The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Author: Stieg Larsson

Publisher: Vintage Books/Random House, 2008

Length: 644 pages

My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

The Preface: I was on vacation in Yachats, Oregon during the summer and found myself at the home of a distant relative or acquaintance of my wife's family. In the midst of all the kids, chaos, and canines I found a copy of this book sitting on a nearby coffee table. Knowing full well that I hadn't the time to read while we were there - I still wanted to see what all the fuss was about, as the book was quite ubiquitous at bookstores, grocery checkstands, and pretty much everywhere. While I read only the first few pages that day in Yachats - I was sufficiently intrigued as to pick it up again a few weeks ago when I found that my wife had a copy at home.

My Review: As many other people who've read the book have stated (and as I will repeat here): the book starts slow. It is fair to say that it is, at times, near tedium to continue to push through the first 50 pages of the book. Nevertheless - it is well worth it. Once the foundation has been laid (and necessarily so), the book moves at a skillful and pleasant pace, often on the brink of being "spellbinding" - but never so over-the-top as to induce eye-rolling guffaws.

The premise of the book is this: Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist from Stockholm, is asked by an aging former CEO, Henrik Vanger, to take a fresh look at a cold case - the disappearance and presumptive murder of his beloved great-niece, Harriet, nearly 50 years prior. Vanger is convinced that someone in his family is responsible for her murder and he has been tortured by this thought all of his life. Blomkvist agrees and eventually partners with Lisbeth Salander, a part-time private investigator and full-time social outcast. As they work to determine who was involved with Harriet's demise, they discover far more than they were asked to find out.

The author, Stieg Larsson, weaves numerous storylines throughout this main plot, and adroitly manages to keep them all intact and fluid throughout the book. Insodoing, he also manages to present a critique of journalism and the media that should resonant with anyone who has followed the culture wars of the past 20 years.

The main, and perhaps only, frustration I had with the book is that I often became confused as to whom certain characters are and to what relationship they had with each other. However, the author provides a nice family tree diagram of the Vanger clan in the front of the book and I often found myself flipping back to it to see how Martin was related to Issabella, Erica to Cecelia, or Harald to Henrik. Frustrating as this was, I soon realized that the large stable of characters made the story more rich and deeply complex, and made for a far-more intriguing "whodunit" than if there were but a mere handful of suspects. Some characters were more developed and fleshed-out than others. Yet, the story and the treatment of each person felt organic enough not to distract from the overall tenor of the book.

Additionally, I often had very little idea where in the world they were from one moment to the next. The locales are such places as the islands of Hedeby and Sodermalm, the city of Sandhamn, and all places in between, which in all honesty, I have no connection or reference to. I wished that Larsson could have also included a map of the difference places involved - especially one of Hedeby island, where most of the storyline unfolds. More than once, I reminisced of the map of Middle Earth and The Shire that J.R.R. Tolkien included in each of the Lord of the Rings books. But, I digress...

With relief, I came to discover that my geographical handicap was not critical to my enjoyment of the novel and I was able to simply let go of the fact that I was often unsure of where Blomkvist or Salander were at some particular point.

While the conclusion of the book was not the jaw-dropping, out of left field, shocker that one might expect - Larson deftly wraps up all the storylines nicely and more-or-less convincingly. I did take small issue with one minor part of the book and reacted with furrowed-brow confusion - but I cannot discuss it here without spoiling the novel for anyone who has not read it.

Larsson wrote this book and two others to follow it (The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) and presented them to his publisher shortly before he unexpectedly died. I look forward to reading them soon. However, I hope that Larsson did not succumb to Dan Brown syndrome and simply rehash the same plot in each successive book. Nevertheless, on my next vacation to Yachats, if I find a copy of either of them lying around handy anywhere, I'll know it to be fate and begin reading them at once.

Amazon page: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

At Home

The Author: Bill Bryson

Publisher: Doubleday Random House, 2010

Length: 497 pages

My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

The Preface: Okay, first — my confession: I am a Bill Bryson junkie. If he wrote "The Complete and Authoritative History of 17th Century Buggywhips — Volume I," I would buy it remorselessly and consume it instantly.

