Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for holding space for us to sharing our writing every day in March.
I listen to audio books on my way home from school. It’s a great way to catch on children’s books and the occasional book for book club. This month my book club is reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman.
I just finished The Man Called Ove by Backman. I wasn’t sure that this book could beat it but Oh My. Word! I am listening to it and I may have to actually purchase the book.
This line, “You have to tell your story or suffocate.” And just the whole relationship with Elsa and her grandmother. I am almost finished. I made myself stop when I got home. I was tempted to listen to the end in the garage. Instead I am savoring it.
It’s probably the best book I have read since A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra.
what are you reading?
Jone Rush MacCulloch 
I read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry early last year because my sister read it and loved it so much – and laughed and cried so much- that she just HAD to send me photo texts of the pages that gripped her. I was hooked! I finished A Man Called Ove about a month ago, and could probably go back and read that every six months for the rest of my life and laugh and cry every single time. I try to describe it to people, and it doesn’t sound at all interesting (a cranky old guy gets new neighbors?) but it is fantastic!
PS He has a new book being published in English next month! Also, Britt-Marie from My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry has her own book too, published last year.
Just finished the book today. Just wow. I need to get Britt Marie book.
In rearranging all my books yesterday for my attempts at book spine poems, my Britt-Marie book miraculously migrated to the top of a stack. I think I will need to read it next, or at least soon. I am rationing my Backman books. I want to read them all immediately, but then I will never get to read them for the first time again.
Hope you read My Grandmother Asked…first. it will make better sensr.
I did! I read My Grandmother Asked… in January!
Book club tonight. Not everyone loved the book. Some didn’t like the fairy tales. I wondered if it was because I listened to the book instead of actually reading it that I loved it so much. Can’t wait to read Britt Marie…but will hold off a bit.
How sad that not everyone loved the book. I always think that everyone should love a book as much as I do. However, the fairy tales are an unusual element, and I could see that some people would not like that. One thing I love about Backman’s writing is that he makes me laugh so hard in books that also are so very moving and sad. That is a pretty unusual combination.
I agree. If you haven’t listened to the book, treat yourself from the library. It’s amazing.
I am listening to The Night Circus on my commute. There are so many books that I want to read that I [sheepishly admit] have started several books now….
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