2022 Q3 Challenge - Nordic and Environment

[Carol]

Our second quarterly challenge in 2022 is to read nonfiction or fiction books:

1 - relating to Nordic countries, by authors of Nordic descent, or those living in one of the Nordic states or autonomous territories or regions (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland); and/or

2. where the environment is a major theme.

Our challenge starts 1 July 2022, and ends 30 September 2022. Our August RAtW group read selection is The Tenant, written by Denmark's Katrine Engberg and our September nonfiction group read will have the environment as its theme, so if you join in both discussions, you've got 2 qualifying novels in your challenge bucket. For those participating in our annual Women in Translation challenge, this challenge gives us an opportunity to share recommendations of translated works that fit the categories, and I'm looking in particular to explore good options for Greenland, the Faroes and Åland, since I seem not to be naturally encountering them in my haphazard approach to Reading around the World.

Let's use this thread to capture our plans, thoughts and conversations about it. Each member can choose to focus solely on one of the two themes, or read works from each theme, as you choose. Share any resources or recommendations, even if you haven't read a work yet, to help other members who want to participate find their way. I recommend thinking of, environment, broadly, to include nature, ecosystems, global warming, and related topics.

Feel free to set up your own threads to capture your progress, or comment here.

Do you plan to participate? Let us know what you're thinking about reading for these themes.

[Susan]

I'm looking forward to this quarterly challenge. I jumped the gun and started An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good today (Swedish author).

I have some Icelandic crime fiction on my Kindle by Eva Bjorg Ægisdóttir and Lilja Sigurðardóttir, and I'm looking forward to giving those a go.

I need to look through my shelves and see what might fit the environment category. I had planned to reread Oryx and Crake this year, so maybe I can make it part of this challenge.

[Carol]

Susan wrote: "I'm looking forward to this quarterly challenge. I jumped the gun and started An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good today (Swedish author).

I have some Icelandic crime fiction on my Kin..."

I read An Elderly Lady a few weeks ago and hope you enjoy it. I think Tursten is a strong short story writer. In fact I much preferred these stories to a couple of her novels. I am with you on catching up on crime fiction Kindle reads, too. I have so many and I enjoy them when I remember to check my Kindle : )

Good luck, Susan!

[Hannah]

I'm planning on reading 3 for the environment:
Finishing Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, I've been reading this slowly for months, not because I'm struggling with it but because I love it so much I don't want it to end!
Also, All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki and How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue for eco fiction.
I don't have anything planned for the Nordic side as crime/thrillers aren't my cup of tea. I've read one book by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and liked it a little but don't feel like reading any more of her work. Any other suggestions anyone?

[Carol]

Hannah wrote: "I'm planning on reading 3 for the environment:
Finishing Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, I've been reading this slowly fo..."

You may want to consider The History of Bees by Norwegian author, Maja Lunde. It's climate-change fiction, imagining a world where bees have gone extinct. This review from The Atlantic provides more, and you can read just the initial couple of paragraphs if you're spoiler averse.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...

[Carol]

Because I see comments similar to the one Hannah shared frequently, and because it takes quite an investment of time to cross-reference the many prize-winning, well-reviewed Nordic novels and determine which are available in English, I've pulled together the following most frequently-recommended books by Nordic authors, consolidated across many sites and bloggers. I haven't personally read most of these, but am excited to read many of them. They skew predominately post-2010.

Nordic books that aren't crime/thrillers

Denmark

Of Darkness, One of Us Is Sleeping by Josefine Klougart. (" She was hailed as the Virginia Woolf of the North by the Swedish magazine Vi läser")
Celestine by Olga Ravn
Anger Is My Middle Name: A Memoir by Lisbeth Zornig Andersen
Out Of Africa And Shadows On The Grass, Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen)(1885-1962)("may be the greatest Danish writer of the twentieth century")
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, So Much for That Winter (2 novellas) by Dorthe Nors
The Shamer's Daughter by Lene Kaaberbøl (YA/Middle Grade)
Poets: Inger Christensen, and Asta Olivia Nordenhofthe easiness and the loneliness

GR List (incl's male authors): https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...


