Since I sort book donations at the library and frequent bookstores I decided to start this challenge with countries that cross my path organically, we’ll see how far that gets me. Sweden was the next country to have both a fiction and nonfiction book come through the book donations which makes it country number 3.
I think the nonfiction book was great in representing Sweden and its traditions. I enjoyed the fiction for more on what the day to day looks like.
Nonfiction
The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson, 2022, 160 pages.
I first started with this slim memoir. The subtitle Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You gives you a sense of the author’s humor. Magnusson shot to notoriety with her first book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and although I didn’t read it, she does touch on it in the book, even giving some tips at the end. Essentially, once you hit middle age you should start decluttering little by little so that when you die, the ones you leave behind don’t have to deal with it.
This book was more about stories of her life. During WWII her parents evacuating Margareta and her sister to a farm to stay with friends to keep them safe when their town was considered a target of Hitler. She moved to the United States for a few years with her family and leaned English from dubbed TV. Due to her husband’s job they and their five children moved to many countries briefly before settling back in Sweden. Now she lives alone in an apartment in the city and here gives her thoughts on getting older along with stories about Swedish life. I loved learning about the traditions.
“The moment you start thinking it is too late, then you begin to die.”
I was completely charmed by her and loved this book! Highly recommend and I’ll be looking for her first book now. Sadly, she died this month at the age of 91 and her daughter confirmed that she let her attic and basement empty.
“Another thing I’m happy about is my old books. I like the books of Somerset Maugham-my husband introduced me to his work. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tove Jansson, David Sedaris, Kristina Lugn, Kazuo Ishiguro, and many more. I don’t want to get rid of any of them. Many new ones get published every year that I should perhaps read for a first time, but instead I read my old ones for the fifth, sixth, or seventh times. They are old friends.”
Fiction
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman, 2013, 372 pages.
I read and loved A Man Called Ove by Backman a few years ago and yet still managed to not read any of his other books. This is a book about the beauty of fairytales.
Elsa is just 7 and leaps and bounds smarter than anyone she goes to school with. She gets into fights at school daily. Her grandmother is 77 and Elsa’s best friend. And she is a hoot. I loved her character so much.
The book opens with Elsa and her grandmother in an interview room at the jail waiting for Elsa’s mom to come pick them up 😆.
While I shed a tear or two and I ended up liking this one, I was not invested in the first half. It may be because I listened to it while driving and maybe I missed some important stuff in the beginning.
“If you can’t get rid of the bad, you have to top it up with more goody stuff.”
That certainly applies to the state of the world these days.
Other books I’ve read set in Sweden
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was a 5 Star read!!
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was a 5 Star thriller. I’m not sure why I never read the rest.
My goal is to read a fiction and nonfiction book set in and written by someone who was born in that country. As recommendations have trickled in I realized that it’s the ‘born in that country’ part that is going to make some books not work. I’m excluding the immigrant experience. It wasn’t my intent, I just didn’t really think it through in those terms. I’m not going to change the rules at this point. Maybe I’ll do a spin off challenge for that.
Countries completed…
Stacy's Books 