Behind the cover of box 2 we have - George Saunders. George Saunders is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, children's books, and novels. A multi talented man in other words. Since 1997, Saunders he is also teaching creative writing for the Syracuse University and its MFA program. I have read his A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life, which is an interesting novel, where he analyses some of the great, classic authors. He also wrote Lincoln in the Bardo , of course, which I still have to read. Saunders has a vivid Substack account, where he talks about reading and writing. One part is The Story Club. Recently, there was a post titled: How Much Do We Need to Read to Have a Chance to Be Good? To be a good reader—or writer—I assume, means having a solid foundation for your reading. Take a look at the article; it's interesting. Among the comments, you’ll find suggestions for people’s favorite reads from each century, spanning from the 1300s to the present. Ultimately, it’s up to you and your own favorites. There are certainly more of mine that are missing from the list. Here is my list : 1300-1350 Divine Comedy (Dante) - The Decamerone (Boccaccio) 1350-1400 Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) 1400-1450 ? 1450-1500 ? 1500-1550 The Prince (Machiavelli) 1550-1600 Hamlet (Shakespeare) 1600-1650 Don Quixote (Cervantes) 1650-1700 Paradise Lost (Milton) 1700-1750 Gulliver's Travels (Swift) / Robinson Crusoe (Defoe) 1750-1800  Candide (Voltaire) 1800-1850 Anything by Jane Austen / Anything by the Brontë sisters / Frankenstein (Shelley) 1850-1900 Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky) / Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Nietzsche) / Heart of Darkness (Conrad) /Madame Bovary (Flaubert) /Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) Moby Dick (Melville) 1900-1950 To The Lighthouse (Woolf) / 1984 (Orwell) / The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) / The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) / Gone With the Wind (Mitchell) 1950-2000 Fahrenheit 451(Bradbury) /To Kill a Mockingbird /Harper) / One Hundred Years of Solitude (Márquez / Lolita (Nabokov) /The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) / Lord of the Flies (Golding) / The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) / The Bell Jar (Plath) 2000 - Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies/The Mirror and the Light (Mantel) / The Sense of an Ending (Barnes) Which of your favorites would make the list? Let me know in the comments! Also, if you have any suggestions for the 15th century, I’d love to hear them. If you are interested in reading my Substack account, The Content reader newsletter, you will find it here: https://thecontentreader.substack.com/ (when asked if you want to subscribe, click 'No thanks' and you will enter into the main page, where you will find a sample of my earlier newsletters. I mostly write about travel, history, art and culture and everything that makes life fun. I do hope you will subscribe. It is free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." From Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoj I have had this book on my shelves for many years. It is an old edition, with illustrations. I have decided that 2025 will be the year I finally read it.

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was an Austrian author, born in Vienna in the then Austrian-Hungarian Empire. In the 1920s and '30s, at the height of his career, he was one of the most translated and popular writers in the world. He studied philosophy and started his writing career early by writing newspaper articles and essays. His work consists of historical biographies of literary and historical persons, fiction and plays. His fiction is mostly in the form of novellas or short stories, the most famous being Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok, and Chess Story . He also wrote librettos for the German composer Richard Strauss, whom he admired. In 1934 he had to leave Austria due to the rise of the Nazi Party, and he emigrated to England. In 1940 he moved to New York and then on to Brazil where he settled with his second wife Lotte Altmann. Over the years Zweig became disillusioned and saw no hope for the future of Europe. He and his wife committed double suicide in February 1942. He started writing his memoirs in 1934 and added the last chapter the day before the suicide. The book was first published in German in 1942, by a publisher in Stockholm. To Zweig’s chagrin his own books were by then banned in Germany and Austria. A European memoir "I was born in 1881 in the great and mighty empire of the Habsburg Monarchy, but you would look for it in vain on the map today; it has vanished without trace. I grew up in Vienna, an international metropolis for two thousand years, and had to steal away from it like a thief in the night before it was demoted to the status of a provincial German town. My literary work, in the language in which I wrote it, has been burnt to ashes in the country where my books made millions of readers their friends. So I belong nowhere now, I am a stranger or at most a guest everywhere ." (my bold mark). The World of Yesterday is Zweig's personal remembrances of life in Vienna at the start of the 20th century. It is the last days of the Habsburg Empire, a world that soon will be gone. Zweig starts his retrospectic journey with a look at his childhood, teenage years, the education system and a view on sexuality, totally changing people's attitude as the psychoanalysis of Freud (who was a personal friend) was introduced. