skrattar högt = laugh out loud (book recommendations)

Skratta apparently means laughter in Swedish. The origin of the word apparently meant something like "to scare something away by making lots of noise." If anyone was around except us, we'd probably be scaring something away with our laughter. Yes, laughter.

Stephen nearly fell over laughing about asparagus, of all things. Chris couldn't stop laughing as he read last night before bed. I've nearly spit my tea out a few times.

We've all been reading a set of two books: "The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared" and the sequel, "The 101 year old man who skipped out on the bill and disappeared."

 

These books may be funny to us because they are somewhat set in Sweden (or at least feature a Swedish character)... but our suspicion is that others may also enjoy them. 

They feature the larger-than-life adventures of Allan Carlson. Not a surprise, he's 100 years old at the start of the first book. He decides he doesn't want to actually celebrate his 100th birthday in a retirement home... you can read the title for what he does next. The book shifts between current events and revealing his past exploits while definitely poking fun at world politics. The 2nd book continues on his 101st birthday in the modern era. 

Both are worth reading as complete escapist fiction. There are movies too, but we recommend reading the books first! 

(If you are reading this from the State College area, we've returned the library's online version for the 1st and will return the 2nd one soon).