Really, Fredrik Backman's 2019 novel, Anxious People (Thorndike Press, ISBN-13: 978-1-4328-7971-6), translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith, is about the ridiculousness in all of our lives. It's about how humor is the only safe guide to a pathway clear of the clay-more mines that lie in wait for those who love somebody, someone who has emotions too, emotions sometimes so like our own it's hard to differentiate between the two. Especially so on New Years eve.
Although this book, “Fire Keeper's Daughter” (Henry Holt and Co. ISBN: 978-1-250-76656-4) is presented as a Young Adult book written by Angeline Boulley, it has many lessons to teach us, in a head-first, nose-dive into the Ojibwa Native Culture. Written very much like Tony's, and then Ann Hillerman's Navajo series of books, it gives us insight into a complex culture older than ours but set in contemporary times.
I recently discovered an author with a huge body of work, and a style that satisfies the soul which is searching for something, somehow, more than plain pop fiction. Chris Bohjalian has written twenty-two books, all based upon specific issues that are relatable to present times and circumstances. I read the first three that came to me through the library lending service.