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later in Berlin, but has nothing good to say about the teachings. Already early on he finds his way to literature and the arts by his own efforts and studies. He traveled the world to learn from other authors, artists and cultures; Berlin, Paris and other metropoles, as well as countries outside Europe. It became more challenging as the political landscape in Europe was changing due to the two world wars. As always, Zweig has a sharp eye on society and how it works. But, he gives us a very personal view on his own work and thoughts, and the pleasure he felt with likeminded friends. There are many insightful comments, still valid today. I think he would have liked the Europe we have today, which looks very much like the ideas he himself had so many years ago. " My today is so different from all my yesterdays; I have risen and fallen so often, that I sometimes feel as if I had lived not just one but several completely different lives." It is difficult to summarise his book. It reads more like a dictionary. Each chapter covers a topic, a certain time and you can open it wherever you want. This is a book I could think of having with me all the time. The same feeling I had with Sylvain Tessin's book A Summer With Homer (Une été avec Homère ). I can see myself making a small package with these two books and keep them close by, to open up anywhere, and start reading. Maybe you can even compare Zweig with Odysseus, who travelled the world trying to get back home. Unfortunately for Zweig, once he left, he never came back to Austria. A life lived The book is translated by Anthea Bell (2009) and from the translators note I quote the following. " Their double suicide raises another point: there has been discussion of the reason for it, since at that date, when the United States had just entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, there were clear signs that the tide was turning against Hitler. Talk of final victory and a 'wonder weapon' may have sounded persuasive in Germany and Austria, where a heavy propaganda system was brought to bear, less so outside those countries. One surmise, with which I concur, is that Zweig's underlying reason may have been a sense that whether the war was won or lost, the world of civilised culture in which he had lived and worked was gone for ever. I concur merely on the grounds that the close work of translation brings one close to an author's mind - as Zweig, who often worked as a translator himself early in his literary career, and knew what translation sets out to do (...) might, I think, have agreed. " Stefan Zweig left behind a testament of a time gone by. He does it with splendour, giving us an insight into his world, his thoughts, and his achievements as an author and literary giant, and the creative world of literature and art in which he lived during his younger years. You only wonder what he could have achieved and produced had he lived on. We have to be grateful for the rather many writings he left behind, which we can still enjoy today. His language and prose is still at the higher end of literature, and Zweig's writings are based on a sharp eye and intellect making him a master in story telling. I am happy to note that I still have quite a few books left to read, especially his many literary and historical biographies. I have read Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok, and Chess Story including a few other short stories, as well as the biography of Marie Antoinette , and Messages From a Lost World.

The Ten Greatest Books Ever Written? Every year various literary connoisseurs publish lists of the best books ever written. Some of them, divided into genres, fiction and nonfiction and whatever theme you are happy with. In the end it is a matter of personal references. Just for fun, I searched for the ten best books and found a website called The Greatest Books . I choose Global Canon, but there are other search criteria if you are interested in checking it out. The List 1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I have read this book twice, and I must admit that I never really fully understood its greatness. I have also seen two different film versions ... did not help. 2. Ulysses by James Joyce - I have not read this one, and I am pretty sure, I will not read it. Joyce is a difficult author, at least that is my idea. That is all I have to say about it. 3. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust - I have not read this one either, but somehow want to. I imagine it is too difficult for me, but I still might give it a try. 4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - I have read this novel and liked it very much. It is a difficult novel to review, I think you just have to read it, and get immersed into the astonishing family of Buendía. 5. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - I have read this classic novel, but could not really see the greatness. I just felt an irritation with the protagonist. Maybe I have to reread it? 6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - I have also read this, and liked it. Even if the subject is sensitive. Maybe, because of the writing. Which makes me want to reading something else by Nabokov. 7. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell - I read this many years ago, when I was younger. I think it might be time for a re-read. A classic story of a world we never thought we would be living in. 8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I have not read this classic tale, but I have it on my book shelves. I hope to read it next year. Somehow, I am sure I will love it. 9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - One of my own favourite books, which I have read at least three times. It is definitely one of the best ten books ever written ... on my list. 10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - another classic that I have read several times. Love it. What is not to love with Jane Austen? Results 7 - Read 1 - Will Read 2 - Will (probably) Not Read