That said, I spent quite a bit of time traveling for Fred Meyer throughout the month of October and, as is the custom, I spent my fair share of time in airport shops looking for magazines, newspapers, and other forms of distractions from the impending white-knuckle terror of flight. In one shop (I forget where I was) I saw this book stacked-out prominently and it accompanied me on that flight and every other until I was done with my travels. It was, in short, my woobie.

My Review: As Bryson explains at the outset of his book, he lives in an old Victorian parsonage in eastern England that was constructed in 1851. He was inspired to walk through each room in his house andvicariously tell the history of the world through many of the items found in each room (or perhaps, more generally, through many of the concepts associated with each room). In so doing, he is thus able to tell tales about the origins of certain words (curfew, limey, and comfortable to name just a few); examine the history of the modern city; explain the origins of some of the trivial, yet vexing idiosyncrasies of life (why do men's sports jackets have three useless buttons on the cuff?); and introduce some of the more interesting saints and scoundrels throughout the past.

As is his style, Bryson writes with self-effacing humor, wit, and a evocative prose that keeps the book moving and enjoyable. However, most books are not without their shortcomings, and "At Home" contains its fair share. Perhaps my greatest frustration with the book is that it never seemed to be completely faithful to its premise of "journeying about the house from room to room to 'write a history of the world without leaving home.'" Infrequently enough, the book felt like a stream-of-conscientiousness effort wherein Bryson was bound and determined to shoehorn in some particular narrative he found interesting or droll - but secretly would admit that it doesn't fit organically into the rest of the narrative. The result of this is that I found myself starting to skim from time to time and flipping ahead to see how many pages were left in the chapter and until we could hit the "reset" button and start over with a new room.

Nevertheless - the book is enticing, interesting, and rewarding. If I were to be asked what author would do the best job at tackling a project like this - I would have to say (quite quickly) that Bill Bryson would be my top choice, if not my only choice. Hopefully, I won't have to be forced to climb aboard a highly-pressured metal tube and flung through the air at 35,000 feet in order to enjoy his next book.

Amazon page: At Home

Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation

The Author: Joseph Hallinan

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003

Length: 288 pages

My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

The Preface: Last spring term, I took a class at Portland State University titled "Psychology & The Law." One of the guest lecturers (a criminal defense attorney, I believe) suggested this book during her time with us and, for no particular reason other than the desire to read something other than the textbook, I ordered it off of Amazon and actually found the time to read it. The class itself left a bit to be desired (as did my grade; B+....alas) but was still pretty enjoyable - if forgettable. The book, on the other hand was far, far better.

My Review: On January 17th, 1961, President Dwight David Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation as his second term of office came to a close. Although he spoke of much throughout this address, it is perhaps best remembered for his warning to Americans against the influence of the "military-industrial complex." This phrase is commonly used to describe the often unseemly and relationships between the government and the private companies who stand to make money from warfare. This relationship is often blamed for the nation's mounting debt and wasteful spending (whether real or imagined).

Joseph Hallinan takes this basic premise about the relationship between the government and the private sector and uses it as a model to explain the current state of the criminal justice system - particularly when it comes to the nation's prison system. The argument is simple: the reason there are so many prisoners in America is because there are substantial numbers of people and companies who stand to make money because of it. This is the basis of the "prison-industrial complex" argument and is the premise of Hallinan's book. Prisoners need to be fed, transported, clothed, housed, and even entertained. And where there is a need - there will always be those who look to capitalize on that need for profit. After a thorough read of his work - one is hard-pressed to disagree with the author.

"Going Up The River" is a product of many years of painstaking research by Hallinan - currently a writer for The Wall Street Journal. He details his narratives with dozens of people who are residents in various prisons and, perhaps with more keen insight, those who work in the prison system as guards, wardens, and whatnot. He also talks with the residents of the town where the prisons are situated. The results and reactions are not what I would label "intuitive."

