Category: Book Talk

This Week

LaurenLeave a comment

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Is now a good time to confess that I have been totally slacking on posting about our trip to Seattle?  Honestly, I’m really just avoiding the editing* of our photos.  That task just seems so daunting!  But I’ve also been caught up in free pizza, book club meetings, World Series watching, fall leaf admiring and donut making to get that final vacation recap posted in a timely manner.  I had grand plans to do it last night but then The Addams Family was on TV, sooooo.

*And by editing, I mean using Instagram on airplane mode to reformat every single picture into a neat little square and maybe also use the brighten feature because I believe this makes up for all my iPhone photography shortcomings.  A million professional photographers just rolled over in their graves.

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Free pizza!  Every Monday this month, Pizzeria Locale has been giving away free pizza to anyone who brings in a Chipotle receipt.  Which is ideal for people who go to Chip on a weekly basis (HI, Joey!).  When we showed up, there was a legit line out the door.  I was having nightmare flashbacks to that time at Tartine, but the line actually moved pretty fast and at the end, I was rewarded with this fabulous Hawaiian pizza special.

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We had October book group on Tuesday night and even though we all seemed kinda “meh” about the book (The Red Notebook), we had a fun discussion.  It’s an international club, so attendees aren’t always so consistent but the other people who have been coming every month are starting to feel like friends!  I’ve been shy my whole life and friends aren’t easy for me to make, so this feels like real life progress.  Whoa, didn’t mean to get all deep on you.  Anyway, this month we’re reading The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing.  I’m 10% in and already like it a lot.Read More »

A Book Review: A Man Called Ove

LaurenLeave a comment

I didn’t plan on posting today.  But…

It is entirely possible that I’ve had too much coffee, have too much to say, haven’t stopped my inner our outer voice since 7 AM and feel sudden writing inspiration.  So here you go!

A Man Called Ove
Our August book club pick was A Man Called Ove and I’ll be honest, I saw the synopsis — a retired widowed curmudgeon who’s befriended by his neighbors and let me guess, has a change of heart and learns to love — and thought “HOW CLICHÉ!”  And even though the overall plot has pretty much been done to death, the details of this specific book were pretty original and the whole book ended up growing on me.  So I guess, in the end, it was ME that had a change of heart!

The majority of my book group seemed to have an overwhelmingly positive opinion of the story and while I can’t say I was that on board, I did love the rich character development, playful and well-written dialogue and the way the author wrapped things up at the end.  As someone who’s often disappointed in the ending of a book, it was so refreshing to read a final chapter that ended up being my favorite part of the whole novel.  So bravo, Fredrik Backman!

My one real gripe with A Man Called Ove, was that the main character was all of fifty-nine years old.  That hardly seems elderly and made it kind of believable when he didn’t know what a computer was or was already retired, etc.  Not that that’s completely out of the question for a fifty-nine year old, but I’d say that’s more the exception and not the rule.  And I’d also like to share that I made that exact argument at book club and everyone seemed oblivious to his age.  Guys, it’s the VERY FIRST line of the book.  As in, “Ove is fifty-nine.” Then a new paragraph.  I digress 🙂

What are you reading right now?