I almost didn't give this book a star rating at all. As I listened to it I couldn't really figure out if I like it or not. It has shades of books I cannot stand and shades of books I love. In the end, I couldn't bring myself to leave the star rating blank, but I am not sure you can trust my experience to match the experience you might have.

Britt-Marie is determined she can make it on her own. Her involvement with the kids and soccer brings her purpose, joy, and friendships, that are deeply moving. Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. The novel suffers from a slow start. There is a fairy tale device that is interweaved into the narrative that never fully grabbed me, and it took me most of the book to buy into it. Other readers I know jumped right into that aspect of the text. To each his own, right? However, the last half of the book I thought was strong narratively, things started to fall into place for me with the fairy tale device, and from that point on I was fully in. Several major themes are touched upon, including: it’s okay to be different; first impressions aren’t always accurate; your elders can teach you a lot; not all dreams should be discounted; young children often have the same fears and insecurities as adults; direct communication and understanding are vital; family does not have to share bloodlines.

Give the letter to him who's waiting. He won't want to accept it, but tell him it's from me. Tell him your granny sends her regards and says she's sorry" Brit-Marie was Here is just an all around wonderful story! I laughed, got angry, worried, and cried, but closed the book feeling like I’d been on a special journey with Britt-Marie in her quest for purpose, belonging and overdue self-discovery. Which of the characters in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry surprised you the most? Why? Elsa’s love of Wikipedia is hilarious at times, but it’s her fondness for Harry Potter books that was so telling. That she related to those characters, is a testament to how stories and books can offer relief and comfort, as well as influence and teach.

The reason for her love of maps. It’s half worn away, the dot, and the red color is bleached. Yet it’s there, flung down there on the map halfway between the lower left corner and its center, and next to it is written, 'You are here.' Sometimes it’s easier to go on living, not even knowing who you are, when at least you know precisely where you are while you go on not knowing.” One morning you wake up with more life behind you than in front of you, not being able to understand how it's happened." I don’t want to cause a scene here. Not at all. But my dear girl, civilised people have their dinner at six, so any later than five is surely a bit on the late side for a meeting, wouldn’t you agree? Or are you saying we should have our meeting while we’re eating?’ I could see a little of myself in Britt-Marie at times, there is probably a little of her in most of us.As a young girl she was in an accident in which her sister died. Her parents hardly knew that Britt-Marie stayed alive. They slowly died themselves, leaving her, the unimportant child, behind. But the accident also changed Britt-Marie's behavior, leaving her with almost a lite form of Asperger's or Autism syndrome. Her life needed to be strictly structured and her obsessive compulsive tendencies prevented her from being socially adaptable. Soccer was an enemy. It was Kent's only passion in life, apart from being married to his entrepreneurial business and his mistress. We meet her when Kent seems to be out of the picture (greener pastures, we suspect - she has mentioned his shirts always smelling of pizza she hasn’t shared and perfume she doesn’t wear). I get what it was going for. And it’s admirable. It’s supposed to be all imagination-y, and isn’t-childhood-cool, and family is important and let’s all love each other and smile. I am glad I was gently nudged to read this book and I couldn’t have chosen a better time to read this one. After having read several books in a row with melancholy themes, this book brightened my mood significantly. The children play. Call out. Explain where they are. Britt-Marie squeezes her container of bicarbonate of soda until it has dents in it.

I do not hate this book. Neither do I love it, or like it a whole lot. Or even like it a little bit. It just...exists. I found myself wondering what it might be like to have Elsa for a neighbor, this “almost eight-year-old” that misses nothing, and knows that ‘most people are shits some of the time and no one is a shit all of the time.’* (*Ilistened to audiobook, so this is a close approximation. Names play a significant part in Elsa’s grandmother’s stories. How do the various kingdom and heroine names from the Land-of-Almost-Awake (Miamas, Miploris, Mimovas, Wolfheart, the Chosen One, the sea-angel, etc.) inform your understanding of Granny’s stories? Did you agree with how their real world counterparts were portrayed in the stories? For the fastidious Britt-Marie, this new world of noisy children, muddy floors, and a roommate who is a rat (literally), is a hard adjustment. And she finds herself doing things she never would have believed she would do, and befriending and being befriended by people she would never have associated with in the past. And then she has to make a choice.... But overall this is a story of family and its complexities and mysteries, the regrets and mistakes, and triumphs and sacrifices made over the course of a lifetime, atonement, understanding, forgiveness, and embracing individuality.

Britt-Marie has been a wife and homemaker for her entire adult life but now circumstances have led her to a point where she must change---and this is so difficult for her. She is a woman of routines. How is she to leave behind a lifetime of tending to a home and husband, cleaning "just so" with exceptional care. Well she hopes the employment service will help her. The tiny town of Borg had no idea what was coming---and neither did Britt-Marie. Granny’s fairytales provide comfort to Elsa. Why do you think that fairy tales are comforting to her and other children? Share some of your favorite fairy tales with your book club.