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Book Read:
by Stieg Larsson
Ladies in Attendance:
6 plus 2 very social cats.
Treats Shared:
Chocolate Cake, Peanut Butter cookies with Chocolate Kisses, Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pretzels, juice and WINE! We all kinda forgot to bring appetizers. Oops!
To Read or Not to Read:
3 Ladies read the book.
2 Ladies did not.
1 Lady saw the movie.
My Reaction:
I enjoyed this book. I found it to be the perfect read for the dead of winter since most of the book is set in the middle of nowhere, on a snowy island in Sweden. However, the beginning just plain sucked. It took me about 200 pages to get into it but luckily I had some trusted readers in my life that told me this. I did not get discouraged though I did put it down and pick it up several times before finally committing.
If you click on the title, it will link you to Amazon for a description. For my book club posts, I will not go into much detail of the book, I will mostly post my Ladies' reactions and whether or not it would be a good pick for book clubs in general.
We had a great discussion about it. We talked about the mystery throughout, the choppy translation from Swedish to English, the power of Lisbeth (the female punk hacker and the "Girl" that they refer to in all of the book titles) and the overall lure and crazy of the Vanger family (the family in which the book is based around and their dirty little secrets).
The Ladies Reactions:
I was one of the 3 that read it. The other two ladies enjoyed it as well but admitted that is was trying to get through the beginning and when the mystery is solved towards the end, we all felt a bit confused as to why there were still 100 some pages left. They enjoyed the characters, loved Lisbeth and felt she wasn't present enough in this first book. The title makes it seem like it would be all about her but it wasn't. One of the ladies has read the entire trilogy and she ensured us that we would indeed find out more about Lisbeth in the next two books. It also brought up some frank discussion on the abuse of women in Sweden and the political affiliations of the author. Did his early death in 2003 create the buzz about these books?
Good Book Club Pick?
Yes, we all agreed it was a good pick for us. Though half of our group did not read it, (2 started and one saw the movie), they were intrigued with the story and the power of its success and allure.
Next Book Up:
February- Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!
red headed book child