Hallinan lays out many reasons why many towns opted for - even begged for - prisons to be built in their area. Some even still brag about them for commerce and tourism reasons. For many small and dying communities, prisons are a way to keep the economy alive, ensure jobs for the locals, and keep a pulse in the lifeblood of the town. And in years past - this worked well for most everyone. However, with the advent of privatization of the prison industry, things soon began to be done on the cheap - which of course led to corners being cut - which then led to improper and inadequate training for the prison staff and overcrowding for the inmates - which is, obviously, the perfect storm for violence, corruption, scandal, death, and heartache.

An underlying theme in the book is the painfully palpable failure and futility of America's "war on drugs." In one poignant example - Hallian compares the sentences of a convicted drug dealer with that of a CIA agent convicted of passing classified information to the Russians. One was "a dope dealer who sold a few ounces of crack" and the other was "a spy who sold out his country." Yet both received 24 years in prison. Yet despite the transparent failure of mandatory sentencing laws - politicians only want to spend money on more cells, more bars, and more walls. And the citizenry merely seem to acquiesce.

To that end, Hallinan takes us through a brief but perceptive history of criminal justice in America - beginning with our Puritan foundations and up to modern times. We've tried nearly every model of criminal justice ever dreamed up - from the insanely lackadaisical to the tortuously cruel. The lesson learned? Nothing seems to work. Nothing. No matter whether we imprison people in order to "cure" them, to scare them, to punish them, or to protect them - we never stop having criminals and, ergo, we still have prisoners. Few seem to be reformed in the "reformatories." Fewer yet are corrected in a "correctional institute." No one is penitent in a penitentiary. And I suppose that until the cycle of the prison-industrial complex is broken, I suspect that Hallinan would argue that it never will be.

Hallinan doers offer a glimmer of hope at some methods that do seem to work on occasions - but that seem to be more about the prisoner himself - and less about the system that placed them in prison. To Hallinan - the only way to get through prison is to have three things with while you serve you sentence: a family on the outside; a job on the inside; and a strong faith throughout.

Amazon page: Going Up the River

The Lovely Bones

The Author: Alice Sebold

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2002

Length: 372 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Preface: A few weeks ago I ordered some Indian take-out from Abaruchi in Beaverton and had to kill about 20 minutes before the order was ready. Not wanting to sit in the restaurant and stare at six-armed figurines and a poster of what I assumed to be a Bollywood action star, I headed next door to K-Mart and attempted to kill some time. After quick tours of aisles filled with...um...well...CRAP...I found solace in the books and magazines section and picked up "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. I had heard that it was being made into a film by Peter Jackson and I knew the book had a lot of success - both commercial and critical - so I picked it up and read through the first few pages. A few days later, in Fred Meyer, I bought a copy.


My Review: The premise is thus: a fourteen year-old girl is brutally raped, murdered, and dismembered by a neighbor in a small Pennsylvania town in 1973. Yikes - right out the gate that's enough to send the squeamish running for a copy of something more banal and safe. Yet - the book is never gory or detail-driven about the grisly death of young Susie Salmon. She states it all so very matter-of-factly. Yes, "she" states it as the book is written from Susie's perspective. She is in heaven (or some near-version of heaven) called "The InBetween" where she watches her family deal (or fail to deal) with the aftermath of her murder and also manages to interweave the back-stories of her family throughout the book. This is a unique narrative because Susie is dead on page one and we know who did it on page two: Mr. Harvey.

As Susie tells her story, the book focuses on the first days, weeks, and months after her murder. While Susie tells us in painful prose about how her mother, Abagail, and her father, Jack, are dealing with the loss of their oldest child, the story, at first, drives the subplot of Mr. Harvey and whether or not he will get caught and how Lindsey (her sister) will help bring the truth to light.

Meanwhile, Susie is adjusting to her new surroundings in heaven. She has some control over her world and finds a modicum of genuine happiness there. Yet, she is still drawn to Earth and to her family and all the friends she's left behind. While she (obviously) knows the truth about Mr. Harvey and the final resting place of her remains, everyone else has only vague suspicions about either. Although her friends and family can still feel her presence every once in a while - Susie can not communicate directly with them and tell them what she desperately wants them to know: where her body lays and who killed her.

