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Nordic Countries Reading List

Posted by (Vancouver, Canada) on

I recently returned from a trip to the Nordic countries - Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland (trip report: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-2-months-in-the-nordic-countries ).

Here is a list of books I read prior to the trip that I would recommend:

  • The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings (by John Haywood)

  • Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings (by Neil Price)

  • Norse Mythology (by Neil Gaiman)

  • The Sagas of the Icelanders: A Selection (by Penguin Classics)

  • The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia (by Michael Booth)

  • The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life (by Anu Partanen)

  • Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right - And How We Can, Too (by George Lakey)

  • Sweden's Dark Soul: The Unravelling of a Utopia (by Kajsa Norman)

  • The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country (by Helen Russell)

Posted by
679 posts

Evan, GREAT list, thank you! Very admirable how much you researched your Nordic trip ahead of time. I'm slowly reading "Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings" (by Neil Price), he's a professor of Archeology here at Uppsala University, such a good writer! And Kajsa Norman is Swedish & Anu Partanen is Finnish... so your list included a nice diversity of writers, thanks again!

Posted by
68 posts

I started planning the trip back in 2019 but because of Covid the trip was delayed for a few years so I had lots of time to read books on the Nordic countries

Posted by
6455 posts

Kajsa Norman might be Swedish and Anu Partanen Finnish, but they both live on the other side of the Atlantic.

Posted by
2141 posts

Hi Evan, wanted to add a Norwegian author Lars Mytting to your list. I’m currently reading “The Reindeer Hunters”, book 2 of a historical novel series. We’ve been to Norway 3 times and fell in love with the beauty and culture of the country.

Posted by
14036 posts

From a bit of a different slant, if anyone has an interest in WWII, The Shetland Bus by David Howarth is an excellent recounting of the courageous Norwegian fishermen who ran their boats back and forth from the Norway coast to Scotland's Shetland Island bring in covert operatives, ammo, guns, money and supplies and taking back intel and refugees from the Nazis. At night. In winter. Across the stormy North Sea.

I was surprised at the very close ties between Shetland/Orkney and Norway - both Viking heritage and WWII.

Posted by
68 posts

Hi Evan, wanted to add a Norwegian author Lars Mytting to your list.
I’m currently reading “The Reindeer Hunters”, book 2 of a historical
novel series. We’ve been to Norway 3 times and fell in love with the
beauty and culture of the country.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did some research and it’s part of a trilogy. Over the holidays I read The Bell in the Lake which is the first book in the series. It was good and I look forward to reading the second book which is The Reindeer Hunters that you mention. It looks like the third book has been published, although it seems like an English translation isn't available at this time.

Another book I read over the holidays was Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. The book is fiction but based on the events of the last public execution in Iceland. It’s an excellent book and I really enjoyed it.

Posted by
2405 posts

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. The book is fiction but based on the events of the last public execution in Iceland. It’s an excellent book and I really enjoyed it.

I really like this author. The Good People I may have enjoyed even a bit more than Burial Rites (it's about Ireland).

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