Swedish archive at Stray Talk
an archive of my forays into fact and fiction

Archive: Swedish


7th July, 2008
Speed reviews: part I
— Love @ 08:43 Comments (1)
Filed under: A-Z Reading Challenge, B, Book Blowout, C, Classics, D, English, GLBT interest, Historical, History, Lifestyle, Mystery, Religion, Romance, Science Fiction, Sex, sexuality & gender, Speed reviews, Swedish, To Be Read, Young Adult

Since I’m sick* and way behind on reviews, I’ve realised the only way to catch up is to make them speed reviews and post a whole batch at once.

The Age of Napoleon; Alistair Horne, eng, 235 British
Interesting, but a little choppily written, and also the author assumes you know certain things and never explains them, while others he explains over and over again.
C

Cold Comfort Farm; Stella Gibbons, eng, 253 British
Funny, though I accidentally didn’t read the preface, so I wasn’t 100 % how much of it was intentional (all of it, as it turns out, and as I suspected). Flora Poste is kind of annoying, but all right all the same.
For the TBR reading challenge and as part of the BBC Big Read.
B

Rebecca; Daphne du Maurier, eng, 410 British
A re-read, not as good as I remembered it, but still lovely. Maxim is both wonderful and creepy.
C

Med uppenbar känsla för stil; Stephan Mendel-Enk, swe, 128 Swedish
Interestingly written about men and what’s considered masculine. References Morrissey at some points, mostly in connection with a man who went berserk and killed people. Lovely… not!
C

Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East; Brian Whitaker, swe, 230 British
Interesting, scary and occasionally a little bit hopeful.
C

Ingen behöver veta; Christina Wahldén, swe, 139 Swedish
About male rape and how it does exist, but people find it hard to believe. Kind of a non-ending, but then I suppose that’s sadly the case in most instances of actual male rape also.
C

Ingen grekisk gud, precis; Katarian Kieri, swe, 217 Swedish
Kind of brilliant tale of a young girl who falls for a teacher. Kind of brilliant mostly because the main character is into Morrissey, but for other reasons also. I was a bit worried where it was going to end, but it’s kind of perfect, really.
B

Sandman: The Kindly Ones; Neil Gaiman et al., eng, 335 British
I wouldn’t say Sandman is Gaiman at his best, but I do like the stories and so also in this volume. Not my favourite, though.
For the TBR reading challenge.
C

Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island; Mike Tucker, eng, 255 British
Scary monsters and kiddies with nightmares. I liked it, but not as much as other DW books.
C

Doctor Who: The Art of Destruction; Stephen Cole, eng, 256 British
Farming in Africa, golden statues and creepy aliens. Good, but not great. Doctor’s always nice, though.
C

Doctor Who: The Price of Paradise; Colin Brake, eng, 255 British
References Franz Ferdinand and other pop culture a time or two. Not the best of the DW books I’ve read—I don’t much care for Colin Brake’s style of writing it, though I can’t put my finger on the exact reason.
C

Tro, hopp och burnout; Johan Unenge, swe, 228 Swedish
YA story about a guy who’s really into cars and death metal, who ends up going on a confirmation camp. It’s a decent story, and I was happy to see it didn’t end up quite where I expected it would, but the writing style is very, very choppy and not at all my cup of tea.
For the A-Z reading challenge.
C

Vadå feminist; Lisa Gålmark, swe, 188 Swedish
Basic guide to feminism. I wasn’t too keen on the writing and didn’t like the book all that much. Mostly it made me a little annoyed with the author, though it did contain sections worth thinking about. It bothers me that there is no question mark in the title.
For the A-Z reading challenge.
D

Homofamiljer; Sara Stenholm & Cecilia Strömberg, swe, 312 Swedish
About rainbow families and different ways to get one. Interesting, especially the personal stories, but not fab.
C

*Just a cold, but a bad one. I hate colds. And I’ve run out of Kleenex, which means my nose is very, very sore from regular paper towels. Woe.