I went for 100 books to read this year. I did not really make it, but did read 86 books . Of these, 43 books came from my TBR shelves. Even so, the shelves ended up at 211 books still to read. I never seem to come under 200 books, although I do read around 50 books from my shelves every year. Will 2025 by a different year? This year I read 3 nonfiction and 55 6fiction, of which 28 were thrillers. Many Agatha Christie and Donna Leon. Somehow, I felt I needed a lot of easily read books this year.. My favourite books 2024 The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima En sommar med Homeros (Un été avec Homère) by Sylvain Tesson  (NF) A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Krysalis  by John Trenhaile La vie secrète des écrivains/Öns hemlighet  by Guillaume Musso The World of Yesterday  by Stefan Zweig (NF) Madonna in Fur by Sahabattin Ali/August Kala  by Colin Walsh The Princess of Burundi  by Kjell Eriksson Faust  by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe/September Prinsen av Vasa - Den siste gustavianen by Harald Hultman (NF) 12 books turned out to be favourites of mine. The rest were good, so overall, a pleasing year. I read books by authors from the following countries: Sweden - 29 Great Britain - 23 USA - 14 France - 4 Ireland - 3 Germany - 3 Antiquity - 3 Japan - 1 Australia - 1 Portugal - 1 Austria - 1 Turkey - 1 Italy - 1 What to read in 2025 To start with I will try to finish the around seven books I have already started. I will go for a month long trip to SE Asia in mid January and will have to see how far I have reached by then. On the trip I will probably mostly read on my ipad, e-books and audio books. Random spin will also be an option in 2025 in order to read from my TBRs. On my TBR list I have 60 fiction books and 109 nonfiction ones. I wish you all a Happy New Year and a lot of good reading for 2025.

November is a very busy month when it comes to challenges. I am not sure why everyone wants to put their challenge in November, when we have so many other beautiful months in the year. Furthermore, the challenges are so interesting so I really would like to join them all. But, alas, not possible. I will go with my usual ones though, of which Novellas in November is one. The other two are Nonfiction November and German Literature Month. Novellas in November is hosted by 746 books and Bookish Beck . Thank you so much for keeping up the tradition. Here are a few very simple rules, but head over to their websites for more info. A novella is usually referring to a book of anything under 200 pages (even nonfiction). There will be one Buddy Read during the month which is Orbital by Samantha Harvey. It has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Personally, I rarely find the Booker Prize listed books interesting (but there are exceptions), but this sounds like a book I would like to read. It is about six astronauts on board a space station orbiting earth. There are no official themes or prompts giving us readers a free hand to choose. They suggest us to start with: " My Year in Novellas retrospective looking at any novellas you have read since last NovNov, and finish it with a New to My TBR list based on what novellas others have tempted you to try in the future. " Here are my retrospective year in Novellas. Novellas read since last November When I started looking for the novellas I have read since last November, I did not really imagine I would find any. To my big surprise I did read 12 novellas, six fiction and six nonfiction. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr  The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima Handbok i livets konst (The Handbook) by Epictetus (NF) Lessons in Stoicism by John Sellars (NF) Rivieran inom räckhåll, Med tåg till de bästa upplevelserna i södra Frankrike by Kristina Svensson och Maria Unde Westerberg (A guide to train travel in Europe) (NF) Det är inte jag, det är du, Att göra slut med Gud by Rosi Hageberg (the authors story of how she stopped believing in God) (NF) How to be a Stoic - Epictetus/Seneca/Marcus Aurelius (NF) Antinous: A Poem by Fernando Pessoa The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie The Queen of Darkness and other stories by Grazia Deledda Garibaldi: frihetskämpe och folkhjälte by Sven Wikberg (about Garibaldi who fought for the freedom of Italy) (NF) Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie The best novellas were two: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima and A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr  Which novellas will I read this November For any challenge I try to find books on my TBRs so these three novellas come from there. Frauen, die lesen, sind gefährlich und klug by Stefan Bollman (also for German Literature Month) (Women who read are dangerous and smart) - a small book I found in the museum at Schiller's house in Weimar. He relates to paintings of women reading or in close proximity to a book and write a short reflection around it. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope - haven't we all loved this movie. It will be interested to read the original story. On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to Use It by Seneca. Isn't the cover just fantastic? couple of extra books in case I can find a copy ... and have time, which will be doubtful. But there is always another novella challenge. Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser I am eager to see what you choose to read during this month. I am sure I will be inspired by your choices.