However, the police-search/whodunit angle slowly dissolves and the story changes into one that follows the lives of the many people that were touched by Susie. Many in bold and profound ways - and others in more subtle or intimate ways. Her mother, father, sister and brother (Buckley) and Grandmother are left to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives - some doing it more successfully than others.

The book then begins to move more quickly in time, with years going by and her still-unsolved murder becoming less and less of a storyline and more of an afterthought. And this is where the book reveals it's true purpose, and I believe, it's true genius.

The book is not really about Susie Salmon's murder or about how Mr. Harvey does or doesn't get caught. The book is about growing up and growing old and Susie's denial of being allowed to do either. All of Susie's friends move on in school, meet new people, graduate and most importantly - experience love. All of these were denied to her and that's what makes the book so intimately heartbreaking.

I found myself wanting the story to get back to Mr. Harvey and the still-secret location of Susie's remains. Eventually, there is a payoff to this storyline, although it wasn't what I was expected and certainly not what I was "wanting." At least at first. But the more I think about it - the more justice that does to the theme of the book: that life isn't always what you want, nor do you rarely get what you want.

This is the first work I have ever read by Alice Sebold - and that isn't too much of a surprise as she only had one other work printed before TLB. However, I wholy appreciate her sincere, yet subtle way she gives Susie her voice. She never waxes poetic on life nor engages in vitriolic screeds about the man who murdered her. She resorts neither to rhetorical flourish nor the cliche and trite. All characters are real and all are flawed in some way or another. Some more than others.

My main criticism of the book I can't really discuss without revealing certain details of the end of the book. I will surmise it to say that I think it to be a fair criticism by readers who might say, "Why didn't ___________ say __________ to _________" at the end? It would have only taken a second!" I suppose Sebold could argue that "That isn't what the book was about" but that really is immaterial. It feels that Sebold was so wrapped up in making a point about life, love, and youth that she failed to be true to the story - but only for a moment.

In the end, the book is well-written, well-crafted, and has had me thinking about it for several days now. I think it is a thousand times better than "The Shack" - which was little more than philosophical junk-food. This book is meat-and-potatoes.

I now must wonder how Peter Jackson will make this into a movie and still stay true to the story - for it does not suit Hollywood well. But fear not - I'll write a review of that in my movie blog sometime soon!

Amazon page: The Lovely Bones

The Lost Symbol

The Author: Dan Brown

Publisher: Doubleday 2009

Length: 509

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Review: If you didn't already know this - "The Lost Symbol" is the long awaited sequel to "The DaVinci Code" which was itself a sequel to "Angels & Demons." If you didn't know this - then you have likely been living in a cave. On Mars. With your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears.

Okay — I suppose the media push was not that pervasive. Nevertheless, Dan Brown and the publishers spared no expense to alert the media and the readers that this book was finally, finally, ready to be released.

To that end - my review of this book can be summed up as thus: if you've read Angels & Demons or The Davinci Code (and especially if you've read both of them), you'll say, "Haven't I already read this book? Twice in fact?"

The story opens with the protaganist, Robert Langdon, in Washington D.C. to deliver a lecture on the Masons. Instead, he becomes embroiled in a race against time to save the life of an old friend whose hand has been severed and tattooed as the first of many clues to uncovering and revealing ancient and long-kept secrets of Freemasonry.

Brown does a nice job of shifting the setting of the story away from Europe this time and using the vast history of the nation's capitol to tell the story. Nevertheless, the story is formulaic and borders on predictability. The cast of characters includes a female counterpart to Langdon, Katherine Solomon, who has spent her life studying the field on Noetic science and has evidence that "thoughts have mass" and can physically affect the world around us. However, she seems a bit too much of an obligatory Sophie/Vittoria clone. The main antagonist is "the tattooed man" - who is very much of a Hassasin/Albino Monk clone. Indeed, this book feels so much like the first two it seems as though Brown simply went to his computer, brought up the text of his last two novels, pressed "Save As..." and changed the names, places, and organizations - but left everything else in place.

Additionally, the book feels although every last fact and tidbit of research that Dan Brown unearthed during his research on the book was shoehorned into the book - whether it fit or not. The dialog that Brown creates to allow for this is stilted and forced and written in such a way that the readers most likely reaction is "Come on...no one talks like that."

