I’m
a sucker for Fredrik Backman’s work, and this was a long-awaited and satisfying
conclusion to the Beartown trilogy.
Yes, it was over 600 pages. Yes, the plot
was complex and meandering. But each book in this series got better and more
endearing, and I couldn’t put it down.
Backman knows how to inhabit a story,
and the residents of Beartown will forever inhabit my heart.
'It's often said that winners write history, but there are no winners here'
This is a small story about big questions. It's a story about family, community, life. It starts with a storm - and a death. But how does it end?
Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there's something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life's big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to…
As
a fan of baseball, the 50s, sister stories, and coming-of-age stories, there
was plenty for me to love about The All-American.
Susie Finkbeiner was
able to weave so much into this story, but what I appreciated most was the
pitch-perfect voice of the main characters, Bertha and Flossie.
Not only were
they girls I’d like to know, but they were also refreshingly genuine and
honestly drawn. Kudos to Finkbeiner for this unique story.
"A moving novel, fit for inspiring any reader to dream big and believe that anything is possible."--BookPage
***
Two sisters discover how much good there is in the world--even in the hardest of circumstances
It is 1952, and nearly all the girls 16-year-old Bertha Harding knows dream of getting married, keeping house, and raising children in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Bertha dreams of baseball. She reads every story in the sports section, she plays ball with the neighborhood boys--she even writes letters to the pitcher for the Workington Sweet Peas, part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
As a child of the 90s, I could not resist this
uplifting literary novel set in 1990.
I call it literary because it’s
character-driven and not easily placed in a genre box. I loved the music
references and the style. I loved the characters and their journeys.
I loved that
the story offered both authenticity and hope.
An Immersive Story of Music, Struggle, and Starting Over from an Award-Winning Author
Michael Sullivan is a talented lyricist and a decent guitarist, but since he was kicked out of his band (and his apartment), he's not sure he'll ever get a record deal. Living with his loser uncle in a beat-up trailer and working a dead-end job, Michael has little reason to hope for a better future. Until the invitation for a swanky New Year's Eve party shows up in the mailbox. It's for his uncle, with whom he shares his name, but his uncle is going out of…
Pete is content living a simple life in the
remote Montana town of Sleeping Grass, driving the local garbage truck with his
pot-bellied pig, Pearl.
Elderly widow Wilma is busy meddling in Pete's life to
make up for past wrongs that he knows nothing about. Yet.
When the sister Pete
was separated from as a child shows up, Pete must confront a past he buried
long ago, and Wilma discovers her long-awaited chance at redemption may cost
more than she's willing to pay.
