Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

It’s a little sad when your ‘Currently Reading’ Goodreads shelf stretches to eight books, isn’t it.  Ah, well.  Happily, I have FINALLY started finishing books again, which means I have books to review!  Today’s winner is Katarina Bivald’s The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, which–while actually quite different from what I was expecting–was both an impressive and a delightful read.  I have never read a book translated into English from its original tongue with such a pitch-perfect tone; I lost track of the number of times I (literally!) laughed out loud.  The characters were quirky and fun to be with (although possibly the author’s foreignness showed a bit there–their small town quality was spot on, but not so much the actual Iowa feel), and the plot felt original from the very beginning.   Sara arrives from Sweden to stay with her American pen pal on the day of Amy’s funeral; the town, however, settles her into Amy’s house to stay anyway, because “that’s what Amy wanted.”  Such an unexpected beginning to her holiday leaves her at sea at first, but as Sara spends more time in Broken Wheel, she and the town manage to change each other in ways neither could have predicted.  If you love books, small towns, or odd people with good intentions, this book is most definitely for you.