Throughout the novel, characters could be in throws of mortal danger - yet attempting wry, but droll humor. They delivery homilies and screeds aplenty about the history of a particular artifact - but at the most inopportune times and locations. Moreover, none of the characters ever slowly figure things out. It comes to them each and every time in flashes of lighting and bolts of insight and they are amazed each time at what they've discovered. Each. And. Every. Time.

However, my biggest critcism of the book is in what Brown sets up as the secret that is hidden and why it is hidden. In the DaVinci Code - you could understand why the church might want to keep "that" secret under wraps (read the book if you don't know the hook). However, despite all the forebodings and dire predictions about the "secret" of the Freemasons - it simply isn't remotely plausible for anything close to the consequences that are warned. About half-way through the book I realized that it was playing out like a novelization of the tv show "24." Only, on the show - there is usually a payoff at the end and believable ramifications.

Now - the book isn't a total train wreck. As always, Dan Brown does a phenomenal job of doing his homework and laying out Washington D.C.'s rich history and subtext. There are lots of "Wow, I didn't know that moments in the book" and the expected treat of crytic messages and puzzles do not disappoint.

Yet, despite all this, Brown does a tremendous disservice to the reader by (for the first time) engaging in a little literary dishonesty. While I don't want to reveal a major plot point if you haven't read the book and still plan to - I'll leave it say that once you throw your hat over the wall on a plot point - it's no fair going back and changing the story later. 'Nuff said...

All in all - the book was interesting enough to keep me going. However, at the end, I felt like I had just eaten a whole plate of brownies that weren't all that good in the first place. It wasn't really worth it and it wasn't all that good anyhow.

I suppose there will be another incantation of Robert in a few years and more symbols to interpret, secret organizations to be explained, and relics to be chased after. My greatest hope is that any new characters will not be one-dimensional caricatures and that Brown might actually expand on Robert Langdon and let us know something new about his psyche other than the trite Mickey Mouse watch and claustraphobia attacks. Time will tell.

Amazon page: The Lost Symbol

"The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World"

The Author: A.J. Jacobs

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004

Length: 369 pages

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

My Review: This book was handed to me by my Dad's partner, Roddy, who read and enjoyed it and thought that I would enjoy it equally. It sat on my shelf and it was suppose to be next in line after I finished "The Amber Spyglass." However, I just wasn't up for more Sci-Fi and, after reading the Introduction and being intriguied, I moved its order ahead.

The premise is thus: The true story of a man who works as an editor at Esquire magazine decides to attempt to read the entirety of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. No easy tasks as the EB (to which it is referred) clocks in at a hefty 33,000 pages. The immediate question of "why?!?!" he choose to do this is never made quite clear - however, I think that stems mostly from his own reluctance to address why he is doing this. He talks at length throughout the book about how he often aspires to "outdo" his Dad, who is no academic slouch himself. He also recalls the halcyon days of his youth when he aspired to be the smartest person on earth. But mostly, I think the reason he attempts this feat is the same logic that drives men to hike the Appalachian Trail or climb the proverbial mountain: because it is there.

The book lays out like a mini-EB. Offering his thoughts on the various topics he's reading and his inner monologue about the apparent insanity of his quest. Present throughout the book is his long-suffering wife, Julie, who supports him in this endeavor, but seems to be a bit of a caricature of herself. The bulk of the writing about the life of A.J. and Julie surrounds their desperate attempt to get pregnant. Sometimes this works as a literary device - but often it simply sounds like whining.

It is clear from his writing - and Jacobs is openly frank about it, it seems - that he is in constant search of approval from his peers, friends and family for his quest - and he rarely achieves it. I found it odd that he would continue to write (read: harp) about how many people don't share his vision - almost to the point whining.

