Last year seemed to be super busy and reading a book that took too much concentration seemed to be more than I could handle.  So…I just now read “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”  This year I plan to be a much more faithful reader and have actually challenged myself to read 20 books this year, though secretly I’m hoping I read more than that!

I first attempted to read this book back in May/June but man, those first 30 pages were just too much.  So I put it down thinking I’d come back to it when I had a good chunk of time to devote to it.  Next thing I knew the movie would be out in a matter of weeks and I still hadn’t read it.  I don’t know about you but I hate to see a movie before reading the book.  And I definitely recommend reading this book before seeing the movie.  So many details are left out of the movie.

My sister gave me a great piece of advice that I will pass on here. If you haven’t read “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” yet, keep a piece of paper handy and write down the characters names and a couple words about them to help you know who they are.  Since the author is Swedish and the book was originally written in Swedish the names can be quite confusing; there never seem to be enough vowels in there.

I did that this time and for some reason once I started reading I could NOT stop!  It was addicting, yet at the same time reading it at night freaked me out a bit.  Yes this book has some gruesome parts that are hard to read.  But overall this book is very well written in my opinion.  After finishing this book I truly felt like I knew the characters.  Larsson did a fabulous job of making you really feel like you felt what the characters were feeling.

Despite this book being really popular and hearing about it all the time, I loved that this book was by a Swedish author and the story takes place in Sweden. My dad’s mom was 100% Swedish; both of her parents immigrated here. Of all the different nationalities I have in my family, Swedish the most predominate, most of my grandparents were “mutts” (for lack of a better word).

I haven’t yet read books 2 and 3 but am looking forward to it. It’s too bad for Stieg Larsson that he did not live to see the success of his novels.  Though I wonder, would they have gained such notoriety if he hadn’t passed away?

Yesterday I went and saw the movie, and I thought it was one of the best adaptations that I had seen.  Yes there were things that were omitted and yes they changed some rather significant parts; but overall I definitely recommend the movie, after you’ve read the book!

Technorati Tags: books, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, reading, Stieg Larsson

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Thanks to the brilliant advertising efforts of Barnes and Noble I purchased and read, Star Island by Carl Hiaasen.

I had never read one of his books and was surprised to discover that this was the man who wrote Striptease, and series of children’s books; odd mix if you ask me.

This was the fifth book I took on my trip to the Dominican Republic a little over a month ago and I have just finished it this past weekend. No it isn’t that long it was just that boring to me. Well boring might not be the right word. Complicated is probably more accurate. There were entirely too many characters and story lines. In fact at the end of the book in the author’s epilogue I didn’t remember who a few of the characters were he mentioned.

Star Island is the story of a troubled young pop star, Cherry Pye, who can’t seem to keep herself out of trouble for more than a few minutes. The entourage around her has hired a double to stand in for her when she is too high or drunk to function, which seems to be the majority of the time. Despite their best efforts to keep Cherry out of trouble she seems to be attracted to it and finds it everywhere she goes.

The range of characters Hiaasen includes is quite impressive.

The most unexpected and intriguing character to me was Chemo. An ex-con with a weed whacker for an arm, hired by her manager to be Cherry’s body guard because he isn’t afraid to do whatever it takes to get his job done.

Ann DeLusia the actress that was hired to play Cherry’s undercover stand and is flown all across the country on a moment’s notice to make sure Cherry’s reputation stays intact in the public eye.

Bang Abbott, a paparazzi with poor grooming habits, who thinks he is entitled to invade the private lives of anyone famous simply because he has spent decades perfecting his craft, building a network of informants to tip him off to the stars whereabouts and networking with top tabloid magazines to ensure his pictures get published for top dollar.

However, my favorite character was Skink, who I hear is one of Hiaasen’s reoccurring characters. He is a colorful and lively old man who was surprisingly a former governor of Florida but is currently parading as a homeless superhero.

This book might appeal to you if you don’t mind keeping a cheat sheet with you so that you can keep all of the characters and story lines straight, but for me it took entirely too much effort to keep up with just a mediocre story.

Technorati Tags: Barnes & Noble, Carl Hiaasen, Star Island, Striptease

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Next week I promise I will be taking a break from “Chicklit” books. . .but you’re out of luck this week. . .

This was actually a book Meredith found because she was in a book club sometime last spring but she never read it until we went to the Dominican Republic. This week’s book is “The Importance of Being Married” by Gemma Townley.

Jessica Wild receives a surprise inheritance from her grandmother’s neighbor in the nursing home. Going to visit her grandmother had been more of an obligation than something she looked forward to doing. Until, she met Grace. After her grandmother passed away, Jessica continued her weekly visits to see Grace.

Without fail, every visit included Grace interrogating Jessica about her nonexistent love life. One visit Jessica decides the best way to counteract Grace’s disappointment would be to make up a boyfriend. She had to keep the relationship going and eventually she was married to her imaginary boyfriend and Grace was thrilled for her!

