Play Book Tag discussion

This is the Buddy Read for the Winners.... Mine is coming from Amazon, and is my next read. I think a few of you have started it recently or read it recently. I'm excited to share this third and last installment of a beloved series with you.

I should be starting to read this book this weekend. I didn’t realise it was so much longer than the others in this series.

Me too! Amazon told us it had arrived Monday, but I have been home sick and no such book exists nor has shown up. My husband re-ordered it and is dealing with Amazon on their false "delivery", and a second book just arrived this afternoon. It is quite the chunkster.

I’m not letting myself start it yet. I’m struggling to finish One hundred years of solitude for my book club. I read it years ago, when I was sick on vacation (where it was very hot) and it felt like a fever dream. Now I realize that it wasn’t just me, it was the book.

I hope you feel better soon Amy.

Actually, still working crazy hours even if Zoom. Feeling much better today. About to review a quickie audio and so close to finishing my book. Winners could start tonight.

But thank you so much - such a weird time for everyone. I hope everyone stays healthy and happy......

Amy wrote: "Me too! Amazon told us it had arrived Monday, but I have been home sick and no such book exists nor has shown up. My husband re-ordered it and is dealing with Amazon on their false "delivery", and ..."

I hope you feel better soon, Amy.

I heard Backman in an interview say that the Beartown trilogy came about because, as a hockey fan, he wanted to write about the very best and very worst in sports. I know not all have finished the book, so please keep that in mind.

What are your thoughts concerning the best and worst in sports? Are you a sports fan? Has this series changed your opinion of sports?

An absolutely incredible end to an absolutely incredible experience of this trilogy (Beartown) that will stay with me for a lifetime. I don't even care for Hockey. But as Backman writes, its not just about Hockey, its about the thing that becomes your everything. The thing you stand for and live by, that defines you, and your community, the thing that runs through your blood. The story wraps up the hockey, with families, siblings and parenting, and community, and friendship and honor, even if its warped honor. It is beautifully written with glimpses of the future. You root for every single character, every single time. And at times, the question of who is bad and who is good, what is right, and what is wrong, gets blurred. Until you focus on the only thing that matters. Could be hockey, could be honor, could be family, doesn't matter. What dictates and narrates is the thing that matters most.

These characters stay with you - every single one of them, even the new ones. Its beautifully written and it touches the heart. It is in a word unforgettable, but I have many more words, and too many feelings to well articulate them. But I do want to say something that struck me about this particular book. I think it has to do with the emergence of the women, who as leadership come straight from the heart. Every character is the star of the book, but the fearless blindingly devoted and dedicated women? They were the heart of the show. And I knew from the get go, that it would be the women who would pull the whole thing together, because somehow that is what we do. These women, mothers and daughters, include Kira, Hannah, Fatima, Ramona, Elizabeth Zaskell, and then of course Adri, Maya, Ana, and Tess. And of course little Alicia. Their hearts completely match the hearts of the men, Peter, Johnny, Amat, Sune, Bobo, Benji, Mumble, Aleksander, Leo, and the three young boys of Hannah and Johnny. Even Teemu and Tails and Lev, who represent the warped honor. I suppose Matteo too is warped honor in a way. As Backman says, leadership can mean many things and gets expressed in a myriad of ways. In this book, everyone shines. Our hearts are huge for them, and the book keeps you on the edge of your seat. Much like the characters in the book, we are waiting with anticipation, fear, hope, and always love at every turn. And anyone who is a mother, or parent, or sibling, or child, or dreamer, will recognize themselves in this book. It's really about what matters most. Well done, Backman. I am sad to see these characters go - but they will live on for me, and I suspect many others, for some time to come.

