Books To Read

 

The Women’s Murder Club Series: 1st to Die – James Patterson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

The Unbearable Lightness of Being* – Milan Kundera

Crude: The Story of Oil – Sonia Shah

We* – Yevgeny Zamyatin

In the Woods – Tana French

* – required for school

I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and it was one of the best books I’ve ever read. It was originally in Swedish and translated to English by Reg Keeland. It addresses the issue of sexual assault quite a bit which isn’t common in murder mysteries I’ve read, but it was clear that the author feels strongly that so many women in Sweden are assaulted and don’t report it/feel like nothing can be done. The book is about a journalist (Mikael Blomkvist) who is hired by a withering industrial giant (Henrik Vanger) to write a family history while secretly solving the mysterious disappearance (assumed murder) of one of his family members. It was an incredibly well written book, full of genuinely surprising turns. I had no way of predicting the ending, which is exactly how I like mysteries :) I also liked how that names of people and places were kept Swedish and not “American-ized” as with many translations. I can’t wait to start the sequel; The Girl Who Played with Fire.