November is upon us and a lot of challenges. This is another one that I will follow. It is hosted by Lizzy Siddal and Caroline at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat . Head over to their websites for the rules. An extra feature this year is the focus on Franz Kafka since his centenary is celebrated this year. We can choose how we will approach him. Through his writings; fiction, letters and diaries, or by watching a movie or, what I am doing for the time being, a German/Austrian TV-series about his life. The challenge has only one rule: what you read must have been originally written in German. The weeks are divided as follows: (my choices under each week) Nov 1-7 Crime Week I am trying to find a German crime author. I am especially fond of Nele Neuhaus and hope to find a book by her. Nov 8-14 Read as You Please Also Sprach Zarathustra - Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen by Friedrich Nietzsche (luckily my version is in Swedish) Nov 15-21 Franz Kafka week The Trial by Franz Kafka Watching a tv-series of his life Nov 22-30 Read as You Please Frauen, die lesen, sind gefährlich und klug by Stefan Bollman (Women who read are dangerous and smart). What are your plans for this exciting month?

I should not add any more books to my TBR, but when they are free it is difficult to resist. The sound came out here in the afternoon, and since I had to pick up a parcel at the post office, I took my bike and headed to the village. Took a little bit of an extra tour and happened to pass by the The Little Black Library , a street library not so far from me. There were not that many books there today, but I managed to find three books which sounded interesting. One favourite author Donna Leon, and two authors which I have not heard of before. Through a Glass Darkly by Donna Leon Donna Leon does not need any further introduction. This book is for my challenge to read all of her books, and I was lucky enough, not to have read this one. Shooting Butterflies by Marika Cobbold Looking up the author I see to my surprise that she is Swedish. When she was 19 years old she moved to Great Britain and lives in London. "By the time Grace is eighteen, she has been orphaned, moved countries and lost touch with her only brother. Talented, awkward and a little fierce, she can't help thinking that she's managed to lose anything she's ever loved. So she decides to revisit her past in America, and she's brought her camera - she's going to catch these memories." Goodreads Sounds intriguing enough for me to grab the book. Lyckliga människor läser och dricker kaffe by Agnès Martin-Lugand Martin-Lugand is a French author who gained fame with this book; Les gens heureux lisent et boivent du café (Happy People Read and Drink Coffee). "Diane seems to have the perfect life. She is a wife, a mother, and the owner of Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, a cozy literary cafe in Paris. But when she suddenly loses her beloved husband and daughter in a tragic car accident, the world as she knows it instantly vanishes. Trapped and haunted by her memories, Diane retreats from friends and family, unable and unwilling to move forward. But one year later, Diane shocks her loved ones and makes the surprising decision to move to a small town on the Irish coast, finally determined to heal and rebuild her life alone—until she meets Edward, the attractive yet taciturn Irish photographer who lives next door. At first abrasive and unwelcoming, Edward initially resents Diane’s intrusion into his life of solitude . . . until he can no longer keep her at arm’s length, and they fall into a surprising and tumultuous romance. But will it last when Diane leaves Ireland, and Edward, for the home she once ran away from in Paris? At once heartbreaking and uplifting, Diane’s story is deeply felt, reminding us that love remembered is love enduring." Goodreads Three new exciting books it seems. Have you read any of them? Or any of the authors? Please let me know what you think.

