Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Iceland Presents…. Ms. President

Vigdis: A Book About the World's First Female President by Rán Flygenring

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We are always talking about “we need more women in politics.” Well, we are just not looking in the right places. In 1980 Iceland elected its first female president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. And the book Vigdis: A Book About the World’s First Female President by Rán Flygenring shows us the background of that historical event. Not only was she the first of Iceland she is considered the first woman to be democratically elected president in 1980 (Isabel Perón of Argentina was the first woman president in […]

Not a single clue to these murders is found in a fjord

Hildur (The Clues in the Fjord) by Satu Rämö

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Nowhere Books 2025 Bingo: A book in translation Hildur Rúnarsdóttir is a police investigator on Iceland’s harsh and rather sparsely populated west coast. When she was only a child, her two younger sisters disappeared without a trace, and now she’s the head of the division for missing children in her part of the country. Her only remaining relative is her aunt, who she eats dinner with every Monday. Her aunt raised her after her parents died in a car accident about a year after her […]

Not For The Children

The Legacy by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

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Having written a ton on the problematic nature of villainous adoptees in crime fiction, I went into Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s book with a healthy dose of skepticism that she could pull this off. I appreciate the authors work, having enjoyed The Last Ritual. I think she creates interesting characters and does a great job of bringing Iceland to life. But I kept hearing how twisty and shocking this was. And it involved three adoptees at the heart of the story. So my antennae was up. Did she […]

How does your island grow?

Stranded!: A Mostly True Story from Iceland by ÆVar þÓr Benediktsson

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CBR15Passport other country (Iceland) What would you do if you were stranded on a brand new, active volcano?  Well, I do not know about you, but I do not think I would fall asleep like the two characters of ÆVar þÓr Benediktsson’s book, Stranded!: A Mostly True Story from Iceland did. You see, back in the mid-to-late 1960s a volcano was created off the coast of Iceland. This brand-new island was really hot stuff (literally)! It was still flowing molten lava to the point if you […]

Based on the Icelandic tradition of Jólabóka-flóðið

The Christmas Book Flood by Emily Kilgore

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The Christmas Book Flood by Emily Kilgore celebrates Jolabokaflod in a special way. This is a delightfully illustrated book, by Kitty Moss, about the joys of finding the right book as the right gift, and the family that you give it too. Then, while reading on Christmas eve with you hot chocolate (or chocolate bar), we see how the spirit of the season is among us. Based on the Icelandic tradition, we have a diverse family, their friends, and community waiting and getting ready for […]

Lost in the Noir of Iceland (And Liking It)

The Dark Iceland Series (1-6) by Ragnar Jónasson

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After reading the Martin Beck novels last year, I decided to continue with Nordic noir. I had heard about a series set in Iceland, specifically the remote area of Siglufjörður, and featuring  a young detective named Ari Thór Arason. I read these novels on Kindle and on Audible, where it helped to hear the correct pronunciations of some of the more challenging (to me) place names. Then author is supposed to be a big fan of Agatha Christie (as am I). He has translated fourteen […]



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