Sweden Books

It is interesting to me to see the way one person's account of an intensely felt memory has been accepted as evidence of renincarnation. I refer here in particular to the research work done by Walter Semkiw. What about the many unpublished accounts and experiences of others who identify closely with the life experiences of Anne Frank, indeed, feeling such an affinity that they too believe that they may have been Anne Frank in a past life? For one such account that approaches the connection from a Vedantic point of view (Indian philosophy), please read Letter to Anne by Frances Todd, which you can also locate on Amazons.com Read it, compare notes with this account, and review. Yes, I am the author of that book. It is not so much that I have written that book, as, I have compiled an account of an inner journey that required identification with personality and dreams of Anne Frank, to effect self-healing. Personal healing is a conduit for cosmic healing. The purpose of any reincarnation story is ulitmately, linked with the concept: the one is many. If you are a person who is sensitively living with the planet's energies, then you will understand how the personality expression is simply, a composite of streams of energies called archetypes. No one person has a copyright to them.

This is the long--awaited English translation of "Und die Woelfe heulten," the controversial bio-novel in which Swedish writer Barbro Karlen claims to be the reincarnation of Anne Frank -- yes, THE Anne Frank who wrote famous diary. The book created quite a stir in the German-speaking world when it first came out in 1997. There were angry protests, as well as attempts to stop its publication, on the part of a small segment of the Jewish population who believed in neither reincarnation nor freedom of speech -- all of which I reported in "Life and Soul" magazine (London) in 1998.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the book was published. I'm giving it five stars -- not because I really believe she was Anne Frank (I'm skeptical) but as a vote of free speech for a very brave author. The book raises some real questions about how issues from one life might be carried over into another, and how they might be resolved. Regardless of whether you decide the story is fact or fiction, "And the Wolves howled" is a very thought-provoking read!

I read and re-read Ms. Karlen's book and found it to be a heartfelt commentary on the persistence and tenacity of the human spirit. I believe this book and Lance Armstrong's book both illustrate how one person can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and emerge a winner.

Never have I been as perplexed about a book as with this selection.Aside from the back that the writing style/ language is droning, montone and without texture of any kind, I don't know what the book was aiming to explain. The story is Boring-
I had to search high and low for details about the re-incarnation aspects.This subject, which claims to be the main one of this book actually takes a back seat to the authors mundane tales of dressage, and I supposes tales of persecution.
I am usually delighted by a nice photo section, but here again I was mystified by the selection: a photo of the author at age 2, age 2 1/2, age 7, age 12, another age 12, different headshot pose, one of the author in 1981 next to a horse, another in 1989 with two horses and "a colleague"- no identification , another photo of the author on a horse, late 1980's, another horse photo with the author, 1989, another of the author (surprise!) with a horse, 1991, and then a headshot of the author 1997, and then a different pose 1998.No other photos of persons, objects, buildings, streets, family members documents- basically nothing besides that author in her dresssage get-up ,or a studio portrait of her face.This is so eerie.
I have read hundreds and hundreds of biographies, memoirs, including dozens of narratives of people's experiences with past life regressions and the like.This one is a doozie, this lady is just plain flaky and a poor storyteller as well.Sorry- add me to the extensive list of people who the author claims to be persecuted by.

Leading by Design has been well researched and covers not just to good times, but also the major challenges faced by Ingvar Kamprad while building IKEA. The interesting conflicts of satisfaction at a job well done and insecurity about choices and the future is a well developed theme. The conclusion I draw is that this is a unique man and his successful company that could only have started in Sweden with it's own interesting social mix.

If you read many of my reviews, you already know that I seldom rate a book this low. I would normally not finish such a book, and not write a review. However, I felt that this book would attract a lot of readers who, like me, wanted to learn more about the lessons of IKEA's success. What I found instead is one of the most poorly constructed case histories of an interesting company that I can imagine.

The book claims to tell the IKEA story, but really focuses on writing a biography of Ingvar Kamprad, the company's founder. As a biography, the strength of the book is in describing the family and physical environment that were early influences on Kamprad. Past about the first 30 pages, the book doesn't add much. The most interesting parts of the biography come late in the book when Kamprad's early associations with a fascist group are detailed in the context of press reports exposed in the late 1990s. These should have been fully developed early in the book, rather than treated as a later discussion of how to handle bad publicity. Most good biographies teach you something that you need to know. When I was done with this one, I didn't feel like I had learned anything. There probably were lessons there to be drawn out, but the author did not succeed in helping me find them. That meant that I knocked the book down one star.

