I haven’t been able to read much recently. Depression made the thing I enjoy doing most in the world an agonizing challenge. But now my concentration is slowly returning to some sort of normality and I’ve been spending massive amounts of time on Amazon, hunting down literature about the Nordics that I haven’t read yet. I thought you might like to see what I’ve found!
The Path To Odin’s Lake By Jason Heppenstall
“Ex-newspaper editor Jason Heppenstall, worn down by the constant drumbeat of dire news in the world, decides to set out on a journey in search of some answers. With not much more than some walking boots, a notebook and a wooden staff, he sets off from his old home in Copenhagen with a vague idea to “head north”. It isn’t long before a series of bizarre coincidences leads him to believe that his journey is being guided towards an ancient lake in Sweden where the Norse god Odin was once worshipped.
Along the way he falls foul of the authorities, endures the wettest weather in living memory and meets a peculiar man of the forest who gives him a special gift. He discovers a modern day Sweden caught between a desire to do good in the world and one struggling to come to terms with the refugees from war-torn Syria and beyond.” – Amazon
Buy it here.
“The Western world insists on following rational dictates, but there is freedom in allowing our deeper intuition to show the way forward. By surrendering to the heart, we can navigate the unknown world to come to a new understanding of ourselves.
Author Marilyn E. Fowler, PhD, begins her journey with very little information about her cultural heritage. A family search uncovers an old picture of her great-grandmother Karoline, who was born somewhere in the northern reaches of Scandinavia among the indigenous Sámi people.
Fowler’s inner compass and a sequence of powerful, metaphysical events push her to venture alone to this distant territory. On this journey she has the honor of meeting Elina, a Sámi elder, who provides more clues to Fowler’s ancestral heritage.
Slowly, guided by intuition, she begins putting the pieces together, discovering the identity of her ancestors. She wants to understand them, and what she finds is a completely fresh perspective on life. As Fowler slowly learns about Sámi culture, she allows herself to let go of conventional reasoning and discover a new understanding of who she is and a new sense of connection with the earth. When she finally returns home, she finds that her perspectives on life have forever changed.” – Amazon
Buy it here.
On Time And Water By Andri Snær Magnason
“Icelandic author and activist Andri Snær Magnason’s ‘Letter to the Future’, an extraordinary and moving eulogy for the lost Okjökull glacier, made global news and was shared by millions. Now he attempts to come to terms with the issues we all face in his new book On Time and Water. Magnason writes of the melting glaciers, the rising seas and acidity changes that haven’t been seen for 50 million years. These are changes that will affect all life on earth.
Taking a path to climate science through ancient myths about sacred cows, stories of ancestors and relatives and interviews with the Dalai Lama, Magnason allows himself to be both personal and scientific. The result is an absorbing mixture of travel, history, science and philosophy.” – Amazon
Buy it here.
“Each June, Tory Bilski meets up with fellow women travelers in Reykjavik where they head to northern Iceland, near the Greenland Sea. They escape their ordinary lives to live an extraordinary one at a horse farm perched at the edge of the world. If only for a short while.
When they first came to Thingeyrar, these women were strangers to one another. The only thing they had in common was their passion for Icelandic horses. However, over the years, their relationships with each other deepens, growing older together and keeping each other young. Combining the self-discovery Eat, Pray, Love, the sense of place of Under the Tuscan Sun, and the danger of Wild, Wild Horses of the Summer Sun revels in Tory’s quest for the “wild” inside her.
These women leave behind the usual troubles at home: illnesses, aging parents, troubled teenagers, financial worries–and embrace their desire for adventure.
Buoyed by their friendships with each other and their growing attachments and bonds with the otherworldly horses they ride, the warmth of Thingeyrar’s midnight sun carries these women through the rest of the year’s trials and travails.” – Amazon.
Buy it here.
Northern Fever 