Reading with Style discussion

20.9 - Sam's Choice: Scandinavian Noir
With the huge success of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the publishing world is making its best attempt to capitalize on that success by promoting the new subgenre called "Scandinavian Noir," a misnomer that groups mystery writers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Read a novel that falls under the definition of “Scandinavian Noir.” You can find most of the more popular authors/titles here and here. Please include the country the author is from when posting points.

Peter Høeg is an interesting Danish writer. His novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (also titled: Smilla's Sense of Snow) is excellent!

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, mentioned in one of Sam's links, is on the 1001-Books-to-read before-you-die list.

Jennifer wrote: "Peter Høeg is an interesting Danish writer. His novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (also titled: Smilla's Sense of Snow) is excellent!"

I have this at home and have been wanting to read it! I'm using it for the SRC's "I'm Glad My Mother Didn't Name Me..." task, so two birds with one stone.

I also won Hypothermia in a First Reads giveaway and recently picked up Faceless Killers as well. I'm loving this task!

I'm planning on reading Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist this fall; would it work for this task or is it too much of a horror book?

Liz wrote: "Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, mentioned in one of Sam's links, is on the 1001-Books-to-read before-you-die list."

One of my friends just posted about Mankell's The Man from Beijing

Whoever said this is, "a thinking man (woman's) thriller was right." I was throughly entranced by this book. I've always had an interest in communist China so some of the historical fiction in this book was up m alley.

I'll definitely read more by Henning Mankell.

Can we use "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo" for this task?

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "Can we use "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo" for this task?"

Yes...I originally had it excluded from the task, but Krista asked me not to.

yay!

Oh good, I thought I was the last person on earth who hadn't read the Girl With a Dragon Tattoo yet. I've got it on the shelf at home, ready and waiting.

Christy, I haven't read it either. I have all 3 books sitting on my nightstand, i just haven't pulled the metaphorical trigger, yet.

I haven't read them either! I bought all 3 and they are just sitting on my shelf right now haha

I have the first two, and I bet I can get the last one from my library (though maybe I should get on the waiting list now). With the series points for the fall challenge, this seems like a great time to read all three.

Christy wrote: "Oh good, I thought I was the last person on earth who hadn't read the Girl With a Dragon Tattoo yet. I've got it on the shelf at home, ready and waiting."

I read (listened to actually) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo this challenge. I'm finally towards the top of the library queue for the second book in the series (in audio format).

I was excited to see Sam's challenge task, but then disappointed when he'd specifically ruled out Stieg Larsson. I asked him nicely let us read Larsson. (I hadn't quite gotten to the begging level yet, but was willing to go there if necessary.) He relented and removed that restriction.

Yipeee! :-)

Haha, thank goodness you did that Krista. I have, like, uber limited access to books right now because I can't afford new copies of books and the two nearest bookstores are both used bookstores that may or may not have any but the most common books. I may not even be able to get my hands on a book for this task at all, but Stieg Larsson's books are my best bet.

I haven't read "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo either and I have the second one and ordered the third one.

Cait wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Peter Høeg is an interesting Danish writer. His novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (also titled: Smilla's Sense of Snow) is excellent!"

I have this..."

I don't think Lindqvist really qualifies as a noir author.

Sam wrote: "Cait wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Peter Høeg is an interesting Danish writer. His novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (also titled: Smilla's Sense of Snow) is excellent!"..."

Yeah, I didn't think so. Thanks, though. :o)

Sara Grace wrote: "Sooo...are we going to be able to claim translated points for these? I am assuming they are all translated."

I was going to say "no," but Krista convinced me to say "yes." So you can all thank her for that.

Just read Kennedy's Brain: A Novel by Henning Mankell; does it qualify for this task? I know he is listed as an acceptable author but this is not one of his Wallander series.

I'll let Sam have the final say, but I don't think the book has to be from any specific series by a given authro. The author has to be from one of the approved countries, and the book needs to fall in the "Noir" genre.

nsfancy wrote: "Just read Kennedy's Brain: A Novel by Henning Mankell; does it qualify for this task? I know he is listed as an acceptable author but this is not one of his Wallander ..."

It looks fine to me.