Two books, one author

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry ~ by Fredrik Backman, 2013, (translated by Henning Koch, 2015), literary fiction, 370 pages

Elsa is seven years old and different.  Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy — as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy.  She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend.  At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins.  Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of misfits, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

This story is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove.  It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.  (I really enjoyed reading A Man Called Ove, and that's why I picked up this book in the first place.)

A Man Called Ove ~ by Fredrik Backman, 2015, literary fiction, 368 pages

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.

Fredrik Backman’s beloved first novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.

Another book by an excellent writer

Daughters of the Sun and Moon ~ by Lisa See, 2026, literary fiction, 384 pages

This New York Times bestseller by Lisa See is the story of three Chinese women whose unexpected friendship helps them survive and, despite the odds, thrive, in the turmoil of post–Civil War Los Angeles.  In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent pueblo of Los Angeles.

• Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant.
• Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal’s father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain — America — where she is once again sold.
• Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English, and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many.

Each woman has her own desires.  Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom, and Moon seeks justice.  Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will.  Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined.  Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance, and ability to “eat bitterness” to discover their voices, find freedom, and connect through solace and friendship.  Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.

Hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz,

we bloggers gather at separate computers in different time

zones — to share what we have been doing during the week.

Beginning ~ with breaking glass

Book Beginning (on the 10th of November 1938)

The sound of breaking glass shattered the predawn quiet.  Some-where in the distance, shards cascaded onto the street to incongrous laughter.

'What was that?'  Lilly reached across to her husband's side of the bed to find it empty, the covers blung back in haste.  Her bare arms bristled against an unexpected rush of cold air.  Salo stood beside the window, craning his neck to peer out. 

 Another smash.  Louder and closer than before.

Wave After Wave (Book 1 of 3) ~ by Sarah Ansbacher, 2024, historical fiction (based on a true story, and set in Vienna, Austria), 426 pages

Vienna, 1938.  Newlywed Lilly is looking forward to the future with her husband until the Nazi annexation of Austria throws everything into uncertainty.  Suddenly, their Jewish heritage turns them into outcasts, facing persecution and daily humiliation.

Despite their tireless efforts to emigrate, no country will grant them the visas they desperately need.  Then Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, shatters Lilly's world.

With the outbreak of WWII, Lilly remains trapped in Vienna, fearful of what lies ahead.  Her cousin discovers a possible escape:  joining a group of Jewish refugees on a daring journey down the Danube River and across the Black Sea to the Promised Land.

Leaving comes at a price, and though it may offer Lilly a second chance and new friendships, it will also test her resilience to the limit.  With danger and difficulties at every turn, can Lilly and all the other refugees survive the journey and reach safety?

Friday's been busy

The completion of Phase I of our building project, where I live in one of the 52 new apartments, was a beginning.  Building the second phase has already begun.  It includes the construction of a new 68-apartment building that connects to the hallways of my building, continuing the same exterior in an L-shape.  The ground floor will be a garage with more parking.  The concrete for that floor is in place, and girders are going up for the apartment floors above it.  Today, we were invited to a construction update, so that current residents are informed of what's happening.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Lunch with a friend

Today, my friend Jane drove over from a nearby town to have lunch with me in our Circle@Crown Café.  She's moving soon and won't live as far away.  Maybe it will be easier for her to visit with me.

Halfway through the week

I can't believe it's halfway through the week, and I'm just now realizing that ... I haven't been posting.  It's true.  Is it okay to blame my forgetfulness on things like watching the build-up and then the fireworks for the huge 4th of July celebrating 250 years since the beginning of the United States?

Yes, I watched the fireworks on television.  Crown Center's huge TV was tuned to what was happening in New York, but I missed seeing what was happening here in St. Louis.  I found this photo of downtown St. Louis online just now.

• On the last Monday in June, I mused about a runaway, HERE.
• My Wednesday word, two days later, was about a sloth, HERE.

And then ... nothing.  What was I doing?  Meeting in the lobby to talk with friends and neighbors; meeting a brand new resident and inviting her to the café with me.  Sunday came and went, and here it is already Wednesday before I am remembering to blog.  Okay, so I really AM getting old and forgetful.  Oh, wait, I did have my annual doctor's appointment on Thursday, so maybe that took up all the space in my brain, perhaps?

On the last Friday post that I remembered to do, I wrote about "mindfulness" HERE, but then my mind seems to have slipped out of gear or something.  Oh, well, time to pick up the pieces, and "click" back into my blogging mindset.  (Let's hope that did the trick.)

Was "ai" a word before Artificial Intelligence? Yes

Historically, "ai" is the name for a type of three-toed sloth native to the tropical rainforests of South America.  The word entered the English language in the 17th century.  It was borrowed from the Tupi language of Brazil, where it imitates the animal's high-pitched, plaintive cry.

I inherited a brown tee-shirt showing a sloth hanging on a tree from my friend Donna after she died.  I found the photo above online, but I can't find one that is exactly like Donna's.  She got her shirt because she liked to play Bananagrams (a game like Scrabble), where knowing that "ai" is a word is very helpful.

Musing about a runaway

Runaway ~ by Alice Munro, 2004, stories, 352 pages

The runaway of the title story is a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband.  In “Passion,” a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers a single moment of stunning insight and the limits and lies of that mysterious emotion.

Three stories, the inspiration for the award–winning movie 'Julieta,' are about a woman named Juliet — in the first, she escapes from teaching at a girls’ school into a wild and irresistible love match.  In the second she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose life and marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her child, caught, she mistakenly thinks, in the grip of a religious cult, vanishes into an unexplained and profound silence.  In the final story, “Powers,” a young woman with the ability to read the future sets off a chain of events that involves her husband-to-be and a friend in a lifelong pursuit of what such a gift really means, and who really has it.

 

In Alice Munro’s hands, the people she writes about — women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children — become as vivid as our own neighbors.  It is her gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own.