trudy_joan's reviews
64 reviews

I love Brene Brown and all but for some reason can't get into this book. I would rather DNF this than have it keep sitting in my "currently reading" if I'm actually not reading it. My problem, not the book's. Surely. 

I was enjoying the book but by mistake well and thoroughly lost my copy. Hopefully some day I can finish it.

I felt confused, scared, and trapped along with Alice. She did the beautiful thing of letting Alzheimer's soften her, and bring bits of awareness to her that she lost, or perhaps never had. She let it bring love to her. Is there anything more beautiful? 
Recommend this book especially to those who have never considered Alzheimer's from the victim's point of view. 

I read the first 7 chapters and skipped a lot to almost the end and then I decided not to finish it. 
There are so many better books to read. 

Mostly, this book was terribly awkward for me to read.

I was sure from the beginning that keeping the baby wasn’t going to work. And I had to keep reading and Isabel had to keep being dumb and selfish and it made me wish she’d smarten up and do the right thing (give the baby back). The entire book talks only about when Tom and Izz had the baby, and then when she suddenly appears a week after Isabel dies twenty years later. Their entire lives seemed to revolve around Lucy-Grace. Ok fine, maybe that’s how it should be, but she wasn’t even theirs. What did they do in the twenty years they weren’t with her? Did they ever live? I still feel awkward. Am I missing something or what.

Two stars because I was happy at the beginning, and even a little bit sad at the end. Another star because it convinced me for certain sure never to just keep a baby if I ever find one. 

I alternated between being bored to pieces and feeling rather indignant. The ending brought it up half a star.
I guess we don’t understand why we are how we are.
And yeah, it’s awkward to explain. I think lots of us would say this, “does it matter?

I’m totally intrigued with culture, now I want to learn more. 

I’ve read this book so many times but when I challenged my cousin to give me a book to make me cry she gave me this. So I read it again. 
Sometimes I read a book, and the words change to pictures and I can watch everything. I am inside the book, moving with the characters. It’s real. Then I finish the book and it’s over… but not this book. This book has more. It has a touch of that life. 
Here is the bit I especially will remember: 
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!” 

I was reading this at someone else’s place and I didn’t borrow it when I left. 
The book was just as unpleasant as the author said it would be. 

Interesting.

It’s been a while since a book has made me cry.
How did Backman write about this culture? I have never read a book that even tried. And he did it well.
It takes me a bit to get into his writing style. I wonder, did some of that change with translation? But once I get into it, it’s easy to read. And I start quite liking it.
I almost put the book down when I was barely into it because of the language & jokes & stuff. I’m pretty picky about what I read, for the most part. Then I settled for just not leaving a copy hanging around for my little siblings to get their hands onto. And I was hooked.
Why? Why did I like it? I read the reviews, some people say you don’t have to be a hockey lover to enjoy the book. I half ways come from a hockey line, so I think that helped me connect. And the culture. Guys, this culture.
It’s heartbreaking. I know.
I felt the shame. The “let’s deal with this internally”. The denial of pain, because pain is losing and you don’t lose. And then when you do—

Bang. Bang, bang, bang.