Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander Series #1) by Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander Series #1) by Henning Mankell

Read by Dick Hill

8 hours, 59 minutes

Published March 1997 by The New Press

Publisher's Summary: 

It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments. 

Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecuter who has peaked his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve.

My Thoughts: I've been hearing about the Kurt Wallander series for years (heck, I've even seen some the  PBS adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh). When I was looking for an audiobook that was available immediately, I wasn't so sure that this was going to work for me, though. I didn't know how graphic it might be, how tense it might make me. Lately I've been drawn more and more to softer fare in books. 

This one surprised me. I didn't find it overly graphic; which isn't to say that there's not some very brutal violence, but Mankell doesn't dwell on it or make it the focus of the book. Instead, Mankell spends a great deal of time focusing on developing his characters and the relationships between them so that while the tension is enough to pull the reader through the book, it is never overwhelming. 

Wallander is a complicated man. His mother died when he was young, his father (an artist who has painted essentially the same painting 7,000 times and makes a living doing that) is beginning to suffer from dementia and never lets Kurt forget how disappointed he is that Kurt chose to become a policeman, his wife has left him, he and his daughter are estranged and Kurt is not entirely sure why, he drinks too much, he eats too much junk food, and he has no moral qualms with having an affair with a married woman. He loves opera, has very few friends, is devoted to solving crimes, and, in this book at least, has a real problem with immigrants (which makes it a timely read but didn't help me to like him). 

Wallander screws up, puts himself in peril repeatedly, and doesn't solve the crime nearly as quickly as they do on television. Months pass between the night of the murder and Wallander and his team solving the case, but I appreciated that things didn't just fall into their laps - it felt much more realistic that way and allowed time to develop the relationships between Wallander and the other characters. 

Will I read more Kurt Wallander? Definitely. Although I wasn't ready to listen to the next book right on the heels of this one, it won't be long because I don't want to lose my familiarity with these characters. 

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Read by Marin Ireland

13 hours, 11 minutes

Published April 2017 by Atria Books

Publisher's Summary: 

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

My Thoughts: 

I am almost certain that I read the summary of this book before I started listening to it; and, yet, there is a line in that summary thought should have caught my eye and given me a clue as to what might be coming at a certain point in the book. It didn't. Which made this book veer into territory I did not see coming at all which made it a much tougher book to read. And which has me debating as to whether or not I should tell you so that you can be forewarned. I'll think about that as I type on. 

I never cease to be amazed by how great Fredrik Backman is at creating interesting and unique characters to populate his books. Here he is playing with a large cast and yet every one of the characters stands on his or her own and Backman is able to make readers understand, if not sympathize, with each of them. These are people you've met, in situations you know, even if hockey's never been your thing. Backman is Swedish and I understood that the book was set in Sweden, but this is a book that could have been set anywhere, in any town where a sport is the life blood of the community, in any small town that is slowly dying. 

While I've never been much a fan of hockey, I have lived my entire life in a state obsessed with football, a state where people are growing more and more obsessed with volleyball. I can understand how a town's entire focus, entire hope for the future, relies on the success of its sports team. How the boosters can rule the decisions of a team. How the hometown hero, returned home from glory, falls from grace. I know parents like Peter and Kira, young girls who have been through what Maya goes through, young men who are idolized in the way that Kevin is, young people who struggle in the way the Benji does, and relationships which are tested in the ways they are in this book. In other words, even though I don't know hockey, I do know the people in this book and what they go through.

I cannot recommend the audiobook version of this book highly enough. Marin Ireland is amazing; her ability to voice the wide range of characters is astonishing. Even more astonishing is her ability to channel the emotions of the book. I wish I could "read" the next installment of the Beartown series in audio; but it won't be available for months and I don't want to wait that long. I have already requested the third book in audio, though. 

Some things you should know about Fredrik Backman: 

• He's only 41 years old yet writes like a man who has already lived a lifetime. 
• He appears to have lived his entire life in Sweden yet writes like a man who has studied the world and understands that certain things are universal.
• He's a man. Yes, I know that seems obvious. Until you read his books, particularly this one.  

