My Friends | 
pickMy Friends, by Fredrik Backman (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A dying artist‘s friends find a kindred spirit in an awkward but talented young woman who has just aged out of foster care.
Review: I had a hard time figuring out how I felt about this at first; I generally find Backman‘s writing to be a little clunky, and here I was also confused because the teenage characters felt far too articulate and self-aware for the story. Cont.
pickWow! What an experience. Beautiful darkness, heart rendering hopefulness. All the feelings conjured at once with his unexpected metaphors. His descriptions other worldly, and the soul-leaving- body word choices he put together to make this book will make me remember it forever.
It‘s always great when my 3x3 grid is built entirely of 👍 reads, but I had a clear favorite to garner the tag!
5 ⭐️= Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4 ⭐️= Liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3 ⭐️= Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2 ⭐️=Nope D
1 ⭐️=DNF F
What do you do when you have more books piled up than you can possibly read in a month, and suddenly your library acquires the new Fredrik Backman book and you‘re the first in line for it? I think you all know the answer to that.
panThe story of friendship will stay with me because it was that good. But the writing was off. I didn't care for the dual timeline because the present parts were boring and flat and felt like they were written by someone else. The ending dragged and I just couldn't wait for it to be over. So disappointing.
35/80
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fredrik Backman writes with an explosion of emotion, belief, tenderness, and connection from the first page to the last. How hard can your heart beat? It‘s an ode to art and friendship; a true love story. Read it, cherish it. 🩵
It's a funny thing. The person we fall in love with, we hardly ever call by their name. Because it's somehow just so obvious that it's you I'm talking to, that it's you I‘m always thinking of. Who else?
Last night, I saw @backmansk in Winston Salem. Today, I received a package from @atriabooks with his latest book “My Friends” with a signature plate and a fun summer bag! And it‘s pink! My favorite color!!💕
Thank you @atriabooks and @backmansk for this fun package!
"Not to brag, but Louisa did have a perfect plan, it wasn't the plan's fault that she didn't stick to it. Because sometimes Louisa is a genius, but sometimes she isn't a genius, and the problem is that the genius and the non-genius share a brain. But the plan? Perfect."
"The world has spent thousands of years practicing how to puncture the lungs of children who are different."
Ooof. I felt this in my soul. ??
"Louisa is a teenager, the best kind of human."
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
Last night seeing @backmansk was a dream. Not only is he a fantastic author, he is funny and truly inspiring.
#myfriendstour #bookmarksnc #charlielovett #booktour
Seeing Fredrik Backman tonight.
pickBackman is one of my favorite authors and this book did not let me down. This is a tender story about friendship that has moments of wonderful humor and heartbreaking sadness. It is set in 2 time periods, present day and 25 years earlier - when 4 teenagers became friends and made sure the one that was a talented artist got noticed. The story moved slowly at times, but it always moved me. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. 4.5/5
pickI don‘t know if any author speaks to my heart as often as Fredrik Backman. The current story between Louise and Ted is so kindhearted and everything one needs in a friend. The backstory set 25 years earlier with four 14yr best friends - all can say is Here Here Here Here. I didn‘t just love this book, I loved every page of this book.
My part of house painting is done! ???? Now the Mr. Just has to finish all the parts I couldn't reach, and the cutting in that just isn't my forté ?
I have now moved on to gardening, which I know nothing about ? Taking a break to start the new Backman ?
Starting off the weekend with a novel from one of my all-time favorite authors. A lot of the time I feel emotionally constipated, but Backman never fails to hit me in the feels, repeatedly making me want to laugh and want to cry. I will read anything this man writes. It's an emotional laxative, lol.
So excited for Fredrik Backman‘s author event in St Louis tonight! Had a great 7 hour drive here with my son who‘s visiting us this week from San Diego.
So excited for Fredrik Backman‘s author event in St Louis tonight! Had a great 7 hour drive here with my son who‘s visiting us this week from San Diego.
#WondrousWednesday
1) Tagged. It‘s in the mail. He‘s an auto-buy author for me.
2) For the NetGalley books, sometimes I like writing them, other times not so much. 😬 I post on NetGalley, Litsy, GR, BookBub, Amazon, B&N, my blog. For bought/borrowed books, I usually leave a star rating on GR. If I really like it, I‘ll write a review. I‘m trying to use Story Graph more, but I keep forgetting.
Ran to Indigo to get the new Backman book and the new Natalie Jenner too. Had a coupon for 20% off. Bought the Book Club candle (smells good but fail on if just being this small plain blue glass? I thought Book Club would be printed on it?) and a staff pick of “One Hundred Saturdays” and library card bookmark. 😊
pickAt this point I think I‘d cry just reading Backman‘s grocery list, he‘s that poignant and great of a writer. His newest novel explores the depth of friendship and finding one‘s self in the world. While I think it‘s a little bit slower pace than some of his other works, it still carries the depth, humor, and great characters we have come to love from Backman.
4.5⭐️
#arc
These are my four nominated titles for #CampLitsy25 - well, the first set, that is. I tend to go overboard with these kinds of things. 🤓🥰📚
pick4.5/5
A wonderfully written book full of humor and grief about the strength of friendship beyond loss and tragedy. The dying artist C. Jat sells everything he owns to buy back his first painting, and then gives it away to a teenager he just met, named Louisa, which leads her on a journey to understand what lead the artist to create the painting.
#netgalley
e-book: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
audiobook: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
pickI won this through a Goodreads Giveaway!
Go get this book when it hits bookshelves. It publishes March 24, 2025! You will not be sorry.
The emotions I had reading this book were like a rollercoaster. I was laughing so hard, then the next paragraph, I would have tears in my eyes. Fredrik Backman's writing is amazing! The way he wrote made me feel as if I was right there that summer on the peir with the artist, Ted, Joar, and Ali!
My friends book tour.
Louisa is a teenager, the best kind of human.
##FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
#ReadingWrapUp February
5 ⭐
My Friends -Backman
4.5⭐
The Book Censor's Library
A Body Made of Glass
Private Rites
4⭐
Wandering Stars
Divine Rivals
The Echoes
Rejection
The $12Million Stuffed Shark
The Beautiful Ones
Shy Creatures
Freedom - Markel
3.5⭐
Vanishing Treasures
Autocracy, Inc.
3⭐
Universality
Welcome March and The Women's Prize!!
pickGrab your tissues Backman has a book coming 5.20.25 - Pictured here the day I read in public and hit page 60 and decided I would only be reading at home
No one else writes with such humor and charm and utter tenderness. The word "tenderness" kept floating through my brain as I was reading this absolutely lovely book. No other author can have you laughing at kids fart jokes one paragraph then tearing up over those kids futures the next like him.
pickThis is lovely. I'm going out on a limb and comparing it to Three by Valerie Perrin. I loved that book. I loved this book quite nearly as much.
#DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks
US pub date is 5/20/25
#ARC #Netgalley
pickAbsolutely loved this book about friendship,connections and art.
No one writes about heartbreaking moments with as much tenderness as Fredrik Backman does.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.
New Backman coming in 2025! And it sounds GOOOOOOD!
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Bookish Pair: David Nicholls‘ Sweet Sorrow (2019) 3d