The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Book Review

I read this book last month but hadn't had the chance to review it. Right now I'm listening to The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio. But I'll just focus on the first book for this review.

Summary:

Mikael Blomkvist, a Swedish reporter, stumbles into the secrets of a corrupt financier, but his evidence falls through, and he's convicted of libel. Facing the ruin of his career, Blomvkist is talked into humoring an old company mogul by investigating a long cold case involving the disappearance of the old man's niece, Harriet Vagner. At first Blomkvist does not expect to find anything, but his investigation of the Vagner family leads to growing suspicion of dark secrets. Along the way, he enlists the help of an enigmatic expert investigator, Lisbeth Salander. Together they find information that puts them on the trail of a serial killer.

Overview:

I love this book. The beginning was admittedly a bit slow because there was a lot of talk of corporate financial things that went over my head a little. The Swedish names were also a bit overwhelming at frst in a tongue-twistery sort of way. I also had to look up the references to Swedish literature, even Pipi Longstocking because I knew the name but nothing about the character. But once I got past that, I really enjoyed it. The characters are so real, and in spite of the cultural divide, I found myself able to personally relate to many of them, particularly Blomvkist. Salander is harder for me to relate to personally. Not just because she's a computer expert, but also her antisocial nature. This is a trilogy so you don't really understand Salander by the end and you're not supposed to. But I still cheered for her throughout. Larsson does a beautiful job of making Salander into a real life avenging angel. She sees the wrongs in the world and is determined to personally right them herself. He also does a good job of creating reprehensible but believable villains that you root strongly for the heroes.

Film

I was very excited to see a trailer for the Swedish movie up on IMDB the other day. I had known there was a Swedish version, but it hadn't been officially released in English yet. You could downlooad an English version illegally off the internet (ironically fitting for Salander's character) but you couldn't buy a real copy! Now finally, it looks like I'll be able to see it either dubbed or subtitled (impossible to know which they're planning. Personally, I hope it's subtitled.)

This isn't the official US trailer; it's the original Swedish trailer, but I liked it better, and it's subtitled in English, so you can enjoy and understand! :)
NOTE: Click the video if the blog cuts off the edge and it will take you to the original



Rating

I would give this book 10/10 stars: * * * * * * * * * *

Book Club

This is where I discuss my thoughts on specific plot points in the book so scoot if you haven't read it.

I'm serious; this is a really good mystery and I don't want to ruin it. Go read it.

So the characters themselves are often a mystery. I think Salander wouldn't have so much trouble if she would just trust authority. The rape scene was really difficult for me to read and I've read plenty of really violent things without blinking. I wanted her to either turn that guy in to the police or kill him. But I have to confess I was very satisfied with what she did to him. I just didn't feel it was permanant enough and wished she had simply killed him. I guess I sound rather murderous, but it's just a literary fact that villains you don't kill always come back. He's also such a nasty person (though the tattoo she gave him helps to prevent him troubling other women). But it makes sense that Salander would feel she needed him to help to get the declaration of her incompetence revocked.

Blomvkist, in my opinion, is exactly the opposite of Salander. He's not exactly an everyman, but his quirks are understandable and even lovable. He might sleep around, but he respects all the women he's with. He manages to be sexually open while still being a very stable and responsible person. It also wasn't a mystery to me why he got propositioned by women so often. It was a believable mix of luck and his likable personality. I sincerely felt sorry for him when he fell out of favor with Salander in the end because I really liked them as a couple. But it's possibly the first time when I'm not angry at either party. Salander knew about Blomvkist's relationship with Berger. He never lied to her about that and she was the one who came onto him. All the same, I can see where, while Salander may have consciously understood about his running affair with Berger, confronting it when she's realized she's in love with him was much harder. And Salander isn't the type to talk those type of things out.

I thought that Harriet was alive the whole time. I didn't think anyone else would send the flowers (although the wall of flowers still always gave me a chill). But her owning a ranch in Australia did seem a bit out there. Still, the characters were so real that even some of the more bizarre happenings seemed credible. Some of the more complicated clues in Harriet's case also swished right over my head but I was so into the drama by then that it didn't really matter to me.

Percy Jackson: Film Review

Last night I saw the Percy Jackson movie and very much enjoyed it. It did leave a few things out that I wish had been left in. But, overall, I felt it stayed true to the spirit of the book, and that's always the most important thing to me in movie adaptations.

In the first book Percy finds out he is the son of Poseidon and accused of stealing lighting from Zeus. Percy must find the real thief before war breaks out among the gods.