4th July, 2008
Hundår; Markus Zusak
— Love @ 06:14 Comments (0)
Filed under: A-Z Reading Challenge, Book Blowout, D, Fiction, Swedish, Young Adult

The Underdog; Markus Zusak Hundår
by Markus Zusak
Original title: The Underdog
Australian

For the A-Z reading challenge.

Swedish
128 pages
Richters
ISBN: 91-7130-027-9

First line: Det var medan vi tittade på teve som vi bestämde oss för att råna tandläkaren.

Back cover blurb:
Cameron Wolfe är en ensamvarg och underdog som slår i underläge. Alltid i underläge!
I Hundår berättar han om några månader i sitt liv. Inte för att det hände något särskilt. Bara hans försök att hitta sin väg genom livet. Och några boxningsmatcher på bakgården.

Thoughts: I don’t know if it was because of the translation, my mood at the time, or because Zusak is just not my cup of tea, but I didn’t like this book. I’ve been hearing a lot of good stuff about him, so I think I’ll probably try The Book Thief anyway, though not by buying it. If I’ll read it, I’ll borrow it from the library.

A D grade. It just wasn’t interesting to me.


9th June, 2008
Annika Larsdotter: barnamörderska; Inger Lövkrona
— Love @ 13:40 Comments (0)
Filed under: Back to History, C, History, Swedish, To Be Read, True crime

Annika Larsdotter: barnamörderska; Inger Lövkrona Annika Larsdotter: barnamörderska
by Inger Lövkrona
Swedish

For the Back to History and To Be Read reading challenges.

Swedish
255 pages
Historiska Media
ISBN: 91-88930-64-5

First line: Boston — Min vän slänger tidningsartikeln pÃ¥ skrivbordet med en kort kommentar: “Ja, här har du en till.”

Back cover blurb:
Annika Larsdotter avrättades 1765, 18 år gammal. Hon hade då erkänt dråp på sitt nyfödda barn genom kvävning. Barnets far var Annikas svåger som hade tvingat henne till sexuellt umgänge, men sedan förnekade faderskapet.

Annika Larsdotter var en av tusentals unga svenska kvinnor som under 1600-, 1700- och 1800-talen anklagades för barnamord eller fosterfördrivning. Brottet ansÃ¥gs vara samtidens största samhällsfara. Barnamörderskor dömdes strängt och utan förbarmande — kvinnan beskrevs ofta som en osedlig, ondskefull och grym moder, i nära släktskap med häxor.

Denna bok handlar om Annika men också om några av hennes olyckssystrar. Varför valde dessa kvinnor att mörda sitt barn? Varför valde de inte istället att, i likhet med andra ogifta mödrar, ta på sig rollen som ogift mor?

Etnologen Inger Lövkrona söker svaren genom att studera rättsfall från perioden 1729-1776. De bevarade domstolsprotokollen ger unika möjligheter att komma nära barnamörderskornas handlingar, tänkbara överväganden och känslor.

Very short synopsis in English: This is the study of eight cases from 18th century Sweden where young, unwed women murdered, or were accused of having murdered, their newborn children. Why did they do it?

Thoughts: This was a very interesting read, but what struck me as most shocking was an excerpt at the very beginning of the book, about “prom moms”. It’s easy to read about a case from the 18th century, where shame and desperation led someone to commit almost unspeakable offenses, and think that at least we’ve moved on from that now. Not everywhere we haven’t. Young women still sometimes don’t see any other way out. It’s absolutely horrifying and sad — it was then and it is now.

The book was sometimes a bit tricky to follow, but that always happens to me when I haven’t read academic texts in a while. All things considered, a C grade is in order.


3rd June, 2008
Människohamn; John Ajvide Lindqvist
— Love @ 12:27 Comments (0)
Filed under: C, Fiction, Swedish

Människohamn; John Ajvide Lindqvist Människohamn
by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Swedish

Swedish
451 pages
Ordfront
ISBN: 978-91-7037-373-2

First line: Välkommen till Domarö.

