The Summer Book in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon

Aug 14, 2020 Tanja rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

What a gentle and beautiful book.

It is comprised of several vignettes that give you a glimpse into summers spent on a small island in Finland by a little girl Sophia and her grandmother. So light and simple, and yet so deeply profound and full of life's wisdom. A book where almost nothing happens, and yet so many things do. The story is told in a third-person narrative, but the perspective switches between the child and grandmother deeply penetrating at the heart of both childhood and the old ag ...more

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Feb 23, 2014 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, owned

This was a lovely book that took me forever to read for two primary reasons: 1) It took me a little bit to let go of my Moomin expectations and appreciate the realism in this book. 2) This was a used copy that had been heavily underlined.

Now, when this book arrived underlined from paperbackswap, I could have returned it -- it would have been fully justified as underlining in paperbackswap is fully forbidden. But then I would have had to wait for another copy to turn up in the system, which I did ...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A little girl, her grandmother and her father spend their summers on an island. This charming, short book is realistic and humorous, rooted in the setting, the day to day happenings, and the relationship between the little girl and her grandmother.

"It was an early, very warm morning in July, and it had rained during the night. The bare granite steamed, the moss and crevices were drenched with moisture, and all the colors everywhere had deepened. Below the veranda, the vegetation in the morning ...more

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Mar 15, 2019 Grada (BoekenTrol) rated it really liked it

Shelves: bookcrossing, literature_and_fiction, 1001-book, books-i-own, english_language

What a lovely book! Funny, interesting, paibting a beautiful picture of a Scandinavian summer.
It has been a while since I last read a book in one sitting... This one I just couldn't put down. ...more

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Jan 26, 2011 ChrisBook rated it it was amazing

Shelves: borrowed

The Summer Book is a beautiful book. It's as if Tove Jansson took someone's most lovely summer memories and put them into words. I was drawn to it at first because it is about living on an island during the summer in a Northern climate. Being an island dweller, I know the best time to experience life here is in the summer. Gentle summers create the memories I hold onto during the brutal winter months.

The Summer Book is a series vignettes chronicling the day to day life of Grandmother and Sophia ...more

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Feb 03, 2019 Kimber rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, family, fiction, philosophy, relationships, culture, nature, realism, boating, coastal

The Summer Book is a collection of tightly related vignettes, the main characters being a young girl named Sophie, who is just beginning her life, and her grandmother, who is nearing the end of her life. Sophie, her grandmother, and Sophie's father spend summers on a small island off the coast of Finland. The bond between Sophie and her grandmother weaves the vignettes together as the pair share life's wisdom and humor that is dark around the edges. Sophie's mother has just died and this fact, b ...more

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Aug 07, 2018 Shatterlings rated it really liked it

Shelves: transleighteen

These are cute little vignettes about a child and a grandmother, there’s a gentle humour and sweet observations. Some of them could almost be children’s stories “Sophie, Grandmother and the tent” would be a funny little picture book. They are an easy enjoyable selection of short reads.

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