The Summer Book in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Aug 20, 2020 Cheryl rated it really liked it

Shelves: multicultural, nature

Exactly two years ago I was visiting friends in Finland. I was in Helsinki and at a summer cottage on a lake in the country. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (the creator of beloved Moomin) was a perfect read now as I reminisce about the trip and the friends I miss. ⠀⠀⠀
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This is a story of the unspoiled nature of an island in the Gulf of Finland and mainly a relationship between a wise cranky grandmother and her impetuous young granddaughter.⠀⠀
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This is a very calm quiet insightful sweet book, Exactly two years ago I was visiting friends in Finland. I was in Helsinki and at a summer cottage on a lake in the country. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (the creator of beloved Moomin) was a perfect read now as I reminisce about the trip and the friends I miss. ⠀⠀⠀
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This is a story of the unspoiled nature of an island in the Gulf of Finland and mainly a relationship between a wise cranky grandmother and her impetuous young granddaughter.⠀⠀
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This is a very calm quiet insightful sweet book, but not meant for everyone. I thought I’d read the 170 page book in a couple days but it doesn’t want to be read quickly. I had to slow down. ⠀
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Lines that stood out: ⠀
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“‘Sophia would prefer a lemonade,’ Grandmother said, and thought: We’ve got to teach her some manners. We’ve made a mistake. She has to spend more time with people she doesn’t like, before it’s too late.”⠀⠀⠀
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“‘My dear child,’ said Grandmother impatiently, “every human being had to make his own mistakes.”⠀⠀⠀
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“The thing about God, she thought, is that He usually does help, but not until you’ve made an effort on your own.”⠀⠀⠀
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“How silly, she thought. Why could I never bring myself to tell him I hate sherry? And now it’s too late. It really was a shame, seeing that she now reached the age where a person can safely be truthful about small things.” ⠀
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“That’s strange, Grandmother thought. I can’t describe things any more. I can’t find the words, or maybe it’s just that I’m not trying hard enough. It was such a long time ago. No one here was even born. And unless I tell it because I want to, it’s as if it never happened; it gets closed off and then it’s lost.”⠀⠀⠀
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The last vignette is titled August:⠀⠀
“Every year, the bright Scandinavian summer nights fade away without anyone’s noticing. One evening in August you have an errand outdoors, and all of a sudden it’s pitch-black. A great warm, dark silence surrounds the house. It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive.”⠀⠀
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Nov 06, 2010 teresa rated it liked it

Tove Jansson is a Finnish author known best for her series of children's books about the Moomins. This book was written later in her life after the death of her mother. The book is a collection of vignettes about an elderly grandmother who knows she is not long for this world and her granddaughter whose mother has died not too long ago. It is about their summer spent on the family cottage on a remote Finnish island. It is not told in the American way a la Mitch Albom and that lot--cute little se ...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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Jan 09, 2009 Jessica rated it liked it

The Summer Book is a collection of sweet vignettes about childhood (and old age) on an island far off the coast of Finland. While the characters are consistent throughout, there's no real plot to speak of - the name of the book is perfectly apt in that it really is just about the slow, hazy days of a summertime with no commitments. The stories focus on a young girl and her grandmother and their various day-to-day interactions and explorations on a tiny island occupied only by them, the girl's fa ...more

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Oct 03, 2014 Mary rated it it was amazing

Absolutely fetching.....magical while being grounded in reality. This was an excellent suggestion by a friend of mine. What a treat!

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Aug 09, 2023 Leslie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: grownups, shorts

I loved these multi-generational vignettes set during the summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland. Funny, touching, wry and so beautifully full of observations—of nature and of people.

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