05/21/2026
This book had been on my list for a really long time, but what finally got me around to purchasing it and reading it was getting to see Adjei-Brenyah do a craft talk at my school! He seemed really nice and like an overall cool guy. The talk he gave was about incorporating game mechanics into storytelling, during which he mentioned that his book used a unique mechanic within it as well; footnotes. The way he utilized them was incredible, both to disperse information about the world in the novel and real world facts. And the book itself was amazing! An indictment of the prison system, systemic violence, and reality television and consumerism with a raw emotional and ethical core. It was heart wrenching and violent and action-packed and funny at times, too. An absolutely brilliant book!
05/14/2026
I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon this book, but I'm glad I got to read it! I thought it was a very well structured and thoughtful look into the perspective of a mentally ill man. McGrath did an amazing job at making Spider both an unreliable narrator and someone you can't help but have sympathy towards even as his story unfolds. I think this is the first psychological horror I've read that actually delves into a person's psychosis and how it effects them as the horror as opposed to using it as a crutch. I don't know if that makes sense, but I really enjoyed the book, it felt like a great character exploration. McGrath seemed to have strong feelings about the treatment of the mentally ill and the bureacracy of institutionalization in the latter half of the novel. I'm interested in looking at more of his work in the future!
05/09/2026
This was the last book for my Nordic Nobel Literature Laureates project! I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to finish it before I graduated on the 7th, but I was able to get a good chunk through before doing my presentation. I'm glad I ended with this one, it really felt like the culmination of everything I'd learned about Scandinavia and Scandinavian Literature this semester. The want for independence, discussion of poetic forms, the effects of war on the lower class, religion, and folklore were all key components. Complex, brutal, and even funny at times, Independent People really hit everything I love in a book.
04/21/2026
As someone who lives in North America, it was really cool to read the account of how the Vikings came and explored part of the region! This was another book I read for my Vikings and Norse Mythology class, and is also another one that I'm glad I finally got to check out. While the book is labeled as nonfiction, it also holds a level of mythologizing and difference in accounts. It really makes a person wonder what actually happened
04/04/2026
The Maid Silja is the second to last book from my Nordic Nobel Literature project! The book takes place in Finland and explores the lifestory of Silja, a sweet young farmmaid looking for work during the height of the Finnish civil war. Unfortunately, I don't know how to read Finnish, but the translation of the text was rich and beautiful to read! Sillanpää is incredibly descriptive, especially when it concerns nature. I also really loved Silja, who even at her most tragic moments still retains a certain positivity about her. It's an absolutely gorgeous work!
03/30/2026
The Prose Edda was another read from my Vikings and Norse Mythology class. Given the nature of my independent research topic as well, I was glad to get around to it! I learned a lot of strange and interesting things about Norse mythology and skaldic poetry! Contrary to what I had seen of Thor in Marvel movies, he appeared to be more of a mythological hothead. Loki was also a really curious character to read about, especially since his children brought about the end of the world. It was also really cool that the gods were aware of Ragnarok and that there was no way to prevent it, they were just going to have to deal with it when the time came. Overall, it was just interesting to read about mythology in general.
03/24/2026
Someone brought this manga in during manga day for anime club. I'm really glad I finally got to check it out! It was zany and action packed! I'm really curious about how the rest of the series is going to go, but of course I haven't really had the time to read any more of the series. I might check out the anime at some point because I heard that the animation's really smooth and that it's pretty fun. We'll see!
03/11/2026
This was yet another book for my project on Nordic Nobel Litrature Laureates! The author Knut Hamsun specifically received the Nobel Prize for Growth of the Soil. This is the only book by Knut Hamsun that I've read, but he's a favorite of my Scandinavian Studies professor. I thought this book really fit with Nobel's statement in how to award the prize in his will, which was to give it to the writer who produced "the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". The book is a call to return to nature and rural sensibilities in the face of urbanization and industrialization in Norway at the time. Since it was published in 1917 and gained traction internationally in 1920 (right at the end of World War I) which I thought would probably feel nice and maybe even refreshing after the horrors the whole world experienced at the time. It takes place in the uncultivated backwoods of Norway, where the protagonist Isak settled alone to build a farm with his own hands. Shortly after he meets Inger, who has a harelip and a cow and ends up marrying him. Over the course of decades, the two build a prosperous farm and family together.
I was told that Growth of the Soil is different than most of his other works, like Hunger. I'm curious about reading some of his other books and seeing how they compare! Another thing that's more of a point of interest concerning Hamsun is that near the end of his life he became a controversial figure. He ended up supporting the Nazi party during the second World War and was tried for treason against Norway because of it.
02/28/2026
While this book also fits into my project's theme, it actually was something I read for a different class I'm taking for my minor in Scandinavian Studies. That being said, the book was beautifully written. While it was succinct, the story was still emotionally devastating. This was a historical novel set in the Viking Age about Vigdis Gunnarsdatter. After the man she has feelings for assaults and impregnates her, she is left dishonored and plans to use their child to exact her revenge against him. Throughout the story, Vigdis proves herself to be strong. All on her own, she rebuilds her life and reputation and proves herself a force to be reckoned with. The book is short, but rife with revenge, violence, and heartbreak. I was especially effected by the ending! Great book.
02/22/2026
This was the second book I read for my Nordic Nobel project, and was also probably the longest one I'll read for it. Per was so incredibly written, equally infuriating and fascinating to the point he felt like a real person to me. The book follows his life and his quest to gain power and fame through his canal project, which he believes will help bring Denmark up to new heights as a power to be reckoned with on the global stage.
I think the way that Pontoppidan writes character relationships and dynamics was one of the richest aspects of the book. Per's feelings towards his family are complicated throughout the book, and those feelings are what drive all of his actions. Those actions of course effect the way the other characters view and feel about him in turn, feelings that naturally shift over time. A particular highlight for me was Jakobe and his relationship with her.
01/26/2026
For my minor final project in Scandinavian Studies, I've decided to read a book by a Nobel Prize winner from each of the Nordic countries. Gösta Berling's Saga was my first for the project! I was genuinely surprised by how fun I found this book. It was so full of action, emotion, and charm. I'm surprised that it hasn't been adapted for television yet, because the chapters were all fairly episodic (the book was initially released in weekly magazine installments if I remember correctly), and I think would be easy to transfer to that medium. It was adapted into a silent film starring the incomparable Greta Garbo in her first major film role! I really want to see the movie someday.
01/08/2026
The Sound and the Fury was not an easy book to get into, but that challenging aspect of trying to parse what was going on was part of what made the book so engaging to begin with. The book is about the deterioration of a once well-off family in the South, which special attention given to the fate of Caddy Compson and told through multiple perspectives. The perspectives in the book all had their own completely unique voice and individual way of processing the world around them. I found Quentin's storyline particularly compelling.
This was the first of Faulkner's novels that I've read, but I would like to read more in the future!