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Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross (Penguin Classics)

9 reviews
Sigrid Undset

Penguin Classics, 2000

I'm not usually moved by books but....
...this one brought me to tears in more than one place. If you're reading "The Cross," or considering purchasing it, you've probably already read the first two books in the series and are caught up in the story. Is this book worth it? Yes. It's not an uplifting read by any means, but it brings the Kristin story to a logical -- though heartbreaking -- conclusion. I am in awe of Undset for her ...

Mysteries

34 reviews
Knut Hamsun

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971

The more you see, the less you understand...
An eccentric stranger comes to a small Norwegian town and proceeds to shock, bewilder, and beguile its bourgeoisie inhabitants with his bizarre behavior, feverish rants, and uncompromising self-revelations. Mysteries is, perhaps, Hamsun best novel--the fullest, most effective expression of his major preoccupation with social hypocrisy and personal honesty--a novel that illustrates, as do all ...

The Great Scandinavian Baking Book

21 reviews
Beatrice A. Ojakangas

Little Brown & Co (T), 1988

Yes!
Have loved every recipe I've tried so far. For one, the Finnish Cream Pastry is to die for. Made that for apple pie and took it to work and everyone went nuts. Great recipes.

Old English and its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest Germanic Languages

20 reviews
Orrin Robinson

Routledge, 1994

The earliest attested Germanic languages
This book was my first introduction to Germanic linguistics. The book begins with a chapter entitled "The Germanic Language Family." Although the discussion is, for obvious reasons, framed in terms of the Germanic languages, this is incidentally the best and clearest exposition of the principles and techniques of historical linguistics that I have ever read. The next chapter, "Germanic: A ...

Letters of a Nation

12 reviews
Andrew Carroll

Broadway, 1999

Letters reveal the true character of a person.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in the inner qualities of our nation's most well-known and respected figures and the lesser-known, who were the people who shaped our country. From the early settlers and our founding fathers to people of the present, this book offers a touching and rewarding look into the lives of people during war, hardships, family life, and many other aspects ...

Finnish Cookbook (International Cookbook Series)

11 reviews
Beatrice Ojakangas

Crown, 1964

Finnish Home Cooking: The Real Thing
This book is an introduction to the Finnish kitchen. Ojakangas, a second generation Finnish-America, learned some traditional Finnish dishes from her grandmother. But when her husband was awarded a Fulbright grant in Finland for 1960-61, she was able to get make an intensive study of Finnish food culture. She discovered how some of the dishes she had learned to make as a child had roots deep ...

The Kalevala: An Epic Poem after Oral Tradition by Elias Lönnrot (Oxford World's Classics Series)

16 reviews
Elias Lonnrot, Albert B. Lord

Oxford University Press, USA, 1999

Song of Power
There is an elegant, powerful simplicity to this epic tale, no matter what language you read it in. The symbols transcend both language and time. There is nothing contrived here. Such a tale could not be counterfeited by a modern mind.At the center of the entire epic is Vainamoinen, the singer at the world's dawn. Here is the archetype for the wizard- the first and greatest among shamans. Before ...

Victoria (Sun & Moon Classics)

12 reviews
Knut Hamsun

Sun & Moon Press, 2000

An elegantly twisted love story
This was the first of the Knut Hamsun novels that I read, and my favorite. It's a love story like no other, there's a mixture of emotions throughout the novel, which makes it a scarcely unwritten type of love story. The use of words in this novel is excellent. You feel like you really learn when you're done reading this book, which will not take long because it's hard to put down.

The Hammer of God

22 reviews
Bo Giertz

Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1960

Orthodoxy New as the Morning
This book was commended by a good friend who is also I believe one of the few remaining orthodox pastors in his church body. The treatment it provides of issues such as "simul sanctus et peccator" (at the same time saint and sinner), the long-ignored Office of the Keys ("Whatever sins you bind on earth will be bound in heaven"), Christ Only, the individual's mode of "participation" in ...

Kristin Lavransdatter: The Bridal Wreath; The Mistress of Husaby; The Cross

72 reviews
Sigrid Undset

Alfred A. Knopf, 1951

A book to contemplate
The saga, Kristin Lavransdatter is a very 'catholic' novel. By that I mean it not only takes place with a clearly Catholic Norway as its backdrop but the characters are made real by their faith. And that faith is the Catholic Church of the 14th century. Sigrid Undset wrote this (originally as a trilogy) in the 1910's with an imaginative clarity of medieval Norway but the real power of the text is ...

