Free Lisbeth Salander!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I traveled on several lengthy flights, which afforded me plenty of good, solid reading time. On first leg of my trip, I began with Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This book received so many great reader reviews all over the place that I had decided I just couldn't resist it any longer, and I eagerly dug in. Unfortunately, at first for me it was a little slow going, but after about 75 pages I was hooked.

When you Google this novel, you might run across the Spanish language version - Los Hombres Que No Amaban a las Mujeres - a title which basically translates to Men Who Hate Women. Well, that's for sure. This thing is chock-full of Men Who Hate Women... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This original thriller begins with the trial of Mikael Blomqvist, a Swedish journalist accused of libel. His career in shambles after the trial, Blomkvist agrees to take on a writing project for a business tycoon, and part of the deal is that he is to investigate details regarding the disappearance of the businessman's niece some 40 years before. Along the way he uncovers festering family secrets, business cover-ups, corruption, and plenty of hideous mysogynistic crimes to boot. Blomqvist enlists the help of one of the finest characters I have come across in a long time - Lisbeth Salander, a feral, fierce, tattooed slip of a girl who is an expert hacker and has endured plenty of her own horrors during her life. I am just fascinated by this chick. As a reader, you are not meant to "like" her, I don't think. She's not anyone's friend, really. But you root for her, and can't help but be impressed by her now and then. She is one who sticks with you.

Anyway, it's an exciting book all in all, the first in a trilogy. And... I liked it so much that the instant I finished, I bought The Girl Who Played With Fire, the sequel, because I couldn't wait to see what happens to Salander next. Equally as exciting as the first one, this book entertained me all the way home with more Blomqvist/Salander intrigue.

There is one book left in the trilogy. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest doesn't come out in the U.S. until May of 2010, and I have to admit I am sorely tempted to buy it from a UK source -- I can't help it! There was a cliffhanger after the second one! I have to know!

One more thing: This popular series is, sadly, all that we will be enjoying from author Stieg Larsson -- the author died suddenly of a heart attack in 2004, just after he turned this trilogy in to his publisher. He was the second best-selling author in the world in 2008.

Edit: Rereading this blog post, I can see that it is a little cheesy and rather uninformative. It reads like an amateurish Amazon reader review. But I don't know what to write to fix that. You'll either like these books or you won't... I think readers who enjoy thrillers (and who are not scared by a few scenes of graphic violence) should give them a go.

six more from good old M.C.

Haven't I come off of the Michael Connelly bandwagon yet? No. No, I have not.

Over the past several weeks I read Angels Flight (good one), Lost Light, Void Moon (good one with female lead - nice break from Harry Bosch), The Scarecrow (not my fave, I have to say), The Brass Verdict (another good one), and A Darkness More Than Night. I think there are just a few Connelly books left that I have yet to read, now. What am I going to do with myself when I am finished?

Write faster!

Running Plodding Along in Heels

Speaking of judging books by their covers, I recently read Running in Heels by Anna Maxted.

How do I describe this book? Hmm.

Here's what it says on the back cover:

"To say that Babs has been my closest friend for sixteen years is rather like saying that Einstein was good at sums. We were blood sisters from the age of eleven (before my mother pried the razor out of Babs' hand)."

But now Babs, noisy and as fun as a day at the beach, is getting married. And Natalie Miller, twenty-seven, senior press officer for the London Ballet, panics. What happens when your best friend pledges everlasting love to someone else?

Here's what the book is about: Anorexia.

Anorexia, corrosive relationships, and a bunch of self-destructive people. The main character is not appealing, and never really redeems herself. I'm not saying it's a bad book, but I'm definitely saying that it's not the "laugh-loud... hip, readable... always funny" story that Publisher's Weekly promised me.

The Help

Is there a woman in America who hasn't read this book yet?

