If you liked that, read this!

If you liked...

...read this!

If you're like me, you're hoping to find a book (any book, really) that can bring back the feelings you're still experiencing from reading A Man Called Ove. For that, I give you The Universe Versus Alex Woods. I discovered this book on a random library shelf and dove in without knowing anything about the story itself.  I didn't expect it, but Alex Woods charmed me in a way that only Ove (and grumpy old man characters) can do.

What binds these two books together are the character relationships. If you haven't yet read Ove, then to you I say -- what in the world are you waiting for? (And may I recommend the audiobook version, it is fabulous.) In Alex Woods, we have a boy whose life has been shaped by extraordinary circumstances. When Alex was young, he was struck by a meteorite, which caused him to lose consciousness for two weeks and reemerge into the world with a severe seizure disorder. Because nothing about Alex's childhood is typical, he befriends a curmudgeonly man named Mr. Peterson. They forge a rare friendship, one of those ones in which wisdom travels in both directions. I won't tell you more about the plot because I so enjoyed seeing it unfold without knowing anything beforehand, but the relationship between Alex and Mr. Peterson greatly reminded me of the same between Ove and Parvaneh. After turning the last page in Alex Woods, I had that familiar swelling in my chest that I felt at the end of Ove, and it is for that reason that I wholeheartedly recommend this novel.