The Ice Palace

6 reviews
Tarjei Vesaas

Peter Owen Publishers, 1993

Absolutely beautiful
A beautiful book. The imagery is lovely, and I got hooked when one of the characters actually wanders into the ice palace. The descriptions of the light, and the interplay of the changing colors and shapes of the ice were mesmerizing--I stayed up late and couldn't go to bed. And in the morning it seemed it should be all ice outside instead of the height of summer. Tremendously atmospheric, ...

Authentic Norwegian Cooking

7 reviews
Astrid Karlsen Scott, Dr. Tore Haug

Nordic Adventures, 2000

Wonderful
My husband is Norwegian and I am Irish and Italian. We were at Epcot Center and stopped in Norway and had some lunch. Well, we enjoyed it so much that we purchaed the cookbook. The food in this cookbook brings back memories of his childhood. I would recommend this to anyone.

The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen (The Annotated Books)

8 reviews
Hans Christian Andersen

W. W. Norton & Company, 2007

Stories Which Appeal On Many Levels
Many people dismiss Hans Christian Anderson as a mere author of now outdated children's stories. Anderson, as this volume of his annotated stories makes clear, was a poet, folklorist, historian, and commentator as well as a children's writer. In fact, many of his stories were written for adults, not children, and even those aimed at the young have side passages and comments which were meant for ...

Hearts on the Wind (Five Star Expressions)

6 reviews
Leslee Breene

Five Star (ME), 2008

Hearts on the Wind
I enjoyed Hearts on the Wind as much as I did Foxfire and Leadville Lady by Leslee Breene. She writes sincere, heartwarming stories within an historical time period about characters you feel you know and care about. They are both entertaining and historically interesting. I am eagerly awaiting her next adventure.

Blueberry Summers: Growing Up at the Lake

8 reviews
Curtiss Anderson

Borealis Books, 2008

Especially perfect for summer reading
The jacket design, imaginative title, inside illustrations and the photograph of Curtiss Anderson (looking affable), alone, prompted me to buy this book. I was not disappointed. What a great book to add to your summer reading list -- anyone interested in sociology should enjoy this book. This book will have special meaning to readers who have spent memorable summers at a similar location. ...

Giants in the Earth (Cliff Note's Edition)

8 reviews
Ole Rolvagg

Cliffs Notes, 1975

Haunting "Giants"
I couldn't stop reading this amazing book once I had started. There is a intricate mixture of folklore, fantasy, and the cutting reality of life in the days of the pioneers. There was something almost haunting about the power that the untamed land held over the characters in the novel. Rolvaag writes his characters with a lucidity and truthfulness that is almost on a mythical level.

Birds

6 reviews
Tarjei Vesaas

Peter Owen Publishers, 1995

Mad innocent youth.
A masterpiece of Norwegian literature. It's an exploration of the boundaries between madness and "normality", and the story of a young man's sacrifice on the altar of common sense and social unwritten rules. How much reality can we stand before loosing our mind? And how much nature, with its power that dances on our fears and on our weaknesses. It would be a great book to read in the language it ...

On My Swedish Island : Discovering the Secrets of Scandinavian Well-being

8 reviews
Julie Catterson-Lindahl, 2005

10 stars and one of my top favorite books.....
This has become one of my top favorite 5 books because of the wisdom the author shares. Everything from simply living spaces, simple food, the outdoors, being content with less and more observant about the world around us. Call it Scandinavian zen or simply wise living. The author hits the nail on the head when she shares how our choices can make our lives better and that these choices often ...

The Swedish Table

7 reviews
Helene Henderson

Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2005

Wonderful
The Swedish Table demonstrates that not only are the French good cooks, but so are the Swedes! Helene Henderson was born and raised in Sweden. She learned cooking from her grandmother and worked in the family business. She owns a catering business in Los Angeles where she is known for utilizing organic food. She lives there with her husband and three children. This book has some lovely ...

An Introduction to Old Norse

7 reviews
E. V. Gordon

Oxford University Press, USA, 1981

But not for beginners
Please don't send away 30 dollars thinking that this book is going to teach you to read Old Norse / Old Icelandic. If you're hoping for a basic grammar, with graded lessons, you're going to be disappointed. This is an excellent work, an indispensable work, but it's a reader for those who have already learned the basics of Old Icelandic. After a brief introduction to Scandinavian history, the ...

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