A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman: book review

A Man Called Ove (2014) began as a blog and developed into a novel. It is about 59-year-old Swedish Ove, a grumpy Saab owner.

He likes things “the same as usual.” He is a man of rules, regulations, and routines. Why don’t other people follow the rules? Why don’t people know how to brew proper coffee any more? Why does The Pregnant One, his neighbour Parvaneh, who’s learning to drive, try to park her Japanese car where she’s not allowed? There’s a sign!

Ove has been a grumpy old man since he started junior school. He never gives anyone a compliment. He doesn’t like anything or anyone and finds it easy to comment about everything – always in the negative. He fights the whole world. He fights with hospital personnel and he fights with specialists and chief physicians. He fights with men in white shirts.

It’s hard to like someone like Ove. Or is it?

No-one can understand why Sonja married him. But Ove is never grumpy when he mentions his wife. Readers know where and how they met, and how he lied so that he could meet her. She is beautiful and she smiles all the time. And Ove had “never heard anything quite as amazing” as her voice. She liked talking and Ove liked listening – and that was Ove’s definition of compatible. He had “never lived before he met her.” He was smitten, yet he was inactive. Sonja told him when it was time to go on their first date, and she told him when to propose to her. And so they married. They love each other, and there’s a lot for the reader to like about that.

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Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing

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