Back cover blurb:
“Pappa, vad är det där? PÃ¥ isen?”
Det är en strålande vinterdag. Högst upp i Gåvastens fyr står Anders med sin sexåriga dotter Maja. Isen ligger snötäckt så långt ögat kan nå och Anders kan inte se något speciellt där hans dotter pekar.
Maja går för att undersöka och fem minuter senare börjar mardrömmen. Trots att det inte finns någonstans där Maja kan försvinna, är det just det som händer. Hon försvinner. Spårlöst. Anders och hans hustru Cecilia har inte längre något barn.
Det lyckliga livet på ön Domarö i Roslagens skärgård är slut. Bara förtvivlan och skilsmässa återstår.
Ett par år senare återvänder Anders till ön, nersupen och deprimerad men fast besluten att leva. Då nås han av ett meddelande som tänder ett vansinnigt hopp: Maja finns ännu i världen, på en plats där han inte kan nå henne.
Ett sökande tar sin början. Det kommer att föra Anders till Domarös hemlighållna förflutna, mot havets mörka hjärta. Genom avgrunden måste han gå för att finna den han älskar. Om det nu verkligen är hon.
En mopedmotor hörs i skogen om nätterna. Brevlådor vandaliseras och hus brinner. Havet kastar sig mot klipporna. Någon hatar oss.

Thoughts: Människohamn is Ajvide Lindqvist’s most recent novel and as I’ve liked his previous books a whole lot, I pretty much had to go out and get this as soon as I could when it was out.

On the whole, it’s a good book, but I felt that the ending was a bit lacking (endings are, to be honest, not Ajvide Lindqvist’s forte) and so it doesn’t reach the same heights as LÃ¥t den rätte komma in (his first novel, now available in English as Let the Right One In — read it) did.

Människohamn does have its moments, though. I’m thinking, of course, of the Smiths-quoting ghosts. It’s impossible not to feel utter glee at them. Well, it’s impossible if your name is Love and you happen to be a big Smiths/Morrissey fan…

När sommaren kom stod det klart att Henrik och Björn hade hittat sin grej. Meat is murder [sic] hade kommit några månader tidigare och Anders tyckte att var en helt okej skiva, men inte som Hatful of hollow [sic]. Henrik och Björn tyckte annorlunda. De kunde varenda textrad på skivan och båda hade blivit vegetarianer, möjligen de första någonsin på Domarö.

That John Ajvide Lindqvist is a big Morrissey fan is a fact well-known to those who know it well1, and the title of his first novel is actually taken from a song written by Morrissey. It bothers me slightly that the English title of that book isn’t quite what it should be (Let the Right One Slip In), but I guess you can’t have it all.

Människohamn is a decent book, but not scary, which was both quite nice (as it didn’t keep me from falling asleep) and quite disappointing (I was expecting to be scared). I’m giving it a C, which would have been a higher grade if the ending had been better and the rest of the book hadn’t had quite so many passages that didn’t really move the story forward.

1. Cookies to the person who can tell me who I stole that phrase from.


1st June, 2008
En liten chock; Johanna Lindbäck
— Love @ 11:45 Comments (0)
Filed under: C, Swedish, Young Adult

En liten chock; Johanna Lindbäck En liten chock
by Johanna Lindbäck
Swedish

Swedish
272 pages
Tiden
ISBN: 978-91-85243-98-3

First line: Han ansträngde sig inte direkt för att komma i tid, det kan man inte säga.

Back cover blurb:
Gustav hoppades på tre saker när han började gymnasiet:

  1. En flickvän, eller en tillfällig tjej att ha sex med, åtminstone en gång.
  2. En massa nya kompisar med samma intressen som han, det vill säga inte sport.
  3. En ny personlighet.

Nu är det bara ett par mÃ¥nader kvar till studenten och Gustav har nästan gett upp hoppet. Men sÃ¥ bildar han och Elin i klassen en pakt. De ska göra nÃ¥got oväntat—nÃ¥got som gör dem mindre missnöjda med varandra och sina förutsägbara liv. NÃ¥got som gör att de slipper dö av tristess och leda.
Det drar ihop sig till en liten chock…

Thoughts: This was a decent little YA read. Most of the reason I liked it as much as I did (not more than a C rating, though) is because it’s set in UmeÃ¥, which is where I studied at university, so I know the city. It’s always neat to have places you are familiar with appear in fiction.