The quick look: Stories about black maids working for white families in the 1960s in racially-charged Jackson, Mississippi. My take: It's just so engrossing. Suspenseful, heartbreaking, funny, even a little annoying at times. (More on that in a second.)

The book is a touching look at women's relationships - boss and maid, care givers, women raising their own children and the children of others.

Suspenseful, heartbreaking, funny - I used those words above, and I think those are self-explanatory adjectives. By annoying, I mean this: It's a little tricky, I imagine, for the author to justify creating her black characters' voices in such a way as to potentially perpetuate stereotypes ("I reckon I'm on a do it," says one in her southern dialect.). It made me a little uncomfortable at first. But the black characters are developed so wonderfully that I let it go after a while. It's the maids, in fact, who are the most vivid characters of this book.

The author claims in an afterword to have written the novel to explore the world of and pay tribute to her own childhood maid. So I suppose she knows her subject matter and the life of which she writes. That world and that time, it seems to me, was likely a lot more harsh and violent for The Help than this book lets on, however. I suppose it's plenty harsh now and then: A black teenager is blinded for using the wrong restroom, Medgar Evers being killed in his own front yard - but it could have been described a lot worse and I kept waiting for something really hideous to happen. So maybe I thought it ended up being a little too cozy?

Or maybe I didn't. I did really enjoy this book and its exploration of the women's relationships. It did win me over.

Something niggles, though. I feel a little bit about this book like I did about Edgar Sawtelle - I enjoyed it! Why can't I just leave it at that? Why must I feel there is something nagging me, that there should be something more about this book that I should pick apart, pick on? Unfortunately, I don't think it's always the book. I think it's the wannabe know-it-all in me. The part of me who wants to put my years of studying literary criticism to work, or the part of me who feels like she's still writing book reviews for a newspaper (which requires more criticism than lazy enjoyment of a book). Hmm. Let it go, Jenn!

So, okay. I liked it.

Rampant!

In one of my recent posts, I was kind of making fun of Diana Peterfreund's latest book, Rampant. Viscious, man-eating unicorns being hunted by virgin teenage girls! I figured that was really plumbing the depths to find something original (i.e. something other than vampires and werewolves) to offer the whole young adult supernatural genre which is so insane right now. But after I finished scoffing, I actually read the book in question (what an idea!) - and it was kind of good! Girl power, the twist on the unicorn's fuzzy, sunny reputation... plus it dealt with some interesting, real-world coming of age stuff: Leaving the comfort of the home you've known all your life, dealing with unwanted sexual advances, making a name for yourself as a young person. It was more interesting than I had imagined. Plus, I liked her other books, so I don't know why I was surprised.

So let that be a lesson for you, friends: Don't judge a book by its cover! Bet you never heard that one before.

The Magicians

I read a really good book while I was on vacation MY HONEYMOON: The Magicians, by Lev Grossman. I loved it, and was sorry when it came to an end.

Critics may call this novel deriviative, unoriginal - but I think that's a facile way of looking at the book. The story is about a young man who gets accepted to a secret school of magic (uh-huh, sounds familiar), is obsessed with a fairy tale land populated by talking animals which is accessed through a grandfather clock (not a wardrobe, but still...), and experiences magical adventures and soul-searching. At first some of the glaring similarities to other fairy tales took me aback - is he really going to be this obvious about it? - but after a while, the similarities become less stagey as they are absorbed into the unique tale. During a magic game at the school, for example, one character is drunk and missing his part in the game, and stumbles:

"Hang on," he said. "Gotta get my quidditch costume. I mean
uniform. I mean welters."

Modern day, teenage magicians obviously would be familiar with the Harry Potter books, right? It makes perfect sense to mention an aspect of the books that this character would know (and might mention in a drunken mess). I wouldn't call this derivation. Rather, I would say it's an acknowledgment and also sets the scene, establishes the atmosphere that these kids inhabit.

