A patron recommended this to me at work one day and I finally got around to picking it up. I didn’t really know what it was about and so picked it up without any preconceived notions. Unfortunately, it was so totally engrossing that I stayed up way too late reading it the first night. This book is hard to define. It is a mystery; it is a character study; it is a treatise on society; it is phenomenal. At the center of the book is Lisbeth Salander, a hard to understand girl with amazing computer and research skills. She works for Milton Securities. Then there is Mikael Blomkvist who is a journalist that has just been accused of libel. He is given the task of solving a decades old mystery. Lisbeth is hired to do a background check on Mikael before he is offered the job.
Sounds so simple, but it isn’t at all. Mikael and Lisbeth eventually cross paths and that is when the story gets interesting. This book was fantastic and though it isn’t necessarily action packed, it is brilliantly written so that you are always anxious to turn the next page.
It is a shame Larsson died after he wrote the Salander trilogy.
This amazing autobiography graphic novel is poignant and terrifying. It is the story of the author’s bout with cancer and how his family never tells him that is what it is. The illustrations are harsher than in his picture books to reflect the tone of the book. It is such a sad tale, but one that also offers hope. David is a truly talented artist and this book is a great memoir of his early childhood. I imagine it will end up on the same pages as Gantos’ Hole in My Life and Paulsen’s Guts.
A new graphic novel that will surely become popular, Secret Science Alliance is about three kids who love inventing. They each have different strengths and weaknesses, but together they are a force to be reckoned with. When a renowned inventor steals their notebook of inventions, the team comes up with a plan to get it back. Of course they don’t realize that the scientist is set on using their inventions to break into a museum to steal a priceless artifact! But together, they will come up with a daring, adventurous plan. Based on the ending, this looks like it will be a great new series.
I love Pride and Prejudice and read all of the read alikes that come along (or as many as I can find I should say; there are pry many that I have missed). Reynolds takes the idea that Darcy decides to court Elizabeth after her dismissal of his proposal and that things get a little hot and heavy between them. There were many elements of the story that I strongly enjoyed including: Reynolds ability to integrate parts of the real story in with this one; Elizabeth’s character which I felt was in keeping with the real Elizabeth; and the language of the time. However, I do not think that Darcy would ever have seduced Elizabeth in that manner. I know it is an interpretation and I was glad to have read it, but I must disagree with this What If? I think it highly unlikely that Darcy would have undergone such a change in character no matter how he felt. In addition, she changed his overall demeanor. He became much too silly in my opinion. That being said, I thought it was a clever adaptation and I may pick up the modern adaptations she has written. I have a feeling those won’t be quite so hard for me to bear.
A while back, I was looking for Mercedes Lackey read alikes for her Elemental Masters series. I came across this series and noted it as one I wanted to take a look at when I needed a book to read. Last week, finding myself with naught to read, I grabbed it from the library. While very different than the Elemental Masters series, I loved it. It weaved together several different fairy tales including Rose Red, Eros and Psyche and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. McKiernan’s introduction was great and made me eager to read the story. He talked about how he believes fairy tales have been winnowed down and that when they were first written, there would most likely have been bards to tell these tales for many hours. So McKiernan set out to recreate the stories in the way that he felt they would have originally have been told. I was impressed.
As always, I am a little leery when an author starts a new series. This series is about assassins in the future. THey are similar to the Dark Hunter series in that they have emotional scars and are rather battle hardened. But instead of being set in present day, it is set in a futuristic alien society. This book tells the tale of Nykyrian and Kiara. Nykyrian is hired to guard Kiara. At first, she is terrified of him for his seeming roughness and lust for blood. BUt she soon realizes that it is a facade and that she truly can respect and even love him. Of course there are bad guys out for both of them and so things can get a little gory and icky in some parts. But it is a well written book and I look forward to reading more of this new series (which is incidentally called The LEague).
Ibbotson is such a fantastic writer that anything she writes draws you right into another world whether it be a world long gone by or a world made up of magic. In this book, we enter the world of Pfaffenstein, a run down castle where a princess lives. But this is no ordinary princess, she is a princess of the people who thinks that royalty is silly and should be gotten rid of. So she is living in Vienna and working as an under-wardrobe mistress to an opera company. Enter a self-made millionaire who wants to propose to his childhood secret by giving her a dream come true. He buys Pfaffenstein and plans to throw an elaborate party there. But of course nothing works out quite as planned, but that is all to the good. Ibbotson’s major strength lies in her ability to craft characters that leap off the page and worlds that seep so real you can taste the food being served. I have yet to read a book of hers that wasn’t spectacular.
Zoe Lexham was abducted and lived in a harem for 12 years. Now she is back and her family is happy,but scandalized. Enter Lucien de Grey. A longtime family friend, he promises to make Zoe acceptable to society. But of course she becomes much more acceptable to him. She is everything that is not proper, and Lucien cannot help but be drawn to her. She doesn’t understand the rules of Society and really doesn’t want to. Together they can be amazing, but apart they will be lonely. It is yet another rather unconventional historical romance.
Eleanor will only marry a duke after her first love (a duke) marries someone else. She wants him to know that she still loves him, but instead it makes her look snobbish and aloof. Enter an eligible Duke who will only marry the daughter of a Duke. At the moment, there are only two on the market, Lisette and ELeanor. Bring all the characters together at a house in the country. Put a made daughter of a duke with a passionate one and make the Duke choose. A delightful, if quirky historical romance.
Harper Blaine is still trying to lead a normal life, despite the fact that she is a Greywalker, able to walk in teh inbetween places between life and death. Some new creature is attacking the homeless in Seattle and Harper must discover what it is. This was a horribly cold book, even though I read it during the summer, Richardson has such a vivid way of describing things that it felt like it was a frigid winter. Harper is a great character, and I think she would get along well with Harry Dresden.