The Bulletin Page 1July 12, 2012

summer reading blockbusterAmericAn-born, english writer henry JAmes’s declArAtion, “Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language,” never feels more true than when one of those afternoons is spread out before you and the solitary item on your agenda is to sit in your backyard and dip into the book saved for that very moment. This summer, I’ve finally taken the plunge into James’s works, and I am also reading those of his great admirer and interpreter, the wonderful Irish writer Colm Tóibín, whose book The Master imagines James’s life through his lowest points and his soaring literary successes. Other worthy reads recently encountered include Fransesca Segal’s lovely debut, The Innocents, a contemporary re-imagining of Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, and sun-dappled and swoon-worthy Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (this one is stocked by the bookstore, I noticed). Walter’s sixth novel places Old Hollywood alongside new, and weaves a story set on the Italian coastline visited by a dying American actress in 1962 with a contemporary one that boasts unforgettable characters you don’t want to leave behind. Just begun are the so-far delicious and unconventional novel-cum-literary speculation, A Monster’s Notes, by poet Laurie Sheck, which revivifies Mary Shelley’s “monster” from Frankenstein, and the blackly funny and fierce, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, August: Osage County, by American playwright and actor Tracy Letts.

To launch your own summer reading right and for fun, we’ve added multiple “Top 10” lists to our summer book recommendations from members of our university community. In fact, we received so much great material, some of it has overflowed to U of M’s Facebook site, and you can join the conversation there. Also stay tuned next issue for an interview about his favourite books with the always-fascinating George Toles, distinguished professor in the department of English, film and theatre at the U of M. Happy summer afternoon reading, everyone! - Mariianne Mays Wiebe

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Birna Bjarnadóttir’s Top 10 books by Icelandic authors

The Swan by Guðbergur Bergsson, transl. Bernard Scudder, 2006: A beautiful, existential novel, written by a key au-thor of Icelandic literature and a profound European writer.

a book of fragments by Birna Bjarnadóttir. Kind Publishing, 2010: A collection of poetic fragments, “a roadmap of Icelandic literature,” published by the University of Manitoba’s Department of Icelandic Language and Literature.

The Young Icelander by Jóhann Magnús Bjarnason. Formac, 2008: A novel on emigration by a key Icelandic–Canadian author, who left Iceland for Canada in the late nineteenth century.

Angels of the Universe by Einar Már Guðmundsson, transl. Bernard Scudder. Mál og menning, 2002: Guðmundsson received the Nordic Award in Literature in 2012 and this is one of his major novels.

Independent People by Halldór Laxness. Vintage Books, 1997: A novel once placed on the list of the best works of world literature, Laxness received the Noble Prize Award in Literature in 1955.

Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation by Andri Snær Magnason. Citizen Press, 2008: A fantastic exploration of the paradoxes of the modern Icelandic society within the concetxt of contemporary western culture.

The Greenhouse by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir. AmazonCrossing, 2011: A beautifully written novel on the task of being human.

Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir. Open Letter, 2012: A contemporary novel on the subject of war and peace, written by one of Iceland’s key authors.

Njal’s Saga, transl. Robert Cook. Penguin Books, 2001: A medieval saga, viewed by many as the master piece of Ice-landic sagas.

The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, transl. Jesse Byock. Penguin, 2006: The most important source availalable on the subect of Norse mythology, written by one of the key interpretors of medieval times.

Birna Bjarnadottir is acting head and chair of Icelandic Studies at the U of M.

add your picks to the top ten lists, contribute your summer reading picks and reading placeshere: Facebook.com/umanitobaor here: twitter @umanitoba

email your suggestion for a “top 10” books list to:bulletin@umanitoba.ca

Have an all-time Favourite book or an engroSSing read to recommend?

You and you, members of the U of M Book Lovers Club

Join our summer reading conversations on twitter and facebook!

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>> see the issue in its entirety here: http://bit.ly/Nmv7Ay

birnA bJArnAdÓttir. reading places: Every summer, the U of M’s department of Icelandic language and literature travels to the Westfjords in Iceland. For centuries, this region has been the setting of great pieces of literature, ranging from medieval sagas to Halldór Laxness’ Gerpla (The Happy Warriors). to read: Last summer, Gunnar Gunnarsson’s novel The Black Cliffs was on our agenda. Published 1929 in Denmark, and reminiscent of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the dramatically charged nove l i s based on historical events that took place

in the sublime Westfjords around 1800. An existentialist at heart, and the predecessor of Guðbergur Bergsson, Iceland’s leading contemporary novelist, this is what Gunnarsson hoped for when writing this piece: “If successful, the story unfolds as it should have. There is nothing more to achieve.”

In 2003, Birna Bjarnadóttir moved to Canada to take on the position of the chair of the Icelandic department at the U of M. Her book Recesses of the Mind, Aesthetics in Guðbergur Bergsson’s Work was published in January, 2012.

Photo taken in Haukadalur, Iceland.Birna Bjarnadóttir is at the far right, with the group of the Icelandic Field School students and others.