The characters were well-drawn - none of them were entirely Good, and none were completely and unrealistically Evil (well, the bad guy was pretty bad, but even he had a back story). I like that. And, bonus, Grossman uses great words: persiflage, susurrus, saurian...

Fairy tale references aside, this is definitely not a children's book. It's about the darkest possibilities of magic. While there are plenty of delightful little magical images and tricks (love the part when the students are transformed into geese, and the author's descriptions of how a goose feels and thinks), much of the book is grim, sly, cunning and occassionally even shocking. (At one point I actually gasped and said, "Holy shit!" out loud while reading. Ladylike!) This darkness reminded me a little of Wicked and the other Gregory Maguire books.

Sequel, please!

wedding vendors, continued

Last, but not least, our fabulous florist was Tara Bella Flowers. I could not have been more happy with the flowers - SO gorgeous and exactly what I had in mind. And Tara, the owner, is such a joy - easy-going, friendly, professional, put up with my mom... I really enjoyed getting to know her. Tara also works at a restaurant that we love so I am looking forward to running into her again soon.

wedding vendor props

This is the post where I am going to take a moment to give a shout-out (did I just say that?) to all the vendors who made my wedding run so seamlessly.

First of all, if you're getting married in Sun Valley and need a wedding planner, look up Amanda Seaward/Absolute Weddings. Amanda is extremely organized and asks all the right questions. She's great at her job, and a good friend.

Our photographer - Dev Khalsa - is also a friend of ours, and did an amazing job with our photos. One friend commented that our weddings pics looked just like a magazine spread... and they totally do.

Look how much fun they're having! Obviously our wedding reception was pretty much the best party ever!

Our Save-the-Date cards were designed by Leslie at Unless Someone Like You. I freaking LOVED what she did for us. She was so responsive, creative, and easy to work with. I wish I had other reasons to hire her. Like, I might start a band just so she could design a poster for us.


Laura Hooper Calligraphy designed and printed these adorable little maps for us - we put them in the gift bags for our guests and everyone loved them. The back of the card had a schedule of events on it.
Laura also did some calligraphy work for us which also turned out just great. She's been featured in lots of mags like Town & Country Weddings, In Style Weddings, and tons of stylish wedding-related blogs. She was also very quick to respond to emails and was a breeze to work with. Love!

I'm going to have to do the florist in a separate post, because it is too much of a pain to add multiple photos in Blogger. Hold, please!

this is book-related, really

I liked the Twilight books just fine, but am by no means a Twi-hard (didn't like the movie one bit, don't care who Robert Pattinson is dating, don't think that the series is actually a true story like some people do, Nancy). However, the whole (tired) phenomenon is kind of interesting to me, and I am pleased that the real city of Forks, WA - once a dying logging town - has enjoyed a rejuvenation and a huge tourism boom due to the books.

The Hollywood Reporter says that one couple is even opening a Twilight-themed restaurant. I say good for them. I am all for capitalizing on your moment in the sun. (You might want to slow down, though, Kristen Wiig.)

The best part of the linked story is the last line: "The Chamber of Commerce says thousands of visitors come asking questions, such as whether it's safe to go camping with the vampire problems in the area."

disturbing

Here's a Halloween question for you: Why do so many vintage pulp fiction covers involve the mutilation of naked women? Discuss. (I'm against that practice, myself. Though I guess if you're really "Satan's Seamstress," like the lady below, that's another thing.)

Edited 11/1: Actually I think these are comic books - not pulp fiction. Still disturbing, though.

Let's talk about some books already!

Because it's Halloween-time, and because I was in the mood for a fun and easy read, I just read Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich - one of those "in between the numbers" Stephanie Plum books. It was pretty cute. One of the running gags featured a gang of monkeys traipsing around New Jersey, which kind of made me laugh. These Stephanie Plum books are sooooo predictable, but there's always a little something in each one that makes me laugh, so I keep going back for more (I think I've probably read 16 or 17 of those suckers at this point).

Happy Halloween!