Unexpectedly Grace died, and Jessica receives a call from Grace’s lawyer. Turns out that Grace wasn’t just her grandmother’s sweet old neighbor, but she is quite well known and wealthy. However, the one catch is, the inheritance was left to Jessica Milton; of course in her stories she’d taken on her “husband’s” last name.

Interestingly, her “husband” is actually her boss. She sets out, with the aid of her roommate, to make her boss fall in love with her so that she can claim the 5 million pound inheritance.

While the book is pretty easy to predict, Gemma Townley does a good job of throwing in a few twists. If you love the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, you will love this book. It is a quick and easy read but it is also very entertaining.

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I’m not going to lie; the thing that drew me to tonight’s book was the cover and title.

Based solely on the title I bought the book one day, knowing I would take it to read on my vacation. Though I must confess I thought this would be a chicklit book I would just breeze through. Somehow I missed the word “memoir” on the cover.

This book starts out at what you would assume would be the low point of the author’s life. Due to her surgeon’s error two of her organs were punctured and she had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital and months hooked up to a “pee bag” as she calls it.

Things seem to turn around, her recovery is moving along just fine, and then her husband announces that he is leaving her for Bob. A man he met on gay.com. But that’s not the worst of it, a few days later she is in a terrible car accident that leaves her seriously injured.

With not many options, and a house that costs more than she can afford, Rhoda returns to her parent’s home and the Mennonite community she ran away from. At this point in the book, for an unknown reason I glanced at the front cover and saw the glowing review of this book from Elizabeth Gilbert. After not being able to make it through “Eat, Love, Pray” I almost threw the book down and moved on. . .but, I was on vacation and didn’t have many other book options.

Hesitantly I started reading again. . .and found myself laughing out loud whenever Rhoda talked about her mom. She is one fiery, opinionated woman, who has never lived anywhere but in the Mennonite community her entire life but boy does she have some hilarious perspectives and thoughts that I had to share with my friends.

In spite of Elizabeth Gilbert’s review, I too have to recommend this read. You don’t even have to know anything about the Mennonite community to enjoy this book because I sure didn’t.

Technorati Tags: Elizabeth Gilbert, Mennonite, Rhonda Janzen

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I know, I know Mondays are book review days. . .so I’m a day late but my stupid modem died and we have no internet service, so I apologize.

This week its another Chicklit book but by Whitney Lyles. I read her book, Always the Bridesmaid years ago and thought it was cute, so while browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble I was happy to stumble upon “First Comes Love.”

Now that Ethan and Cate have been married they begin to struggle with wether or not they are ready to have a kid as all their friends around them are starting their families.

As someone that has never had a child. . .I am now completely freaked out. . .but still I thought the book was hilarious. Cate doesn’t have the greatest experience being pregnant and spends most of her pregnancy in bed.

I absolutely love Whitney’s writing style and find her books to be a fun and easy read. I can’t wait to read another one of her books.

Sorry to keep it short and sweet but when your borrowing internet from your mom it’s better to be in and out!

Technorati Tags: chicklit, Whitney Lyles

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I have got quite a few books to discuss after my vacation. . .but in an effort to keep it short but sweet, I will talk about them one at a time.

The first book I read was one I stumbled upon at Barnes & Noble a while back and never got around to reading. It is called, Names My Sisters Call Me by Meg Crane.

This was definitely a quick and easy read but it was also very entertaining. Technically I think this would be considered a “chick lit” book but I thought it had a little more depth to it (a deeper meaning if you will. . .). In a light-hearted and unobtrusive way Crane addresses how one event affects the three very different sisters in her story.

Thirty years prior to the story’s beginning Courtney, Norah & Raine’s father walked out of their lives. The ripple effects of this event in each sister’s life set the course for how they would spend their lives treating or rather hiding from one another.

Without giving away the story, I appreciate that in the end they realize that they may never see eye to eye or truly understand one another but that’s okay they don’t have to.

I definitely recommend this book, so go read it!

Technorati Tags: chicklit, Meg Crane

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In case you didn’t guess I gave up on Eat, Love, Pray. I hate not finishing a book, but I just couldn’t bring myself to finish this one. Maybe I’ll take it on vacation with me and if I run out of anything else to read I’ll force myself to read it; but no promises.

Friday I got a delivery from Barnes & Noble, but because I went to float the river I didn’t get it until Sunday. Last night I started reading Sliding into Home by Kendra Wilkinson.

I’m not going to lie, I love those trashy reality shows on E! like Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami, Pretty Wild & Kendra. So naturally I was really looking forward to reading Kendra’s book.
After the torture of trying to read Eat, Love, Pray this is one easy read. I’m already halfway through the book and really just started it today. I enjoy a good biography and reading about how people got where they are today.

What I like about this book is that she gets straight to the point and tells you her story without a lot of extraneous details that don’t enhance the story; instead she just drops in a little humor. You definitely won’t be learning any rocket science with this one it’s just feel good story about how a trouble teen pulled herself out of her drug addiction, became Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend and then found fame.

This is definitely one book I recommend. Now enough of my yakking I want to get back to reading.

Technorati Tags: Eat Pray Love, Kardashians, Kendra Wilkinson, Sliding into Home

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