Book Review: Stieg Larsson's Trilogy

So this year I decided to age myself by 80 years and join a book club. And not just any Book Club, but "The Finer Things" Dinner and Book Club. To those of you who are fans of the Office you can get an idea of what we do the last Friday of each month. You may think it sounds nerdy, but I love it! I along with 6-9 of my friends depending upon who shows up vote on 1 book each month and then meet on the last Friday of that month for dinner and discussion.

Our first meeting in January was to decide on what our first book would be. We chose the first book from the bestselling trilogy by Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I will be the first to admit that pages 1-100 were anything, but fascinating. A lot of it was background on the Swedish financial industry and was a little rough to get through. However, the rest of the book really blew my mind. It went from 5mph to 60 mph in a matter of pages.

I spent 3 weeks getting through it all (having a baby has slowly inhibited my ability to read 600+ pages within a day or two). However I must say that Book 2 - The Girl Who Played With Fire - was so amazing that I finished within 5 days :). I will admit Eliana might have spent a little more time in the swing or sitting in her bumbo, but Kids babies need time to learn how to self entertain... Right?

Anyhow the point of this post isn't to point out my failures as a parent because I am obsessed with books. And the more I think about it if it keeps me sane and she is still happy then whose to say what is and isn't acceptable as a parent. So moving on... Book 2 was Wonderful. Exquisite. Exciting. Dramatic. Powerful. Engaging. and it kept me wanting more and more. So I picked up Book 3 and read it in 2 days. So basically my opinion of the entire Stieg trilogy is to just READ IT. Unless you are someone that likes books that are filled with nothing but heart shaped emotions and fairies sprinkling happy dust on everyone because these books have an intensely dark side and are definitely rated R.

But with that I have to tell you that everything serves a purpose. Stieg doesn't include random and ridiculous sexual encounters and neither does he make the book so utterly unrealistic that its a chore to try and imagine such events ever truly existing. I think he balances everything quite well and if you can't accept that dark and disturbing things happen in real life then you won't be able to accept them in his book. Move on. Find another prince charming romance. You know something about a boy who meets a girl and they live happily ever after. Blah. Blah. Blah. Yuck.

The only unfortunate thing about Stieg Larsson's  novels is that he wasn't alive to see them printed.

Next Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett along with The City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. The Rothfuss book still needs to be cracked open. I am saving it for when I know I have a good chunk of time to dedicate to it. It's no Mother Goose Fairytale. In the mean time I am reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time just because I love it that
much :)