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Finally, there is the word code, beloved and misused, but very useful .

Beckman (pg. 9)

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Swedish lit poster

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10 Interesting Novels

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. (Amazon.com)

The Girl Who Played with Fire The girl with the dragon tattoo is back. Stieg Larsson's seething heroine, Lisbeth Salander, once again finds herself paired with journalist Mikael Blomkvist on the trail of a sinister criminal enterprise. Only this time, Lisbeth must return to the darkness of her own past (more specifically, an event coldly known as "All the Evil") if she is to stay one step ahead--and alive. The Girl Who Played with Fire is a break-out-in-a-cold-sweat thriller that crackles with stunning twists and dismisses any talk of a sophomore slump. Fans of Larsson's prior work will find even more to love here, and readers who do not find their hearts racing within the first five pages may want to confirm they still have a pulse. Expect healthy doses of murder, betrayal, and deceit, as well as enough espresso drinks to fuel downtown Seattle for months. (Amazon.com)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest As the finale to Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is not content to merely match the adrenaline-charged pace that made international bestsellers out of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Instead, it roars with an explosive storyline that blows the doors off the series and announces that the very best has been saved for last. A familiar evil lies in wait for Lisbeth Salander, but this time, she must do more than confront the miscreants of her past; she must destroy them. Much to her chagrin, survival requires her to place a great deal of faith in journalist Mikael Blomkvist and trust his judgment when the stakes are highest. To reveal more of the plot would be criminal, as Larsson's mastery of the unexpected is why millions have fallen hard for his work. But rest assured that the odds are again stacked, the challenges personal, and the action fraught with neck-snapping revelations in this snarling conclusion to a thrilling triad. This closing chapter to The Girl's pursuit of justice is guaranteed to leave readers both satisfied and saddened once the final page has been turned.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he’s still in good health. A big celebration is in the works for his 100th birthday, but Allan really isn’t interested (and he’d like a bit more control over his alcohol consumption), so he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey. It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: he has not only witnessed some of the most important events of the 20th century, but actually played a key role in them. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world. (Goodreads.com)

Faceless Killers It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn’t present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have–and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments. Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecuter who has piqued his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve. (Goodreads.com)

The Man from Beijing In a sleepy hamlet in north Sweden, the local police make a chilling discovery; nineteen people have been brutally slaughtered. It is a crime unprecedented in Sweden's history and the police are under incredible pressure to solve the killings. When Judge Birgitta Roslin reads about the massacre, she realises that she has a family connection to one of the couples involved and decides to investigate. When the police make a hasty arrest it is left to her to investigate the source of a nineteenth century diary and red silk ribbon found near the crime scene. What she will uncover leads her into an international web of corruption and a story of vengeance that stretches back over a hundred years. (Goodreads.com)

The Ice Princess Returning to her hometown of Fjallbacka after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a book about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their own shared past. While her interest grows into an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about a small town with a deeply disturbing past. (Goodreads.com)

Before the Frost. In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda, just graduated from the police academy, join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree and soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners. In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree. Just graduated from the police academy, Linda Wallander returns to Skane to join the police force, and she already shows all the hallmarks of her father--the maverick approach, the flaring temper. Before she even starts work she becomes embroiled in the case of her childhood friend Anna, who has inexplicably disappeared. As the case her father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more dangerous than either could have imagined begins to emerge. They soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners. (Goodreads.com)

The Man Who Smiled The Man Who Smiled begins with Inspector Kurt Wallander deep in a personal and professional crisis after killing a man in the line of duty; eventually, he vows to quit the Ystad police force for good. Just then, however, a friend who had asked Wallander to look into the death of his father winds up dead himself, shot three times. Ann-Britt Hoglund, the department's first female detective, proves to be his best ally as he tries to pierce the smiling facade of his prime suspect, a powerful multinational business tycoon. But just as he comes close to uncovering the truth, the same shadowy threats responsible for the murders close in on Wallander himself. All of Henning Mankell's talents as a master of the modern police procedural, which have earned him legions of fans worldwide, are showcased in The Man Who Smiled, which is the fourth of the eight Wallander books published thus far in English. (Goodreads.com)

