Summer Books

Pardon the reflection, I meant to post this August 8, 2011.

I've been reading a lot this summer. Then again, I think I read a lot every summer. Anyway, as soon as I finished the Harry Potter series I started on my pile of other books that I have been wanting to read. This pile has grown much larger in the last few weeks since Borders is going out of business. I'm having a hard time resisting the 25-50% going-out-of-business sale. So far this is what I've read...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. This is probably the first mystery I have ever read. Lisbeth Salander, or the girl with the dragon tattoo, is not the main character but definitely has a supporting role. The story revolves around a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who has recently been hired to solve a murder that happened forty years ago. Lisbeth Salander is more like his assistant but in the end saves Mikael's life. She's incredibly smart, incredibly private, and has a super dark past that won't be fully revealed until the last book. The book is set in Sweden, names tons of Swedish landmarks, and even mentions all the money in Swedish kronor. From what I understand, Stieg Larsson handed in the first 2 books to his publisher and the manuscript to the last book and then died shortly after. I think he never lived to see a single book published. The book is really very good. If I hadn't seen the movies first, I probably would have thought that they were awesome.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is part two to the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander is a more central figure given that she is framed for murder. Although she doesn't have many friends, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, her ex-guardian Holger Palmgren, and her former employer Dragan Armansky, try solve the murders before the police track down Lisbeth. In the meantime, more of Lisbeth's horrible past is revealed and you find out more about her family. I think I liked this one a little better than the first. Stieg Larsson divides his chapters into days. The book starts on December 16th and ends on April 7th. Many of the chapters happen on the same day but you start to see the same events from the different groups of activity. By the last page, there is no doubt that Lisbeth Salander is one bad ass chick.

Next came Green, the final chapter to what used to be the Circle Trilogy. I read the Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White) back in 2004. Green is both the end of the story and the beginning. So the story goes something like this: Thomas Hunter is being chased by some bad guys and gets shot, but not seriously. He runs home, patches himself up, and falls asleep. He wakes up in another world that is as real as this one but its 4196 AD but it could easily be 4196 BC. When he falls asleep in the future world, he wakes back up here. Both realities are moving toward the same apocalyptic end. The things that he learns in the present he can use in the future and vise versa. The major difference between the worlds is pretty neat. Here, in the present time, evil resides in the heart and we all look the same on the outside. In the future world, evil is visible on the flesh in the form of crusty, scabbing flesh that itches and burns when you try to wash it off. Those who believe in God, on the other hand, have smooth healthy skin. The "Scabs" (unbelievers) are always waging war on the "Albinos" (believers) and in Green, the church begins to fracture. Green has two alternative endings and I think I like the second ending better than the first.

I adore Chuck Palahniuk's writing. It's twisted and fresh and real. He writes like you and I talk. Chuck Palahniuk is probably most famous for "Fight Club" but his other books are well worth the read. Survivor is written in first person narrative form and starts off with the main character, Tender Branson, sitting in the cockpit of Flight 2039, dictating his life into the recorder of the Black Box. I don't want to give much of the book away, but Tender grew up in the Creedish Church (which is fictional, a death/suicide cult like the Heaven's Gate of California or Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple) in Nebraska and is the last living survivor of the church. When Tender is discovered by the media that he's the last survivor he becomes an instant celebrity. Think Paris Hilton meets Jim Bakker (the televangelist in the 80's). It's a nightmare but comfortable. It's tragic, and predestined, and your left thinking at the end, "What if...". And it's brilliant.

I usually don't take a break in between books when I'm reading a series, but for some reason I did this time. Hornet is the very last in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. This time, Lisbeth is on trial and Mikael's sister is her attorney. Even more sick and twisted things are revealed about her past- like the fact that the guy who shot her in the head and buried her alive in the last book was her half brother who takes orders from her dad, who happens to be the head of the human trafficking ring in Sweden. There's government corruption and police corruption and media corruption. In the end, Lisbeth finally realizes what it means to have friends. Or something like that, cause I'm not going to ruin it for you.