Quick Book Reviews

 It's been a while since I reported on my reading, so here we go...

I finally got around to reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, and it holds up to its reputation. A good solid read, entertaining, well-written. Not too light -- but not too ponderous either. The characters are wonderful. It's about an irritable middle-aged man whose life is changed when a young couple with two children moves into his neighborhood.

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If you like this, you should try Beartown by the same author. It is darker and more complex, but still has that wonderful writing style.

Zadie Smith bursted on the the literary scene in 2003 with White Teeth, which I loved. It's the story of two middle-aged Englishmen in London who make unlikely friends. It doesn't sound that great when I put it like that, but it really is.

NW sounds so good. It follows four young people of color in London who take very different paths. The writing is experimental -- stream of consciousness, fragmentary, and often frustrating. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to appreciate this one. I finished it, but I'm not sure it was a good use of my reading time.

I'm about halfway through Before the Fall by Noah Hawley, about a group of people who are flying on a private plane that mysteriously drops into the North Atlantic.

It's quite good reading, though not a literary masterpiece. It keeps me turning the pages -- which is exactly what I was looking for!