General Chat

Ready for tomorrow:

Please review
the Girl with the dragon tattoo

The Widow Ginger
Travels with my Aunt.

From May as she is on holiday. She has just reviewed Travels with My Aunt

The Widow Ginger and Travels with my Aunt . At the beginning I thought I would like an aunt like her but as the story progressed and I realised it was his Mother and all she had been up to, I thought "No thank you".

Review The Girl with the dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This was one book that I had no inclination to read, I had seen it on the shelves and though ‘no, not for me, not my type of book at all’. I had also read all the reviews in Amazon, or rather a lot of them, too many to read them all. Some of them confirmed my idea that it was not my type of book. Then I saw it in tesco and bought it.
Picked it up and read it, all 533 pages of it in six days.
I was right, it is not my type of book at all, it is violent, it is a complex detective type story, it is clumsily translated in places (anon for eventually), the names of the characters are difficult to pronounce but goodness it is gripping and well written.
The characters are complex, Salander is believable, just, I suppose there are people like her with photographic memories who can hack into all sorts of computers. That is frightening in itself. And I am sure there are people like Martin Vanger and Wennerstrom in the world. Blomkvist with his failings is also very believable.
The search to find if Harriet is alive or dead was well thought out and covered a wide area. Either Larsson knew the areas visited or did his research well.
So, yes a good book, I didn’t enjoy the violence but it was part of the story and not gratuitous and the fact I couldn’t put it down probably means that on one level I enjoyed it. I am not sure whether I want to read the other two books in the trilogy.
But what a loss to readers was Stieg Larsson’s death.

The Widow Ginger I read a couple of years ago and enjoyed it but there was a first one in the series (can't remember the title) which I preferred.

Ann, just seen this. Going away for a few days tomorrow. Also expecting visitors (any minute) They will probably stay overnight. Don't know if I will be able to get back to you this evening, but will try my best.
Tess

OK Tess I will put the suggestions thread up or else you will miss it. I did say the date would be 31st did you forget.

Hi Ann, quick reviews (my grandsons are in bed now).

The Widow Ginger Pip Granger.

Although it isn't a book to rave about, I enjoyed the story told by Rosie.
A very different life from the one I lead as a child, I would think that she was at times hard done by. Rosie however, had a positive view of her own life and felt that she was much loved, an example to those of us who feel sorry for themselves at the drop of a hat.
I will look out for Rosie's previous story "Not all tarts are Apples" just because I would like to more about her. Also wondered if her Mum was given a voice in the first book.


Travels with my Aunt.

Not at all what I was expecting (although I don't really know WHAT I was expecting!).
Found it interesting at first and guessed that Aunt was probably his mother (once she her told him that his late mother wasn't his real mother).
Somehow I had expected to feel compassion for and liking of the main charecters. However the more I read about them (especially aunt) the less I liked them.
I felt that Miss Keene had a lucky escape. That poor Wordsworth was shabbily treated (even before they murdered him.
A sleazy set of people leading sleazy lives.
The thought that poor Maria, daughter of the Chief of Customs, would have to marry the horrid Henry when she was sixteen made my flesh creep. Thank goodness they are not real people.


Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

A marvelous story, well told by Stieg Larsson. The Charecters were interesting. I felt quite maternal towards Lisbeth and wanted to keep her safe.

Mikael Blomkvist was the person I want to track down my illusive ancestors. I cared about him too.

The Vanger family were obviously odd. I just didn't realise how odd, till the story developed.

I thought that Harriet was still alive and had engineered her own disappearance, just had no idea at all about the whys and hows etc.
So there were alot of surprises, almost till the final page.

I had thought that there was a connection between Lisbeth and Harriet ... okay I was wrong!

I will be reading Stieg Larssons other books, and will throughly recommend them to friends (both male and female)
Would also like to learn more about the author, who died aged 50.

This was by far the best of the three GR Books for this month.

Thanks Tess

I'll be back tomorrow to do my reviews.

