Book #113 of 2025: My Friends by Fredrik Backman Bestselling Swedish author Fredrik Backman is hit-or-miss for me, and this latest story squeaks in straight down the middle. I’m going to give it three-and-a-half stars, rounded up, because while I don’t think it’s nearly as strong as Beartown or A Man Called Ove, it is …
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Book #135 of 2021: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman This novella is a sorrowful look at an elderly man gradually losing his memories to dementia, but it’s a bit too short and disjointed to be entirely effective. The whole idea is that he’s slipping between past and …
Book #116 of 2021: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman This latest novel from international bestseller Fredrik Backman has been getting his usual rave reviews, but it’s a bit of a misfire for me. Although the author often aims for profound observations on the human condition, too many of them here feel either overly broad or …
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Book #93 of 2021: Things My Son Needs to Know about the World by Fredrik Backman Author Fredrik Backman’s collection of parental / life wisdom, ostensibly addressed to his one-year-old, is certainly funny, but it lacks the heart and insight that I’m used to from his novels. It also relies on a few tired gender …
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Book #20 of 2021: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman This tale of a lonely old man in author Fredrik Backman’s native Sweden is first heartbreaking and then heartwarming, as he slowly begins to form unwanted connections with the neighborhood community around him. It’s a novel that dares us to love Ove despite all …
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Book #13 of 2019: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (Beartown #2) This sequel feels somewhat aimless compared to the first Beartown novel and its vivid picture of a rural community’s complicated relationship with the local hockey team. Although I generally enjoy author Fredrik Backman’s writing style and his regular insights into his characters, there …
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Book #205 of 2018: Beartown by Fredrik Backman (Beartown #1) An intimate portrait of a small town pinning all of its hopes on a junior hockey championship, packed with well-drawn characters and insightful reflections into the human condition. The third-person omniscient narrator that bounces around Beartown to illuminate the web of connections between its residents …
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