Oscar Books

Did you watch the Academy Awards three weeks ago? OK, so I'm a little behind in blogging about it. Besides watching to see the fashion, I love to see which movies win big and then go see them if I haven't already (and I don't go to the movies as often as I used to, so chances are good I haven't seen all the year's best movies). I was hoping for big wins for the two books I had read that had corresponding movies out in the past year: The Help by Kathryn Stockett and War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (I had also seen Jane Eyre and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). However, I've missed quite a few. Book Reporter has summed it up nicely here. My reading list is growing by leaps and bounds!

The Girls Who Read the Stieg Larsson Trilogy

About a month ago I borrowed Stieg Larsson's runaway bestseller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, from a friend. I read the book mostly in two sittings during a weekend, unable to put the book down. Both of the book clubs I've recently joined selected the book for discussion in August. I've now sat through two discussions of this book, and I have Larsson's second of the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, sitting on my nightstand, and I'm ready to begin reading it. Yet, I'm still struggling with how I feel about the first book.

In both book clubs, there were those who loved the book and those who didn't like it enough to even finish it. I liked it, but I thought it was difficult to read in parts due to the violence and misogyny. I'm fascinated by Lisbeth Salander, as I think she's the most complex characters I've ever read about, but I thought Mikael Blomkvist came up a bit short. Perhaps my thoughts on him will change as I read the second and third books.

Have you read it? What did you think? Will you read the rest of the trilogy?