IKEA has been an interesting international success with an unusual formula. The book assumes a great personal knowledge of that formula. Yet there are very few of the IKEA stores in most countries, so many people who will read this book will lack the experience of knowing about what is being described. Originally written for the Swedish market, that lack of handling the perspective of what the store experience is like limits the book's ability to translate its lessons. I rated the book down one more star for insufficient background early in the book on the reasons why the business works and how it works today. These are dropped in occasionally, so many of them are there by the end. You would then have to read the book a second time to really understand the relevance of the points.

Next, the book attempts to describe the company's success. A lot of time is spent on this, but the author seems to lack the perspective to pick out what is important and what is not. Kamprod is a classic experimenter. If something works well, he does a lot more of it. After a while that pattern becomes something he will not vary from. Since he was not a systemmatic experimenter, it meant that many developments were delayed. On the other hand, he always made it a place where people liked to work so he had someplace to stand on for continuity as the experiments continued. Without the necessary perspective, this is a little like reading 30 annual reports. Unless you have lots of management background, you will have trouble seeing what the important management lessons are in this book.

Basically, Kamprod is an advocate of low-priced distribution of low-cost, mass-produced goods based on high quality designs. His personal values are those of family and treating people with hospitality (like an honored guest). Having started his business from the family farm in Sweden with family and neighbors having been the first customers and employees, you can see the influences quite easily. What is unusual is that his business model developed earlier than that of other furniture merchants. It was reasonably complete by 1960. Only in the last ten years have we seen a reasonably similar store experience in the Boston area.

The best part of the book is that it contains lots of first-person stories from Kamprad. As such, this book will be a valuable source for the first person to write a good book about IKEA as a management case history. I hope that book will soon be written. There must be important insights to be gained about how IKEA developed its business model so many years ahead of others, but I could not figure out what those insights were.

In the meantime, unless you have a compulsive interest in learning more about IKEA today, skip this book.

Who doesn't like IKEA? Too bad this book isn't as good as the store is. What's wrong? Certainly not the subject of the book, but rather, the writing is repetitive, monotonous, circular, and repetitive...egad...it's contagious!

Pass on THIS book and learn about IKEA and its very interesting challenges, history, strategy, and product line (and its founder) from better authors around the Internet.

Really, this book describes the IKEA way really good. But after reading others people reviews of this book I can understand how hard it is for non-swedes to grasp the real lessons learned in this book. It doesnt make it better that the guy that wrote this book is a quite "boring dude".
The book is well written and researched, all the facts are true and THE MAN HIMSELF Ingvar KAmprad has had a finger with in this book.
AND INGVAR KAMRAD IS IKEA. You cant separate the founder of IKEA from the company itself. Yes, Ingvar has put his soul in to this company and it is this mans thoughts and actions that has made this company to what it is.

At first glanze this book is really boring. But if you give it time, let it melt in and try to see how it was in Sweden for 50 years ago: IF you can put the book in to context you really get a complete and a invaluable picture of THE IKEA WAY.

Without sounding to cooky I just wanna say that this book is right up there with the books about Nordstroms, Jack Welch and etc.

Really, buy this book if you wanna learn lean and mean business the IKEA way. The customers rule....this is the IKEA way...

So you think Jack Welch is better? Just wanna tell you that Ingvar Kamprad made the 50 riches people in the world list!!! THATS SOMETHING!!!

I was looking for a much more practical book on Swedish interiors. The photographs in this book were beautiful, granted, but most of the interiors depicted were extravagant, lavish, and not at all relative to my design/decorating means. Maybe if I owned a castle, yes. I was looking for a more straightforward and realistic design book covering color palettes, decor choices, etc. The pictures were as uptopian as the price of the book, so I returned it.

A beautifully photographed book with easy to follow instructions to achieve the Swedish look. Covers all aspects furniture, paint, linens, curtains, etc. It also offers a good summary of Swedish history and how that affected the look through the years.

A well photographed book that explains and introduces the concept of Swedish design at a very simple level for the non decorator crowd. After reading this book just visit any Ikea store to verify the information and start your decorating scheme.In many ways Martha Stewart has duplicated her interiors by using this cool and clean look. Perhaps you can do the same, at a fraction of the cost, with these simple and inexpensive ways to decorate your home.

I met a man who wasn't there.

