#Marianne Fredriksson

[vandaswedenlitblog]

Final Blog: Reflections on a Year of Reading Swedish Literature

I read “Autumn” by Karl Ove Knausgaard, “Hanna’s Daughters” by Marianne Fredriksson, and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. 

Based on the fact that in “Autumn” Karl described fields of vegetables. “...bright yellow oilseed rape fields, pale green cornfields…yellow-green pastures, sharp green plots of onions, potatoes, carrots, sugar beet.” Based on this, I learned that Sweden has a lot of land that has farms which means that they also have harvesting seasons. In “Hanna’s Daughters” farms were mentioned frequently in Hanna’s sections of the book. “Distances between houses also grew, as the forest took over the fields and meadows around abandoned farms.” This made me learn even more how important farms are in Sweden. In this book they also mentioned types of trees. “On the shore were willows and birches with their perianths and catkins. Then I saw the maples…” From this, I learned that the trees in Sweden are able to grow very close to their lakes. 

Based on the fact that Karl was passing by an artillery range when taking his kids to school which lead to him finding out that the military were practicing with their weapons in “Autumn”, I learned that even though Sweden has not been in war and usually minds their own business, they still make sure that their military is doing things to ensure the safety of their citizens. In this book as well, Karl mentions how “war has not been waged since the seventeenth century…” which also helped me learn what I stated above. In “Hanna’s Daughters” the Spanish flu was mentioned to have happened in Sweden in 1918. Based on this, I learned that there were a lot of deaths in Sweden around that time of the year. 

Based on the fact that Hanna was making a sponge cake in “Hanna’s Daughters”, I learned that in Sweden they have plenty of bakeries wherever you go. Hanna also worked at a bakery. In “Hanna’s Daughters” they also mentioned how big the lines were at the bakery especially in the morning. People who wanted their “fresh bread for breakfast, newly churned butter, and sometimes small cakes.” They lastly mentioned varieties of seafood from salmon to shrimp. Based on this, I learned that seafood is popular in Sweden. Based on the fact that Karl explained how the churches were abandoned and left empty in the small towns which caused him to say how it symbolized that “no one seeks the divine level of reality any more…” in “Autumn”. From this I learned that churches are barely used in certain parts of Sweden and they are basically there for nostalgic purposes. 

From “Autumn”, I learned that, in life, there is so much more than what the eyes see. Karl’s whole reason for writing that book was so his daughter (who wasn’t born at the time) would be able to learn things about the life she was about to gain when she got older. Each chapter he would explain something or someone he saw and then took it so much deeper just based on that one singular thing/person and from there it would turn into a life lesson. From “Hanna’s Daughters”, I learned that, in life, family is to be cherished. Everything started off with Hanna and then went onto Johanna and then it finished off with Anna (even though the family generations would still continue with Anna’s kids). The generational similarities between the three of them were showcased a lot throughout the whole book to remind the readers that they are family. You would feel like you were with them when each of their stories took place. From “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, I learned that (even though I didn’t get quite far), in life, success can falter. Blomkvist being someone who was successful in his field and he knew how to write articles incredibly well ended up getting set up and his career being tainted by false accusations but of course, everyone believed he truly did it with no evidence supporting that he didn’t. 

Throughout this journey of reading for 20 weeks, I learned that I am truly capable of getting back into reading. I was a big reader during the pandemic and it carried on into 2021 but ever since then I’ve been in a funk and haven’t read much. I would pick up a book here and there but would soon forget its existence and not end up finishing it. Now, I am confident that I will be picking up those books that were put to the side and actually finishing them. I found that reading actually calms me down and makes me forget about my phone completely which I find to be amazing. I’m grateful that the conclusion of the 20 weeks of reading has led me to this. 

Word Count: 781

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Marianne Fredriksson

Marianne Fredriksson was born in 1927 in Gothenburg, Sweden. By the time Fredriksson wrote her first book in 1980, she had already made a name for herself as a journalist. Over the course of her literary career, she would publish fourteen novels as well as several nonfiction books. Fredriksson's work has been translated into more than 40 languages, and her books have sold over 17 million copies globally. Her notable works include the novel Hanna's Daughters, for which she won both Book of the Year and Author of the Year in 1994.

Marianne Fredriksson died in 2007 at the age of 79.

[filmes-online-facil]

Assistir Filme Simon & the Oaks Online fácil

Assistir Filme Simon & the Oaks Online Fácil é só aqui: https://filmesonlinefacil.com/filme/simon-the-oaks/

Simon & the Oaks - Filmes Online Fácil

História épica sobre duas famílias e sua amizade e destino comum no Gotemburgo da Suécia nos anos 1940 e 1950. Disse a partir da perspectiva do jovem Simon Larsson, que aprende que é uma criança adotada que tem um pai judeu da Alemanha. Depois que a WWII Simon viaja para explorar suas raízes - uma jornada que leva aos mistérios básicos da vida humana. Depois do romance best-seller de Marianne Fredriksson.

