En man som heter Ove av Fredrik Backman

En bekant till mig som inte läser så värst många böcker hade läst En man som heter Ove och rekommenderade den varmt på Facebook så jag beslutade mig för att läsa den. Jag kan inte påstå att jag fastnade för boken från början men på slutet satt jag med en tår i ögat, berörd av historien.

En man som heter Ove är Fredrik Backmans debutroman. Boken publicerades 2012 av Forum Förlag. Backman föddes 1981 och är författare, bloggare och skribent.

Handlingen i romanen utspelar sig i nutid någonstans i Sverige. Ove anses av de allra flesta att vara en ganska sur och tvär paragrafryttare. Han anser att rätt ska vara rätt och att lagar ska följas samt att den enda bil värd namnet är SAAB. När läsaren kommer in i historien har Ove precis förlorat sitt arbete som han har haft i många år. Sex månader tidigare förlorade han hustrun Sonja, den enda personen i hela världen som förstod honom och älskade honom precis som han var. Dagen då hon dog var dagen som Ove slutade leva. Nu är dö det enda han vill få göra men han är inget vidare bra på det ska det visa sig.

Parallellt med att läsaren får följa Oves liv just nu så får man också ta del av hans liv från barndomen och upp till idag. Även om det tog ett tag innan jag riktigt kom in i den här boken så är det en underbar och varm berättelse om livet. Det är en underhållande bok och jag tror nog att de flesta av oss känner någon som åtminstone har några av Oves karaktärsdrag.

Från att ha varit tveksam till den här boken så ser jag nu fram emot att läsa romanen Min mormor hälsar och säger förlåt som utkom för en månad sedan.

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks is one of my favourite writers and this is the fifth book written by him that I have read. However, it is his third novel. Sparks was born in 1965 and is an American novelist, screenwriter and producer. So far he's written seventeen novels and one non-fiction together with his brother.

A Walk to Remember was published in October 1999 and the genre, as the rest of Sparks's novels, is romantic drama. The story takes place during 1958 in the small town of Beaufort, North Carolina. Landon Carter is 17 years old and behaves like most teenagers, mocking those who are different. Among those are Jamie Sullivan the Baptist reverend's daughter who goes to the same class as Landon. Jamie is about the last girl that Landon can imagine falling in love with. But destiny wants differently and Landon is in for the most  life changing year of his life. A year that makes him mature a lot and realize that looks aren't everything in life.

This novel is, as the others that I have read, easily read and you want to know what happens next. What I like about Spark's novels is that they are both predcitable and unpredictable at the same time. They are love stories but there is usually a problem that the two lovers have to overcome and there isn't always the happy ending that you would wish for, but the protagonist usually finds comfort in his/her situation. This is probably what makes his novels feel so suitable to turn into a film and eight of them have been adapted to film so far. A Walk to Remember was adapted in 2002, starring Shane West and Mandy Moore.

While this is a story that pulls at your heart strings and well worth reading, I don't think it is the best of Spark's novels that I have read so far. But I warmly recommend those who like a good love story to read it.

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

A collegue of mine gave me this book with the words 'You have to read this, it's hilarious'. When I started reading it I have to admit I felt a bit confused and I had trouble figuring out the genre. It was not until I had finished reading it and was looking for some information on the author that I understood that this book belongs to the steampunk genre.

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction which is typically set in the British Victorian era or the American Wild-West. A typical feature is the steam-powered machines and this novel is full of steam-powered air ships and domestic mechanicals. To that can also be added vampires, werewolves and flywaymen.

The novel was released in February 2013 and is the first novel in a series called the Finishing School Series. Novel number two -Curtsies & Conspiracies will be published in November 2013.

Etiquette & Espionage is a young adult novel which is set in England in 1851 and the protagonist is fourteen-year-old Sophronia Temminnick. Sophronia is not as interested in being a proper lady as her mother would wish. Sophronia is more interested in taking apart clocks and climbing trees than proper manner. When we first meet her she has just destroyed the dumbwaiter when trying to eavesdrop on her mother and her visitor. The following quote, which I just love, is from when she is trying to come up with an excuse for her behaviour:

"'Well, I simply wanted to see how it worked and then there was this-'

Her mother interrupted. 'How it worked? What kind of question is that for a young

lady to ask? How often have I warned you against fraternising with technology?"

If Sophronia is ever going to have chance of finding a husband, her mother decides to send her off to a finishing school where she will learn proper manners. However, Mrs Temminnick has no idea of what kind of finishing school Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality really is and neither does Mademoiselle Geraldine, the headmistress of the school. The young ladies do learn proper manners, but they also learn about espionage and how to finish off people in different ways. 

As mentioned, this is a novel for young adults and as such it probably works and I did enjoy reading it and have learnt  a lot of new vocabulary. However, steampunk is not quite my cup of tea. I did not find it as hilarius as my collegue and it is not very likely that I will ever read the second novel in the series. 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help is a novel that I first encountered as an audio book in Swedish and I listened to it driving to and from work. I really enjoyed the book then and I saw the film when that came as well. So now it was time to read it in its original language.

The Help is American novelist Kathryn Stockett's debut novel and it was first published in 2009. It was actually refused by a great number of literary agents before it was finally published.

The novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. A time with segregation between races and just a couple of years before the Civil Rights Act was passed. The main characters are the maids Aibileen and Minny and the plantation owner's daughter Skeeter.

Aibileen is raising her seventeenth white child while trying to get over her own son's death. She is serene and wise and a bit older than the other two. When the children she raises start to understand the concept of black and white she generally leaves for another work. She is very good friends with Minnie who is famous around Jackson for her cooking and she is really proud of her own cooking but she has got a sassy mouth which gets her into trouble. She is married to Leroy and they have five children together. Skeeter is the daughter of a cotton plantation owner and she dreams of becoming a writer. She is tall and skinny and perhaps not the most beautiful of women and she finds dating a bit difficult. Her mother is trying hard to get her to do something about her hair and the way she dresses.

Horrified by her friend Hilly's way of  regarding the maids Skeeter comes up with the idea of writing a novel about the maids' situation, from the maids' point of view. Eventually Aibileen and then also Minny agree to telling their stories. But they need more stories if the book is going to be published and they need to be anonymous or they will risk their lives if it becomes known that they are the authors.

We get to follow these three women and their lives while they are working on the book and they all grow as humans,  finding the confidence to cross boundaries and during all this they find a friendship they never thought possible and they come to depend and rely upon one another.

I really like the story in this novel and I find it and the characters trustworthy. Stockett has been criticized for, among other things, spreading sterotypes but I still think that it is possible to get a picture of what life was like during this period in American history. Kathryn Stockett grew up in Jackson, Mississippi during the 70s and the family had a housekeeper so she is not totally unfamiliar with what she writes about.

So I would say that this novel is a good read and well worth reading even though it should not be considered as telling the absolute truth.