Book Club

[shmeep]

Since Mags and rducasey brought it up, I'd like to weigh in on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Someone chose it for our book club a few months ago so I HAD to read it. How it ever got so big is a mystery to me--not because it's particularly bad, but because it had such a slow and excruciatingly dull beginning. The first two hundred pages are tedious and could have been summed up in very few words without much lost at all. The story grows more engrossing as one gets further along and by the end, I really was anxious to find out what was happening and I ultimately enjoyed reading it, but I'm shocked so many people had the patience to get through the first quarter or so of it. The main character, Salandar, is a pretty intriguing person and she is the only thing that makes this story stand out at all. Some of the things that happen to her in the book are incredibly disturbing, but her reaction is always interesting and often satisfying. Still, I have no great urge to read the other two. I saw the movie in Swedish with subtitles and enjoyed it, although it was quite graphic. I'm not sure what the American version of the film will be like, but I'm sure it will have a far more beautiful cast. The Swedes cast very ordinary--even plain--people in nearly all the roles. It was refreshing, but a little difficult to get used to. Made me realize how conditioned we Americans are to seeing only freakishly-beautiful people on the big screen.

I'm liking this month's book club selection. It's called The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. We've read a lot over the last year. We've gone literally from Friday Night Lights (very interesting book) to Jane Austen. It's good for me to get out there and read things I certainly would not have otherwise.

rducasey, let me know how you like The Help. I've heard good things about that one.

[inuvik]

I haven't read any of the Girl books, but half my colleagues are. They all seem to love them! And they have gone to the movies too, and discuss them all the time. It's nice to know not everyone thinks they are the be all and end all.

[hoosier]

Same here. The books are constantly on hold so they are never on the shelf. Next chance, I'll have to get a patron's opinion of them.

[maggiethecat]

Oh, I am so glad those Steig Larssen books are getting mixed reviews here.

Shmeep, I applaud you for getting through the first two hundred pages of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." I've tried twice and I'm still stuck around page 70 -- something about the flat and repetitive nature of the prose, not to mention all those banking regulations. I guess if I'm going to wade through something dense and complicated, I want it to be better written, like John le Carre or P.D. James.

BEST book I've read all year? "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," which is so engrossing and delicious that when I finished it, I turned back to page one and started again because I wanted to stay with the characters a little while longer. It really is lovely and I highly recommend it . . . although I probably got that tongue-twister of a title wrong!

PS Apparently the Girl books are such a phenomenon that there are sold-out tours to visit all the sites in the book. Go figure.

[hoosier]

Heard my first review on the Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (book 3) and the patron did not like it but its already off to the next reader!

[rducasey]

Aug 20, 2010 15:34:50 GMT -5 maggiethecat said:

BEST book I've read all year? "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," which is so engrossing and delicious that when I finished it, I turned back to page one and started again because I wanted to stay with the characters a little while longer. It really is lovely and I highly recommend it . . . although I probably got that tongue-twister of a title wrong!

No, you got the title right Maggie. I read it too and enjoyed it. Also it was the "READ ACROSS RHODE ISLAND" book for this past year. Each year a book is chosen and it is appropriate for all age groups from High School up to adults. It is sponsored by the Librarians of the state. Their motto is "one state, one book, literally." Almost all book clubs choose it to read and HS English classes etc. Then in May, there is a breakfast and the author comes. Usually about 1000 people attend (no that is not the size of the RI population!) and it is a great event. The author speaks and takes quesions about the book. They have raffles and a grand prize. (In the case of The Kite Runner , the chosen book a few years back, it was a flight to CA and lunch with the author.) The particular book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , that Maggie mentioned, was co-authored by a woman and completed by her niece after she died. The niece was there to speak at the May breakfast. She was an excellent speaker and gave lots of insight into Guernsey and the book.

I know a lot of people who really enjoyed the Girl books. They are certainly popular. My daughter said everyone on the T in Boston seemed to be reading those books. Kathy and my daughter read them and liked them very much but I remember both of them saying, it takes a while to get into them. I read about 200 pages and gave up, but Shmeep, the "mystery on the island" and the missing person was something that I was so curious about and after Kathy and my daughter saying how good it was, I cheated and read about the last 75-100 pages and found out the answer. So many twists etc. and surprises! I did not have the energy to go on to the second in the series but in reading a lot of the reviews on Amazon, people rave about them. ....there are very few bad reviews.

The Help was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. It is the author's first book, and it is so good. Set in the south in the sixties, it is written in the voice of three woman, two maids and a young girl aspiring to be a writer who wants to write a book about the relationships of the domestics and the families they work for. She recruits the help of the maids to write the book and it is a very risky thing for them to do considering the times and the social climate. I recommend it highly. You laugh, you cry, it is sometimes sad, even frightening,,,,sometimes hilarious, and very revealing of the times. Many people are hoping that that book gets chosen as this next year Read Across RI book, which means the author would have to agree to come to the May breakfast. The book is announced in October.