And here's where I decide that I need to give you that trigger warning I talked about earlier. Fifteen-year-old Maya is raped (I pondered softening that to sexually assaulted but why not call it what it is?). It's not uncommon in a book. What is uncommon is the level of understanding and compassion that Backman exhibits. I couldn't help but wonder if he didn't love someone who had experienced rape; it's so rare to read about the aftermath in such a realistic and honest way, even by female writers. Perhaps it will make it easier for those who have never experienced rape in their lives understand it better; perhaps it makes it even harder for those who have suffered it to read this book. For someone who has had to deal with the aftermath of rape, reading this book brought it all back so vividly. But it was also a comfort to know that there are people out there who understand, made all the more amazing to know that a man can put it into words that are so understanding. 

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Translated by Neil Smith

Published September 2020 by Atria Books

Source: checked out from my local library

Publisher's Summary:

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world. 

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

My Thoughts:

Fredrik Backman has the ability to write about incredibly heavy themes with a light touch and sense of humor that never fails to have me laughing and crying, sometimes on the same page. His writing is uncomplicated and yet says so much. His characters are ridiculous, flawed, and some are downright unlikable. But Backman clearly loves his characters and readers can't help but care about them and reminds us that we are all connected.

"...most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine."

As with so many books, communication plays a big role in this book, what we say that we shouldn't, what we don't say that we should. It's about the communication between married couples, therapists and patients, fathers and sons, and even strangers. Here again, Backman plays this both humorously and with a feeling of sadness.

"The other one said they'd started to hate each other after an argument that, as far as Jim could understand, started when they were unable to find a juicer in a color that reflected them both as individuals but also as a couple. That was when they realized that they couldn't live together another minute longer, and now they hated each other."

"It's so hard to find the words when all you really want to say is: "I can see you're hurting."

So many of the characters in this book come to see that others are hurting but can't find the words to say it. The saving grace in Backman's books is that they almost always find other ways to show that they see it and reach out to help.  

This is my third book by Backman and each of them has had a certain sense of mystery to them but this is by far the most complicated. It is a slow reveal that makes readers rethink assumptions they've made along the way, about the plot and the characters. 

I used to do posts periodically that I called Book Gems. I haven't done one in a while but I've saved so many quotes from this book that I think it's time to pick that up again. There were so many things that spoke to me about parenthood, being an adult, and about siblings. And so many things that were just too funny not to share. 

I raced through this book and wanted to start it all over again. Even knowing all of the revels and how it all ends up, I think I'd enjoy it nearly as much the second time. Clearly, this one's going on my favorite reads of the year list, where I expect to still find it in December. 

In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist

In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
Published January 2018 by Melville House
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
When Tom’s heavily pregnant girlfriend Karin is rushed to the hospital, doctors are able to save the baby. But they are helpless to save Karin from what turns out to be acute Leukemia. And in a cruel, fleeting moment Tom gains a daughter but loses his soul-mate. In Every Moment We Are Alive is the story of the year that changes everything, as Tom must reconcile the fury and pain of loss with the overwhelming responsibility of raising his daughter, Livia, alone.


My Thoughts:
Tom Malmquist is a poet which becomes immediately apparent. There is not a word wasted nor does Malmquist waste any time in pulling readers into the pain that is to become Tom's life. From the moment the consultant stamps down the wheel lock of Karin's hospital bed in the opening sentence to the moment he leaves his daughter off a preschool alone for the first time, Malmquist makes readers feel every moment of the balancing act that Tom's life becomes in a moment.

Because the book is more memoir than work of fiction, the pain feels so much more palpable. It's hard to read the vivid details of Karin's rapid decline, the agony of her parents who are kept, inexplicably, away from her deathbed, the mad pinball existence Tom lives as he watches his wife die and his premature daughter grow, and the terror he feels knowing he will be left to raise her on his own. But all of that is not where his sorrow ends because, just months after Karin dies, Tom must deal with the death of his father, a man he has had a complicated relationship with all of his life.

