Summer Reading Review

Summer, I hope, is trying to come to an end (or at least the 40 degree days are abating for now) and my husband, a teacher, has headed back to school, as have the kids next door. The return of school is usually a signal for the end of summer here, although February is often the hottest month!

Anyway, I'm going on the premise that summer is coming to an end, at least our lazy, hazy days of summer are. Which is fine by me - I already feel like I have a hot water bottle strapped to my belly full time!!! Bring on Autumn I say!!!

So let's have a look at some books that I've read over the summer holidays.




The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

As an historical fiction writer (or should I say aspiring writer!!) I enjoyed reading Brown's previous book, Angels and Demons. I found it suspenseful and purposefully written. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about The Lost Symbol. I found this one rather contrived and painstakingly written. What I mean is that the story seemed to be too forced and often bordered on, well, boring. I'm sorry to say it but I really didn't enjoy this book. I did like the information on the Masons and the historical underpinnings of Washington D.C. but then I could always have read about that on Wikipedia or in a history book. The writing was wordy and the plot too manufactured for my taste. I like a bit more subtlety in my books.



Which leads me to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th books I read this summer. These ones were incredibly hard to put down and absolutely inspiring to read - as mentioned in my last post I've taken a real liking to crime fiction and I think a lot of that is due to these books.



Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy (consisting of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire,and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)





Set in Stockholm, Sweden in the present day (more or less) these books offered a different and very exciting heroine. Lisbeth Salander was one awesome chick. I loved that Larsson made her so strong yet so vulnerable at the same time. She was exactly the kind of heroine I love to read about, but which, sadly, are rare. Her story is intertwined with that of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. For a philandering journalist, he wasn't half bad a character either. Their relationship was a very delicate, complicated one and it continued to develop, albeit rather stuntedly, through out the three books. This, clearly, was part of Larsson's plan. The three plots are not quite connected, there are different villains and different mysteries to be solved in all three books but the connection between them, i.e. the characters and the setting, is a brilliant manouever. Apparently there is already a film made of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I'm really looking forward to seeing. Totally recommending this series to anyone who is interested in crime fiction, or even just really good fiction. It's also nice to have a more exotic background (i.e. Sweden) for a novel instead of the usual environs.



There were a couple of others that I read, some history, non-fiction ones that I'll review later. Right now I've got a hankering for some burritos!!

Adios, KV-ettes


Kirsty x