I’m going to do this! Might need to update the review when I finish after I know how helpful it was...

I loved Elsa and her Granny and this story. And now I wish I had known before I read “Britt-Marie was Here,” that Britt-Marie gets introduced here. I think it would have helped me to click with that one better from the beginning.

Just a delight. Cranky Ove (pronounced oo-veh) has put his affairs in order and plans to kill himself to join his wife of 40 years, who passed away six months earlier. But pushy new neighbors, a stray cat, and a feud with local government keep forcing him to postpone his plans and re-engage with the world.

I enjoyed this in the same way I liked A Man Called Ove, but I wish the ending was not so ambiguous.

10/24 Update: Well for heck’s sake. I just read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry and now the beginning of “Britt-Marie” makes so much more sense because it’s a sequel! Wish I’d read them in this order now.

I enjoyed the author's philosophy and thought this was a charming, quick read. Some parts got repetitive, but I thought the way she approaches the idea of "tidying" and getting your house in order was intriguing and gave me some new things to think about.

"Effective tidying involves only two essential actions: discarding and deciding where to store things. Of the two, discarding must come first." Her assertion is that once you get your house in order ONCE, where you've gotten rid of everything you don't love/need and you've found a place for everything, "tidying will be reduced to the very simple task of putting things back where they belong."

Her strategy is to tidy by category, not by location--because we usually store items in more than one place, we'll keep going through similar things over and over again (toiletries, clothes, etc.). "Clothes first, then books, papers, miscellany, and lastly, momentos."

(Note: She does say ONCE that it take about 6 months to do the kind of de-cluttering/re-organizing that she recommends.)

I liked The Wedding Date better, but this was still fun.

I read this aloud to my 7 and 5 year old, and my gosh the illustrations! I think this was my first time re-reading the entire book since I first read it in 2000 and it was so much fun--especially sharing it with the kids who were FINALLY interested in hearing it.

I'm not entirely sure how I felt about this book. I wondered if people in Japan would really say the kinds of sexist things about careers & marriage that characters say to the protagonist. But it was interesting as a possible cultural snapshot of Japan, as navigated by a non-neurotypical protagonist. And possibly there were also metaphors about society/marriage/happiness/pressure to conform but my English major brain is too rusty today.

This book had issues, but I was in the mood to read about food & Christmas & London, and it gave me that.