Although the book is only 240 pages long, so much is packed into it, and it is so intense, that it feels like a much longer book. But it is not just all of that pain that makes it read that way, it is also the style of Malmquist's writing. The book moves back and forth in time, allowing readers to visit Karin and Tom as they meet and become a couple. But that can be extremely jarring at times as it usually happens without a break in the writing. Also, be forewarned, those of you who must have quotation marks in your books, there are none here. Not only that but whole conversations are often lumped into a single paragraph. I often found myself re-reading passages to make sure I understood who was talking.

When the book moved into Tom's relationship with his father and his father's death, the back and forth in time became even more complicated and hard to follow. For me, it also overwhelmed the story, although, it retrospect, it seems it was important to understand Tom's relationship with his father to understand his fears about being a father himself.

The longer I've blogged, the less often I find myself taking chances on books, which is a shame. Because without doing that, I would not have discovered this book. Despite it being a tough read, it's a book I'm very glad to have read.

Thanks to the ladies at TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour. For other opinions about this book, check out the full tour.

Tom Malmquist is a poet and sportswriter. He has written two highly acclaimed poetry collections. In Every Moment We Are Still Alive is his first novel. He lives in Sweden.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Published May 2010 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Source: purchased audiobook at my local library book sale

Publisher's Summary: In the third volume of the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander lies in critical condition in a Swedish hospital, a bullet in her head.

 But she's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll stand trial for three murders. With the help of Mikael Blomkvist, she'll need to identify those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she'll seek revenge—against the man who tried to killer her and against the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life.

My Thoughts:

• Except for Lisbeth's voice (which was kind of a problem given that she's the focus of the books), Simon Vance is amazing as a narrator. Gotta find me some more books he's read.
• Stieg Larsson never met a tiny detail he didn't think he needed to include or a backstory he thought was necessary to the book. I really did not need to know the type of handheld device Salander was using every single time she picked it up nor the background of the man Blomkvist enlists to help him help Lisbeth when she is in the hospital.
• There are a lot of characters in this book - it was sometimes hard to keep track of who people were and how they fit in, especially considering I was listening to the book while I was driving.
• There's a secondary storyline in this book involving Blomkvist's sometime lover and business partner, Erika Berger. I kept waiting for it to somehow tie into the main story line. It didn't. It was, apparently, just another way for Larsson to talk about journalism plus the ways in which men hurt women.
• In theory, you could read this as a stand alone book (Larsson does give some background from the first two books as you go), but I wouldn't recommend it. In fact, this trilogy would have benefitted from Larsson and the publisher just being willing to say "you have to read these in order." There's just too much going on that relies entirely on the previous books to catch up with here.
• It's amazing that a man wrote these books, books that focus so strongly on how badly men treat women, books where the main character is a strong, highly intelligent woman who, despite her physical size, again and again kicks the mens' butts.
• All that being said, I really did enjoy this book. The primary characters, who aren't necessarily flawed so much as just not fitting into the "norm," are honest and vulnerable and smart. The "bad" guys might be a little stereotyped but I was okay with that in the bigger picture since so many of them represented government run amok. There's a lot of action, a lot of "putting the pieces together" mental strategy, and the ending is oh so satisfying. 

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Bachman
Published May 2016 by Atria Books
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She begins her day at 6 a.m., because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be.

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

When Britt-Marie suddenly has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she is more than a little unprepared. Employed as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center, the fastidious Britt-Marie has to cope with muddy floors, unruly children, and a (literal) rat for a roommate. She finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts.

My Thoughts:
I've edited that summary. I don't know why they wanted to tell you so much about the book. Were they afraid you wouldn't be interested if you just read what I've left? Maybe. Let's face it, people who are, as her husband said of Britt-Marie, "socially incompetent" don't necessarily draw readers in. Unless you've read and enjoyed Backman's previous books. Or you can tell by that cover that this one is going to have some fluff and fun.

Backman's debut, A Man Called Ove,  is one of my favorite books this year. In Britt-Marie Was Here Backman returns to the tale of a cantankerous older person who rubs people the wrong way until the right people come into her life, people who appreciate her for what she is and who bring out the softer side.  Along the way, Backman helps readers to understand why his characters have become the way the people they've become. Britt-Marie Was Here is filled with humor and quirky characters; on its surface, it seems light. But there is an underlying darkness that balances things out.