Jason, that is a really important question. As some of you know, I have never been into sports. I have been a writer, a singer, a dancer, a lover of theater. Nature. Sports never did it for me. But then I raised (am raising) three athletes, for whom this is their life, and it all changed - my perspective that is. I have come to understand what Team Sports does for a person individually, but also a nation. I have been awed by Red Sox Nation, and Patriots Nation, but Celtics and Bruins love. But also how these role models have worked in our society. Take Tom Brady for example, and what he stands for. True Patriots don't care what team he is on, they care for him and his message. He was pulled Sixth from the draft and is the ultimate "Can Do Believe" guy. He raises hope and spirits. I never thought I would see the day where moods are so easily influenced by "the game." Until I saw it in my kids and their friends. Has it escaped anyone that following the World Cup has been incredible? Messi's final year, and Messi versus Rinaldi, and the new Mbope, this has been a season of spirit and hope.

Lately, our sports role models are speaking out against domestic violence, school shootings, systemic racism. And to Jason's point, we have also seen a lot of abuses in power. When I think about how much influence Kanye West has had, and how people look up to him and he is spreading antisemitism like crazy through his listeners. Our own middle school and high school is having numerous internet problems, including Kill the Jews, and an uptick in swastika painting. And then there is Julian Edelman, who reaches out to fellow players of all sports. Who says, spend the day with me. Show me the African American Museum. Let me listen. Let me also show you the Holocaust Museum and come for Shabbat dinner. Let's both listen. For my kids, Julian Edelman is the ultimate in sports leadership and Jewish leadership. He is the role model they admire and aspire. He teaches true leadership and identity comfort.

But being on a team, oh man! My son (middle) just won the Courage Award as a senior for football. And let me tell you, he deserved it. He got it for being the one who rarely got on the field, didn't score or "play" much, but was the heart and soul of the team. Never once thought about quitting, and was there every time, early, with motivational speeches. If you could have heard the thunderous applause for him, not just at the Banquet and Senior Ceremony (no other player received this a bragging mother might add to her internet friends where no one can see). But in the stands, the entire school (it felt like) were chanting Friedman Friday! at every single Friday Night Lights. Because they love him. He would run over to the stands and get them going, hug the mascot. He is the one who would do anything for the team. And for whom, like I was trying to say in my Beartown review, feels the exact same way about the Camp my kids attend, where the older two are counselors now and are the leaders. He wrote his college essay on Second Families, first about Camp, and then threw in there close to the end about how Football and Sports Teams, (and Musicals though it did not land in the essay) are Second Families too. And that he is looking for his next Second Family for life. And yes, we are still waiting, waiting, waiting to hear.... But - Shain and Jaden both understand how Sports and Second Families intertwine, and the power of the role modeling, for good and for bad. Watching Isaiah Thompson play for his sister while his family attended her funeral without him, well that moves them. Every child who never once was able to hit the ball, or make the finish line, well my kids cheer on every single kid, and are coaches. They all make sure every kid finally gets to make a basket or score a goal. And when you are watching young leaders play and coach like that, there is absolutely nothing like it. I am a convert, to the feeling and the concept, not the sport itself.

My favorite sport to watch is basketball. It feels like dance to me - elegant choreography. I also don't do cold, wet, and early, so this is the sport that is easiest for me in terms of convenience and comfort. Plus, its is a smaller area visually, and I can see all the players close up. But I love our town league on Saturdays, because its all the friends playing each other on every team. Even the teen coaches are playing against their friends. And the referees are our kids friends too. There can be ugliness, but so much more often, you see the yellow kid whisper to the green kid on the other side, (great shot, man!). And when the grey kid trips, the pink kid extends an arm to pick him up. This is Newton Town basketball. Everyone is friends and its just fun. This year, our middle son is coaching our youngest son's team, and that is an experience that will never again be replicated. We are hoping that is brining them closer.

