Book 30 - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson

Book 30
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson
576 pages in 15 days

Larsson's third book in "The Girl Who" trilogy came out in mid-May and I couldn't help myself - I pre-ordered the book. The third book picks right up where Book 2 (The Girl Who Played with Fire) ended and avoids the messy "reminder passage" that was needed to bring you up to speed (which is good) but instead, it delves right into the most complex, messiest conspiracy theory this side of the cold war. As Wesley Morris, the Globe film critic, writes "Hornet’s Nest is 90 percent government, police, and legal procedural" and I have to admit that my interest suffered because of it. I previously would not have identified Salander as the one carrying water in this story but it's pretty clear that once she's removed from the story, it's easy to be bogged down in the minutiae of the plotline and the one dimensional nature of most of the characters (even Salander can seem like a type of caricature at times).

It took me a surprisingly amount of time to get into this third installment. It took, in fact, about a week - though I have to admit that I was reading another book entirely (Book 29) on my commute because this tome was so giant. But again, once I got into the book, I consumed it. Larsson is clearly a journalist and it takes you a bit to get all the basis of the story down, before you can dive into the meat and the suspense. I understand that to Swedish readers - and to Larsson himself - some of the more political aspects of the plot were important but to me, they just weighed down the more contemporary story. The books are LOADED with characters and (my own fault) I had a lot of trouble distinguishing between them - the Russian novel effect.

That said, did I enjoy this book? Yes. No equivocation. Sure, the characters are outlined in thick black Sharpie and barely filled in. Sure, there are endless pages of political detritus that seems unnecessary. Sure, it's sensational and fantastical. Who cares?! The books are great together and offer great stories that you can really fall into. I continue to wonder how they would have changed had Larsson lived to help edit and polish them up - would things have been cut, did the books suffer from poor translation, etc. And I have to admit, I'm pretty glad there aren't going to be 10 of them but all in all, very enjoyable. It's easy to see why they are bestsellers.

If you're into podcasts, I highly recommend all of Slate's podcasts (Hang Up and Listen, Double X, Audio Book Club, Political Gabfest, Cultural Gabfest...) but what better place to start than their Culture Gabfest focused on the Steig Larsson books?

Other sources:
LA Times Review
Love, love, LOVE this review from Bookstore People (could it be because we see eye to eye on a lot of points?)
My past posts on the trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who... Never Ends?

Book 29 - Theodosia and the Serpent of Chaos

This is not the first of the 52 to be technically found in the young adult fiction section of the bookstore (see Book 22: Diary of a Wimpy Kid) but R. L. Lafever's Theodosia and the Serpent of Chaos is pretty entertaining to those of us with a driver's license (okay... and a full fledged adult card) too.

The book is the first in a series of books about Theodosia, our precocious, 11-year-old protagonist who gets in and out of scrapes with a natural skill (or lack thereof) that would stun any of her boy counterparts. The book is billed as "the next Harry Potter" but to me, it seemed more like a historic Harriet the Spy meets a book focused on Hermione from the Harry Potter series (yes, I read a lot of kids' books...). Where Harry is a magical character, in a life or death struggle over eternity, who seems to pair luck and skill to success, Theodosia is your typical book-smart, more parental than her parents, practical heroine.

Of course, she does tempt fate with a boat trip across the ocean and a fairly violent battle with some nefarious German villains, but you're pretty sure that she's going to pull through. With help from her nitwit brother, her ridiculous cat, and a handful of other two-dimensional characters, Theodosia manages to pull through - saving the fate of Britain and her family, with her parents none the wiser.

Check out some other grown-up reviews:

• Booktalk & More
• Strange and Random Happenstance
• Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

And hear about it from Theodosia Throckmorton herself on her very own website (and blog!) and check out R. L.Lafever's website while you're at it. Happy reading!

Book 28 - Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman

For those of you who don't know who Chuck Klosterman is (and those of you who didn't read Book 4 - Fargo Rock City), Eating the Dinosaur might seem like a weird title for a book - for the record, it refers to one of the only "reasonable" reasons for time travel - but it's all in line with what I already know about Klosterman.

Klosterman, a long time music and pop culture writer, comes off as someone that you both want to be friends with and someone that you think might be a little bit of a douche bag (pardon the expression). I have no doubt he's a bit of both - who among us doesn't have a dear douche bag friend after all? - but what really matters is that he writes entertaining books.

Eating the Dinosaur, the latest in Klosterman's books, is a book of essays that are only vaguely connected - they're all things that Klosterman finds interesting - but are all interesting and entertaining. I didn't love the book like I loved Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (the first of Klosterman's book that I read) but I did enjoy it and found cause to read some of the essays out loud - for comedic value.

Klosterman is a smart guy. It's clear through the quality and nature of his writing but I've also come into contact with Klosterman through his guest appearances on the Sportsguy Podcast (Bill Simmons). I always tune in when Klosterman is a guest on the podcast. His somewhat cocky opinions and the way he argues with Simmons has the same comedic value and nature that his writing does.

Like I said...

*Check out Klosterman's Amazon Page and give him a shot - you'll probably find him funny but be sort of annoyed that you didn't think of it first.

Book 27 - Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

We're on to the second half of the quest now - 26 books down, 26 to go. Or, I guess 25 since I'm writing about 27 now! Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl is the story of the Gourmet critic's move from LA to New York (and to the much vaunted New York Times food column) - before her move to Gourmet. As many of us know, LA and NYC are two very different places - in almost all things - layout, history, attraction, food...

Reichl struggles with her new post but never once do you think she'll fail. In fact, she treats the whole experience with a certain curious detachment (or at least writes as if she does) and even at the worst, it all feels a little non-serious. Reichl acknowledges this in a very honest way, admitting that, in the end, she's still writing about food and getting paid to go to fancy restaurants.

Reichl's writing is not the star of the book. Her style is fine and her grammar, editing, etc. are perfectly reasonable but the writing is easy to overlook as you're being taken into the back rooms of New York's finest (and not so finest) and best restaurants. I love food writing and I was there with her the entire time, testing out the new dishes and concoctions, experimenting, nosing out the best (and worst). I found the costuming (Ruth had to hide her true identity to get honest service) cute but it was the food, the FOOD that was the best part.

I've heard Reichl's other books are equally entertaining (great for planes by the way) and I will definitely be checking them out.