Summer vacation season is in full swing and Inspector Martin Beck has just arrived in an isolated summer cottage on an island off the Swedish coast. The very next morning a neighbor rows out to advise him that he is wanted on the telephone. He is needed back in Stockholm for a meeting with the Police Chief and the Swedish Foreign office. Beck grudgingly returns for the meeting and is asked to travel to Budapest, Hungary to find a missing journalist. The journalist, Alf Matsson, has gone missing and the tabloid newspaper he works for has pressured the Foreign Office to search for the report. Beck has been asked to `volunteer' for the task. Despite, or perhaps because of, his wife's displeasure (their marriage is not in the best condition) at his departure, Beck accepts the assignment. In short order he is provided with a full set of travel documents, a brief dossier on Matsson, and a ticket for Budapest. The only thing Beck lacks is the first clue as to how to locate Matsson.

As the story progresses we see Beck put together bits and pieces of information as he wanders, seemingly aimlessly, through the picturesque streets of Budapest. Beck is traveling purely as a civilian and soon attracts the attention of the Budapest police force, in particular a detective who may or may not be an ally of Beck. Beck also attracts the attention of what may be either Budapest's underworld or representatives of the Hungarian security forces. For all intents and purposes Beck is a stranger in a strange land.

As with all the other Martin Beck mysteries in this ten-book series (this is the third in the series), "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" is rich with character-driven narrative. Beck's character and his relationships with his colleagues and his wife are fleshed out as Beck plods along trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Matsson's disappearance. The authors, the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, do a nice job of revealing details in a measured pace along the way. The plot and narrative do fall squarely within the usual police procedural `formula' but that does nothing to take away from the enjoyment of reading the book. Although the reader may find the ending a bit predictable (I didn't) the real enjoyment of the series involves the development of Beck's character. As with many good detective series (Simenon's Maigret comes to mind here) the personality of Beck takes pride of place. He is far from being a super hero, is no Sherlock Holmes (who is?), smokes too much, doesn't eat right, and has some troubles at home. He is appealing because of these flaws not despite them and his dogged determination and his personal involvement in the cases he handles drags the reader right into the story. He works at his job and doesn't and cannot rely on flashes of genius to solve a crime.

The Beck series has been an entertaining one. I recommend starting with the first book in the series (Roseanna) and working your way in chronological order. My only fault with the publisher, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (a division of Random House) is that they do not identify the order of books in the series. Despite that minor quibble any reader who enjoys Simenon, Eric Ambler, or Boris Akunin will enjoy the Martin Beck detective mysteries. Recommended. L. Fleisig.

The third book in the Martin Beck detective series. This one focuses on the mysterious disappearance of a Swedish tabloid journalism in Eastern Europe. Beck is called off his August family holiday to investigate, but is secretly glad to get away from his overbearing wife.

One of the weaker entries in the series. The story never really held my interest. However, I did appeciate the reverse intuition of the plot; though Beck gets involved with criminal underworld and international gun smugglers, things are ultimately much more simple than they first appear.

If this one doesn't capture your interst, keep reading; the series steadily improves from here.

congratulations on stumbling onto one of the best crime/satire series of the 20th century. If you didn't like this one, read some others, especially The Locked Room. Great writing with a moderate slant (they slam liberals and conservatives) makes this a wonderful series.

I bought this book for my niece aged 8 who is also a bookworm in her own domain. She enjoyed it thoroughly and goes back for a chapter or 2 from time to time "just to live in that world for a while" in her own words.

The book was in great condition. It was a gift for my grand daughter.

i thought i'd found a pippi we hadn't read before, but this is merely a (more heavily illustrated) excerpt from the original "pippi"--which can be had in its entirety for the same price!

When planning my trip to Sweden, this was the first book I purchased. In the end, it also turned out to be the most useful of the four Sweden travel books I purchased, not including a detailed Swedish atlas. Gives GREAT detail about some of the lesser-travelled cities and things to do off the beaten path...moreso that the Frommer's book - although Frommer's is certainly worth having. The book is very useful and easy to understand, as well as being divided into sections geographically. The only downside as far as I'm concerned was the lack of photographs, BUT - once I got to Sweden - the real thing was better than anything a photo would have shown me anyway.

This book assumes from the beginning that you'll be travelling by train. Unfortunately, it doesn't bother to mention that fact anywhere on the cover or in the intro. You obviously realize it when you start reading it, but in my case it was already too late. It is one of the bigger guides on Sweden available though, and if you'll be travelling by rail, and don't mind complete lack of pictures, this guide's for you.

