Great round-up, Amy. I look forward to reading some of the shorter pieces you linked. I really enjoyed Maybe You Should Talk to Someone -- it had all the best attributes of a novel (as another commenter alluded to) while being a memoir. I resonated with your thoughts about My Friends, which is actually the first Backman I ever read (I've read 3 others since, including A Man Called Ove, which is by far the best imho). I agree that there was just *something* in My Friends that was not quite conveyed in a way I could grasp. The message about your most important friendships being at age 14 (which I do not relate to at all) was driven home repeatedly but I just could not connect fully with what was happening with the teen group. I liked the main Louisa/Ted storyline better.
Yes, I found myself enjoying the Louisa/Ted storyline more than the flashbacks as well!
Have you seen the Tom Hanks movie based on A Man Called Ove? It's not quite as good as the book, of course, but I think it did a nice job bringing a complex protagonist to life. And I loved that Tom Hanks' real-life son played Otto/Ove in the flashbacks!
I haven't seen it, and I didn’t know that about his son! Apparently there's also a Swedish movie based on the book, which I'd really like to see as well.
I read Maybe you should talk to someone, going into it expecting to be novel. I enjoyed it, even after discovering it is a memoir. I've put Famous Last Words on hold at my library. Currently, I just finished Martian, by Andy Weir (astronaut gets stranded on Mars) because some else's "what I've read lately" list mentioned it. Now, I've just started Hail Mary, another Andy Weir astronaut book that was just released as a movie. Hail Mary is my first beach read of this summer, even though I am not at the beach.
I read The Martian out loud to Rob during our first road trip together after we got married! I'm due for a re-read--it's an excellent book. We are about 2/3 through Project Hail Mary (the audiobook). Science fiction isn't usually my "thing" but I'm enjoying that one as well.
Glad you did this! All the best to you with your ongoing projects.
Missed this essay by Amber Sparks and adding it to my reading list for the weekend <3 (PS Thanks for including me!)
Great round-up, Amy. I look forward to reading some of the shorter pieces you linked. I really enjoyed Maybe You Should Talk to Someone -- it had all the best attributes of a novel (as another commenter alluded to) while being a memoir. I resonated with your thoughts about My Friends, which is actually the first Backman I ever read (I've read 3 others since, including A Man Called Ove, which is by far the best imho). I agree that there was just *something* in My Friends that was not quite conveyed in a way I could grasp. The message about your most important friendships being at age 14 (which I do not relate to at all) was driven home repeatedly but I just could not connect fully with what was happening with the teen group. I liked the main Louisa/Ted storyline better.
Yes, I found myself enjoying the Louisa/Ted storyline more than the flashbacks as well!
Have you seen the Tom Hanks movie based on A Man Called Ove? It's not quite as good as the book, of course, but I think it did a nice job bringing a complex protagonist to life. And I loved that Tom Hanks' real-life son played Otto/Ove in the flashbacks!
I haven't seen it, and I didn’t know that about his son! Apparently there's also a Swedish movie based on the book, which I'd really like to see as well.
I read Maybe you should talk to someone, going into it expecting to be novel. I enjoyed it, even after discovering it is a memoir. I've put Famous Last Words on hold at my library. Currently, I just finished Martian, by Andy Weir (astronaut gets stranded on Mars) because some else's "what I've read lately" list mentioned it. Now, I've just started Hail Mary, another Andy Weir astronaut book that was just released as a movie. Hail Mary is my first beach read of this summer, even though I am not at the beach.
I read The Martian out loud to Rob during our first road trip together after we got married! I'm due for a re-read--it's an excellent book. We are about 2/3 through Project Hail Mary (the audiobook). Science fiction isn't usually my "thing" but I'm enjoying that one as well.