The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

At my mum's recommendation I picked up the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson...about 10 days ago. In general mysteries/suspense aren't my favorite genre, but I was sucked in by the hype, and in general I didn't feel disappointed. The first half was a bit slow for my liking, but the second half really grabbed me and sucked me in. I was lucky enough to be able to read for long periods of time Thursday, Friday and Saturday while we had our garage sale and while things were quiet. I didn't find it terribly suspenseful, but I also didn't want to put it down. So much so that i postponed cleaning up from the garage sale until I finished it yesterday afternoon. There characters were interesting and I honestly had no idea who the murderer was until it was presented to me, which must be the mark of a good mystery. While it was definitely a gruesome novel with some truly terrible crimes, it felt like justice was served and I was pleased with the outcome. The last couple of pages annoyed me though...and while I wasn't planning to read the sequel right away the last two pages made me go to my computer and purchase the Girl Who Played with Fire and download it to the kobo which I started yesterday. I guess my other books will have to wait.
I've heard there are critics that felt there was too much description ("I don't care what they had for breakfast", etc) and I completely disagree...however the one thing I will say is that if all people in sweden drink as much coffee as the characters do, I'm surprised more people don't have ulcers! It almost made my stomache churn to think about another cup of coffee.

Water For Elephants

Following my journey Through the Looking Glass I decided it was time to read one of the "tangible books" that people have lent me (as I find I now have to refer to books that aren't on my kobo), so I picked up Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. The story is about a young veterinarian in the 30s who finds himself traveling with a train circus. I'm finding that I'm not actually a big fan of books that take place during the depression, but I still did enjoy this one. There was plenty that was upsetting - animal and people cruelty - but the it all seemed rather matter of fact and somehow better that way. I kept thinking as I read that it wouldn't be long before it was made into a movie. Low and behold as I was looking for a picture of the cover for this blog entry, I found that it has been made into a movie for release next year. The story ends well enough which was a relief as it always seems to be a bit of a crap shoot as to whether a book filled with trouble and badness will end well. More interesting (and significantly more disturbing) was the afterward where the author talked about her inspiration for the book and the history of train circuses and elephants. The moral of the story, as far as I can tell, is don't piss off and abuse an elephant: not only do they remember, but they seem to get more angry about it as time passes...though I couldn't blame sweet Rosie for what she did.

Two Classics

As a way of encouraging the other to actually read the classics, Mare and I have previously decided to read them together. We set goals for reading for the week and go over our thoughts when we chat. The book(s) we tackled this time were Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. We had only intended to read Alice but were both astounded at how quickly we were able to fly through it. What started as "we'll read 5 chapters by Tuesday" quickly turned into "I think I can finish it before Tuesday, you?" A truly bizarre story, I felt like it was fairly disjointed and nonsensical. I had heard once that it was a parody of British politics and government at the time it was written, cleverly disguised as a children's novel. Unfortunately I know nothing of British politics and government at the time, so I rather felt it was lost on me. I was even more confused by the total lack of most things from the movie (either the animation or the new tale), but it seems most of those things were actually from Through the Looking Glass; another truly bizarre disjointed story. I had thought at the start that it made more sense than Alice but by the end (which took me two days to reach) I was not so sure. Frankly, I'm still not sure.