Weekly Recap #58: Week of 6/17 – 6/23
/32 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
It has been another quiet week for me, busy at work and lots of lounging around in my down time. The highlight of my week was that I finally got to sit down and watch Love, Simon yesterday. Such a super cute movie. It’s slightly different from the book but I still really loved it and highly recommend it to everyone, even if you don’t plan to read the book.
This weekend has been crazy at my house. Two of my nephews, ages 17 and 12, are up visiting from Florida. We only see them once or twice a year so it has been a real treat for my son, who absolutely adores them and really looks up to the 17 year old. All three of them are also video game nuts so they’ve been glued to the X-Box, yelling and screaming and just having a grand old time. It sounds like party central at my house and thankfully the weather has been good this weekend so the hubby and I have been leaving the noise behind and hanging out outside on our deck. My poor cat is so ready for them to leave though. He does not like the noise and in his mind, the stranger danger, and I think if he could figure out how to pack their bags and set them on the doorstep, he totally would, lol.
I didn’t accomplish nearly as much reading as I had hoped to this week, but I did finish To Kill a Kingdom, which I thought was fantastic. I’ve also started Letting Go of Gravity and am really enjoying that so far too.
I think that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week! 🙂
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [17 Jun] Weekly Recap #57: Week of 6/10 – 6/16
- [18 Jun] A Study in Treason by Leonard Goldberg ★★★½
- [19 Jun] Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 Books I Plan to Read This Summer
- [20 Jun] Can’t Wait Wednesday – Naomi Novik’s SPINNING SILVER
- [22 Jun] A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Henning Koch ★★★★
- [22 Jun] A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart ★★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Backlist Briefs – Mini Reviews for A MAN CALLED OVE & A BOY MADE OF BLOCKS
/28 Comments/by SuzannePublished by Atria Books on July 15, 2014
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 337
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?
Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.
Review:
Fredrick Backman’s A Man Called Ove follows the story of, you guessed it, a man by the name of Ove. Ove is the quintessential grumpy old man in pretty much every way. I actually couldn’t stand him for the first few chapters of the book. He’s set in his ways, incredibly opinionated, and can be downright mean and rude at times. What we also learn about him early on, however, is there’s a lot more going on with Ove than just your average grumpiness. Ove is suffering from depression and having thoughts of suicide because his beloved wife has passed away and he’s just completely lost without her. I felt much more sympathetic to Ove after learning this news and found myself wanting to know more about him.
My favorite part of the story therefore is how the author presents us with such a complete portrait of Ove. In addition to chapters that take us through Ove’s present circumstances, the author also includes chapters that feature life-shaping events from Ove’s past. The more I learned about Ove, both past and present, the more lovable I found him. I especially enjoyed the chapters that focused on how Ove met his wife. This grumpy old man was actually downright adorable as he awkwardly pursued the girl of his dreams.
The secondary characters also added a lot of depth to the story. The author does a wonderful job fleshing them out and making them feel like people you might actually run into in your own neighborhood. I was an especially big fan of Ove’s new neighbors. They’re loud, kind of obnoxious, and basically introduce themselves to Ove by nearly mowing his house over with their moving trailer. This family, especially the wife and her two daughters, are determined to make Ove an extended part of their family, whether he likes it or not, and they are always inserting themselves into his days, shaking up his entire routine. They bring a lot of comedy and a lot of heart to the story, and they also bring their own brand of chaos to Ove’s way too orderly existence and I loved every minute of it!
If you want an utterly charming read that focuses on family, unexpected friendships, and the evolution of a grumpy old man into a not-quite-so-grumpy old man, then definitely give A Man Called Ove a try. The humor and sarcasm is sure to make you laugh, and the overriding heartfelt message of compassion will bring a tear to your eyes. 4 STARS
A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart
Published by St. Martin's Press on September 6, 2016
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
Meet thirtysomething dad, Alex
He loves his wife Jody, but has forgotten how to show it. He loves his son Sam, but doesn't understand him. Something has to change. And he needs to start with himself.
Meet eight-year-old Sam. Beautiful, surprising, autistic. To him the world is a puzzle he can't solve on his own.
When Sam starts to play Minecraft, it opens up a place where Alex and Sam begin to rediscover both themselves and each other . . . When life starts to tear one family apart, can they put themselves back together, one piece at a time?
A Boy Made of Blocks is a beautiful, funny and heartwarming story of family and love inspired by the author's own experiences with his son.
Review:
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I first started reading A Boy Made of Blocks, but what I got was a beautiful, heartfelt story of Alex Rowe, a man who has somehow taken a wrong turn in life and lost his connection to both his wife and their 8-year old autistic son, Sam. The novel follows Alex’s journey as he is determined to figure out where he went wrong and how he can turn things around so that he can get his family and his life back.
I have to admit that it did take me a while to warm up to Alex. I couldn’t understand how he couldn’t see what he was doing wrong, that he was either treating everything to do with Sam as a chore or even worse, was ignoring it all together, saying that he was busy at work, and leaving the brunt of raising Sam on his wife. I kind of wanted to throttle him and tell him to grow up and stop being so selfish. The more I got to know Alex, however, the more I realized how much he truly did love his son and that he just needed to find a way to connect with him on a real level so that everything else would sort its way out. And even though I was initially annoyed at Alex for having gotten himself into such a self-inflicted mess with his family in the first place, I grew to admire his effort and determination to right his wrong. No matter how many missteps and wrong moves he makes, he never gives up on trying to reconnect with Sam.
I thought the author did an especially beautiful job of portraying the vulnerability of a child who has autism, the strain that trying to raise such a child can put on a marriage, and the overall determination of parents to do whatever it takes to make sure their child feels safe and secure and has every opportunity to live a happy and successful life. Sam was also absolutely precious and I was moved to tears watching his own emotional growth as he and his Dad begin to reconnect in a meaningful way.
A Boy Made of Blocks was an emotional and moving read for me. I think my favorite quote from the book best sums it up: “Life is an adventure, not a walk. That’s why it’s difficult.” Alex and Sam’s adventure is one you won’t want to miss. 4 STARS
FTC Disclosure: I received A Boy Made of Blocks for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
About Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, as well as two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children.
About Keith Stuart
Keith Stuart is an author and journalist. His heartwarming debut novel, A Boy Made of Blocks, was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and a major bestseller, and was inspired by Keith’s real-life relationship with his autistic son. Keith has written for publications including Empire, Red and Esquire, and is the former games editor of the Guardian. He lives with his wife and two sons in Frome, Somerset.
Can’t Wait Wednesday – Naomi Novik’s SPINNING SILVER
/36 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
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My selection for this week is SPINNING SILVER by Naomi Novik. I’ve not read anything by Novik before, although I’m constantly hearing great things about her novel Uprooted. As most of you know, I’m kind of obsessed with retellings and I’ve never read a Rumplestilskin retellng before so reading the synopsis for Spinning Silver has me all kinds of excited! (And look at that amazing cover too!) I also just picked up a copy of Uprooted because the e-book is on sale at Amazon so I’m all the more excited to dive into Novik’s stories.
SPINNING SILVER by Naomi Novik
Publication Date: July 10, 2018
From Goodreads:
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed–and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.
But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth–especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.
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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