Thank you to #netgalley for giving me a copy of this book to review! I absolutely loved this book. Each and every chapter had me laughing out loud and reading passages to my husband. Being a mother to a little boy who is a year and a half old made this book feel like I was reading about our lives. The chapters were short but so filled with love, feelings, humour and wonderful memories. This book was beautifully written and I loved each and every page of it! I would definitely recommend it to all my friends who are mom’s and dad’s. Thanks again #netgalley

Having recently finished Beartown and Us Against You and being a huge fan of both, I became intrigued in Things My Son Needs to Know about the World. It was heartwarming, funny, and incredibly honest. I was a bit unsure of my feelings for the first few chapters- I have no children of my own, so I can't relate to the intense feelings of love he describes.

I realized pretty darn quickly that I don't need to have kids to enjoy the anecdotes about what fatherhood looks like in Backman's life. I caught myself laughing often, and I really feel like I know him better having read his essays.

A perk I wasn't expecting is that the love Backman writes about here feels like it has enriched his other books. For anyone who has read them, parental love is an important point in Beartown and the sequel. I now feel like I have a deeper understanding of where Backman came from when he was writing his novels, and I'm thankful for that.

First I would like to thank NetGalley for the eARC for my honest review. This wAs a heartfelt, wonderful, simple, funny, delight. Please do not think you have found the follow up to A Man Called Ove, or Beartown, or any other of Fredrik Backman’s wonderful books. This volume is less a novel and more a love story. A wonderful blunt telling of love stories/advice to a young son. Worth every minute to spendwith it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for a copy of “Things My Son Needs to Know About the World” by Fredrik Backman.
5* LOVED IT!
Mr. Backman has served up a delightfully entertaining ode to parenting and the all consuming love one has for their child. This is a truly long-winded love letter to his son. Asking for forgiveness ahead of the mistakes a parent is bound to make. Funny stories have you wondering; did this really happen, no, it must be comedic license. Then again, I bet this really did happen; over and over again. As a parent myself, there were many déjà vu moments that are destined to be a parental right of passage. I laughed out loud so many times. I kept interrupting my husband to read him select paragraphs.
I am running out to the bookstore tomorrow to buy a copy for our son!
And if you haven’t yet read “Beartown”, it is another incredible story by Fredrik Backman.

I found this to be a sweet and moving memoir, though I did enjoy Mr. Backman's other works more (Beartown, Us Against You). This was a fast, easy read and certainly relatable, being in the throes of new parenthood myself. I found parts of it to be a little boring, some of the little aside stories he would tell. But overall, fairly enjoyable and certainly the love for his family shone through.

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman is an intimate monologue in which the author imparts personal observations and words of wisdom to his young son. With equal parts humour and vulnerability, this is Fredrick Backman as we have never seen him. If you are looking for another A Man Called Ove, this is not it.

As a longtime fan of the author, I was anxious to read this latest offering, well aware that this is a total departure from his usual, and commercially successful, style. I was not disappointed. This is a quick read that will bring out all of the feels. Not only imparting tender musings to his son, the author is also taking the opportunity to pen a love letter to his wife, the mother of his child which, in itself, is beautiful to behold.

This is a heartwarming and humourous look at modern love and parenthood, and all of the ups and downs of contemporary family life. This is a rare opportunity to glimpse a vulnerable and tender side of a much loved author, and I appreciated it as such.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this lovely ARC.