Bear Town

By Fredrick Backman
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. Amazon.com

What Happened at Book Club …

This is a book club’s dream book … so many issues and flawed characters to discuss! Half the group loved the book and in some cases were moved to tears. The other half were a little.. m’eh. They felt it took too long for something to happen and did not connect with the characters.

This book is nothing at all like A Man Called Ove – another book by the same author that we discussed previously. That read was light and very funny. The themes here are much heavier – abuse, neglect, rape, homophobia, sexism,  elitism to name a few. There are lots of surprises and unexpected turns. Well worth reading.

Turns out we paid attention to the details! Almost full marks on the quiz posed by our fabulous host. Way to go wormies!

Thank you to our hostess with the mostess for a great meeting!