[zahut]

“She had realized there are only fragments, that ‘memories’ always consist of fragments the mind puts together into a pattern, adapts a picture staked out early without the need for a conenction with anything that really happened. A great deal is misunderstood by small children, then stored as images that attract similar images, confirming and reinforcing.”

― Marianne Fredriksson, Hanna’s Daughters: A Novel

[slaapwandeling]

"En koffie, Sofia. Vergeet in vredesnaam de koffie niet."

Marianne Fredriksson, Het zesde zintuig

[foxandcatlibrary]

34th Book I Read in 2021

Title: Gåtan

Author: Marianne Fredriksson

Notes: Den här boken kändes mycket äldre än jag trodde att den var, if that makes sense. Det är intressant hur mycket och samtidigt hur lite av det typiska skrivspråket vi använder i böcker har förändrats. Men den var också en skön liten läsning i sin egen rätt.

[enmeter-blog]

Världen är full av dårar, som står som fastvuxna i sin egen skugga och aldrig begriper, varför det är så mörkt.

Noreas Saga, Marianne Fredriksson (1983)

[ombskars]

It was pretty difficult to find this book to buy it, so now I`m here to brag.

[scandireader]

Scandinavian lit recommendations

Here's a list of Scandinavian literature recommendations, based on what I have read and what I personally think is worth getting into. There's more Swedish (/Finland-Swedish) in this list than Norwegian/Danish/Icelandic but that's purely because I majored in this language - there's plenty more gems! Most of these works have been translated into English.

The classics

• August Strindberg - The red room, Miss Julie (Swedish)

• Henrik Ibsen - A doll's house, The wild duck (Norwegian)

• Knut Hamsun - Hunger, Mysteries, Pan, Victoria (Norwegian)

• Unknown - The poetic Edda (Icelandic)

• Emil Aarestrup - Poems (Danish)

• Selma Lagerlöf - Gösta Berlings saga, Sir Arne's treasure, The emperor of Portugallia (Swedish)

• Hjalmar Söderberg - Doctor Glas , The serious game (Swedish)

• Fredrika Bremer - The H___ family (Finnish)

Later 20th century

• Dan Andersson - Poems (Swedish)

• Vilhelm Moberg - The brides of midsummer (Swedish)

• Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) - Seven Gothic Tales, Babette's Feast (Danish)

• Harry Martinson - Aniara (Swedish)

• Torgny Lindgren - Light, The way of a serpent (Swedish)

• Per Olof Sundman - Flight of the eagle (Swedish)

• Marianne Fredriksson - Simon and the oaks (Swedish)

Contemporary

• Mikael Niemi - Popular music from Vittula (Swedish)

• Per Olov Enquist - The royal physician's visit (Swedish)

• Lukas Moodysson - Between sixteen and twentysix (Swedish)

Children's literature

• Hans Christian Andersen - Fairytales (Danish)

• Astrid Lindgren - The brothers Lionheart, Ronia the robber's daughter, Pippi Longstocking series (Swedish)

• Tove Jansson - The summer book (Finnish)

Literary crime fiction

• Peter Høeg - Smilla's sense of snow (Danish)

• John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the right one in (Swedish)

• Kerstin Ekman - Blackwater (Swedish)

[musette22]

Tagged by @luninosity and @k347 - thank you both so much <3

Tag game- 💚 17 questions 17 people 💚

(actually it’s just 15 questions 😅)

Nickname- Minnie, Mins, Minne, Muis, Piep

Zodiac- Leo, but almost a Virgo, and may be more Virgo than Leo? Or a mix? 

Height- 5'5’’

The last thing I googled- “Scrooge Marley” because I couldn’t remember the first name of the character from A Christmas Carol and kept thinking “Bob” but... no 😂

Number of followers- 2,797

Song stuck in my head- Beethoven’s 6th, Pastorale. Catchy.

Amount of Sleep- I really need 8 but I rarely get it, so I’m always a lil bit tired

Lucky Number- 22

Favorite Instrument- Guitar all the way

Favorite Song-  NO I can’t choose one favourite song, absolutely impossible, but one that I can’t get enough of lately is A Case of You by Joni Mitchell <3

Favorite Author- Harry Mulish, Marianne Fredriksson, Kate Atkinson. Those three come to mind immediately, but there are many more (although it’s been a while since I read an actual book ugh, damn you fanfiction)

Dream Job- Curator of Paintings at a medium-sized museum, interior designer for English Home (lol) or, if I were a better writer, I’d love to be an author

Aesthetic- Fresh flowers, fairy lights, leather boots, blue skies, fluffy blankets, books, large mugs of coffee

Favorite Animal Noise- I’m with you here @k347, dreaming dog noises are the cutest thing! <3

Random-  Had Friday night dinner with my family tonight, and this was an actual conversation had:

Brother: What's this again?

