Book Club

{Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo}

I love reading, as some of you may know from one of my early posts here, so it seemed like a logical step to start a monthly(ish) book club on the blog.  I think it's a good idea for two reasons: 1. It's always good to promote great novels, and 2. It will encourage me to look for good books and not let the busy, hectic, madness of life get in the way of a little downtime well-spent.  Up first: Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  I got it for Christmas (it was on the wish list) and spent the final day of a horrendous trip to Rome holed up in my hotel room reading it from cover to cover.  It's the first in a 3-part series of crime thrillers set in Sweden and centering around themes of violence against women.  I wouldn't say that I'm usually a big thriller fan, but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has the same kind of addictive mass-appeal that had us all reading The Da Vinci Code a few years back.  It's smartly written without being tedious to read, which probably explains its dominance of best seller lists internationally.  Larsson's posthumous work also has two sequels The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, which I am happily immersing myself in this afternoon.