“Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing."

Time to raise the white flag. Turns out Tray and I are as bad at virtual book club as we are the real deal. I'll admit I winced a little when I looked back to see what month we read Beartown: May. May! Pretty much sums up my blogging proficiency as of late. Blame it on my new day job, my Inspector Gamache obsession, the new season of Stranger Things, or all of the above and more. Bottom line is there's been some serious slackin on my part around here and it's high time I share some of my favorite reads and maybe, just maybe, catch up on book club. A girl can dream.

Back to sharing favorites...and Beartown just happens to be one of them. I won't sugarcoat it here: this is a hard book to read. Fredrik Backman has never been one to shy away from hard topics and this book is chock-full of them: sexual assault, surviving the death of child, the pressures that come with playing and coaching big sports in a small town, and the courage it takes to do the right thing when things go horribly wrong. Throw in some locker room chat that will make you rue the day you signed your boy up for high school sports, and you might even be tempted to stop reading. I was...and I did—a few times, actually. Sometimes the best books are the ones that get under your skin.

Kirkus reviews sums it up beautifully: “Backman is a masterful writer, his characters familiar yet distinct, flawed yet heroic....There are scenes that bring tears, scenes of gut-wrenching despair, and moments of sly humor....A thoroughly empathetic examination of the fragile human spirit.” 

Posted by Rachel