Hello From the Gillespies by Monica McInerney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hello From the Gillespies

Wow. You think you're reading one book, a book you've read before, in many lovely iterations, the women's fiction, family saga, comfort novel. Then it looks like maybe there's a book within a book? Then there's a completely different twist altogether! I loved it!

All is not sweetness and light in the Australian outback, and for once in her thirty-three year marriage, Angela hangs it all out there in the annual Christmas letter, airing the family laundry. Her husband's become obsessed with his Irish roots, but he's not talking about anything else--like how much financial trouble are they in? Her twin daughters need to do a lot more growing up--they're in their thirties. Their youngest daughter bounces from job to job, further in debt all the time, and their ten-year-old son, the surprise, is talking to his imaginary friend again. No wonder she needs a fantasy life to relieve her worry and stress! Of course she didn't really plan to email her inmost worries to those hundred close and far-flung friends, but circumstances intervened, and the letter went out. And friends are taking it much better than family…

What will all this fresh air blowing through the cracks in the family bring? Healing and bridging the gaps, or huffing and puffing and blowing the Gillespie house down? With the charm and humor that have caused comparisons to Maeve Binchy, Monica McInerny has penned a winning soap opera of a story that reads quickly despite its length. If, as one reviewer said, this isn't her best, I'll be even happier to read her other books! Highly recommended!
(I received an EARC for review from NAL and Netgalley)


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Small Blessings is a Big-Hearted Novel

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18404204-small-blessings" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Small Blessings" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406526587m/18404204.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18404204-small-blessings">Small Blessings</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/290987.Martha_Woodroof">Martha Woodroof</a><br/>

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1024030281">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />

Small Blessings is the heart-warmer of the year. I love this tender story about people trying to do their best no matter what life throws at them. <br><br>Cleverly constructed with the terrible thing at the beginning instead of the end, we have orphans, free spirits, addicts, mental illness, campus politics, mysterious money, love requited and un-, Shakespeare and bookstores, all blended together and gently simmered with hope and humor into a soul-nourishing stew that satisfies the hungry heart in every way. <br><br>Rose, the new campus bookstore manager, has moved around a lot. She's never in her whole life had a place she called home for long, and never wanted to. But there's something about this town.... <br><br>If you'd like a read that brings a smile to your lips and an occasional tear to your eye, Small Blessings is the perfect prescription--for renewed hope in human nature, for a feel-good love story, for a book club read, for a present. Highly recommended! <br><br>I received an advance e-galley for review from St. Martins and Netgalley. 

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A Man Called Love

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Man Called Ove is the name of the book, but what you see above is not a typo. The book is, at heart, a love story. Fredrick Backman has created a small masterpiece in this gem of a tale about a not-so-charming man. A man of a certain age and type. The curmudgeonly type.

Ove is the grumpiest man on the block, until a young family moves in next door and calls him back to life and love. People aren't following the rules, and God is the worst offender in this matter, having taken Ove's wife, the only color in his life, and by gum, Ove is determined to join her. But the neighbors keep interrupting every time he has his method and timing picked, and Ove must save the day.

The book has been compared with The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, but I love it even more. It's funnier and wiser than either, and neither one of those books had my grandpa in it. Or the cat. Backman can sure write a cat. He can also write the story of a man who speaks his heart with his hands, his harsh and brittle life, and the tenderness at its core. This is my favorite general fiction book of the year so far, and I could see an Oscar-winning movie come from it, with the right team. It is sure to be a book club favorite for years to come.

I laughed out loud and cried good tears. Thank you Simon and Schuster for retaining the British translation; it would not be nearly as funny in American English. The translator is gifted! Colloquialisms have been left in, and they make the book more charming: "Her laughter catches him on the back foot. As if it's carbonated and someone has poured it too fast and it's bubbling over in all directions. It doesn't fit at all with the grey cement and right-angled garden paving stones. It's an untidy, mischievous laugh that refuses to go along with rules and proscriptions."

Parvaneh is the young mother who has moved in next door, whose name means butterfly. That laugh has a butterfly effect on Ove's life, and he is caught by the back foot indeed, captivated like a stray and charmed back to the land of the living. And he smiling. You, too, will be captivated and smiling even through tears, as Backman celebrates the beauty and transformative power of everyday love, all kinds.

I received an EARC of this book for review from the publisher and netgalley, and it's cost me 20 bucks, because I have to buy a hardback for my "favorites" shelf. :)


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