I just have to correct one piece of erroneous information. The guide states that you can't buy ordinary painkillers over the counter in Sweden and counsels readers to BYO aspirin. (!) Untrue. You may not find aspirin, panadol etc at the corner market, but you can buy them over the counter at a pharmacy (apotek) without a prescription.

Other than that, the book is of typically thorough Rough Guide quality and for my purposes (a brief visit to Stockholm) it was more than adequate as a city guide (but do invest in a separate street/road map).

This is the best available introduction to Danish and Swedish pottery that I know of. Especially the chapters on "Royal Copenhagen", "Saxbo" and "Arne Bang" are excellent. The material on Swedish pottery are not at all that good but still O.K.

I'll begin by stating that I am an avid collector with extensive knowledge of Scandinavian studio art pottery. And while I don't consider myself necessarily and authority on the topic, I'm not writing a book on it either. I found Hecht's book informative on some levels and largely misinformative or under-informative on others. The information gathered here filled a gap in collector's books that was long overdue. It is unfortunate, however, that this book is littered with very poor and inaccurate references to its topic. It contains either false, nebulous or no reference at all to some pottery marks and their meanings & rarity. Some of the most significant factories and artists are often barely touched on or left out completely while several pages will be devoted to others that are comparatively far less significant. I also found that of those artists featured, many have no reference to their most representative work. Not to mention, 3/4 of the book is devoted to Danish work, with the last afterthought 1/4 to Sweden, which is, in my opinion, diametrically allocated. And as for values, I don't know where these came from -- some are strangely through the roof while the very few absolute hottest collectible artists will be strangely undervalued. I hate to think that the author is providing this to help sell her own collection at terribly inflated values alongside her Fleetwood Mac albums and tour buttons on eBay while picking up the best pieces at lower prices. Some of us are not fooled.

I'm not a collector of pottery of any kind. I saw this book at a friend's and started reading it. The history of the pottery houses and different genres are very well explained here and it's a compelling read. I was able to even see styles and artists that matched my sensibilities. Overall, I learned something new and saw many pieces of art pottery that I enjoy. I understand why Scandinavian art pottery is so collectable now.

This book is full of subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) digs at the Swedish welfare state and Swedish "liberal" culture. The goal of a travel writer should be to be even-handed in her treatment of other cultures, even if the culture has practices she doesn't agree with. This book is as even-handed as Fox News is "fair and balanced."

It also displays a frustrating lack of nuance. A trait or tendency that is noteworthy or perhaps fairly common becomes a property that is universally exemplified.

It's not without useful information, but I recommend the Culture Shock book on Sweden rather than this book.

A great little book, easy to read and filled with good information. Perfect as a first introduction, as well as for the one who thinks that he/she knows all about Sweden and the Swedes.

This book gives a lot of insight to the intricacies of Swedish culture without going into too much detail. Especially recommended for anyone going on student exchange.

This is a lovely book with beautiful color pictures from what I think is authentic interiors. The author walks us through the essence of swedish style via colors, fabrics, accessories and furniture. I miss not having typical interiors and suggestions of how to decorate individual rooms such as hallways and kitchens etc. The main focus is on livingrooms and bedrooms. I still think it's a good purchase and this book gives me a lot of inspiration.

This is a good and basic introduction to the elements of Swedish style in interior design.

There is a simple historical summary that captures the background to Swedish design without making erudite comments on the style itself, other than to list the fundamental principles.

The asthetic choices are very tuille and English in flavour; something that a middle-class London matron may aspire to. The lack of real recourse to original Swedish design and then imaginative and tasteful modern alternatives makes this book disappointing.

"The Swedish Room" is far more inspiring and authentic.

Fast delivery - thank you! However, the binding of the book was very poor and split almost immediately upon opening - though not the fault of the seller.

Another Henty story! The young hero, along with many other Scots, joins the 3o years war for want of something better to do. During the battles against the imperialists he works on being cool, calm, and collected according to his countryman's advice. Soon he gains the favor of the Danish king (rather improbably) and later, while recovering from a bout of fever saves a besieged castle + fooling the imperialists into thinking he and his followers are the whole Hepburn brigade! Tons of adventures (some gruesome), and in between some historical explanations - have a map ready!
Note: the trust which the imperialist leader and the Scandinavian king have in the hero is improbable, but they do offer a good look at the top leaders of the war.
Another note: I don't think anyone under 10 should read it - sometimes it was hard for me to read. G. A. Henty does not make war out to be glorious or wonderful. He places the remarkable adventures in harsh historical contexts. Many died in the 30 years war, not all of them soldiers, and many die in the story.