Sun Storm On the floor of a church in northern Sweden, the body of a man lies mutilated and defiled–and in the night sky, the aurora borealis dances as the snow begins to fall....So begins Åsa Larsson’s spellbinding thriller, winner of Sweden’s Best First Crime Novel Award and an international literary sensation. Rebecka Martinsson is heading home to Kiruna, the town she’d left in disgrace years before. A Stockholm attorney, Rebecka has a good reason to return: her friend Sanna, whose brother has been horrifically murdered in the revivalist church his charisma helped create. Beautiful and fragile, Sanna needs someone like Rebecka to remove the shadow of guilt that is engulfing her, to forestall an ambitious prosecutor and a dogged policewoman. But to help her friend, and to find the real killer of a man she once adored and is now not sure she ever knew, Rebecka must relive the darkness she left behind in Kiruna, delve into a sordid conspiracy of deceit, and confront a killer whose motives are dark, wrenching, and impossible to guess.... (Goodreads.com)

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Five Interesting Nonfiction Books

1.) Fishing in Utopia: Sweden & The Future That Disappeared

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Sweden was an affluent, egalitarian country envied around the world. Refugees were welcomed, even misfit young Englishmen could find a place there. Andrew Brown spent part of his childhood in Sweden during the 1960s. In the 1970s he married a Swedish woman and worked in a timber mill raising their small son. Fishing became his passion and his escape. In the mid-1980s his marriage and the country fell apart. The Prime Minister was assassinated. The welfare system crumbled along with the industries that had supported it. 20 years later Andrew Brown traveled the length of Sweden in search of the country he had loved, and then hated, and now found he loved again. (Amazon.com)

2.) The Palace of the Snow Queen

Over the course of three winters, Sjoholm unearths the region's rich history, including the culture of the Sami. As Sjoholm becomes more familiar with Kiruna, she writes of the changes occurring in northern Scandinavia and contemplates the tensions between tourism, the expansion of mining and development of the Ice Hotel, and age-old patterns of land use, the Sami's struggle to maintain their reindeer grazing lands and migration routes. In The Palace of the Snow Queen, Sjoholm relates her adventures in the far north, and considers how ice and snow shape our imaginations and create, at a time of global warming, a vision that increasingly draws visitors to Lapland. (Google Books)

3.) Codebreakers: Arne Beurling and the Swedish Crypto Program During World War II

Britain's code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, which at its height consisted of around 10,000 personnel, has been the subject of numerous books, films and television series. By comparison, scant attention has been paid to Arne Beurling, a Swedish mathematician who in 1940 deciphered the code of the German Geheimschreiber (G-Schreiber) communications device, by himself and using only pencil and paper, in just two weeks. (thelocal.se)

4.) Operation Chaos: The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers, and Themselves

Though it may at first glance seem to have little to do with Swedish history, Operation Chaos tells the surprising history of around 800 American Vietnam War deserters who in the late 1960s found sanctuary in Sweden, "the only non-Communist country in Europe that offered asylum to those who refused to fight", author Matthew Sweet explains.

Sweet recounts this interesting and at times bizarre aspect of modern Swedish history featuring – among other things – principles marred by paranoia and disillusionment, a controversial political organization that "proved a thorn in the side of the Swedish political establishment", and a group Sweet describes as "an apocalyptic cult that believed in the satanic nature of the Queen of England, the prime minister of Sweden and the Beatles…". (thelocal.se)

5.) Karin Bergöö Larsson and the Emergence of Swedish Design

Long before Ikea, spouses Carl Larsson and Karin Bergöö Larsson literally and figuratively wrote the book that defined modern Swedish interior design. Artist and interior designer Karin was the mastermind behind their beautiful cottage, Lilla Hyttnäs, in Sundborn, Sweden. Carl captured their day-to-day life at Lilla Hyttnäs in a series of stunning watercolor paintings during the late 1800s that formed the basis of his 1899 book Ett Hem (A Home). The book was a bestseller, inspiring Scandinavians, Germans and Americans in particular to imitate the then-radically modern and eclectic Arts and Crafts style reflected in the paintings of the home. (thelocal.se)

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villa dun lee ~  per nadén + anton kolbe | photos ©  per nadén + anton kolbe

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Precious moments.

