And In the Vienna Woods

And In the Vienna Woods Trees Remain by Elisabeth Asbrink   464 pages

As y’all know, I don’t read nonfiction that much. I do, but it has to really caprture my attention.  And this one, by author of the internationally bestselling “1947” did. 

It’s the story of Otto Ullman, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy who is sent form Austria to Sweden at the eruption of World War II. Alone. His story is fascinating. One of the things that enticed me was the back blurb mention that Otto becomes BFFs with Ingvar Kamprad, who grows up to become the founder of IKEA.

I believe that this is an important book for scholars of the period and those seeking this type of knowledge. There is lots of information on Sweden’s, Austria’s, and even Switzerland’s positions during the War. However, it is too much information for nonscholars like me. I was ready to abandon the book by page 75, but instead I just read the parts about Otto and how he esacaped the Nazis and his life in Sweden. He was part of Kindertransport-like event to save the children of Austria.

I was disappointed that Ingvar Kamprad didn’t show up until near the end. And in my opinion, I didn’t much see the relationship. I did learn how the name IKEA came about: he added his initials to the village’s name. Ingvar Kamprad Elmtardy Agunnaryd (IKEA).

“And in the Vienna Woods Trees Remain” seems to be thoroughly researched, and as I wrote earlier, I believe it is an important book for those studying this perios. Therefore,  “And in the Vienna Woods Trees Remain” receives  2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Fishermen with Ploughs

Fishermen with Ploughs by George MacKay Brown, from The Collected Poems of George MacKay Brown, 58 pages

Fishermen with Ploughs, a collection first published in 1971, is a poetical-historical tour of the Orkney Isles, where the author makes his home.  It begins with the arrival of Norse settlers fleeing trouble at home, drifts through Christianization and Reformation and Modernization, when so many native Orcadians left for greener pastures elsewhere, then concludes in the near future with new refugees fleeing some fresh disaster renewing the cycle.

If not for the introduction, however, only the keenest of readers would have unriddled that plot.  The contents vary greatly in length and style, giving brief glimpses of the isles and their inhabitants in a land where man and nature interpenetrate.  Songs of mothers and widows and graves dug in the sea, the books of the earth and the seas of corn, the plough of the boat's prow and the sea salt on the wind, hearts like stones and stones like men, the year and the week and the days going round, the great ghostly crowds of those who have gone before but are here still in wall and path and churchyard.

Some Luck

Some Luck by Jane Smiley
395 Pages


This book is the sage of a farming family in Iowa in the years 1920-1953.  As time progresses we see the couple Rosanna and Walter Langdon have children and suffer through the years of the depression, droughts and World War II.  The narrative jumps from Langdon to Langdon but progresses linearly until 1953.  Supposedly Smiley will be writing two more books in the Langdon family saga. 

If you haven't read any Jane Smiley I would recommend Horse Heaven or A Thousand Acres as well as this novel.  She has a very easy style and you will quickly get engrossed in the story.