From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

The Summer Book

Tove Jansson,

Esther Freud (Contributor)

Start date: January 1, 2017

Finish date: January 31, 2017

Discussion: Around Europe 2017

Discussion leader: Dianne

Why we're reading this: Our poll winning book is proving to be difficult to find, so we're going to read this one too. Why not?…more
[close] Our poll winning book is proving to be difficult to find, so we're going to read this one too. Why not?

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Around Europe 2017

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By Dianne · 51 posts · 28 views

last updated Dec 12, 2017 09:19PM

* December 2017 - Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia Currently Reading
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last updated Dec 23, 2017 09:09AM

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What Members Thought

May 22, 2018 Petra rated it liked it

I'm a bit torn about rating this book. I enjoyed the stories, many of them were particularly touching. However, the stories didn't connect well, I thought and at the end (view spoiler). I think she did. With that thought in mind, these stories are particularly poignant.
Sophia is a strange child. Likeable, sweet....then she yells and is rude and disrespectful to a woman who is always there for her.
I did enjoy the writing and the descrip ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2017 Viv JM rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-translation, women-in-translation, read-in-2017, z-2017-author-female, 1001-books-project, wit-2017, author-female

The Summer Book is less of a conventional story than a series of vignettes about summers spent on an island by Sophia and her Grandmother (her father is there too, but only as a rather distant character). The events take place over more than one summer, but it is not clear how many, and there is no definite timeline, which gives the whole thing a rather dreamy and nostalgic vibe. Sophia was occasionally a little bit brattish, but I loved the character of Grandmother who was brusque to the point ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2017 Pamela rated it really liked it

Shelves: boxall-1001-read

Sophia, her father and her grandmother spend their summers on an island off the coast of Finland. This book is a collection of brief accounts of episodes in their lives, spread across a number of summers.

The focus is mainly on the relationship between Sophia and her grandmother - the father is largely absent or busy working, although his role is an important one as seen through their eyes. In one of my favourite chapters 'The Robe' both Sophia and her grandmother seek comfort and reassurance in ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2011 Rosana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014

I finished this book yesterday, but I cannot let go of it. I loved the portrait of childhood against that of aging – the child and the grandmother seem to have met in that curve of life, even if one was climbing it and the other was descending it. It left me too with a sense of nostalgia for my own grandmothers, which were never as quirk as the one in the book, but that at moments allowed themselves to break the rules, to eat dessert before the meal so to speak.

Without planning, I have read a f ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2017 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 1001-books, literary-fiction, library, plays-short-stories-etc

Sweet book of vignettes that appear to mean very little but then mean everything. The book reminded me of the relationship that I had with my grandmother as a little girl. Although she didn't spend summers on an island, she did live on 5 acres of land set deep in a wooded area, where one to had travel by dirt road to find it. She worked in a sewing factory and then in her spare time, grew an amazing vegetable garden. She had dogs, cats, chickens and ducks. She loved to cook and to drink. She lov ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2017 Heather(Gibby) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-to-read

A sweet book about the special relationship build between a young girl and her Grandmother over a series of summers in a Finnish Coastal Town. The vivid descriptions of this area make me want to take a trip there one day.

4 likes · Like · see review