The movie follows this basic storyline. The first Percy Jackson book is very campy with a lot of pop-culture. Since this is usually how I feel Hollywood ruins books, I didn't have to worry about it with Percy. They actually made the gods slightly more serious than they are in the actual book. But I suppose they felt the need to give them a certain amount of gravitas, so this didn't really bother me. And there was plenty of campy adventure and action to enjoy.

I was both happy and sad to see that this movie is clearly self-contained. They dropped all the running storylines from the series. I feel this means they probably don't expect to make the money to do a sequel which makes me sad. If they really can't do another one, I would prefer this one be self-contained. But I plead with you all to see the film so that they do make another!

I give The Lightning Thief: 8 / 10 stars! * * * * * * * *

Oh, and in completely unrelated news: Happy Year of the Tiger!

Now beware the spoilers all ye who read below!

The Good:

Grover: I didn't think he would match the Grover I had imagined, but the actor did an excellent job. They honestly even made Grover more satyr-like than he is in the book since he was more interested in flirting with women. They didn't overdo it, and Grover's more charming personality traits are more prevalent, but I think a healthy interest in females is actually more accurate to the satyrs of Greek myth.

The Minotaur: Ack! That thing scared me! I'm almost never scared of monsters in movies so that's pretty good.

The fast pace: You do not have time to get bored.

The chemistry of the actors: I think the kid who played Grover was actually the best actor, but together they made a believable team of friends.

The Lotus Hotel: This was a pretty spot-on representation and probably the best use of Lady Gaga's Poker Face song.

Persephone: She actually gets pretty shafted in the books, but I liked their portrayal of her in the movie. Once again, even though she's not the same as in the books, it was in impovement to flesh her out.

The humor: Even jokes they added were very similar to the jokes in the books and very in keeping with the characters. My favorite added joke was probably Grover complaining about Medusa's head in the sink of their hotel. I was also pleased that they kept the part from the book where Smelly Gabe gets his comeuppance...

The Not-so-good:

No Dionysos: My favorite god in general and he plays an excellent role in the books as their unsupportive camp counselor. I do understand where they probably didn't have time in the movie. But, alas. I would have happily watched another hour if they'd added Dionysos.

Luke's depth: The actor who played Luke was good, and I felt his portrayal was accurate. But I felt they lost a lot of character conflict by making Annabeth indifferent to Luke. His betrayal in the end has less punch.

Hades as a baddie: I rather like the fact that Hades isn't necessarily bad in the books (at least, not any more than the rest of the gods). But I get that they had to drop Cronos for time (and probably special effects) reasons. Having Luke as the primary lightning thief was also fine. Like I said, I just would have preferred he have a bit more of a relationship with Annabeth.

Stupid lady: Medusa sorta explained it, but why is it people in movies always do stupid things. Like look at the gorgon even when they know what will happen?!

But you'll notice that the things I liked is a longer list than the ones I didn't! And all the things that made me sad could be fixed if they would make another film! Sigh...but with the economy being what it is, I don't have high hopes.

Rumplestiltskin's Daughter

This is hands down the best fractured fairy tale picture book I've ever read. It also unquestionably has the best representation of a fairy tale female that I've ever seen. After randomly picking it up in the library, I wanted to write the author a fan letter based entirely on this book alone.

In this version of Rumplestilskin the miller's daughter falls in love with Rumplestiltskin and they both escape the greedy king together. But, years later, their daughter is kidnapped by the same miserly king. Instead of calling her father for help, Rumplestiltskin's clever daughter hatches a plan to save, not only herself, but the whole kingdom's economy.

I was delighted to see they actually made a play out of this book. Here's a link to the website for that. Unfortunately it's only in Richmond Virginia, so I can't see it. I also think it might already be over. But it's cool just to know they did one. This book certainly deserves it. Heck, I'd love to see a movie based on this book if they did it right.

Book Club

This is the spoilers section.

What, you say? A spoilers section for a picture book? That's right. This one was so cleverly written I'd rather you read it before you read this part.

Okay, are you done? C'mon, it's a picture book, it doesn't take that long. Go to the kids section of your library (only cowards feel embarrassed there) and pick it up. If they don't have it, demand that they get it!

Okay, done with that? Here it is.

I LOVE that Rumplestiltskin's Daughter got to be prime minister. I was inwardly cringing the whole time, worried she would marry that icky king. Because, no matter how reformed he is, it's still creepy. Plus it would have only reinforced the message that women have to get married to live fulfilled lives. Now, I do admittedly like romance. But this story had that with the miller's daughter and Rumplestiltskin. That was so cute, and Rumplestilskin was a cutie. So it this story has it all!

Pretties: Audiobook Review

In this second book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, Tally is finally one of the Pretties. She becomes a member of a popular clique called the crims and falls for the leader, Zane. But she's plagued by half-remembered memories and soon the people from her ugly days do more than haunt her: they come back in the flesh.