Finland

Troll: A Love Story (urban fantasy, LGBTQ+) and The Core of the Sun (Finnish weird, speculative litfic), Johanna Sinisalo
The Summer Book, Fair Play by Tove Jansson (classics)
Purge, Dog Park by Sofi Oksanen(Finland's best-selling living author)
The Love Story of the Century by Märta Tikkanen
The Midwife by Katja Kettu (historical fiction)
Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom (historical fiction)
Pet Shop Girls is the first of Anja Snellman's 24 novels to be translated into English. Suspense, but not crime/murder.
The Red Abbey Chronicles, a fantasy series by Maria Turtschaninoff. Book 1 is Maresi.
Oneiron by Laura Lindstedt
Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta ("Itäranta started writing the novel in English, translating it into Finnish along the way. She finished writing the book in Finnish and English simultaneously. Memory of Water is a coming-of-age story set in a future world that is running out of fresh water. Reviewers have compared Itäranta to Margaret Atwood, and Memory of Water won her the Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize for young authors in 2013 and the Young Aleksis Kivi Prize in 2012.")

Greenland

HOMO sapienne by Niviaq Korneliussen (2017 New Yorker article here: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...)

Rock, Paper, Scissors, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back, Poetry - Naja Marie Aidt. ("She is the author of seven collections of poetry and five short story collections, with many works translated into English including Baboon, which received the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize and the Danish Critics Prize for Literature. Rock, Paper, Scissors, her first novel, was published in 2015, which drew comparisons from Time Magazine to James Joyce’s Dubliners.")

Iceland
A Fist or a Heart by Kristín Eiríksdóttir (MC in her 70s)
Days in the History of Silence by Merethe Lindstrøm
Miss Iceland, Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Magma by Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir
The Book of Reykjavik: A City in Short Fiction by Becca Parkinson (includes male authors)

Auður Jónsdóttir (granddaughter of Halldór Laxness): Deposition, Quake: A Novel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au%C3%B...

[Carol]

continued...

Aland Islands

Ice by Ulla-Lena Lundberg (historical fiction) (takes place on the fictitious island of Or - part of the Aland Islands)

[Carol]

continued...

Sweden

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck (speculative fiction)
The Helios Disaster by Linda Boström Knausgård (retelling of the birth of Athena)
The Polyglot Lovers by Lina Wolff
childrens' books by Astrid Lindgren, including the Pippi Longstocking books and The Brothers Lionheart
Catherine of Siena, In the Wilderness, True and Untrue and Other Norse Tales - Illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman, The Wife, Kristin Lavransdatter 2: The Mistress of Husaby, The Wreath and more by Sigrid Undset (classics)
Willful Disregard by Lena Andersson
Valerie; or, The Faculty of Dreams by Sara StridsbergSara Stridsberg (recreated, fictionalized bio of Valerie Solanas, murderer of Andy Warhol)

Norway

The Alberta Trilogy, book of one of which is Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel (classic, semi-autobiographical, first published in 1926.
A Modern Family by Helga Flatland (referred to as "the Norwegian Anne Tyler" - about a couple in their 70s who decide to divorce and the effect this has on their adult children)
Ankomst and The Looking-Glass Sisters by Gøhril Gabrielsen (a tragic love story about two sisters who cannot live with or without each other)
Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes by Gerd Brantenberg (UK: The Daughters of Egalia)
Sea Swell by Cecilie Løveid
Linn Ullmann: Grace, Stella Descending, A Blessed Child, Before You Sleep, The Cold Song, Unquiet
Love, The Blue Room by Hanne Ørstavik
Knots: Stories, Wait, Blink, Present Tense Machine: A Novel, Evil Flowers: Stories and more by Gunnhild Øyehaug
Zero by Gine Cornelia Pedersen
Girls Against God, Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval (best-known in Norway as a singer)
The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn
Antiphony by Laila Stien (about the Sami people)
Monsterhuman, The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am, The Child and more by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold
Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine by Klara Hveberg

[Carol]

@Claire - I suspect you've read a dozen or more of these and would love any guidance or recs you care to share.

I want to read for this challenge: Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen, Fair Play by Tove Jansson, HOMO sapienne by Niviaq Korneliussen, and I'll throw a dart across my bedroom at the stacks of mystery/thriller novels by Finnish and Icelandic women and be happy wherever it lands.

[Ozsaur]

Carol, thank you for the amazing list! I've found a couple of books that will be going on my TBR.