We are entering into week 2 (4-8/11) of the Nonfiction November challenge. Hosting this week is Frances at Volatile Rune . This week's theme is about how we choose the nonfiction we want to read. What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? I am looking for something to learn. Reading nonfiction is a little bit like studying something, but more relaxing. You don't need to do a test at the end of the session. Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? I mostly read about history which is one of my biggest interests. However, I would also find books on literature, biographies, memoirs, cook books (although to be careful not to read them while you are hungry), travel books and books about your mental, inner health. Do you have a particular writing style that works best? I love when they are written like a fiction book. They should not be too academic, although, of course, be based on such studies. When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. Mostly I look for the title, or in principal, what the book is about. The topic would be what makes me choose a specific book. I am currently reading Seneca's On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to Use , in Swedish and it happens to have a striking cover. These are my thoughs about reading nonfiction. I mostly read about history, but think I should widen my horizon a little bit. I therefore added a few other topics for this year's nonfiction challenge. Of course a few history books as well. Evolution Bojs, Karin  - Min europeiska familj, De senaste 54000 åren (My European family, the last 54000 years) Desmond/Moore, Adrian/James  - Darwin's Sacred Cause, Race, Slavery and the quest for Human Origins Biography Coote, Stephen - John Keats - A Life Lee, Hermione - Edith Wharton History Banning, Tim  - The Pursuit of Glory - The Five Revolutions that made Modern Europe 1648-1815 Wesseling, Henk , Imperiernas tid 1815-1919 (Europa's koloniale eeuw. De koloniale rijken in de negentiende eeuw, 1815-1919) Time of Empires Diverse Radden Keefe, Patrick - Empire of Pain Strindberg, August - En dåres försvarstal (Le Plaidoyer d'un fou/the Defence of a Fool) a sort of memoir Walker, Matthew - Why we sleep - unlocking the power of sleep and dreams - I hope this one will make me sleep better.

We have reached week 3 of Nonfiction November. This week is hosted by Liz at Adventures in reading, running and working from home and this week is all about pairing a nonfiction book with a fiction book. Week 3 (11/11-11/15) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it's a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or (because I’m doing this) two books on two different areas have chimed and have a link. You can be as creative as you like! I always find this exercise rather difficult so let's see what I can come up with based on nonfiction books I have read this year. One of the best nonfiction I read this year is Une été avec Homère by Sylvain Tesson. This is really not a difficult pairing because I will go with The Illiad by Homer. Rivieran inom räckhåll, Med tåg till de bästa upplevelserna i södra Frankrike by Kristina Svensson och Maria Unde Westerberg/May. This is a practical book on how to go by train in Europe. This destination is the Riviera. Going by train being the theme, I came to think of Paul Theroux's excellent Riding the Iron Rooster about a train trip in China. Another Swedish nonfiction about two of our famous authors Moa and Harry Martinsson. They had a relationship for some years and then became estranged. Vi drabbade samman med våra ödens hela bredd : författarparet Moa och Harry Martinson by Ebba Witt-Brattström. I pair it with one book for each of them. Mor gifter sig (My Mother Gets Married) by Moa Martinsson and Flowering Nettle by Harry Martinsson. I leave it there, and I realised it was not that difficult at all.

Novellas in November is hosted by 746 books  and Bookish Beck . Head over to their websites for more information. My first novella in November is Seneca's On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to Use . This is a novella you have to read in small doses. Seneca gives us to many things to think of more in detail. By chance, I discovered that one of the books I took with me for my weekend trip was a novella. A book I found last week at a street library. It is Happy People Read and Drink Coffee (Les gens heureux lisent et boivent du café) by Agnès Martin-Lugand. The books was printed in France in 2013. A lovely little novella about sorrow and how to overcome it. Diane seems to have the perfect life. She is a wife, a mother, and the owner of Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, a cozy literary cafe in Paris. But when she suddenly loses her beloved husband and daughter in a tragic car accident, the world as she knows it instantly vanishes. Trapped and haunted by her memories, Diane retreats from friends and family, unable and unwilling to move forward. But one year later, Diane shocks her loved ones and makes the surprising decision to move to a small town on the Irish coast, finally determined to heal and rebuild her life alone—until she meets Edward, the attractive yet taciturn Irish photographer who lives next door. At first abrasive and unwelcoming, Edward initially resents Diane’s intrusion into his life of solitude . . . until he can no longer keep her at arm’s length, and they fall into a surprising and tumultuous romance. But will it last when Diane leaves Ireland, and Edward, for the home she once ran away from in Paris? At once heartbreaking and uplifting, Diane’s story is deeply felt, reminding us that love remembered is love enduring. (From Goodreads) It is a story of love, friendship and loss. How are we able to overcome a loss like Diane's? Time heals all wounds, as they say, but it is a long and windling road to get there. Agnès Martin-Lugand writes beautifully (if you can say that about such sad circumstances) about it. We understand fully how Diane is feeling. Her relations with her parents are estranged and her only friend is Felix who is trying to help her out of her apathy. The healing process during Diane's visit in Ireland is sensitively described. You might think you know the ending by reading the summary, but it is more complicated than that. On her healing journey Diane makes new friends, gets to know country side life versus the life she has led in Paris. Country folks behaviour in comparison to city behaviour. Diane learns a lot about life during her stay in Ireland. I really liked this novella, although its sad theme. Very suitable to read during halloween, when we remember the loved ones no longer with us. I could easily take to the Irish countryside and the sea for healing purposes as presented by Martin-Lugand. I am a pisces and love water. Water has such a healing quality. Just to sit on a beach looking out over the sea, and listening to the waves, is soothing.

