Three places…
In a really annoying tv show on Swedish tv, that my mom keeps watching every evening, they let a celebrity come to the studio and talk about their favorite places to travel to. Though I hate this show, I thought I’d do a post about three favorite places I’ve been to and three more that I’d like to visit some day. Just because…
1. Estonia – I really like Estonia. Whenever I go there, I feel I have travelled a few years into the future. It’s clean, pretty, with nice, helpful people and plenty of interesting things to see. And they have so many wifi hotspots, which is always great for a tourist far away from home.
2. Jämtland (which is a region in the north of Sweden, well strictly speaking it’s in ‘centra’ Sweden about half way up our long country). I used to live here as a child, but I have also gone back there to visit (also as a child). It’s breathtakingly beautiful (just like my home region West Gothia, though in a different way). There’s interesting sightseeing, beautiful scenery and since I used to live there and at such a young age, I was very happy there. Just seeing the images makes me feel a little better.
3. France/Paris. Since I’m interested in history and some of the French culture it’s always fun to do all the sightseeing. I’d also like to see more of France, especially the northern half.
Three places I’d love to visit some day:
1. Bhutan. I’m really interested in Tibetan culture and Bhutanese culture, as far as I know, is very similar to Tibetan. There are plenty of interesting buildings and temples. The scenery is breattaking (but on a whole different level than in Jämtland). I also find the Bhuddist culture fascinating. As far as I can tell, this small country has succeeded in both keeping and holding on to their old customs and managed to enter the 21 century.
2. Sri Lanka. The scenery is (as far as I can tell) beautiful, the culture interesting and I believe most people speak at least some English. I have read that the hotels offer delicious breakfasts consisting entirely of fruit. Here too, there are plenty of interesting old buildings to visit.
3. Italy. Perhaps I don’t even need to go into details about this country. Most people have probably been here several times and find it boring by now. I haven’t been to Italy even once and I would still really like to go. This may sound like more of the same, but I think the scenery, especially in Tuscany and Umbria, is beautiful. Naturally, there are plenty of interesting history (and archaeology) to check out.
Favorite parts
An American site, that I’m guessing is something like a ladies’ magazine, asked its female visitors which body part/s on a man they appreciated the most.
That started me thinking about what I appreciate. I came to the conclusion that hands are pretty cool body parts, especially male ones. I mean, sure, I like my mom’s hands and my own and my sister’s too, of course, but men’s hands are so big and strong. Though it is impressive how incredibly strong my sister’s little hands are.
So, my dad’s hands. Above all there are two things I recall. In our family we love Macs. Quite a few years ago, the first iMacs came along, and their puck mice got a lot of criticism. Most people, especially men, wouldn’t have anything to do with them. One man said that his daugters had small hands, so they didn’t have much trouble with them, but they weren’t good enough for him. Only that’s not true. It has nothing to do with the size of the hands. I know that, because I conducted a test.
I asked my dad to use the puck mouse on one of our iMacs. He said it was fine, he had no trouble at all, using it. Dad’s hands were big, not disproportionately so, but as big as you’d expect on a man who was 200 cm tall. That means it’s got nothing to do with size.
Dad was great at fixing electric appliances too. He took care of our all electric cables. Anything a layman was capable of doing, and was allowed to do, he did, and he did it well. He also taught my sister everything he knew, so now she can do it too.
My maternal grandfater had big hands too, even though he was shorter than my dad. Grandpa’s hands could build just about anything. Once when I was little, so little I can’t remember it myself anymore, I saw a helicopter and pointed up to it and told a little friend: I’ll ask my grandpa to make me one of those. Apparently, she was very impressed, though my grandpa couldn’t build helicopters, no matter how many other things he could build. He could also boil potatoes and make rice porridge (rice pudding – typical Christmas food in Sweden).
Swedish mysteries
Right now, Europe is discovering Swedish crime novels. I just read an article on the Guardian’s website which mentioned, among others, Stieg Larsson, Liza Marklund and Camilla Läckberg. The UK has already taken Henning Mankell’s Wallander mysteries to their heart.
It seems almost petty to mention that they’ve just scratched the surface. In all honesty, I haven’t read Stieg Larsson or Liza Marklund. I have however read Mankell, Nesser and Läckberg and I must say I wasn’t impressed. For instance, take the latter – when you write a ‘mystery’ that is so predictable that someone like me – a writer wannabe, but still just an amateur – knows exactly who is the killer, why he did it and how it all happened when I’m reading the first couple of lines of the second chapter – what does that tell you about the quality of the book?
Forget all of the above writers (the Whiskas people books – Whiskas people are those who go for the most popular of anything, in case you’re wondering). I’ll tell you about my favorites instead. Since we’re talking about Swedish mystery writers, I won’t go into my Finnish favorite, at least not here, or the British, American or French books I like. So, here goes…
Emma Vall. She’s really three persons using the same pen name. They’re reporters, and so is their main character Amanda Rönn. She investigates crimes in the northern town Sundsvall. Emma Vall also writes mysteries for kids, about a girl named Svala (she’s originally from Iceland, hence the unusual name). The mysteries for kids are as well written as the others. My only problem with the kids’ books, is that they’re a little predictable. The basis is as follows: Svala makes a few new friends (or reconnects with some old friends) who have a problem. She starts to investigate to help them. That’s it. Don’t let that stop you from reading them, if you like books for older kids. They’re still good, even if the writers might want to vary the ‘recipe’ a little. If I have to criticize anything about the ‘grownup’ mysteries, it’s the fact that while Amanda Rönn is relatively young – just over 30 – she prefers men who are around 60. I think that’s because one of the writers is about that age herself and creates love interests of her own age. All their books are well written and definitely worth reading.
Arne Dahl. Pen name for a man named Jan Arnald. In addition to writing mysteries he’s also a short story writer, editor and critic. His mysteries are about a fictitious group investigating serious crime – the A group. The group employs quite a few people, so chances are you’ll find a main character you’ll like. For instance out of the roughly ten people involved, I primarily like two of them, both male, but there’s no one I absolutely can’t stand. These books are well written and fascinating, but once in a while, Arne Dahl tends to get a little too fanciful (I noticed this in Hidden Numbers (Mörkertal).
Thomas Kanger. He’s a reporter too, just like the women behind Emma Vall. His main character is young cop Elina Wiik who works in Västerås in eastern Sweden. Just like most cops, she’s single and trying to find time to date in the midst of her busy professional life. I used to like these books and I still like most of them. However, in The Borderland (Gränslandet) he just gets too fanciful for my taste. There’s absolutely no logic in the ending. It stops being a mystery and turns into speculative fiction and that just isn’t appropriate, without any warning. The earlier books are still fine, but I won’t recommend The Borderland.
Åsa Nilsonne. She’s actually a psychiatrist and medical doctor, but also writes excellent mysteries about the cop Monika Pedersen, working in Stockholm. Monika Pedersen is single (is there any cop who isn’t either single or divorced?), but has a close male friend, who is gay. Most of the cases are investigated in central Stockholm, but in the last book Monika goes to Ethiopia to follow up on a lead.
