The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Allan Karlsson is one hundred years old today. The nursing home is having a huge party. The mayor is coming. The only person not excited about the party is Allan so he decides to leave through the window. Without a firm plan he wanders to the bus station to see how far his money will take him. When the opportunity presents itself he steals a suitcase. After all, he wandered off in his slippers and the suitcase might contain shoes. In fact, it contains money that belongs to a gang. Now the gang is after him and the police are looking for the poor old man and all Allan really wants is vodka. Allan’s not worried. He knows he can take care of himself. After all he’s been a munitions expert and a spy and an informal adviser to most every major world leader in the past century.

I LOVED this book. It is most accurately described as Swedish Forrest Gump. Allan Karlsson has accidentally been present for most of the major events of the 20th Century.

Here’s a quote that sums up the feel of the book for me.

Well, now you can see how sensible it is not to start your day by guessing what might happen, said Allan. After all, how long would I have had to go on guessing before I guessed this?

He’s referring to a man leading him out onto the ice and having a Russian submarine surface under his feet. OBVIOUSLY!

The Woman Who Died A Lot: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde

Bookworld detective Tuesday Next has been forced into semiretirement after injuries sustained in the line of duty. She’s looking for something to do to not feel redundant. Her children are in trouble too. Son Friday just found out that instead of being the star of the Chronoguard (time traveling police) he’s going to be a murderer. Daughter Tuesday is trying to build an Anti-Smote Device since the Deity has been getting ticked off lately.

This is the new book in the Tuesday Next series. I wasn’t going to read it because I didn’t like the last one at all. I started out glad that I picked this one up though. At first it was moving along with the humor that I remembered from previous books. But no coherent story developed. There was so many characters with so many plots that no one was foremost. By midway through I didn’t really care if I finished or not. They also never went into the Bookworld which was my favorite part of the series. Since I’m still eagerly awaiting this author’s sequel to his book Shades of Gray, I’m disappointed that he went back to this series instead.