What books (audiobooks included) would you recommend to set the cruise mood.
Am going on a Baltic cruise (Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Wernemunde, Klaipeda…). What books (audiobooks included) would you recommend to set the mood. Fiction, memoir, travel writing are all ok.
Oh, oh! Can’t help with books, but I did this cruise a few years ago. The ports are wonderful! You are in for a treat!
I’m sure you’ll get recommended books by Backman and Larsson a lot so I’ll skip those and suggest some recent(-ish) books from Finland: My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci, The Midwife by Katja Kettu, The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen, The Rabbit Back Literature Society by P. I. Jääskeläinen
Fabulous. This is why I love this group!
@Leah, I think those books give a good introduction to Finnish character, which is ever so slightly askew ?
Some Wallander?
Definitely We The Drowned by Carsten Jensen. Danish author, it’s the saga of a Danish port city
https://www.scribd.com/book/249308827/We-the-Drowned
This is a fantastic thriller of a novel, part of whose setting is on a Dutch freighter in the Baltic Sea near dawn on the day the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
I like Alan Furst
The Bear and The Nightingale. East. Fantasy novels set in the region.
The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel (Winternight Trilogy) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101885955/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_NpSQAb61QT8WN
East https://www.amazon.com/dp/0152052216/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_kqSQAbR72CCD0
@Kat , that’s a good one!
If you like mysteries, check out some Akashic Noir short story books. St. Petersburg Noir, Copenhagen Noir, Stockholm Noir, and Helsinki Noir come to mind. Also the anthology A Darker Shade of Sweden. All very location specific. I always like to have a few short stories available when I’m traveling.
Madonnas of Leningrad
Six days in Leningrad
This is not a book but wonderful. We took the same trip and we were ignorant regarding Tallinn. Looked it up and found this wonderful, wonderful movie. The Singing Revolution. It tells the true story of how the Estonians sought freedom. It enhanced our visit there. We felt we were there before.
Fantastic. Thanks!
may you have an incredible time!
The Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson
Definitely Madonas of Leningrad also Nicholas and Alexandra
I just went on a similar cruise, hope you have a great trip!!!