What is more of an obstruction to enjoying the book is that I found it increasingly harder to empathize with Jacobs. While his own perspective is that he's a humble, average guy whose driven to complete an arduous, seemingly impossible task - it becomes more clear that this isn't quite the case. Indeed, in the book he describes his many interviews with celebrities for Esquire, his vacations to Italy and a spur-of-the-moment dash to Seattle from New York, his apartment in Manhattan, his numerous relatives of wealth and privilege, his own childhood in a private school, and moreover - the lengths to which he and his wife are able to go in order to try and get pregnant. Many people would love to have these problems, least of all to have the ability to curl up on the couch each night and read anything they like. My heart really bled for him. The, the coup-de-gras was his admission that he really didn't read the whole EB. He confessed that he would often open to a page and just let his eyes go fuzzy and try to "soak in" the information on the page. Hmmm...not sure how that qualifies, but I digress.

One literary tool he employs makes the book more enjoyable than it otherwise might have been. It reads much like a mini-EB as the book comprises several vignettes and "chunks" of information.It often isn't clear exactly how what he writes under any given heading is relevant - but there is always a hook that connects them at some point. Reading through the book in this manner is probably similar to how Jacobs read the EB: "Well - I just finished the 'H' section. Let's dive headfirst into 'I' now."

Jacobs is a good writer and that is made very clear throughout the book. I suspect I would be lost half the time in the EB - but I never lost the flow of this book. From time to time it feels that he tries a bit too hard to be clever and adroit - but it can be overlooked. I'm a big fan of Bill Bryson, and his wit and sense of self-deprecating humor is simliar.

All in all, the book is a fun read - even if I did roll my eyes a few times. It's easy to pick up and put down, even if there's lots of time between sessions.

Amazon page: The Know-It-All

"Three Cups of Tea"

The Authors: Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

Publisher: Penguin (Non-classics), 2007

Length: 368 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Review: At the outset, this is the type of book that you're always being told, "You've got to read this book..." and you fully intend to - but hesitate because you have a hunch that it's going to be preachy or it'll try to make you feel guilty about being a Westerner. To that end, (1) you've got to read this book and (2) it's fairly guilt-free.

The story begins by telling of how Greg Mortenson found himself lost in the mountains among K2. He half-wandered, half-staggered his way into a small village where he was cared for, feed, and admired for his abilities as a climber and as a medical professional (Mortenson worked as nurse, but was called "Dr. Greg" by those who came to know him). He saw first-hand the abject poverty of that defines the lives of those who live in the region and that much of it stems from the lack of education - especially for girls. He makes a pact with those who befriended him to return someday and build a school.

The book transitions back to the US where Mortenson struggles with the difficulties of trying to be true to his word and also find his "purpose" in life and in love. The book does tend to overplay the notion of Mortenson's altruism and nobility, almost to the point of portraying him as a martyr (he sleeps on the floor, works graveyard shifts at the hospital, rebuffs the petty ex-girlfriend who returns to him).

Nevertheless, the story remains intriguing throughout as he returns to Pakistan and surrounding areas and deals with bureaucracy and graft, makes friends and enemies (many in the US as well), and re-examines his conception of the Muslim faith and the United State's "War on Terror."

The book does a fairly good job of offering fair criticism of how Mortenson created, funds, and operates the Central Asia Institute - the organization he helped found to build the schools throughout Pakistan and other areas.

One reason why I like this book and admire Mortenson, is because he never tried to debate the tenets of Islam, condem or condone Americans, nor attempt to "westernize" the people whom he was trying to help. Even the education that he fought to bring them was premeditated to ensure that it was consistent with the cultures and traditions of the region.

My one persistent criticism is that the story tends to lose the reader if he or she doesn't already have a good geographic understanding of Central Asia. Mortensen goes to and from so many villages, cities, and regions - all with unfamiliar names - that a reader can quickly lose track of where he went and what he did there. However, it's not critical that a reader understand all that in order to follow the larger narrative of the book: the story of how one man recognized that help was needed by the poorest of the poor and devoted his life to making their struggles his struggles and bringing their story to the Western world.

While Mortenson has done remarkable work, even he would recognize that more needs to be done and by more people than just him - and I wish there could have been some information in the book about what others can do - aside from giving money to his organization (which he does not ask for, to his credit).

While it isn't a book that may transform your life - it is a great book about the misunderstanding of one of the world's great religions and about how one person can truly make a difference in the world.

Amazon page: Three Cups of Tea