Me: Halloumi

Dad: Alumni?

Mum: Oh, we really should watch the Da Vinci Code again!

Me: Yeah, you’re thinking of the Illuminati

Going to tag @rainbowsandcoconut @howdoyousleep3 @hellobeautworld @timmy-schallers @lighttomydark @wintersoldier1989 @dreadlockholiday-01 @kazablanka96 @hannah-stagram @curlsandbooty @hawkeyeandthewintersoldier @everythingstucky @thewaythatwerust @kalee60 @darter-blue and as always feel totally free to ignore! 😘😘

[imsorryimlate]

i’ve been reading this trilogy (children of paradise by marianne fredriksson), and i liked the first book and Loved the second, but i’m about halfway into the third one now and i’m not feeling it. it’s not a very thick book so it shouldn’t take long to finish it, but i have real trouble getting through it :/

[vandaswedenlitblog]

Week 18 Blog

This week I read pages 327 - 345 of the book “Hanna’s Daughters” by Marianne Fredriksson.

The most important sentence of this week can be found on page 331: “But as Mother says, everything leaves traces. And all old scars ache when there’s bad weather ahead.” Here’s why. Anna had spent a lot of alone time with herself. She felt an underlying sense of joy throughout this period. Rickard was out of the country so he wasn’t with her (why she was alone). She did things that left her in an awe-like state like going on runs, hiking, raking up leaves and setting them on fire, and taking strolls along the beach. Once she picked up Rickard from the airport, the joy went away. The “bad weather ahead” was going to be the arguments and the dread of having to do so much more around the house and not actually enjoy herself as she did when he wasn’t there. She was going to have to live in dread again. 

In this week's last section (yes, I finished the book), I still didn’t understand much of what was going on. I do know that Anna moved away from the home that she was in for most of the time and now that she was moving she felt free and like a new beginning was arriving (basically around the corner). One thing that actually clicked for me this week though was that Anna’s daughter I’m assuming is named Malin. Now that I have finished this book, I am going to reread it so I can actually get a better understanding of what is actually going on and who is who. There are so many characters in this book that it does get confusing. Also, I am now realizing that the author chose a specific lingo for the way she wrote each part of the book (Hannas’ part, Johannas’ part, and Annas’ part). She made sure that the lingo was the exact way it would have been during the time that each character was in. Overall, I’m going to have to give the book a second chance.

Word count: 353

[hellolittleogre]

30 books to blow your mind

@tastefulinvisible

This is the list I put together for my work place. The original list was called 25 titles to blow your mind, and had one book by a woman but at least two by Ray Bradbury. This list skews towards  sci fi/ fantasy as a response to the original list as well as Swedish writers (so there are probably a few titles here which are relatively unknown outside Scandinavia). I haven’t read everything on the list, it was a shared project and I sourced titles from friends and relatives.

1. Left hand of Darkness - Urusla LeGuin

2. According to Mary Magdalene - Marianne Fredriksson

3. My brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

4. Men Explaining Things to me - Rebecca Solnit

5. The Female Man -Joanna Russ

6. Kallocain - Karin Boye

7. Beloved -Tony Morrison

8. A Distant Soil - Colleen Doran

9. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

10. The Löwensköld Ring - Selma Lagerlöf

11. The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

12. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

13. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

14. Nightwood - Djuna Barnes

15. Kindred - Octavia Butler

16. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

17. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

18.Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

19. The Novel -Nawal el Sadawii

20. The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

21.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

22. Cette fille-lá - Maissa Bey

23. The Stream of Life - Clarice Lispector

24. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

25. Backlash - Susan Faludi

26. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

27. Those Who Walk Away - Patricia Highsmith

28. The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges

29. Den Sårade Divan - Karin Johanissen

30. Fallet Sandeman - Gabriella Håkansson

[zahut]

“The mind can ask all the questions on the meaning of life. But it cannot answer one of them, for the answers are beyond the mind.”

― Marianne Fredriksson, Simon and the Oaks (trans. Joan Tate)

[sarahsweden-blog]

Ten Interesting Swedish Novels

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age—and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it—who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism—and an unexpected connection between themselves.It’s a contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives (Goodreads.com)

2. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past. (Amazon.com)

3. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

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, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (Amazon.com)

4. Willful Disregard by Lena Andersson

Ester Nilsson is a sensible person in a sensible relationship. Until the day she is asked to give a lecture on famous artist Hugo Rask. The man himself is in the audience, intrigued and clearly delighted by her fascination with him. When the two meet afterward, she is spellbound. Ester’s life is then intrinsically linked to this meeting and the chain of events that unfolds. She leaves her boyfriend and throws herself into an imaginary relationship with Hugo. She falls deeply in love, and he consumes her thoughts. Indeed, in her own mind she’s sure that she and Hugo are a couple.

