The libraries at a library system in a moderately populated county in North Carolina: you might not expect there to be lots of Swedish books there, but there are. I mean, random little books everywhere you look:
An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed
An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed: This was a fun read about a sweet old lady who goes around murdering people!
The Art of Whittling
The Art of Whittling: Can you believe a random book like this would be in a small library? Well, I’m not planning on becoming a whittler, but this book had pictures of Sweden in it, and talks about the Sami and birch wood and all sorts of nice things.
The Nansen Factor
This one is sort of linked to Sweden. I wrote a whole post about it here.
The Golden Name Day
This might actually be the absolutely loveliest book in the whole world. I actually need to write a whole post about it. It’s about Swedish immigrants living in New Hampshire. I had never heard of this book until I randomly found it at the library. I think it’s been out of print for years (it was first published I think in the 1930s or so) but now they are trying to bring it back. Personally, I think it’s a tragedy that this book has been out of print. Truly, truly, if you can find this book, do read it. I’ve already now read it twice, and both sequels!
52 Nature Craft Projects
This is a nice book about pretty things you can make using flowers and trees and grass and stuff. The lady who wrote it is Hungarian, but she’s living in Norway, so I’m including it.
So there you have it! Five books, and five books that you probably haven’t heard of — so it’s not like Pippi Longstocking or all the “detective noir” what-not, which you might expect. Instead, they’re lovely little surprises.
Adding some more:
Every Living Thing
This is not written by a Swedish person, but it’s about Carl Linnaeus, who was Swedish! It’s also about a French guy, so it’s about both. It’s very interesting. I’ve read some Swedish biographies about Carl Linnaeus that I found in the libraries in Sweden, and they were maybe middle school level. They were very worshipful almost of Linnaeus. This one is a bit more critical, but also still very nice.
An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good
I found a book related to the very first book in this list, it’s like a series apparently!
mejshasan.com 