[Katryna]

Aug 19, 2010 16:00:51 GMT -5 inuvik said:

I haven't read any of the Girl books, but half my colleagues are. They all seem to love them! And they have gone to the movies too, and discuss them all the time. It's nice to know not everyone thinks they are the be all and end all.

I am late to the party on this one and have to forewarn that I am not the most erudite of readers. I do enjoy a good story and interesting characters. That said...I did read all three of the Girl books and saw the Film of the first one. I found each book a little difficult to get into, but once I did I truly enjoyed them. My favorite was The Girl who Played with Fire. When I finished it, I immediately downloaded The Girl who Kicked the Hornets nest; but I found that one went through it's ups and downs as far as holding my interest. At any rate, I did think the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film was excellent. Of course they could not have put EVERYTHING from the book into the movie, but I think that what they left out was not really missed. It was refreshing to see a film in which the actors looked like real people!! And after reading about places I had never heard of, it was nice to see the beauty of the country.

I have to admit that after I finished the Hornet's nest I found myself angry that Mr. Larssen left this life before writing more books!

As far as other books, I bought The Help at the recommendation of Mary; but have not had a chance to read it yet. She and I are currently reading Nelson DeMille's Charm school. We have read a lot of his books and thoroughly enjoy his style of writing. This one came highly recommended to me by a co-worker. After reading half of the book I was wondering why she loved the book so much...till certain things happened and now I can't put it down.

[maggiethecat]

Sept 11, 2010 18:28:25 GMT -5 Katryna said:

I have to admit that after I finished the Hornet's nest I found myself angry that Mr. Larssen left this life before writing more books!

Aaah. . . but there is a fourth book, although it may never see the light of day for years as it's mired in controversy and legal wranglings. Apparently Steig Larssen was estranged from his father and brother, who, when he died, inherited the rights to the first three Girl books and are presumably floating around somewhere on a yacht. But Larssen had a girlfriend with whom he had lived for 30 years . . . and she has his laptop . . . which contains Book Four! But they were never married and apparently Sweden has no common law marriage statutes to speak of. Dad and brother want the rights to Book Four, but she won't give them up, since she never got a penny from the first three.

It's a very murky situation.

[Katryna]

Sept 15, 2010 15:33:46 GMT -5 maggiethecat said:

Sept 11, 2010 18:28:25 GMT -5 Katryna said:

I have to admit that after I finished the Hornet's nest I found myself angry that Mr. Larssen left this life before writing more books!

Aaah. . . but there is a fourth book, although it may never see the light of day for years as it's mired in controversy and legal wranglings. Apparently Steig Larssen was estranged from his father and brother, who, when he died, inherited the rights to the first three Girl books and are presumably floating around somewhere on a yacht. But Larssen had a girlfriend with whom he had lived for 30 years . . . and she has his laptop . . . which contains Book Four! But they were never married and apparently Sweden has no common law marriage statutes to speak of. Dad and brother want the rights to Book Four, but she won't give them up, since she never got a penny from the first three.

It's a very murky situation.

Was the book on the laptop complete? I was thinking it was like 3/4 or so. He must have had an outline, though; so perhaps someone could finish it.

[maggiethecat]

By all accounts complete, which is why all the legal wrangling and acrimony.

[Katryna]

Sept 16, 2010 19:05:34 GMT -5 maggiethecat said:

By all accounts complete, which is why all the legal wrangling and acrimony.

Now I am bitter.

[mlm828]

I haven't read these books, but by coincidence, they are being discussed on my legal list serve. One of my colleagues commented, "The Dragon books are unbelievably, graphically, chillingly, sexually violent -- so much so that after the first incident, I (with several murder and rape cases on my desk) said sheesh, I don't think I can bear this."

[maggiethecat]

I know I'm in the minority here but I found these books to be an odd combination of boring and creepily violent . . . .which is why I bailed in favor of my annual summer rereading of Gone with the Wind.

Now there, dammit, was a book. And may I say that no less a literary light than than Reynolds Price pointed out that Margaret Mitchell did something that no one other than Herman Melville had accomplished with Moby Dick and the whaling novel . . . she invented the genre and retired it in one book! You can never again write the 1,000-page Civil War novel: every feisty heroine will be compared to Scarlett, ever mammy to Mammy, every suave hero to Rhett. Forget the movie, as good as Vivien Leigh is, and remember that the novel won the Pulitzer in 1936.

I know, wa-a-a-a-ay off point!

Don't want to be a thread-killer. ;D

Speaking of which, don't we already have a GWTW thread on this board? Must go on a hunt.