Samantha_kathy's Trip Through Europe

Welcome to the group. I seem to mostly be stuck in the British Isles, but I occasionally get to one of the "unread" countries. Like you, I chose to focus on the setting with my list.

I'm in the Reading Globally group too. I regard that challenge as something that will take several decades, but I do get a thrill out of coloring another country red on my map. This has a smaller scale and so feels more doable.

Good to see you here. The Sorrow of Belgium sounds intriguing. I'll have to take a look at that one.

I am from Norway, and I can tell you that I have never heard of a book that is set in Jan Mayen. There's hardly any people there at all, only some sort of research station. Svalbard, however, is the setting for Orion's Belt by Jon Michelet. It's a mystery novel from the cold war that was made into a film during the 80's, and it was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film.
I can also tell you that the Norhtern Lights are even more spectacular in Norway ;-)
Enjoy the nordic countries! There's a lot of good literature coming your way!

I made it a category for my 12/12 challenge too. I need to figure out how many Europe books per month I would need to finish it in 2012. If I can do it in 3 or less, I may try to finish my European tour next year. If not, I will try to finish in 2013. I finished my U.S. and Canadian challenges this year.

I hate your Norway read was disappointing. I have read two for Norway -- one was a Karin Fossum book, the other was a Jo Nesbo book. I enjoyed both of them.

Unfortunately, I see that people in this group tend to pick crime novels for Norway. I'm Norwegian myself, and I have to say that other than Jo Nesbo, there are A LOT of mediocre crime novels written by Norwegian authors. I'd like to recommend something else. For instance Lars Saabye Christensen, who always writes about Oslo, and captures the mood of the Norwegian capital perfectly at different points in time in almost every novel that he's published. Beatles and The Half Brother are both magnificent novels. Erik Fosnes Hansen is also good. He's only written four novels in, like, twenty years or so, but they all contain strong portrayals of the human psyche. Also, Knut Hamsun, one of the Norwegian Nobel laureates. Hunger is amazing, and considered to be one of the first true works of modernism.
OK, that was a few suggestions. I didn't mean to meddle with your choice. Grytten is good, but I actually didn't know he had published a crime novel..

OK, I see :) Sorry for ranting on about Norwegian novels on your thread, then ;)

I have never heard of that one, but it sounds good. I might just check it out, thanks for the tip :)

That sounds fascinating. I love reading about "icy" places.

Hi Samantha, I added Letters from high latitudes to my wishlist. It looks fascinating, although I think I prefer to read it during the summer...

Thanks for a great review. It sounds exactly like something I'd like to read.

Haven't been around here for a long time, due to RL issues, but I'm planning to get back to my European reading during the Christmas holidays.

Glad to see you are still on your European journey!

Too bad your Moldova book was so disappointing. I enjoyed No going back to Moldova by Anna Robertson - not fiction however, but an autobiography.

>47 Samantha_kathy: Good luck on getting back into your challenge!