I read the first two of this series eagerly: I think Lisbeth Salander is one of the strongest female characters in any novel of this genre, and I cheered her on through all her adventures. I guess that's the main reason I was somewhat disappointed in this third novel, for Lisbeth spends most of the novel in a hospital bed while other, less colorful characters come to the fore. I wanted her to get up out of that bed and bring the book to life, or at least provide enough action to get me more involved with the story.
Now here's the other reasons I was disappointed by this third book:
1. There's too much information! I don't want a four or five page history lesson on the Swedish Internal Security System, nor do I need a three page description of the alarm system put into Erika Berger's bedroom! Was this novel written by a man or what????
2. A lot of the characters' names were quite similar, and there certainly was a big cast of characters in this book. For example, which one is that crazy guy who feels no pain - Nieminen or Niederman? And all those E's... Erlander, Ekstrom, Edklinth- it was hard enough keeping straight who was police, who was security, who was journalist, let alone keep the names straight. I even kept some sticky notes in the front cover with some identifying feature to help me out!
3. I was taken aback often by changes in writing style and I wondered if someone had done some editing. There'd be some real flow to the writing, then suddenly there were lots of very short, almost stilted sentences, obviously to insert some more information. And why did the women's wardrobe choices seem important to mention? And why did it have to be mentioned that Blomkvist had to buy toiletries before he left on a sudden flight out of Sweden?
4.Apparently, according to reviews and such that I read - Larsson was very much involved with women's issues and women's rights. Good for him. So why does he have a stalker following Erika, who, incidentally, has an on-going affair with Blomkvist with her husband's knowledge and approval? Local colour, maybe?
Anyway, I happily read well over 200 pages of this book before I got bogged down - and that was after I made the sticky notes. I skimmed some 200 more until I just turned over to the end and read the last two pages. It's over!! Yippee!!
I'll watch the movie to see what I missed...
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Into The Wilderness by Sarah Donati.✔✔✔✓
Book One of a series of six or seven, Into The Wilderness begins in 1792 in a remote mountain village in the New York wilderness. Elizabeth Middleton, aged 29, has come to join her father, Judge Middleton, in the town of Paradise to teach school.
She meets Nathaniel Bonner, a Mohawk Indian, whose people reside peacefully in the area, and they soon fall in love. The villain in the piece is Richard Todd, the town doctor, who the Judge has "arranged" to marry Elizabeth, so he can pay his many debts. Once Elizabeth discovers this plan, she must decide whther to comply or deceive her father into thinking she will marry Todd, when in fact she runs away with Nathaniel.
I realize this all sounds rather cheesy, but it is well-written, and is a good story, with many characters, lots of conflicts, secrets, villains, heroes, sages, etc. I plan to read the other books,too, probably with some time in between- you could get a little weary of it all. I like that the author covers a great deal of historical information by character and situation, instead of those long pages of description by such writers as James Michener.
I discovered this series in the library- the latest novel was on the "recent" shelf, so I went looking for the others. It's always fun to discover a new author who tells a good story. I had been thinking of starting the Diana Gabaldon series, but I don't like the time travel aspect, and she gets a bit wordy. These are entertaining and they don't drag, even at 691 pages!
She meets Nathaniel Bonner, a Mohawk Indian, whose people reside peacefully in the area, and they soon fall in love. The villain in the piece is Richard Todd, the town doctor, who the Judge has "arranged" to marry Elizabeth, so he can pay his many debts. Once Elizabeth discovers this plan, she must decide whther to comply or deceive her father into thinking she will marry Todd, when in fact she runs away with Nathaniel.
I realize this all sounds rather cheesy, but it is well-written, and is a good story, with many characters, lots of conflicts, secrets, villains, heroes, sages, etc. I plan to read the other books,too, probably with some time in between- you could get a little weary of it all. I like that the author covers a great deal of historical information by character and situation, instead of those long pages of description by such writers as James Michener.
I discovered this series in the library- the latest novel was on the "recent" shelf, so I went looking for the others. It's always fun to discover a new author who tells a good story. I had been thinking of starting the Diana Gabaldon series, but I don't like the time travel aspect, and she gets a bit wordy. These are entertaining and they don't drag, even at 691 pages!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler.✔✔✓
A number of years ago, I read several books by Anne Tyler - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons, Ladder of Years, and - my favorite - Saint Maybe, with its Church of the Second Chance! Tyler is a keen observer of human nature - the humor, the lost opportunities, the foibles and follies of being human - yet she portrays a message that resonates so clearly.
