Last week I shared the books I was planning to read in Finland and Norway so this week I will share the books I plan to read in Iceland.

Iceland seems like such a small country tucked in the corner way up north, but it seems to have had an outsized influence on history, or so Egill Bjarnason argues in his How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small island.  This description on Amazon is what sold me- that and the fact that it is only 288 pages! 

The history of Iceland began 1,200 years ago, when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator ran aground in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island was no longer just a layover for the Arctic tern. Instead, it became a nation whose diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers, quietly altered the globe forever. How Iceland Changed the World takes readers on a tour of history, showing them how Iceland played a pivotal role in events as diverse as the French Revolution, the Moon Landing, and the foundation of Israel. Again and again, one humble nation has found itself at the frontline of historic events, shaping the world as we know it, How Iceland Changed the World paints a lively picture of just how it all happened.

I chose two crime novels by Ragnar Jonasson for my other books about Iceland. I watched the Netflix series Trapped which is based on one of his books and loved it so I wanted to read some of his other novels. The first is Reykjavík, a novel about a young girl named Lára, who disappeared from the Island of Videy, just off the coast from Reykjavík in August of 1956. Now, thirty years later on the eve of Reykjavík’s 200th anniversary, journalist, Valur Robertsson, begins his own investigation into the case. But there are forces working against him, determined to keep this mystery unsolved.  

The second is Snowblind which is the first in his Dark Iceland series. A rookie cop, Arl Thór, is sent to a remote fishing village on the fjords of northern Iceland. But when a young woman is found bleeding and unconscious in the snow and a well respected elderly writer falls to his death, Thór begins to realize that secrets and lies are a way of life in this remote village and he cannot trust anyone.

I hope one of these books has piqued your interest! Let me know how you liked it and why! 

We hope to see the Aurora, weather permitting. If it works out I will try and share some pics!

Happy Reading!