Wallpaper entitled "Hope"

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Friday, February 4, 2011

I found her only to lose her...

Blew my resolution to post every week, huh? What's it been--three weeks? I guess I could blame it on the weather (snow and ice) or my birthday (late January), but neither would be true. I've just been doing more reading lately. I'm in the middle of reading five series, and I'm not even a big fan of series. When I know a new book is almost out, I usually re-read all the prior books just to remember what happened, which sometimes feels like a big waste of time. But most authors take +/- a year to get the next book out, and when I think about where I've been in the last two years, I can see why I don't remember anything.

I posted earlier--actually, the last post now that I look--about reading the Stieg Larsson trilogy that started with TGWTDT. I wasn't certain how I felt about that first book. Since then I've finished the other books, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest. Again, once I started reading, I couldn't put them down. I felt obliged to read the second one but then couldn't wait to start the third. Larsson is most definitely a master storyteller. This trilogy was like a roller coaster ride. It started out by taking me slowly up that first hill, and once it reached the top, it was a wild ride from then on. Lisbeth Salander finally stole my heart. I think I couldn't relate so much to her at first because she was so unemotional, and of course that's so not me. But I gave her and the author the benefit of the doubt and was rewarded by an amazing story of remarkable survival despite the odds, extraordinary courage acting against those who did harm and blossoming trust that reluctantly acknowledges that there are some good people in the world that we might call friends. I know, I know, I'm prone to seeing the world through rose-colored glasses and the glass half full. Lisbeth gave up on that a long time ago. She was motivated by a lot of hate, but still, I got her. In a way that someone who has never come close to suffering what she did, I got her. I really wanted to know more about her.

It's unfortunate that there may be no more books in what was to be a ten-book series. Larsson had a basic outline of the entire series, and he had about half of the fourth book written before he died. His life companion has said she could finish it, but it's tied up in the legal system. It was to be primarily about Lisbeth and her life as she adjusts to what she finally has revealed about her past. We were going to learn about the meanings of her tattoos, namely that each represented someone who had hurt her. I wanted to know what happened to her twin sister, Camille, and how she might have reacted upon learning about Lisbeth's trial and the truth of their lives. And I really wanted to know more about Lisbeth.

Not only do I highly recommend this trilogy, but I also would suggest reading Larsson's biography. His outspokenness in fighting racism made him a target of violence. Explains why he could write about it and make me feel it.