Noah's Compass tells the story of Liam Pennywell, a 60-year-old teacher facing forced retirement, and trying to come to terms with the rest of his life when - on the first night in his new, smaller apartment- an intruder hits him on the head and he wakes up in hospital without any recollection of what happened to him.
His family - all of whom he rarely sees - come in to visit him and he meets a younger woman whose job is "a rememberer" for an elderly man. He finds himself becoming involved with Eunice, not entirely willingly, and his youngest daughter, Kitty, comes to spend the summer with him. Liam would dearly love to know what happened when he was injured, but instead, these women, plus his ex-wife and other children, just by their very presence helps him remember things from his past which are far more meaningful to him, and enable him to face this end of his life.
Liam feels he has always been an observer in life, never a full participant. Liam believes his life is “drying up and hardening, like one of those mouse carcasses you find beneath a radiator.” He’s “just trying to make it through to bedtime every night.” “I am not especially unhappy,” he imagines writing on a postcard to the public, “but I don’t see any particular reason to go on living.” Late in the novel he realizes that his "true self" left him after his first wife committed suicide and left him with a baby to raise, and never came back. Hence, the significance of the novel's title: His grandson, Jonah, is reading about Noah, and Liam explains to him how Noah didn't need a compass, because he wasn't going anywhere specific. " There was nowhere to go. He was just trying to stay afloat. He was just bobbing up and down, so he didn't need a compass, or a rudder, or a sextant..."
And that is how Liam is living his life. I would have wished for a better ending to the relationship with Eunice, but at least he restores a relationship with his daughters. The best parts of Tyler's writing are the humorous observations, worth many chuckles, and occasionally a good laugh ( like when the kindergarten boys rub their fingerpaints up and down the backs of the girls dresses).
And here's a quote I really connected with: " Epicetus says that everything has two handles, one by which it can be borne and one by which it cannot. If your brother sins against you, he says, don't take hold of it by the wrong he did you but by the fact that he's your brother, That's how it can be borne".
Noah's Compass tells the story of Liam Pennywell, a 60-year-old teacher facing forced retirement, and trying to come to terms with the rest of his life when - on the first night in his new, smaller apartment- an intruder hits him on the head and he wakes up in hospital without any recollection of what happened to him.
His family - all of whom he rarely sees - come in to visit him and he meets a younger woman whose job is "a rememberer" for an elderly man. He finds himself becoming involved with Eunice, not entirely willingly, and his youngest daughter, Kitty, comes to spend the summer with him. Liam would dearly love to know what happened when he was injured, but instead, these women, plus his ex-wife and other children, just by their very presence helps him remember things from his past which are far more meaningful to him, and enable him to face this end of his life.
Liam feels he has always been an observer in life, never a full participant. Liam believes his life is “drying up and hardening, like one of those mouse carcasses you find beneath a radiator.” He’s “just trying to make it through to bedtime every night.” “I am not especially unhappy,” he imagines writing on a postcard to the public, “but I don’t see any particular reason to go on living.” Late in the novel he realizes that his "true self" left him after his first wife committed suicide and left him with a baby to raise, and never came back. Hence, the significance of the novel's title: His grandson, Jonah, is reading about Noah, and Liam explains to him how Noah didn't need a compass, because he wasn't going anywhere specific. " There was nowhere to go. He was just trying to stay afloat. He was just bobbing up and down, so he didn't need a compass, or a rudder, or a sextant..."
And that is how Liam is living his life. I would have wished for a better ending to the relationship with Eunice, but at least he restores a relationship with his daughters. The best parts of Tyler's writing are the humorous observations, worth many chuckles, and occasionally a good laugh ( like when the kindergarten boys rub their fingerpaints up and down the backs of the girls dresses).
And here's a quote I really connected with: " Epicetus says that everything has two handles, one by which it can be borne and one by which it cannot. If your brother sins against you, he says, don't take hold of it by the wrong he did you but by the fact that he's your brother, That's how it can be borne".
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.✔✔✔✔
From the book jacket:
"In 1937 Shanghai - the Paris of Asia- twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules."
An enlightening look into the Chinese immigrant experience, and certainly a better read than Peony in Love. The way this novel ends, there must be another one coming, and I'll be anxious to read it, too!
July 9, 2012: I just finished reading Dreams of Joy, which continues this story.
"In 1937 Shanghai - the Paris of Asia- twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules."
An enlightening look into the Chinese immigrant experience, and certainly a better read than Peony in Love. The way this novel ends, there must be another one coming, and I'll be anxious to read it, too!
July 9, 2012: I just finished reading Dreams of Joy, which continues this story.
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