Will be on a little later

x Jill

n

My reviews-I managed to read all 3 this time

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

It took a while to get into this book but once I did I was fascinated. Salander is such a complicated character, I guessed she might have some autistic traits and having taught children with this problem I felt very sympathetic towards her, she has her own sense of morality even though it is not always the same as ours. I shall have to read the next two books to find exactly what the ‘time of all the evil’ was. I was interested to read that the original title in Swedish was ‘Men Who Hate Women’.

Travels with my Aunt

I did not like this book, I agree that the idea of Henry marrying a 16 year old was a very uncomfortable thought. In this book, too, Aunt Augusta had a moral compass at odds with mine, but I was not persuaded by her reasoning!

Widow Ginger

I enjoyed reading Rosie’s story, even had a tear in my eye when Jenny died, and the picture of life after the war was full of interesting details.

n

Travels with My Aunt (1969)

I had a Graham Greene period back in the seventies and had read this book before.
Probably not one I would go for nowadays, however, immersing myself into the book I found it very enjoyable, he is so easy to read. I had forgotten most of it and it jolted my memory as I went.
The copy I picked up was printed in 1999 and the publisher was Vintage Classic and thought afterward yes he is like a good vintage wine. I had my map of South America out traveling with Henry– his references to the cultural differences eg the red handkerchief episode could very easily have happened. If one was studying Anthropology or Sociology it would make a very good light accompaniment to one’s study books.
I just read the other reviews of this book – amazing how we see things differently – I saw this as a social commentary of the goings on in South America etc.


The Widow Ginger

I liked it – have not read anything by Pip Granger. Looking at the sequence of events and how it all unfolds from the point of view of a child, I can well imagine a child like her with ears flapping all the time, hearing things she shouldn’t and putting her own interpretation on it.
Probably every area has a nutter, pyromaniac or some sort of undesirable residing there. As Rosie would say I read it toot sweet.
The picture on the cover of my library book (the UK edition) has Rosie sitting under the table. The child looked like my god-daughter when she was little – copied the cover to send to her mother.

Persey

Steig Larsson -

I believe that there are negotiations underway with his partner re his fourth book.
I do hope it gets released as well. Apparently the fourth book is where it all comes to some sort of grand conclusion.

I am waiting for my copy of the second book to turn up at the library.

Persey

The Widow Ginger

I wouldn't normally have picked this one up myself but found I actually enjoyed it and liked Rosie immensley.

Travels with my Aunt

This was only available as a cassette auido book and as I don't have anything that plays these, these days had to pass on this one.

Could you not get the main book Michelle?

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This had been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years awaiting me to read it when I had spare time (ha). It's the kind of story I like, things aren't always what they seem and not to predictable, though something early on had me guessing correctly what happened to Harriet. The only problem I did have was keeping track of all the Vangers, and had to refer to the family tree in the front of the book a couple of times. And I do agree with Ann the translation was not always done correctly. I found the characters likeable and realistic, even Lisbeth (I have a couple of people in my acquiantices who could very easily be hackers if they were so inclined). There is a Swedish made DVD/movie of this book which I saw advertised at the local DVD shop recently which I was tempted to hire to see, before Hollywood make their usual hash of the story.

I was still typing Ann -- well retyping seeing as half my first effort disappeared when I hit the submit button. :-)

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I only received this a week ago as was waiting for a friend to finish and pass on. I carried the book around to read as much of it as possible :)
It took me awhile to get into it and at first I thought it was not my cup of tea, but I persevered. I guessed early on about Harriet , I was also glad there was a family tree to be able to refer to . Salander, she was an interesting person and I will try some of the other books as she seems to be in them all judging by the book covers. I still have half of the book to read properly and I will finish it.

Travels with my Aunt
I enjoyed the first few chapters then it started getting very odd and I was skipping through it. It seemed to go very astray towards the end.

The Widow Ginger
I have read this one a few years back and it was still a lovely read with lots of interesting characters . I will be looking out for the one before " Not all Apples are Tarts" as want to find out more about Rosie's earlier life.

x Jill