Taxi Dog

Taxi Dog by Svend Otto S.

This was originally published as Taxa-hunden Jesper in Denmark. A tag shows up at a taxi stand. It is befriended by the taxi drivers. The dog loves to ride along on the taxis' running boards and participate in urban activities. One day, the dog caused a ruckus and a farmer decided to adopt the dog as a guard dog. The dog doesn't want to be in the country, so he chewed through his rope and hitched a taxi ride back home. He stayed in the city with the taxis until he met a female dog.

The book tells a story back in a classic time with a classic style.

On the Calculation of Volume (Book I)

On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle

A rare-books dealer goes off to the city to attend a convention and buy some books. She runs into some friends and gets a burn moving a heater. Then she wakes up the next day and finds the newspapers are for the previous day. A diner at breakfast drops their bread in the same way. She discovers that she most continuously repeat November 18th. She decides to travel home and discuss it with her husband/business partner. While she seems has memories of all her previous experiences, no one else does. Her hair and nails grow. She also can take some things with her. Together they also find that the "reset" happens at some arbitrary time. Eventually, she decides to go away. Near the year anniversary, she attempts to return to the hotel she was staying and see if she can progress to a different day. She does things a little different and then discovers some new things. Does the day progress?

This is similar to the movie Groundhog Day. One person continuously relives the day. This one has a much more intellectual approach. (As would be expected from a book dealer vs. a news anchor.) She doesn't spend much time trying to make minute changes and optimize the situation. Instead, she focusses on figuring things out in the hopes that she can find out why.

Hygge

>Hygge is a Danish term that does not translate well to the English language. It is somewhat like coziness, but that is only part of it. It involves relaxing behavior with friends, often with more muted lighting and comfort food. Natural materials are almost always more hygge than modern creations. Hygge, with the comfortable relationships with humans and surroundings is a significant factor in the overall happiness of the Danish people. It can be practiced on an individual basis, but is best with a small group of friends - and even better when all of society understands.

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

At the outbreak of World War II, Germany marched into Scandinavia. Norway put up a fight. Denmark, however, capitulated quickly. Businesses were more than happy to earn money from the German "protectors". Germany treated the Danes as a near-equal (they were the right race), and still let them govern themselves. However, the Germans occupied some of the key strategic areas for themselves. While many Danes objected to this, few were willing to take action. Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club were some that did.
They were teenage students that did not like the Nazis. They committed small acts against their oppressors. They stole weapons and vandalized Nazi holdings - often in broad daylight. However, they were primarily upper middle class teenagers and didn't have the heart to seriously injure others. In the book, it felt like they were building up to their big acts of sabotage as they finally destroyed some Nazi holdings. However, shortly afterwards, they were caught and jailed. Half the book details their activities after being caught. They were unwilling to back down. They pretty much forced the government to jail them (otherwise the Nazis would have excuse for taking over the justice system.) Even in jail, they had many a sympathetic Danish ear, and some were able to sneak out of their cell and wreck havoc at night before returning to their cells. Some were moved to German controlled cells and treated much worse. Eventually, they were freed and some were able to participate in the resistance movement at the end of the war. Some of them were able to go back to school and continue on with their lives afterwards. Others were seriously traumatized by the experience. What they accomplished did very little to directly impact the occupation. However, they did provide the seed for the later Danish resistance.
I was initially expecting some bold events in the story. But, in typically Danish fashion, there is very little drama going on in Aalborg. It is the subtlety of the Danes that undermines. The book shows the kids with a strong rebellious defiance, even if they are not able to accomplish much with it.

Vikings

Vikings is a series of lectures focussing on Scandinavia during the age of the Vikings (roughly a few hundred years on either side of 1000 AD). A little background is provided on the people before the time and how they split off from the the other Germanic people of the time. There is also a brief section at the end covering the christianization of Scandinavia and the integration in to Europe of the time. The bulk of the course, however, focuses on the sea-going exploits of the Vikings. With their technology, they were able to rapidly move around to raid, trade and plunder with minimal opposition. While they often participated in purely "business" missions, at times they stayed and adopted the habits and customs of the locals. Thus we get the Norman French, who were primarily a Viking caste that had adopted the French language.

The history of Britain and France from the Viking perspective is also enlightening. The battle involved a bunch of French who had recently immigrated from Scandinavia fighting against a bunch of Scandinavians and some English who had taken the throne from Scandinavians. Its like the USSR and US having a proxy battle in Vietnam. It ends up very important for Vietnamese history, but for the players, it was just a small part in the bigger picture.

The concept of "kings" is also enlightening. It seems anybody with Scandinavian ancestry can find plenty of kings in their family tree. Part of this was the natural reproductivity of kings (and their many wives). However, there were also a large number of kings. The Scandinavians didn't have large kingdoms until after they Christianized. Instead there were numerous "sea kings" who ruled small areas and led raiding parties.

The Vikings had led a very complex society. Alas, other than the Icelanders, they were not too keen on writing about their exploits. Thus most of what we hear from them is from their opponents.