Tagline: The girl with the dragon tattoo.

Summary: Mikhael Blomkvist, a formerly respected journalist, is given the chance to re-establish his professional name as long as he undertakes a year-long assignment to research the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, which occurred almost four decades ago. Enlisting the help of Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius, the two begin to uncover a tangled web of family secrets as they work towards solving what happened to Harriet Vanger all those years ago.

5 Words/Phrases: Absolutely incredible book; tightly plotted; fast-paced; vivid characters; compelling plot filled with unexpected twists

Most Impressed By: The intricacy of the plot and how the book is suspenseful from page one till the end. Also, the enigmatic character of Lisbeth Salander is absolutely fascinating.

Least Impressed By: …nothing!

Comments: I heartily recommend this book to everyone. It is an amazing read! At a little over 600 pages paperback, it’s not exactly a short read, but I devoured it in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. Stieg Larsson was a fantastic writer and I can’t wait to begin the next book in this series.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Tags: books

Tagline: One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia.

Summary: In this memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how after her divorce and ensuing depression, she went on a year-long journey of self-discovery and her search for pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and a balance of the two in Indonesia

5 Words/Phrases: Well-written; the countries are good backdrops for each of her respective searches; entertaining (but very, very one-dimensional) characters; hard to get through at times; skip the book and watch the movie instead

Most Impressed By: …nothing. Except for maybe Gilbert’s ability to secure a book deal to finance her year of travel before commencing said travels. (I should take note of this as it’s a great way to cover travel expenses!) And hop from man to man, yet always portray herself as the heartbroken victim.

Least Impressed By: Gilbert herself – she is whiny, she is self-absorbed; her ideas of transcendence often come across as elitism, which makes her quite hard to like. And liking the main character of any book is important, but in a memoir, it’s vital.

Comments: This isn’t a bad book by any means, but it’s definitely not very good. My main issue with it is Gilbert herself; it’s incredibly hard to read her story and like it when you don’t like her. I disagree with the majority of choices she made in this book (so, in her life, basically) and I find it hard to sympathize with a character who, more often than not, comes across as selfish and, well, stupid. I definitely do not think the book is worth all the hype and that the “Pray” section in particular got too bogged down with her wordiness. That was the hardest part to get through.

The only reason why I read this book was because I want to see the movie. Even though I haven’t seen the movie yet, I’d say skip the book and just watch the movie. At least the movie has Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem!

Overall Rating: 5/10

Tags: books