War Diaries, 1939–1945

Daily life in Stockholm during the war, life that was strangely normal compared to the chaos elsewhere on the continent. Diary entries are mostly about her husband and children (illnesses, poor grades - some things never change!) but she obsessively clipped newspaper articles about the war and was as afraid of the Soviets as she was of the Germans. Gained a better understanding of Finland's situation immediately before and during the war (the definition of “no-win”).

In War Diaries (elsewhere titled A World Gone Mad) we have the journal author Astrid Lindgren kept as a young wife and mother in neutral Sweden. She provides a record of the up-and-down thoughts and feelings of someone on the edge of the action, enjoying the benefits of not being in a country torn by war, while deploring its evils. For anyone interested in the time period, these book will bring unique insights into the author's experiences. (I was a bit disappointed, though, that Lindgren's diaries contained little reference to the genesis of Pippi Longstocking, which occurred during this period — but she considered other things more important at the time perhaps.)