No offense to the models on the cover, but they're not how I imagine Pretties. The guy has a caveman brow, and his eyes aren't as wide as they're described as being. The girl's okay but not breathtaking. I suppose it's ironic that I'm critisizing their appearance, considering the whole series is about the nature of beauty. But I actually think the girl on Uglies is stunningly beautiful and these two cannot compare. Perhaps that was the intention.

Anyway, I thought that this story was a great follow-up to the previous book. Even after being made a pretty it's clear that an important part of Tally's previous personality still remains. I read in another review the the pretty talk was annoying, which it was, but I got used to it.

I don't have enough comments on the audio part this time to give it a seperate section. I used a playaway format again but was frustrated by the buttons being changed. Still,to be fair, most the stuff I complained about was fixed in this different playaway. It was just annoying to have finally adjusted to the old one just to have to adjust to a new one.

Book Club

Warning, I'm about to reveal the ending of the book.

But first I'd like to say that I initially thought Zane was somehow David. Clearly wrong on that.

I didn't really want Tally to be turned into a Special at the end. Something about the predictability of it bothered me. When I first discovered Shay had become a Special, it was my hope that would be the conflict in the next book and Tally would be left a pretty. But I can't say I didn't see it coming, and I didn't guess that it would be Shay that would change Tally.

Plus I think I can see where Scott Westerfeld is working all this into a theme of evolution and the good and bad of changing as you mature. On one hand Tally is gradually inheriting more power, which is like a metaphor for adulthood. On the other hand, the ability to abuse that power, becomes more and more apparent, like when she encounters the tribe that worships Pretties because they're some anthropologist's experiment. I can see this power and abuse being stepped up when she becomes a Special.

Attack of the Baby Birds!

Today I did a story time featuring three of my favorite children's books. The reason I love all of them is they're absolutely adorable but not the type of sickeningly sweet adorable that makes you want to stick a fork in your eye.

I personally relate to I'm Not Cute because it's the same mantra I stood by as a child. Throughout the story baby owl tries to convince all the creatures of the forest that he's not cute. He's a sleek, scary, hunting machine! But when mama owl finally comes to agree with him, baby owl has a change of heart...

This book is perfect for preschool on up. The illustrations are incredibly fun, and the book also doesn't have too many words while still being a clever concept that both adults and children can appreciate.


Another adorable book but with a bite to it. First the singing chick gets eaten by Fox, then Fox starts singing and gets eaten by Wolf, then Wolf starts singing and gets eaten by Bear! Will the contagious singing ever stop?

Of course, it will, but not before some laughs. The illustrations, once again, are the best, as well as being large and easy for children to see. Though it does get a bit wordy around the middle. I originally abbreviated it and acted it out with puppets to mitigate this problem, but today I succeeded in reading it straight to a two year old. This made me happy since the illustrations are half the fun of this excellent book.

Guji Guji is a bit like the Ugly Duckling, except more for adopted chidren. Guji Guji, the crocoduck, is raised by ducks. When he realizes he's a crocodile he's distraught. But after he saves his family from a gang of hungry crocodiles, he's happy just the way he is and with the people--or rather ducks--who love him.

This one might be a bit long to read straight to a toddler which is why I personally made a felt board and abbreviate the story. But the concept is beautiful and I wouldn't hesitate to read it to any child if I knew they had the attention span.

The Babes in the Woods: Book Review

No, not the horrible children's story but rather my book club book. I know some people seem to prefer my spoiler reviews, but I just don't feel right giving the spoilers of a mystery story. Still, I'll endeavor to give a more engaging review than the non-spoiler ones usually are.

The story itself is in a series of novels focusing on Chief Inspector Wexford, a British police officer in a town called Kingsmarkham. In this tale Wexford is told of some missing children and their babysitter, believed to be drowned in a flood that has swept the area. Wexford doesn't believe the children have drowned, but the more he looks into it, the more twisted and bizarre the case becomes. The house was left in perfect order before the parents arrived home, no forced entry, the beds made, a the children's coats are even missing, as if they and their babysitter only left for an outing. Except none of them ever returned.

I admit the book didn't seem too promising to me at first, but I feel it got better. It starts with some crazy religious ceremony in the woods. Of course, I knew that had to be part of the mystery, but I didn't feel invested in it, crazy religious ceremonies not being my primary area of interest. Still, I perked up when I found the book takes place in Britain (something I might have guessed from the name "Wexford" but didn't") and the author is British herself. I tend to favor the British style of writing over the American. Maybe I'm just a snob that way, but I just prefer their turn of phrase to ours.