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After the thunderstorm had passed by.

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The first warming sunrays after a chilly night.

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I spotted this rare white deer when I was out driving the other morning. I have never seen a white deer before so I got very excited.

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“Fika” is a concept in Swedish culture that means “to have coffee, cake and a chit-chat”. It’s a big part of the culture and most companies have two daily fika breaks at 9am and at 3pm. Photo : Kars Alfrink/flickr

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🇸🇪 21 Reasons To Learn Swedish 🇸🇪

Swedish is closely related to English so it’s pretty easy for most people to pick up.

If youre into Scandinavian languages Swedish can help you learn the others like Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.

Buut if you learn Swedish you don’t even need to learn Danish or Norwegian. Swedish, Danish, & Norwegian are all mutually intelligible so you get 3 languages for the price of one!

Sweden is one of the most socially progressive countries on earth. It has free education and healthcare, high salaries, and is ranked as one of the most desirable places to live in the world.

Swedish people are known for being very open, fair, liberal, environmentally friendly, and technologically innovative.

You get access to lots of great music! According to Sveriges Körförbund (Sweden’s Choir Union) which represents over 500 choirs around 600,000 swedes take part in a choir. Sweden is the 3rd biggest exporter of music after the US and UK.

Swedish people will appreciate you putting the time and effort into learning their language. 89% of swedes know english and most of their tv shows arent even dubbed into Swedish.

In Sweden they have this amazing thing called Fika (coffee break). Fika is a social phenomenon where people take breaks and enjoy life with good company, coffee, and pastries. In Sweden fika are most commonly taken twice at work. Usually at 9am and 3pm. Fika is one of Sweden’s most deep rooted traditions. Sweden consumes more coffee than any other country in the world because of fika.

Swedish is a very sought after language by European employers. Learning Swedish even just to a B2 level will be good for your CV and make you more attractive to the European job market.

Smörgåsbord (sandwich table) is a type of Scandinavian meal that originated in Sweden and became popular in the mid-seventeenth century. It’s served buffet style with many hot & cold dishes. Julbord (Christmas table) is a special type of smörgåsbord held at Christmas time.

By learning Swedish you’ll finally be able to read what all the furniture at IKEA are called!

Swedish grammar is easy. In Swedish verbs are conjugated by tense instead of by pronoun and there are only two genders called common and neuter.

Swedish sounds beautiful. Many people think when Swedish people talk it sounds like they are singing. Swedish is a soft and melodic language.

Crayfish Party (Kräftskiva) is something that has been around in Sweden for over 500 years making it one of the oldest Swedish traditions. It started in the 16th century as an exclusive dish that King Erik XIV would eat, but now it has turned into probably the messiest party of the year in Sweden held on the first Thursday of August. At Kräftskiva swedes eat shrimp and crayfish, sing, dance, wear colorful hats, and drink.

In Sweden they have something called fredagsmys (cozy friday). Fredagsmys is the ritual of stuffing your face in front of the tv in comfy clothes and eventually falling asleep every Friday.

Sweden is a very multicultural country. 15% of swedes were born in another country and 1 in 5 children have family with roots in another country.

Less than 3% of Sweden’s land is built up. Sweden is made up of 69% forests and 9% lakes.

Sweden has a population of 260,000 reindeer

Lagom is an important and often used word in Swedish. It means good enough or just right which sums up Sweden’s cultural and social ideals of equality and fairness.

There are around 20 hours of daylight in Sweden in the summer.

The Northern lights can be seen in Sweden

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Details of the Vasa a Swedish Warship, wrecked in the 17th century

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Sven Jonson (1902-1981)

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the swedish edition of harry potter, illustrated by alvaro tapia, is by far my favourite rendition of the series:

bonus: