Sweden Books

This book has the 15 prayers which every catholic should say daily because of the many promises given to save the soul from the fires of both Hell and Purgatory.
The book has many interesting details in the lives of Jesus and Mary which adds to what is in the gospels.
Catholics should buy this book for their daily devotion.

The Revelations of St. Bridget is a very unique and inspiring book. It provides important insights into the Passion of Our Lord and the life of Mary, which insights give excellent material for meditation, and, therefore, are a help to one's spiritual development. Our Lord has told many saints that meditation on His Passion is the best way to improve one's spiritual life. The Revelations is a wonderful guide on the road to spiritual improvement.

This could be a most interesting book, except that is ,merely a short, devotional book of EXCERPTS from the original, NOT the entire "Revelations of ST. Bridget". SO if you're looking for a complete book lookk elsewhere than TAN Publications, at least, at LEAST until they start mentioning books are really excerpts from books, books are abridged etc. As it is, I now have to search for an entire copy again.

St. Bridget's revelations were amazing... The Passion can been seen through the eyes of Christ and Mary and moved me to tears. A must read and a must share. Every copy I get I pass on to someone else.

What better meditations to show our Lord's love for mankind.

A fascinating account of what a strange place the 18th century was. The age of confusion more than the age of reason. Who would have thought that Linnaeus had so much in common with today's new age cranks.

It has become axiomatic that historians of science know little about either. This revisionist treatment of the foibles of 18th century Swedish life paints poor Linnaeus as a whacko. However, he really wasn't too far removed from the contemporary members of the Royal Society of London in credulity, self promotion and ignorance and was certainly typical of Swedish Professors of that and more recent times.
This is really a silly book first produced under the tuterage of Simon Schama and reissued from HUP. The author does not acknowledge the intellectual ferment of the time when the Enlightenment was being crushed under the heels of van Herder and by the Romantic curse (that we still enjoy as political correctness). The greatest contribution of the Linne's systematics was the "taxonomic key" that allows some order out of biology, not his fatuous attempts to make booze out of lichens or grow pineapples in Bothnia.
I suppose other historians of "science" will someday mock Aristotle for his ignorance of DNA and not knowing how many teeth women have, but really, this is a silly book.

Linnaeus : Nature and Nation
by Lisbet Koerner
Reviewed by Thomas Leo Ogren, author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed Press.
Honestly I have mixed feelings about this book. One, I love it and really did enjoy reading it. I learned quite a bit from it too.
But I do wish it had been written in a more reader-friendly manner. It is a good bit too scholarly for my tastes, a trifle too text-bookishly written.
One of the important things about Linnaeus himself is that he always tried to reach the common man, tried to make his work popular and easily understood. I feel this book could have emulated some of that flavor.
But I don't mean to be too critical by any means because I did like this book very much. There is a real wealth of research here, many things about Linnaeus here that I'd never read before. Karl Linnaeus was THE botanist--of his time, and of our own time as well. His system of binomial nomenclature, Genus species, was pretty much right on the money. He was the first to realize that plants' sexual characteristics were what largely either grouped them together or set them apart. His system is often criticized today, but to me it still makes great sense.
Linnaeus : Nature and Nation, is not for everyone, but serious gardeners will enjoy it, as will historians, especially those with an interest in botany, horticulture, science. Well worth reading.

A biography filled with wonderful detail, even though centering on Linnaeus' economic program. At times the author appears to be making fun of Linnaeus' odder ideas rather than attempting serious historical analysis, but in all a good job and an interesting argument.

‘Gazing at a flower by the grass-roofed cottage where he was born [...] Linnaeus was quintessentially a local man.’ (187). But as Lisbet Koerner explains, he also linked the ‘universal with the local [...] nature with nation.’ In this fascinating account, Koerner demonstrates that the father of modern taxonomy was also a political economist. Unlike Adam Smith, his interest was no so much in international trade or colonial conquest, but the substitution of imports (a cameralist program).

Although Linnaeus had travelled in Holland, France, and Engalnd (1735-48) there were nineteen ‘first-generation’ students who undertook ‘voyages of discover’ between 1745 and 1792. Koerner asserts that their travels ‘were part of their larger strategy to create a miniature mercantile empire within a European state’ (114). Linnaeus sensed that ‘explorers fostered strategies of national improvement based on ecological diversification rather than on territoral expansion.’ (114).

Linnaeus, it is argued was essentially a civil servant who turned his students into an efffective and efficient support staff. Chapter 3 deals with the Lapland journey. In line with economic and political priorities the area was to be colonized as a kind of Scandinavian “West Indies”. As a committed Lutheran, its is fascinating to deconstruct the theology at work in Linnaeus’s thought. Nature was a prelapsarian Paradise, but it must be exploited within each country. Accordingly, Linnaesus was concerned by the luxury and excess of products that trade supplied from the cornucopia of the New World. As this book notes, ‘He even urged Scandinavians to return to the old “Gothic foods,” such as acorns, pork, and mead.’ (95) At the same time he was keen to cultivate at home (to acclimatize) what was normally cultivated abroad. We even find him thinking, theorizing, and cultivating ‘an art to Make Mussles bring forth pearls.’ (141) He professed an an axiety that the pearl plantaions ‘could not long remain secret before our neighbours in Norway, Russia, and Siberia, who own more stores of Pearl mussels, could thus intirely triumph over us in quantity.’ (143)

Yet as Linnaeus’s stock rose in Europe among the Romantics, at home it fell as he failed to deliver economic adavantage and superiority through import substitution. Ernst Moritz Arndt attacked Linnaeus’s cameralist projects in 1783, wondering how ‘On e was supposed to believe that Sweden suddenly had become Asia Minor and Sicily.’ (168) His enterprising schemes turned out to be ‘fantastic and chimerical’; it was left to his taxonomic system to enrich the world. Nonetheless, in light of recent global protests and persistent underdevelopment, the larger issues which the book eloquently discusses, seem to me as relevant now as then. ‘Linnaeus: Nature and Nation’ concludes by stating that it ‘memorializes a local attempt at a local modernity, a now-forgotten future of the past’ (193), but the other issue it raises is timely:

‘Or can native subjects, using only local means of production, build a complex and complete local economy, incorporating contemporary technologies, and functioning as a microcosm of the global economy.’ (192)

The authors used questionnaire-based research to study twelve countries through the lens of seven oppositional pairs (the cultures from the title).

These pairs are:
Universalism vs. Particularism
Analyzing vs. Integrating
Individualism vs. Communitarianism
Inner-Directed vs. Outer-directed Orientation
Time as Sequence vs. Time as Synchronization
Achieved Status vs. Ascribed Status
Equality vs. Hierarchy

They make the point that capitalism is not a choice for or against but a range of behaviours made up of a multiplicity of choices. Using their grid and research data, they position various countries on this range.

As someone who works and lives in a country where I was not born, I found the book a very useful frame for looking at my adopted work environment.

I really call this 4.5 stars, the -.5 is because sections of it are much more dated than others and there are places where I think the tone of the book is lessened by the authors' temptation to give in and make value judgements.

I borrowed this book from the local public library after a recommendation by an international business expert who has dealt significantly with Japan. I personally am an American ex-management consultant, Kellogg MBA, and now work in an international business capacity for a foreign government, one of the seven cultures studied by the authors. First off, I will say that this book does offer value; the study findings and cultural insights are extremely useful, even ten years later. However, I found the book absolutely frustrating in its arrogance and leaps of logic, taking the micro-level findings of the research to try to explain macroeconomics of the time. Since I found no dissenting voices on the Internet regarding this book, I felt compelled to offer a different perspective.

If you read this book, you would not expect US GDP to outgrow Japanese GDP in real terms EVERY SINGLE YEAR OF THE TEN YEARS SINCE THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED in 1993, which was exactly what happened. The authors seem to have taken advantage of the alarmist environment of Western management circles at the time to take pot shots at Adam Smith, Michael Porter, business schools, economics, financial analysis, management consultants, lawyers, etc. You would think that the American way of doing business logically, factually, and rationally is inherently flawed. The authors do not take their own prescription to "bring seemingly opposed values into balance", but rather extoll the virtues of the opposing value while dismissing the "Anglo-American" value to obsolescence.

Indeed, it is the convenient neglect of American-style fact-based analysis that may be the fundamental flaw of this book. The authors take very little data to make broad, sweeping conclusions. One laughable passage on page 37 asserted that one reason the Japanese may prefer to locate many of their plants in the South is that Americans there tend to take more time to converse informally before proceeding to business discussions. Never mind right-to-work laws, state economic development incentives, and the opportunity to build on a clean slate in the South -- Japanese motivations can be monolithically explained by culture, if you ask Turner and Trompenaars. (I am certain the Japanese do their fair share of fact-based analysis.)

READ THIS BOOK, but take it with a grain of salt. The study facts and cultural insights are essential, but the authors' larger extrapolations are dangerous and could be discredited by what has transpired since the book was published. Americans can and must benefit by learning from other cultures, adapt their strengths to new environments, and assimilate ideas that might at first be uncomfortable. But do not throw away all Anglo-American values so readily. The irony that this book is out-of-print while "Wealth of Nations" remains after 227 years suggests that Smith's invisible hand exists to strangle those who make feeble arguments against it.

This book examines a number of different countries and the priorities that shape them. While different cultures may all share the same values - be honest, treat your friends well, etc - what is telling is how different cultures *prioritize*.

For example, if you are in a situation where you see your friend at fault in a car accident, and you are called upon to testify, what do you do? While Americans tend to value truth-telling over loyalty to friends, Asians tend to value loyalty to friends over truth-telling. Both choices are shocking to the opposite: "How can you lie like that?" vs. "How can you let your friend down like that?"

This book looks at a number of cultures and how they differ. It's a fascinating read, and has changed how I look at the world.

Helped me understand why the US focus on COST while Europe focuses on VALUE and why I was finding it tough in Sweden! Great Book!

Though this book was first published in 1993, it is still every bit as relevant and interesting today. In this book, the authors examine the values and cultural habits of seven major capitalist countries (the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands), and examines how their cultural differences has given to each an entirely different capitalist system. After first explaining how the differences were quantified, the authors then examine these cultures, giving the reader an in-depth understanding of how each country's culture (and as such, capitalist system) works, and how it produces wealth.

I found this to be an absolutely fascinating book. I was always aware of the cultural differences between various countries, but this book did an excellent job of defining those differences, and showing how they affect the way that the country does business. If you are interested in any of these seven countries, or interested in international business, then I highly recommend this book to you.

The works by the Swedish writing duo of Sjowall/Wahloo are certainly an acquired taste. While their writing skills (characterizations, prose, story) are certainly laudable, their subversive interwoven social commentaries are probably not to everyone's liking. All their books make it seem as if Sweden is some absolutely horrible place due to the utterly inept government and decaying societal norms. 'Cop Killer' is a classic Sjowall/Wahloo mystery novel.

'Cop Killer' is actually two disjointed mysteries which come together in the end. As the title suggests, one of them involves the death of a police office. The other involves the grisly death of a woman. While neither mystery in my itself is brilliant, and I found the fusing of these two stories at the end of the novel to be contrived, Sjowall/Wahloo keep the reader entertained with really fine characterizations (especially of the frazzled police investigators). The book never bored me. But alas, I don't think 'Cop Killer' will be a memorable reading experience.


Bottom line: if you think you'd like Swedish mysteries written by fierce social critics then this book is for you. :-) But probably a curious read for all others.

The Beck mysteries are a unique series of politically critical, human procedurals that are wonderfully translated into English. They need to be read as a set--there are 10 of them--in order to understand the unique contribution that this husband and wife team have made to mystery fiction.

The ninth Martin Beck novel. Not as good as some of their previous work, but still pretty engaging nonetheless. ... The authors frequently remind us of how much better things were back in the good old days. Funny satire, but pretty cranky, and not much of a thriller.

The book redeems itself with some of Gunvald Larsson's uproarious antics and the shocking revelation of the identity of the title character.

"Cop Killer" is entertaining in parts, but I think Sjowall and Wahloo were beginning to get bored with the police procedural, and it shows.

All of the Martin Beck mysteries (I believe there are 10 in all) are excellent reads that offer a window into the criminal Scandinavian landscape. Sharply etched characterizations and stories that remind one of the Magritte novels of Simenon. It's a shame that they are hard to find!

The book deals with the concept of parallel universes. The concept is relatively well thought out by Laumer and given to us in more detail then I expected he would do in such short novels. The story deals with the conflicts played out between the worlds of these parallel universes and how they impact each other both knowingly and unknowingly.

Overall I thought this was a really good read. The pace of the story was fast and what one would expect of a tightly written story. It always amazes me how much thicker today's science fiction novels tend to be versus those of 30 or 40 years ago. Could it be as simple as the art of tight writing and a strong editor are lost today?

The characters are not that strongly developed and this seems to be the sacrifice Laumer makes to keep the stories to the point. The characters are developed only as absolutely necessary to the story so of course the only character we are attuned to is the single main character.

I recommended and if you enjoy the genre at all I think you will enjoy the novel as well.

I picked this novel up with some trepidation. I am not usually one who enjoys omnibus editions of older works. I can get prejudiced by three or four supposed novels only taking up about 300 pages total. In this case there are three novels written by a writer who once was of some fame who is today nearly forgotten. Keith Laumer.

The books all deal with the concept of parallel universes. The concept is relatively well thought out by Laumer and given to us in more detail then I expected he would do in such short novels. The stories deal with the conflicts played out between the worlds of these parallel universes and how they impact each other both knowingly and unknowingly.

Overall I thought this was a really good read. The pace of the stories was fast and what one would expect of a tightly written story. It always amazes me how much thicker today's science fiction novels tend to be versus those of 30 or 40 years ago. Could it be as simple as the art of tight writing and a strong editor are lost today?

The characters are not that strongly developed and this seems to be the sacrifice Laumer makes to keep the stories to the point. The characters are developed only as absolutely necessary to the story so of course the only character we are attuned to is the single main character.

Of the three books in this omnibus I enjoyed the first two the best. The last had the main character in it but as a supporting role. I did not think the third book was written as strongly as the other two.

This was the first time I remember reading Laumer although his works have been on my bookshelf for years. The experience was one that I enjoyed enough that the next book I picked up to read was Laumer's Legions of Space.

I recommended and if you enjoy the genre at all I think you will enjoy the novel as well.

This book reprints 3 classic stories by Laumer, about alternate history and a multi-universe spanning organisation. If you have read and enjoyed the works of H Beam Piper and his Paratime universes, and Poul Anderson's Time Patrol, then Laumer's stories will be a great treat.

The first story of the book starts off the series, explaining how an American diplomat in our universe, in the years after World War 2, gets kidnapped by the Imperium, based in a Sweden [!sic] that benignly rules another Earth. The stories are now some 40 years old. But they hold up well. Plenty of action, without drowning you in the cyberpunk pervasive computing of more recent science fiction. Laumer had a gift for combining the spy novel with high technology in a fluid synthesis that sweeps the reader along.

The only pity is that Laumer never wrote many stories in this series.

Flint and the publisher are to be thanked for bringing these stories back into print for a new generation of readers.

I just love tales of parallel universes and time-travel, and this classic by Keith Laumer is one of the best of the genre, rich both in action and in daring speculations. Intriguing as Paratime by H. Beam Piper and Time Patrol by Poul Anderson. A must have for the transdimensional SF fan!

I found this guidebook indispensable on my recent visit to Stockholm - the brief restaurant write-ups were spot on, and it contained a much greater level of detail than other guidebooks I looked at.

I found the maps very useful as well; they are aided by the layout of the book - all lodging in one chapter, all dining in another chapter, nightlife in its own chapter, etc, rather than dividing the chapters by region. Once I got used to the layout, it was very intuitive.

That said, it's always a good idea to look at a guidebook first in a bricks-and-mortar store before buying it online, because personal tastes do vary.

I am ususally a DK Eyewitness fan, but the Lonely Planet Stockholm was more recent in it's copywright. Most information was helpful except when heading to Gripsholms Slott, which wasn't open to any public until May, we visited in February.
Also some of the stores noted for shopping in Galma Stad didn't exist.

Becky Ohlsen provides an excellent, personalized overview of Stockholm's many museums, cafes, hotels, etc. We relied on her book for our too-brief three-day stay in the city, and were consistently happy with the advice given. Recommended.

Good coverage of history and has more detail than most city guides by other publishers. The maps are good but a removable fold-out would have been better. Overall an interesting read and useful resource.

A great introduction to the Pippi Longstocking story. We got this book along with Pippi Goes to The Circus, my 7 yr old enjoyed them both.

This book, I had thought when I bought it, had a good plot. Key word there? Thought!

This book is supper ! I love Pippi ! I have her Video and DVD. She is the smartest girl in the whole world ! When she got in shool she starts jumping on the desks ! Because she din't know what to do in shool. I really recomend it to buy this book.

This is a marvelous way to introduce young readers to the fabulous world of Pippi Longstocking! The illustrations are delightful and the stories are rollicking and full of fun!

The opening chapters tell how Gunvald Larsson was sent to observe a Presidential parade in a South American country. All precautions were taken. But when the President passed by the street exploded and blew up the Presidential car. Chapter 3 tells of a bank robbery trial with its comic moments. Jurors are chosen through political connections, and are often friends of the prosecutor. An ill-prepared defense lawyer freed his client. Chapter 4 tells of the developments in Martin Beck's personal life. Chapter 5 is about the assassination of a film director who made films for export only. None of the neighbors had seen a stranger. Gunvald Larsson returned with his report on the assassination (Chapter 8). They learn about a terrorist group that attacked on many continents. The targets had nothing in common politically, except they were prominent. This group always succeeds.

Martin Beck found a clue and solved the murder of the film director (Chapter 9, 10). Chapter 13 introduces Reinhard Heydt, the ULAG terrorist. They are funded by wealthy businessmen to create political turmoil that can be exploited. The police are planning to prevent an attack (Chapter 14). Sweden passed new laws banning firearms (Chapter 15). There was an increase in crime, drugs, and violence (Chapter 16). One terrorist's presence is reported in Chapter 18. Chapter 20 tells what happened when the terrorist's bomb exploded. Chapter 21 explains the security measures taken to minimize damage. Something happened at Ridderholm Church (Chapter 22). Chapter 23 explains what caused it.

Rebecka Lind is in court again. Her defense attorney's speech sounds like a funny parody (Chapter 24). Routine police work leads to the discovery of two terrorists (Chapter 25). They would like to capture them alive. Chapter 26 tells of the plan and its results. There is another funny scene in court when the two terrorists are arraigned (Chapter 27). The police calculate the likely escape route of the third terrorist. Reinhard is proud of his sideburns even if they attract attention (Chapter 28). Chapter 29 begins by telling how Christmas was hijacked from a family festival to a commercial advertising orgy. The Swedish police get a present at the port of Malmö thanks to Benny Skacke.

The authors wrote ten books from 1965 to 1975 which were supposed to reflect society and its changes. If accurate, they provide information about Sweden that is not found in newspapers. The "urban renewal" schemes that displaced old neighborhoods is similar to big cities in America. These novels have events that seem to have been copied from America, or is that just human nature?

The tenth, and final, Martin Beck novel. A disappointing finish to an otherwise excellent series. International terrorists strike fear into the heart of Sweden, their motives obscure, their methods deadly.

The authors abandon all pretense of reality in this one, focusing on excessively heavy-handed Marxist criticism of all aspects of society. Beck's motivations and actions seem very out-of-character, the plot is ridiculous, and the writing is unusually poor. It reads like a freakish crossbreed of Tom Clancy, Kurt Vonnegut, and Frederich Engels.

If you've read the other nine books, you should probably read this one, too, but it's for die-hard fans only.

Well, Sjowall and Wahloo are trying to be Fredrick Forsyth and Fedor Dostoevsky at the same time here, and Forsyth part came out much better. There are three subplots to this book - the murder of porno director Walter Petrus, the political assasinations, and the story of young Stockholmer Rebecka Lind, loosely tying the former two together. The attempt on the life of American Senator is written out superbly, rivaling the Day of Jackal. The rest of the book is also readable, but by the end of the series Sjowall and Wahloo became quite didactic in their social commentaries, occasionally crossing into Pravda-like condemnation of the capitalist evils. Authors disenchantement with capitalism is evident in their other books also, but in Terrorists its influence is far less artful and a great measure less subtle. I still like the book but one could wish - can't he? - that this mesalliance between a crime novel and a morality play was moderated by the same literary taste the authors shown us before.

Although it has been several years since I read this book, it is the culmination of a great series that is part mystery, part social commentary and part satire. All of the Martin Beck mysteries are good and should be read in order beginning with Roseanne and ending with this book.

My mother was born in Sweden on a farm neighboring Vilhelm Moberg. I was expecting a different written history than this book and the second volume. I still don't know why Norway and Sweden are one body of land and yet two separate countries with different languages, etc. The book goes on and on about wars and more wars and how the peasants always were the ones to suffer. After a while it all blurred in to a story of wars, just with different characters.

Vilhelm Moberg (1898-1973) was one of Sweden's leading men of letters, chiefly remembered today for his peerless emigrant tetralogy. His Min Svenska Historia was his life's work, and only completed after his death. Published in Swedish in two volumes, this book is the English translation of the first book, taking the history of Sweden from prehistory, through to the Kalmar Union and the death of Queen Margareta.

Unlike most history books of the era, though, this one is written with a definite slant. Moberg became disillusioned with the heroic history that he had been taught in his school days, finding that the great men and women of Swedish history actually had feet of clay that made their enshrining ludicrous. Embracing socialism in everything, he sought to write a book that reached past the kings and bigwigs of history, and told the story of the peasants that made the country everything that it was.

The book is quite iconoclastic, poking fun at many people who figure large in other history books - kings, magnates, and Viking warriors. In many ways it is a book ahead of its time, refusing to genuflect before anyone, and making for some humorous and fascinating reading. My one complaint against this book is that this first book contains no index, which limits its usefulness for everyday use (though I presume that there may be an index in the second volume).

So, if you are interested in reading a history of Sweden that is not like any other, or if you are interested in reading the thoughts of the great Vilhelm Moberg, then I highly recommend this book to you.

Mr. Moberg provides us with an insight into history from some angles that are not often assessed by other authors in the field. In Volume 1, he covers Scandinavia from prehistory, to the Renaissance. Major points of interest: the Viking Age, the arrival of the Black Plague, the Union Of Kalmar presided over by Queen Margaret...when all Scandinavia was ruled by one crown, culminating with the Dacke Rebellion.
Moberg was not impressed by the the role of kings, aristocracy, or statesmen. He considered the common-citizens and their contributions to be far more sincere and significant to the growth of a nation. One chapter features a discussion of the study of ancient laws as a reflection on the conditions in a particular time and place. Moberg's two volumes are not so much a detailed chronology, but a collection of essays on varying subjects pertainent to the theme. This is the kind of book one can open at random and find something interesting in any chapter.

Initially I was excited to find out that a book on the long running musical Mamma Mia would be coming out. After purchasing and reading the book I personally did not find it interesting nor did I feel there were much material to offer the reader.

If one is a collector of theater coffee table books you may want to purchase this just to add to your library.

After reading the 1994 book "ABBA-The Complete Recording Sessions" by Carl Magnus Palm, I thought I read all I ever would about how ABBA recorded some of their best known songs. However, this coffee table size book delves into greater detail on the origins of the 22 ABBA songs in the worldwide smash musical "Mamma Mia!" as well as great detail on the origins of the musical itself. It also goes into great detail on the foreign language versions of the musical. Any dismissive critics of ABBA (and you know who you are) would have to admit that Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (the two "B"s of ABBA) really knew what they were doing when they recorded all of those songs, based on all of the comments the 2 former ABBA members made regarding the ABBA recordings in this book. Hopefully it will be updated to include more info on the Russian language version that opened in Moscow in the fall of 2006.
And yes, the book contains plenty of photos of ABBA and the Mamma Mia! musical!!!
I also hope they update the book for the summer 2008 release of the film version. Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnin will star!!!

I admit it. I love Mamma Mia! Nothing makes me happier than watching the show. Reading this informative and loving book about the show, its beginings and its ongoing success takes you right back to your seat in a theater where you first saw Mamma Mia! on stage.

The photos are lush, colorful and interesting. The text is easy to read and gives a thorough account of how the show came to be and how it remains a constant night after night success around the globe.

It isn't often that something so dear to me personally gets such a loving treatment in book form. This is one of those rare times and it allows the reader to enjoy the celebration that IS Mamma Mia! over and over at their fingertips.

The large book is very reasonably priced considering its quality and the fine color photos throughout.

If you love Mamma Mia! you'll enjoy reading and owning this wonderfully adoring companion piece.