Slowly and painfully Ester comes to realize that her perception of the relationship is different from his. She’s a woman who prides herself on having a rational and analytical mind, but in the face of her overpowering feelings for Hugo, she is too clever and too honest for her own good. Bitingly funny and darkly fascinating, Willful Disregard is a story about total and desperate devotion, and how willingly we betray ourselves in the pursuit of love. (Amazon.com)

5. Everything I Don’t Remember by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

A young man named Samuel dies in a horrible car crash. Was it an accident or was it suicide? To answer that question, an unnamed writer with an agenda of his own sets out to map Samuel’s last day alive. Through conversations with friends, relatives, and neighbors, a portrait of Samuel emerges: the loving grandchild, the reluctant bureaucrat, the loyal friend, the contrived poseur. The young man who did everything for his girlfriend Laide and shared everything with his best friend Vandad. Until he lost touch with them both.

By piecing together an exhilarating narrative puzzle, we follow Samuel from the first day he encounters the towering Vandad to when they become roommates. We meet Panther, Samuel’s self-involved childhood friend whose move to Berlin indirectly cues the beginning of Samuel’s search for the meaning of love—which in turn leads Samuel to Laide. Soon, Samuel’s relationship with Laide leads to a chasm in his friendship with Vandad, and it isn’t long before the lines between loyalty and betrayal, protection, and peril get blurred irrevocably. (Goodreads.com)

6. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night (Goodreads.com)

7. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrick Backman

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother's letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other. (Goodreads.com)

8. Echos from the Dead by Johan Theorin

On a gray September day, on an island off the coast of Sweden, six -year -old Jens Davidsson ventured out of his backyard, walked out into a fog, and vanished….Now twenty years have passed, and in this magnificent debut novel of suspense—a runaway bestseller in Sweden—the boy’s mother returns to the place where her son disappeared, drawn by a chilling package sent in the mail… In it, lovingly wrapped, is one of Jens’ sandals—sandals Julia Davidsson put on her son’s feet that very last morning. Now, with only a handful of clues, Julia and her father are questioning islanders who were present the day Jens vanished—and making a shocking connection to Öland’s most notorious murder case: the killing spree of a wealthy young man who fled the island and died years before Jens was even born. Suddenly the island that once seemed so achingly familiar turns strange and dangerous… Until Julia finds herself facing truths she never imagined—about what really happened on that September day twenty years ago, about who may have crossed paths with little Jens in the fog, and how a child could truly vanish without a trace…until now. (Amazon.com)

  9. The Serious Game by Hjalmar Söderberg

Sweden at the turn of the previous century. Arvid, an ambitious and well-educated young man, meets Lydia, the daughter of a landscape painter, during an idyllic summer vacation and falls in love. Lydia, however, has other suitors, and Astrid is frightened of being tied down by his emotions. Trapped inside loveless marriages of convenience, they struggle in later years to rekindle the promise of their romance with bitter and tragic results (Amazon.com)

10. Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

Anna has returned from visiting her mother. Restless and unable to sleep, she wanders through her parents' house, revisiting the scenes of her childhood. In a cupboard drawer, folded and pushed away from sight, she finds a sepia photograph of her grandmother, Hanna, whom she remembers as old and forbidding, a silent stranger enveloped in a huge pleated black dress. Now, looking at the features Anna recognises as her own, she realises she is looking at a different woman from the one of her memory. Set against the majestic isolation of the Scandinavian lakes and mountains, this is more than a story of three Swedish women. It is a moving testament of a time forgotten and an epic romance in every sense of the word (Goodreads.com)

[inge-universe]

Marianne Fredriksson - Anna, Hanna en Johanna @marianne.fredriksson #mariannefredriksson #annahannajohanna Tweedehands boek. Bedankt Wie kent deze auteur en haar boeken? Dit klinkt als een ontroerend aangrijpend boek.#dementie #bookstagram #bookstagramnl #bookstagrammer #dutchbook #dutchbookstagram #books #tweedehandsboeken #lezen #2ehands #tweedehands #ntl #tweedehandsboek #ntlllijst #lezenisleuk📚 #lezenofniet #boeken #2ehandsboeken #tbr #tbrpilekeepsgrowing #jekannooitteveelboekenhebben #boekenlezen #tbrpile #book #nogtelezenlijst #nogtelezen #boekenlezen #jekannooitgenoegboekenhebben #lezenisleuk https://www.instagram.com/p/CMhiayULMxI/?igshid=13dfxl8n4qdo2