Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.
This week my teaser comes from Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, the sequel to one of my favourite books of last year, Beartown (aka The Scandal). I read this book over the weekend and it is just as good. I shouldn’t like it, it has multiple pov’s, short sections and is about ice hockey (my knowledge of which comes mostly from Mighty Ducks movies) but it totally sucked me in and I really came to care about each and every one of the characters. Needless to say with Backman’s writing I had a lot of choices when it came to teasers but lets go with this.
My Teaser
Our spontaneous reactions are rarely our proudest moments. It’s said that a person’s first thought is the most honest, but that often isn’t true. It’s often just the most stupid. Why else would we have afterthoughts?
~ 63% Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
Blurb
Spoiler Alert: the following includes some very mild spoilers for Beartown
After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they hear that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in Hed, take in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension between the two rivals, a surprising newcomer is handpicked to be Beartown’s new hockey coach.
Soon a new team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.
As the big match approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt grows deeper. By the time the last game is finally played, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after all they’ve been through, the game they love can ever return to something simple and innocent.
So yeah I may have wandered off my reading plan over the weekend but I couldn’t resist picking up Circe by Madeline Miller and needless to say once I picked it up there was no way I was putting it down until I finished it. It is absolutely brilliant. It will definitely be making my list of favorite reads in 2018. I’ve always been fascinated by Greek mythology but had forgotten a lot of it. In Circe, the author really brings a lot of these stories to life and it actually feels like you’re living them. The character development is incredible and I loved how she made these Greek gods and heroes (Odysseus, Daedalus) so incredibly real and flawed. I am going to have to get my hands on a copy of The Song of Achilles as soon as possible.
I did enjoy this story but part of me wishes that I’d just bought it as an ebook rather than listening to it on audio. I can imagine it’s much better to just sit and immerse yourself in the story rather than dipping in and out every couple of days. It may just have been that I’ve been reading the original stories fairly recently but this reminded me a lot of Sherlock Holmes. One character in particular, Thomas Cresswell, seems to pretty much be Sherlock and a lot of his methods and character are absolutely identical. I did guess who Jack the Ripper was very early on (it was kinda obvious) but it was still a good read and I will no doubt read the next books in the series.
The third and final book finished this week was The Last Family in England which I’d received from NetGalley. I’m pretty sure this has been out for a while but it seems to be getting re released (probably due to the success of How to Stop Time). This was a very emotional read for me. I don’t think I would have requested this if I’d known just how upsetting this story would be. I love animals and tend to get more emotionally invested in them than I do in people so I generally avoid books about animals (even if I know they get a happy ending). It is however wonderfully written and contains so many keen insights and observations on the modern family and relationships. This was my first book by Haig and while I can’t say I “enjoyed” it (it was too sad for that). It has shown me how good his writing is.
After Ash Princess I couldn’t face another YA fantasy and having received a copy of Vox from NetGalley I couldn’t resist reading a few pages. Needless to say I ended up finishing the whole thing the same day. It’s an absolutely fascinating premise in that in this society women are only permitted to speak 100 words a day. Their role is to stay at home, cook, clean, garden and raise the children while their menfolk make the decisions, go out to work. It’s a little similar to Handmaid’s Tale but without the forced baby factory element. I very much enjoyed it. It’s not out till August so unfortunately too early for a review but I would recommend.
It’s about twins Sam and Ilsa who are throwing a final dinner party in their grandmother’s apartment before Gran sells up and moves to Paris and they head off to college/adulting. They can each invite three guests and it’s safe to say they’re a mixed bunch. There are ex’s, potential love interests and virtual strangers. I very much enjoyed this book particularly for the diversity in the characters and the interactions between them. The whole thing takes place over the course of an evening and within an apartment so it’s impressive that it manages to hold your attention. There were a couple of niggles and it’s not quite as good as Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares in my opinion but still worth a read.
A Bookish Life 