You may or may not know this about me but my reading geekiness doesn’t change when I travel. I love to travel and make it my mission to travel whenever I can. I always have a book (except for that once in December when my Kindle malfunctioned mid-flight and I had no backup – Quelle horror!!!) and I’m always searching around for a book that makes me feel immersed in my locale (whether I buy one at my destination – which I almost always do – or recall one I’ve already read.)
As I mentioned in my last post, I spent my winter break traveling in Scandinavia. Mr. Librarian and I visited Copenhagen and Stockholm on our way to chase the Northern Lights in the small town of Abisko in northern Sweden. It was an amazing trip! Let me share all my bookish moments with you!
Bookish Moment #1: In the town that claims Hans Christian Andersen as the native son, I realized I have never read the original Grimm’s fairy tales. Denmark’s most famous bibliophile is celebrated to the hilt – we visited his statue and the statue of the Little Mermaid, his most famous character – and I have never read his originals. Therefore, my main bookish purchase on this trip was a copy of my very own.
Bookish Moment #2: While walking around the downtown part of Copenhagen, we also managed to stumble upon (and I swear it wasn’t intentional!!!) a….. USED BOOK SALE! There is nothing I love more than a used book sale. Now to be fair, most of the books were in Danish (which I don’t read or speak) but there was a decent English section. However, based on the amount of stuff we had to bring on this trip, space in my carry-on was limited. Sadly, no purchases. However, it was a delightful stop on our sightseeing adventures.
Bookish Moment #3: So another thing you should know about me is that I am Jewish and while we were traveling, we were also celebrating the holiday of Hanukkah. Not being home for the holiday meant that I wasn’t able to eat all the traditional food of the holidays. Specifically, latkes – delicious potato pancakes – and sufganiyot – the Jewish response to the jelly donut. The search for sufganiyot is what reminded me of this particular book:
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
This contemporary romance novel told with interspersed flashback chapters about the teenage relationship between Macy and Elliot and their current day reconciliation eleven years later. Their teenage relationship – based in part on their mutual love of reading <so cute!> – is adorable and beautiful in the way that only first love is. But, the devastating part is realizing that something happened, something epic, that split them apart. Their reconciliation leads both of them to confront harsh truths about themselves and about if they build a future together. This is book is sad but wonderful and expresses such a great dichotomy of longing and loneliness.
While all of these things make it a great book, you might be wondering what on earth this has to do with Denmark or jelly donuts. Especially since this book takes place in San Francisco and the surrounding areas.
Let me explain: Macy, the main character, is half Danish. On her birthday every year, her Danish father makes her a delicacy called, aebleskivers. Aebleskivers are one of Denmark’s answers to jelly donuts and I desperately wanted to try them after reading about how Macy loves them. It helped that I had the Hanukkah excuse (not that I needed it) to seek them out.
I ended up rereading this book. And not just for the aebleskivers. I definitely recommend. The book AND the donuts.
Book Love Blog 
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