[Carol]

Ozsaur wrote: "Carol, thank you for the amazing list! I've found a couple of books that will be going on my TBR."

Yay! It just made no sense not to share it once I'd done the work. Have you read any of The Red Abbey Chronicles, by chance?

[Tamara]

I've read four novels by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir:
Hotel Silence
Miss Iceland
The Greenhouse
Butterflies in November

I love the way she writes. She has an understated, subtle, minimalist style that I find very appealing. She is an absolute gem. I enjoyed all her novels, but my absolute favorite is Hotel Silence.

[Carol]

Tamara wrote: "I've read four novels by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir:
Hotel Silence
Miss Iceland
The Greenhouse
Butterflies in November

I..."

Tamara - that's my challenge then. Ensure I hit Hotel Silence in 2022, if not this quarter. (on the shame front, I obtained 2 of these as ARCs and still didn't read them.)

[Hannah]

Wow Carol this is amazing!

Looking back at my comment it reads as if I was under the impression that all Nordic novels are crime/thrillers. This is not what I intended to communicate 😣 I only meant that most lists/recs are dominated by these genres and I wanted some guidance as to where to start for something different.

Now I have plenty! Thanks Carol, I look forward to exploring these lists

[Tamara]

A couple more for the list:

A Fist or a Heart by Kristín Eiríksdóttir (Iceland). It won a host of awards, including the 2018 Icelandic Literary Prize.
Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth. (Norway)
It deals with the trauma of childhood sexual assault so it might not be for everyone.
My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. A murder mystery set in Iceland.
Shadow by Karin Alvtegen. (Sweden)
A mystery behind the abandonment of a four-year old boy.

I read some of these a few years ago and have posted reviews of all these on Goodreads.

[Carol]

Hannah wrote: "Wow Carol this is amazing!

Looking back at my comment it reads as if I was under the impression that all Nordic novels are crime/thrillers. This is not what I intended to communicate 😣 I only mean..."

No! No! Your comment didn’t come across that way. Truly, I hear this across groups, and it’s very true that there’s an abundance of lists promoting Nordic noir, and exponentially fewer promoting all other categories of Nordic lit. It’s also not easy to find good, country-specific lists. I have to watch out for my own TBR becoming 80% Finnish genre because I like both Finnish lit and the mystery genre, and it’s easy to find novels in that slot. Greenland? That takes research. So : thank you!

[Ozsaur]

Carol said: "It just made no sense not to share it once I'd done the work. Have you read any of The Red Abbey Chronicles, by chance?"

No, but it sounds like something I'd enjoy. I have it marked on Scribd to listen to the audio. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

[Hannah]

Thanks Carol, I've added a few to my tbr. I've read the first in the red abbey series, I thought it was good but more suited to a younger audience

[Carol]

Hannah wrote: "Thanks Carol, I've added a few to my tbr. I've read the first in the red abbey series, I thought it was good but more suited to a younger audience"

good to know - thank you!

[Anita]

I'm determined to read Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir for this quarter. It's been on my tbr for a while, and since I'm trying to read that tbr down, this is perfect motivation. I'll have to look for some environmental reads, although I also have The History of Bees on my list, so I'll add that to my to-read goal for this quarter. As always, thank you for being such an amazing resource for us Carol!

[Liesl]

Wow! So many amazing suggestions here.

I am going to try to finish 4 books for this challenge:

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg 15/08/22
Kallocain by Karin Boye
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres

I'm also adding a couple of alternates in case I find some extra moments in my week:
The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews
Plus all those fascinating works that Tamara has suggested by Audur Ava Olafsdottir. If only there were more hours in the day.....

[Misty]

I am trying to get four books read - two for environment and two for Nordic authors. I have finished two: Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard and The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters. I also want to read Sun Storm by Asa Larsson. I'm not sure of the other one yet.

[Carol]

Liesl's comment in another thread reminded me that I missed creating a widget for this quarterly challenge. It's up now, available at this link and on our group landing page. https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

[Jen]

Im reading a book now that would fit for this challenge and so far I can highly recommend - Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm (Danish) - for those who like recently published fiction, or mysterious / gothic atmospheric writing. It’s not Nordic noir, in my view (which I also love). Half way through and it’s very intriguing!

[Jen]

I’m also planning to read Childhood / Youth / Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen this year so will wait for Q3.