Flipping through the book, I had also glimpsed a line something like "Please, find my darling children!" which seemed a bit over the top to me. But I soon learned that the character who utters that line is a bit over the top herself, which made me feel considerably better about it. The religious thing, as I expected, served a purpose, but I couldn't really guess exactly what until very near the end.

The main character, Chief Inspector Wexford, was okay. He wasn't exactly as much of a personality as Holmes, but he wasn't a complete camera. However, sometimes I would get a little disoriented when the author would change character perspectives, particulalrly if it was a different police officer because they tended to think similarly to Wexford. In addition to that, I felt that his family life was often a plot device to help him figure out the mystery, but perhaps his family are better developed in the other books. It's a very old series that's been around since the 60s, but this book is new (from 2002) and the writing didn't seem dated, so the author has adapted well enough to the times. Otherwise, Wexford was at least a believable and credible main character, very human, a rock surrounded by rather crazy suspects.

As for the actual mystery, I did manage to guess some aspects of it, but it was a bit like a game of clue where you might know it's Colonel Mustard, but you don't necessarily know if it was in the drawing room with the candlestick or in the parlor with the knife. And you may never know what his motive was in the first place. Luckily, unlike Clue, I did eventually get a motive, but it was admittedly not exactly what I was expecting, though I had narrowed down the suspect before they named the person. Actually, in a way, I was both right and wrong about who was responsible for the crime. At the same time it wasn't out of the blue. There were clues that could have helped you guess at everything. The mystery just had so many facets that you weren't likely to guess all of them.

So, I did like it enough to stay up later than even I usually do to finish it. Do I recommend it? Well, if my review intrigued you, I'd say try reading to the part with the first meeting with the parents of the missing children. If you're not interested by then, you probably won't be later.

Oh, and if you do read this book, do NOT read the summary first. It reveals something that doesn't happen until 1/3rd of the way through the book and pretty much eliminated several possibilities for me right off the bat.

Well, that's all for now. If you got this far, I hope it wasn't just because someone tied you to a chair with your eyelids taped open. Thanks for reading!

The Year of Living Biblically: A Book Review

I had previously attempted to read A.J. Jacob's previous book about reading the encyclopedia all the way through. It was amusing, but at times felt a bit too much like I was reading the encyclopedia all the way through, and I confess I didn't have the fortitude to continue. In this book Jacobs also said he sometimes googles his name to read reviews. On the small chance that he should stumble on mine, I should add that I read Know-it-All in a book club and my opinion was in the minority. And it may also have been influenced by the fact that I disagreed with the selection of the book based on the fact that it was book club for young adult book club and I didn't believe that Know-it-All was ever intended for a teen audience. At least, not specifically for them. This isn't to say teens cannot read and enjoy just about anything, but if one makes the argument that any book a teen can read is a teen book, then there hardly seems any point in making it a category at all.

But I digress.

I thought I might only read passages of The Year of Living Biblically, but I did actually read and enjoy this book from cover to cover. Unlike the encyclopedia, I have always wanted a better understanding of the Bible, but have never had the discipline to teach myself. Jacobs made it easy with his sometimes hilarious and sometimes moving personal journey. Even when I didn't agree with Jacobs' interpretations, I appreciated that he supplied as much information as he could. A blurb on the back calls it a cliff-notes version of the Bible, and that it is, mixed in with autobiography and comedy--my favorite sort of non-fiction.

One also has to admire the open-mindedness with which Jacobs approached this quest. As I said, I may not have always agreed with his conclusions, but you have to respect someone who treats other people with so much respect--particularly when so many others simply think they're crazy.

I also really enjoyed how much this quest involved Jacobs family. Perhaps it was because I didn't get much further than half-way in his previous book, but his family was something I felt lacking. He would mention how he and his wife were trying so hard to get pregnant that sex had become a chore (another thing I thought a teen would have trouble relating to), but his quest to read all the encyclopedias was so totally unrelated to his personal life that it just wasn't the same as his desire to seek religion in hopes he could raise his son better. And perhaps it's voyeristic, but I was pleased to hear so much about his wife and how she was responding to the things he would do. Though I also could not help but feel that it would be an entirely different, and much darker, quest for a woman to take the bible literally. Particularly from the bits of sexism that Jacobs could really only note indirectly or after the fact, such as the Hasidic women not being included in joyous dancing or women not being touched while they're "impure." However, I did enjoy it immensly when his wife had sat in every seat in the house while she was impure.

I also enjoyed the intern/slave towards the end and laughed out loud at dozens of other things I can't quite recall.

Still, I was expecting something a little harsher, but I was pleased to find that it would be difficult to become angry or offended with Jacobs for so honest a quest. At the same time, it still had its hilarious moments along with the insightful ones. I would feel comfortable recommending it to just about anyone, regardless of their stance on the Bible.