Book Review of Things My Son Needs to Know About The World

 Author Fredrik Backman brings us a selection of charming and humorous essays about fatherhood in Things My Son Needs to Know About the World.

Synopsis

Backman wrote this collection of heartfelt and amusing anecdotes to give his newborn son the tools and understanding he'll need to make his way in the world. The essays touch on a variety of subjects. Each section has a title that conveys the big and small lessons in life Backman wishes to impart to his son. Many are ones that I immediately related to as they brought back memories of life with my own babies and how scary and sometimes overwhelming it can be when you are a first-time parent.

Titles such as...

• How to find the team to which you belong
• What you need to know about stuff
• What you need to know about being a man
• What you need to know about what happened to the singing plastic giraffe
• What you need to know about when I hold your hand a little too tight

The essays alternate between humorous side notes, sometimes only a paragraph or a half-page long, and longer essays.

Fredrik Backman and Fatherhood

Along with the advice to his baby son, Backman also reveals many of his own false steps and fatherly flaws. Between the sleep-deprived lows and the wonderful highs, the author also shares how he fell in love with his son's mother and learned to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally.

Summary

Written in Backman's wonderful style and delightful way with words, this Swedish author brings us an insightful and irresistible collection of 'firsts' that is perfect for new parents.

Backman has an unparalleled understanding of human nature and conveys it all so well.

He ends with reminding us that:

“You can be whatever you want to be, but that’s nowhere near as important as knowing that you can be exactly who you are.”

Links to Other Fredrik Backman Book Reviews:

• A Man Called Ove
• My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
• Anxious People
• Britt-Marie Was Here

Available on Amazon

*Book Review of Things My Son Needs to Know About the World was written by Wednesday Elf

A Memoir by Fredrik Backman

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Britt-Marie Was Here – A Book Review

 By Fredrik Backman, the bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell you She's Sorry.

Synopsis

Britt-Marie is an older lady who has spent her life taking care of everyone else before herself. She cannot tolerate a mess and finds herself constantly cleaning and straightening. She also makes lists about everything. But now her life has become a mess and she doesn't know what to do about it.

She has just left her husband for being unfaithful and needs to find a job. The only one available to someone with no real experience in the working world is a temporary one in a forgotten little town called Borg. The job entails looking after a crumbling recreation center in a town where the main business has folded and nearly every other business has closed down. The only people who still enjoy the recreation center is the group of children who make up the very untalented soccer team. 

Britt-Marie is a very organized person who knows exactly how others should live their lives and she isn't shy about sharing her opinions. For instance, there is a proper way to sort a cutlery drawer and dinner must be at 6 pm exactly every night.  And, of course, there are  certain cleaning products, such as baking soda, which must always be used. 

But hidden inside this socially awkward and fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart than anyone around her realizes.

As Britt-Marie is drawn into the daily doings of Borg and the misfits who populate the town, along with helping the children with the soccer team, she discovers more about herself than she ever realized and perhaps a place where she truly belongs. 

Summary

As has been true of every one of Fredrik Backman's books, this is a heartwarming story told with the author's special way with words. I have been fascinated with Backman's storytelling with every one of his books I've read. I highly recommend this story of a woman who rediscovers herself and of a small town who has an unforgettable group of citizens who will never forget that “Britt-Marie Was Here”. 

Find this Book on Amazon

Related Links:

• A Man Called Ove reviewed by Treasures by Brenda
• My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry reviewed by Wednesday Elf
• Anxious People reviewed by Wednesday Elf
• For More Book Reviews, check out ReviewThisBooks.com 

*Britt-Marie Was Here reviewed by Wednesday Elf

A Fredrik Backman novel

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - Book Review

by Fredrik Backman

A Delightful and Most Charming Story

Elsa is seven-going-on-eight, and different.  Granny is seventy-seven years old, and nutty. They are best friends and love each other dearly.  Elsa admits only to herself that her granny is her ONLY friend, as her school chums think her strange and are mean to her. Elsa's strangeness is only in the fact that she is extremely smart and very grown-up for her age (constantly looking words up on Wikipedia!). Her world revolves around her grandmother, her parents, adventures in the fairy tales granny tells, and her admiration for superheros and Harry Potter.

Elsa's parents are divorced and she sees her dad every-other-weekend.  The rest of the time she lives with her mom, who is expecting a baby, and George on the top floor of a 4-story flat across the hall from her grandmother.  The rest of the apartment building is filled with a strange mixture of people we learn about as time goes on. 

The Land-of-Almost-Awake

 

For quite some years, Granny has been telling fairy tales to Elsa to help her go to sleep and get her to practice Granny's secret language.  The fairy tales take place in the "Land-of-Almost-Awake" and the "Kingdom of Miamas" where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. 

Later, Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged.  The letters are entrusted to Elsa to deliver, bringing about her greatest adventure ever.  The stories of the people who live in the apartment building, including a brave dog who is very much like the 'wurse' in the Kingdom of Miamas, are revealed to us one by one.  As each letter is delivered we learn the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry was written by Fredrik Backman, a native of Sweden who lives in Stockholm. This is only his second novel, but you get the feeling from this well-written story that he has been writing for a very long time. 


His first novel is A Man Called Ove, which became a #1 bestseller in Sweden. 

*Note: When Backman's second book was first published in England in 2014, it had the title: My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises. 

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry

 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry is an absolutely charming story filled with humor and wisdom, and with a glimpse into a fairy tale world we all wish we could visit.  I took Elsa and her grandmother so much to heart that when I finished the book I wanted to immediately go back to page one and read it all over again. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you will fall in love with these delightful characters. I highly recommend this book.

*Wednesday Elf

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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