Happy Sunday!
As I child I spent lots of holidays in Scandinavia, my family and I visited between two and three times per year. I spent times in the cities and in log cabins in the countryside too. So, when I recently came across two books about how great Scandinavia is, I snapped them up and got reading.
Scandinavia is always used as an example of the best countries to live in; an exemplar education system, world class health care, equality, a great welfare system and most importantly… happiness. There have been so many reports about how happy people living in these countries are.
The Year of Living Danishing by Helen Russell
Helen Russell is a British journalist who moved to Denmark when her husband was offered a job there. Each chapter of this book focuses on a month of the year and what the author learnt from living in Denmark. It’s got a humorous tone to it and was a great read. I really looked forward to reading it every morning on my commute to work and would highly recommend it! It really makes you think about what it means to live in a happy society, surrounded by other happy people.
Then, a week later I was browsing in a book shop while I waited for my train, and I came across:
The Almost Nearly Perfect people by Michael Booth
I started this one this week. It is divided into sections and looks at each Scandinavian country in turn. This author too moved to Denmark with his Danish wife and begins by saying that he can’t believe how true it is that it’s so amazing… I imagine he’ll have changed his mind by the end of the book. This one has more stats that the other but is presented in an interesting way with a personal tone to it and I’m learning so much from reading it!
Do you like the sound of either of these books? Got any other book recommendations for me?
Have a lovely Sunday 🙂
Marcella xx
WhatAWonderfulWorld 
These sound really interesting! I might just have to put them on my list of books to read! Thanks for sharing 🙂
No problem Sara. Let me know if you read either of them 🙂
These books sound really interesting…thank you for sharing!
I’ve really loved reading them! 🙂
Interesting reads! I had heard recently of Living Danishly and it does sound fascinating – and I’m getting more and more an interest in reading books about expats, makes me feel less alone! And not gonna lie, I kind of dream of moving to Denmark 😉
Ohh, you should definitely read it. I learnt so many new things and it’s written in a really personable way too 🙂