I had a harder time buying into all of the happenings in Britt-Marie Was Here and it felt a bit like there was too much going on, making it harder to connect to some of the characters than I would have liked. But I had a mother-in-law who swore by cleaning with baking soda and taught me to get down on my hands and knees and cleaning vinyl flooring with a paring knife decades ago. I couldn't help but have a real fondness for a character who swears by baking soda for cleaning everything. And who wouldn't cheer for someone who'd been so ill-used to find herself and happiness?

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Published July 2009 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Source: borrowed from my parents
Narrated by: Simon Vance

Publisher's Summary:
Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander - the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who previously came to his aid, and who becomes the focus and fierce heart of the current situation. As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.


My Thoughts:
Okay, you all were right. Simon Vance is amazing. Except...he really cannot do a convincing Swedish accent, particularly a Swedish woman. Shouldn't even have tried. Lisbeth Salander became a Cockney girl, and not a particularly tough one.

Why, yes, this is the bed Lisbeth bought

If that were the worst thing to be said about this book, it would be a minor quibble I could have gotten over. It isn't. I have no idea where Stieg Larsson's editor was when this book was being published. Perhaps they were, like Dickens, both being paid by the word. One could actually furnish their apartment with exactly the same furniture that Lisbeth bought from Ikea, right down to the lamps and bedding. Every shop anyone went into is named, every kind of food Lisbeth ate. And don't even get me started on the street names. I do believe I could navigate through Stockholm and surrounding environs.

It's a shame to burden the story with all of this nonsense. It's a complicated story and readers need to be able to stay focused. There are a lot of names and relationships to remember. If I'd been reading, rather than listening, I might well have made notes as I started. Eventually, I got it all straight in my head and was able to go along for the ride. It really is a great ride, if you can get over the fact that it would appear a good half of the men in Sweden are chauvinist pigs. Because Lisbeth Salander is just so damn interesting.

I'd be ready to jump right into the next book if I could just get over the idea that it's bound to be three discs longer than it should be.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove  by Fredrik Backman
Published  July 2014 by Atria Books
Source: bought this for my Nook

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

My Thoughts:
When one of my book club members pitched this book, she did so because it was recommended to her by a friend in another book club who compared it to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Not necessarily a selling point for at least one of our members, who found herself constantly wanting to slap Harold Fry.

Ove is not Harold Fry. Ove is a man lost without the love of his life, a woman who may have been the only person who ever really understood him. He is the very definition of "curmudgeon." He is a slave to routine, a stickler for the rules, and buried by his own opinions. "Ove was so weighed down with anger." He has no tolerance for other people and makes no bones about it. He is, frankly, a pain in the ass as a neighbor. Not the kind of guy you would want to befriend, even if you could.

But...

As Backman moves back and forth between Ove's past and the present, we begin to understand what has made Ove so bitter but also how it is that a wonderful woman could fall in love with him.

"...everywhere, sooner or later, he was stopped by men in white shirts with strict, smug expressions on their faces."

"He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had."

When a new woman comes into his life, she pushes every button he has. Then along comes another person that cracks Ove's hard shell. And another. We begin to see that, underneath that shell, there is a man with a heart.

I loved the way that phrases come back again and again in the book. "People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had" just pages after the above quote. Again and again Backman uses some version of the phrase "chooses what sort of man he wants to be" to highlight the events that caused Ove to become who he would become. And this:

"Ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. But if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn't."

I didn't expect to love this book. I'd heard enough good things to assume that I would like it. But a book with a crabby widower at it's center? Not something I assumed I would be able to relate to...just goes to show that you don't have to be able to relate to a book to find the common humanity in it. This book spoke to me.

"...time is a curious thing. Most of us only live for the time that lies right ahead of us. A few days, weeks, years. One of the most painful moments in a person's life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead. And when time no longer lies ahead of one, other things have to be lived for. Memories, perhaps."

Because no one warned me, I'm warning you. This is obviously a book meant to pull at your heartstrings. I knew that from the beginning. I did not see that it was a book that was going to make me cry for the last 25 pages. But then I'm a sucker for a sweet moment, a touching gesture. So be warned. And if you don't feel just a little bit sappy by the end of this book, I'm going to call you Ove.