Sports can bring out the worst in people, on the youth level and nationally. But its the best place to talk about values. I mean with whatever medium one cares about. We talk about they way people think, act, behave, and play on Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race. I am sure there is competition in music, cutthroat at times, not to mention race and ethnicity (See Violin Conspiracy). But its still the world that people return to, that gets people talking. That makes them come alive, think, relate. Who doesn't get it that Le Braun James used his money to fund his hometown, a boys and girls club, and built an entire school. And guess who else did that? Oprah! Building schools for girls and kids in impovrished countries. (And Oprah has a Book Club.) My point is that you can use anything that matters to you for team building, for good or for bad. But it certainly gets people talking - and believing, and praying. And investing. In the conversation, the outcome, the experience, the people. Is there anything better than that for displaying the range of human emotion and potential? I have become a convert, again, not to the sport itself, but to the feeling and what it stands for. And once in awhile, when I am not gabbing, I close my book and cheer like hell with the rest of them. I totally get it!

I'm not much for sports, but the one that got me was hockey. I fell in love with it the year we visited my cousins in Canada (1987) and we caught the finals of the playoffs, Oilers vs Flyers, a fantastic series that went to 7 games. So Beartown hooked me from the start.

I think Backman captures the best and the worst of hockey quite well. He brings back the adrenaline rush I feel when watching the playoffs, and punches you in the heart with the terrible human tragedies he creates in the books.

I'm not much of a sports fan, but my boys played hockey when they were in one school, and then for the town after they switched schools. So I was a hockey mom. The competition at that age wasn't too bad, but the speed could turn a little push into a big hit as the kids hit the boards. Some teams were more aggressive than others, and sometimes the parents got into it if the refs weren't fair calling the fouls. I hated the fathers who constantly yelled - at their kids, the refs, parents, and other people's kids.

I really loved the Beartown series. I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the other two though. The intensity of the hate between the two towns became tiresome. I've never seen a rivalry in real life spread to so many different areas of life. It wasn't just hockey. It seemed over the top considering that many of the parents worked together. If two towns are within walking distance, you'd expect more friendships, dating, and work relationships between people. I thought the kids went to the same school too. Maybe not?

At the professional level, there seem to a lot of fights between the Buffalo and Miami football fans. Does every team need to have an arch rival to get the fans worked up?

Backman did an excellent job showing all the different type of actions that can create or exacerbate conflict between groups. Competition for resources is #1. There were two key political manipulators in the last two books that really played up the competition between the two towns, for jobs as well as hockey related funding. Even snow plowing was a sore point after the storm at the beginning of the book. (My area just got hit by a blizzard and it's going to be a while before the plows get everyone out. We were among the last in the neighborhood to get plowed this time, but I don't mind. They were really good about doing our road early during the last storm because our neighbor had an emergency.)

Once in a while he makes a link between the conflict between the two towns, and broader conflicts within the nation. Once in a while he'll toss in an idea that you'd see in a social psychology textbook - this time Maya made an observation based on one of her college courses.

In real life, I saw managers create excessive competition between two different shifts in a manufacturing plant. It became destructive and hurt the productivity of both teams. It was helpful when people from both groups joined the company softball team. Playing together against other companies built up some cooperation that helped on the job.

There isn’t a lot I can say about this novel without going into spoilers since it's the third and final book of a wonderful trilogy set in the heart of Sweden's hockey obsession. We have known since Book 1, Beartown, that one of the characters we've come to deeply care about is going to die. We even know who it's going to be. Over three books we have become so invested in their lives, well, you just know you're going to need a big box of tissues.

When a huge storm sweeps through Beartown and Hed, the two bitter hockey rivals are forced to practice together at the Beartown arena. This whole trilogy is about so much more than hockey. This is a story about family, marriage, community, grief, and forgiveness.

The Winners is told through a wide cast of characters. Some are new and some are characters we've grown to love over the course of three books. It's hard not to grow deeply attached and I certainly did, but I felt that the deep foreshadowing over the course of the trilogy made the horrible tragedy less impactful.

Backman's characters are always perfectly written and I especially love how he creates an exquisite balance of characterization and plot. Despite my few minor complaints, the book was a compelling and thought-provoking finale. It left me sad, heartbroken, but ultimately filled with joy to have spent so much time in Beartown.