So here are nine reading tips with a variety of connections to Uppsala University.

Geology and volcanoes

The Canary Islands, which include Tenerife, are known for their great geological and volcanic variation. Valentin Troll, professor in petrology, is one of the authors of Teide volcano and Tenerife – Geology and Scenery of 76 selected localities about the geology of Tenerife. Through the lens of geology, the reader catches a glimpse of the forces of nature and of history while learning a bit about vulcanology.

New kinds of tables for everyday life

Carolina Brown Ahlund, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Art History, has written about the new kind of everyday life that emerged in the 18th century in the book Den bekväma vardagen: kvinnor kring bord på 1700-talets Näs (A comfortable life: women around tables in 18th century Näs). A new kind of luxury was a comfortably established life at home, with rooms furnished for relaxed conviviality on comfortable furniture. The book is set around different kinds of tables: writing desks, sewing tables, dressing tables, coffee tables and games tables. New types of table were designed during the 18th century for new needs and for being quickly and easily brought out or rolled away. They were part of a new consumer culture – one that had increasingly female overtones.

Comics as documentation of the contemporary

In her thesis Self-Image and World-View in Comics: Visual Life Narratives by Cecilia Torudd, Ulf Lundkvist, Gunna Grähs and Joakim Pirinen Kristina Mejhammar shows the importance of comics as documentation of contemporary life.
“Comics artists provide first-hand information about their daily lives. Their comics reflect things that they experience themselves, and their images often have documentary features: We can see what a city room looked like at the time the image was created. We get to go with the characters into the bedroom, into the kitchen. We hear jargon in spoken language: They give us conversations in cafés and school yards and workplaces. Real life is their material and what they turn into images and text. But the poetic, the absurd and the abstract are all contained in their world-views,” says Kristina Mejhammar.

Island life in the Viking era

In the anthology Relations and Runes: The Baltic Islands and Their Interactions During the Late Iron Age and Early Middle Ages, with the aid of runes, the authors explore grave finds and new archaeological discoveries, social structures and identity creation on Öland, Gotland and Bornholm. The book is available for digital download.

It is part of the Evighetsrunor project to create a digital research platform for studying runic scripts in Sweden, which Uppsala University has been running with the Swedish National Heritage Board. The project will conclude at the end of the year with the launch of the digital search service Runor, in which all available material will be freely searchable.

Two new detective superintendents

In Parabellum, the Nathan Söderblom Professor in Comparative Religious Studies, Mattias Gardell, launches two new detective superintendents onto the Swedish detective novel stage. A series of very public violent crimes with ritualistic elements forms the backdrop to a story about when the right to care based on need has been set aside.

Incomplete models of reality

“It’s important to keep reality separate from researchers’ incomplete models of reality. Getting these two things mixed up can lead to some serious problems,” says Ulf Danielsson, Professor in Theoretical Physics, in the book Världen själv (The World Itself).

Benefits of a sauna

Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and stroke. Better sleep, reduced anxiety and relief from pain. There is much that points to the sauna being quite the panacea for many ills. Hans Hägglund, adjunct professor at the Department of Medical Sciences, presents the state of knowledge about saunas in the book Bastuboken. Heta fakta om bastu och hälsa (The Sauna Book: Hot facts about saunas and health).

Using mathematics in your everyday life

David Sumpter, Professor in Applied Mathematics, has written a book called The Ten Equations that Rule the World: And How You Can Use Them Too. These ten equations can help you understand the world and provide support when you need to make big decisions. Or as the author himself writes: “Mathematics when used correctly is about approaching life cautiously and thoughtfully. It’s a soft approach.”