I loved the book Beartown so much that I went on to read the following two books in the series. Beartown is a book that can stand on it’s own but if you love the characters you’ll want to read more. The interesting thing about this book is that it is about a junior hockey team in northern Sweden and not something that I would gravitate to. I’m not a huge hockey fan but I do enjoy watching Olympic hockey.
The story involves flawed characters and a community who get caught up in their devotion to a hockey team. Unlike Backman’s more lovable characters in A Man Called Ove and Anxious People the people of Beartown reflect a more realistic community and how making a bad decision has negative consequences that can ruin people’s lives. Backman has the ability to write thoughtfully and make us feel empathy for his characters. The novel is full of suspense, conflict and passion for a game.
If you belong to a bookclub I can see some great discussions come from this novel. The pressure we put on our children to be the best, drinking underage, rape, the roles of women vs men, parenting, the importance of sport in our communities, social and cultural prejudices, and homophobia are just a few areas for discussion.
I loved all the books so much that I decided to draw a map of the two fictional towns, Hed and Beartown and the forest that separates them in northern Sweden. This is how I imagined the map. to look like.
Reviewing my day in Hamilton. Had I known that I was going to do this I would probably have taken more photos.
My daughter and daughter-in-law had appointments in Hamilton to get their hair done and the car isn’t very reliable anymore for long trips so I volunteered to drive them in my car. I haven’t been back to the downtown core of Hamilton since our daughter moved to New Brunswick.
The first thing I did was drop the girls off at the salon and then I drove to Denninger’s. It’s a German deli that has been in Hamilton since Rudolf Denninger immigrated to Canada from Germany with his wife. The family owned business has grown from the original store on King St. in Hamilton to 5 stores, a warehouse and a manufacturing facility, employing 300 people in southern Ontario. https://denningers.com/pages/about-us
The visit was bittersweet because so many things in the store reminded me of my father, who passed away almost two years ago. I picked up many things that had a special meaning for me. My father loved chocolates, herring and small oranges like clementines. The cashier asked me if I was all right because I had tears in my eyes. I told him they were happy tears. I spent way too much money.
After my shopping trip at the deli I drove back to Mulberry and MacNab because I knew that I could park there for free and I walked up James St. to the wool shop. I had some money left on a gift certificate from the Hand Knit Yarn Store. It wasn’t for a large amount but I thought I would check out the new merchandise. I haven’t been there since before COVID, over two years ago. Everyone was very friendly and using up the remainder of the gift card was no problem. Again I spent way too much money. https://handknityarnstudio.com/
After my purchase of yarns I walked around the corner to Arcana Salon https://www.arcanasalon.ca/ to check on the girls. Andrea had another 1 1/2 hours to go, so I walked back towards my car and my favourite coffee shop in Hamilton, Mulberry Coffeehouse https://www.mulberrycoffeehouse.com/. Along the way I stopped to take some photos of flowers and Interesting doors.
Once I was in the coffeehouse, I ordered a tea and a breakfast sandwich. It was very busy, as it always is and I was lucky to find a seat at a counter. I pulled out the book that I am currently reading but I didn’t get too far. Josie walked in with her new haircut and wanted to visit the Farmers’ Market which was within walking distance from the cafe. When I finished my tea we made the trek to the Hamilton Farmers’ Market and we were delighted to see that most of the vendors had survived the COVID restrictions and closures. I purchased two large bunches of basil and garlic after overhearing another customer talk about making pesto with his purchase. I thought it was a great idea. In the next post I’ll show you our busy day making and putting the pesto into jars.
Andrea met us at the market. We walked around a little bit more and I treated myself to a bunch of flowers. My Dad also enjoyed buying flowers for me and my husband used to do it weekly. We headed back to the car with our bags of produce in hand and then made our way back to Toronto.
That evening we shared a meal together and I cooked up the spaetzle that I bought earlier. Kevin had made a lovely beef stew that complimented the German noodles perfectly. To burn off some of the calories from our meal, the girls and I and Olive went for a long walk through the neighbourhood. What a perfect day!
A week ago I had the pleasure of attending a concert in the afternoon that featured an up and coming star in the music world who plays the recorder. His name is Vincent Lauzer and he graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In 2012, he won the First Prize during the Stepping Stone of the Canada Music Competition and the Career Development Award from the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. These are just a couple of awards that he has won and after watching his performance I can see why. I can’t really write a review that would adequately critique the actual performance so I have added a link for a review written by Margaret Lam over at Musical Toronto.
Much of the performance featured Baroque music but Vincent did include some contemporary pieces which I really enjoyed. When browsing Youtube I could only find videos of the more classical recorder scores. Here is one that I think will give you a pretty good idea of Lauzer’s skill on the recorder. Enjoy!
Mama Cormier 