We have entered into Week 4 of Nonfiction November. It is hosted by Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction and we are talking about Mind Openers. One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is the way it can open your eyes to the world around you–no plane ticket required. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Is there a book that, if everyone read it, you think the world would be a better place? I don't think there is only one book that will change the way we think. It will most likely be many books, as well as life experience that will make you see the world in a different light. Evolution I have just read My European Family - The First 54000 Years by Karin Bojs. The story of Europe and its peoples, told through its genetic legacy and woven together using the latest archaeological findings, will fascinate anyone interested in genealogy. Karin Bojs grew up in a small, broken family, and at her mother's funeral she felt this more acutely than ever. As part of the healing process, she decided to use DNA research to learn more about herself, her family, and the interconnectedness of society. She went deep in search of her genealogy, having her DNA sequenced and tested, and effectively becoming an experimental subject. Remarkably, she was able to trace the path of her ancestors through recorded history and into prehistory. Through the course of her research, she met dozens of scientists working in genetic research. The narrative travels the length and breadth of Europe, from the Neanderthals of central Germany to the Cro-Magnon in France. Bojs visited the ancient caves, realizing that her direct ancestors must have been living in the area when the cave art was painted. A second DNA analysis later revealed she has Sami (i.e. Lapp) genetic material in her genome, and there were further revelations about her hunter-gatherer, Bronze-Age, and Iron-Age relatives, including the Vikings. This fresh, first-person exploration of genes and genetics goes well beyond personal genealogy and reveals much about the shared history of European peoples. (from Goodreads) The book and the story was a sort of eye opener for me. Going back so many years to man's origins and how it is possible to trace our ancestors. To follow the development and movement of people; from hunters to farmers to the modern people of today. We have much more in common than we can imagine. The Stoics I have lately read a few books by and about the Stoics. I find that many, but not all, of their thoughts and actions are relevant today. Their way of thinking can be a comfort when facing various aspects of our lives, whether we are happy or sad. I very much liked Lessons in Stoicism by John Sellars . I have recently finished Seneca's On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to Use It. I have on my shelves the most famous book of them all, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations , which I have not yet read. Here some quotes from Seneca. "Some have no goal at all toward which to steer their course, but death takes them by surprise as they gape and yawn. I cannot therefore doubt the truth of that seemingly oracular utterance of the greatest of poets: " Scant is the part of life in which we live." All the rest of existence is not living but merely time." "What, then, is the reason for this? Your sort live as if you're going to live forever, your own human frailty never enters your head, you don't keep an eye on how much time has passed already. You waste time as if it comes from a source full to overflowing, when all the while that very day which is given over to someone or something may be your last." ""Half-free," Cicero said of himself. But needless to say, the sage will never resort to such an abject term. He will never be half-free but will always enjoy complete and unalloyed liberty. Not subject to any constraints, he will be his own master and tower above all others. For what can there be above the man who rises above fortune?" History I read a lot of nonfiction history. The German philosopher Georg Hegel said, “ The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history .” That is, unfortunately, true. Imagine if politicians looked at historical events, tried not to repeat mistakes made in the past, learn from what went wrong last time, and try to follow another path. If we look around us today, we see that is not the case. One historical nonfiction that made a lot of impact on me, and made me realise that politics is a dangerous business, is The Sleepwalkers - How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark. ’ the war was a result of rigid planning, train schedules and treaty commitments. That is, it was the final stop in a chain of events that could not stop the train, once it started ’ (British historian A.J.P Taylor and American historian Barbara Tuchman).