would use regular sized chocolate chips, rather than the minis. And I would toast the walnuts before mixing them in.
Otherwise, this is a decent loaf of banana bread. The texture is good, with a nice crust on the outside. The chocolate chips are a great pop of flavor and the walnuts add a nice crunch.
Where to start? This book sounded like a great YA lit book, and in many ways it was. It has the right elements: teenaged angst, a love triangle, gratuitous cursing, a coming out, and a prom. But honestly, this book is bad. I mean the story is fine: two best friends, having known each other since birth, struggle to navigate friendship and relationships as they have disparate interests and friend groups during their junior year; they have conflict, they sort of resolve their conflict, they grow as people, sort of.
Here is where I struggle with this book. First, the author comes very close to the two main characters growing as people, there are glimpses of Stella and Marie recognizing why they are struggle in their relationships, but they never quite get there; there’s almost and epiphany, but not quite. Secondly, and I’m not sure if the author isn’t a native English speaker or not, or she just had a really bad editor, but the grammar is terrible. The author switches between tenses (mixing present and past tense in the same sentence), she would often use the wrong form of the verb, and sometimes she would just use the wrong word altogether, for example, throughout the entire book she uses the word corporate when she meant cooperate. I’m not entirely unconvinced that this wasn’t written entirely by a bot.
If you don’t care about grammar or vocabulary, then this might be the book for you; otherwise, it’s really not worth the time; which is unfortunate, because the story has such promise.
L & L Shenanigans 