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Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Discussion:
We had an excellent turnout this month to discuss an excellent book. Twenty-one readers attended this month’s discussion of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the majority of the group enjoyed it. Eighteen Page Turners gave the novel a thumbs up vote, two voted thumbs sideways, and one abstained. This bodes well for next year, as we will be reading the second in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, in July.
Though most of the group members thoroughly enjoyed the selection, a few shortcomings were identified. One was the overabundance of coffee and cigarettes. One of the Page Turners remarked that our European counterparts still smoke more than we do, which may account for the frequent tobacco references. A second drawback was the superfluity of content. More than one group member thought the book could have been streamlined, although it was said that the final hundred pages were much easier to get through. This brought up the oscillation of pacing in the book. At some points the story would move very quickly, only to slow down, and then suddenly speed up again, depending on the action. Some of this action struck a chord with a few readers as well, there being a proliferation of sex and violence in the story.
As the voting on the book demonstrates, this month’s readers found a lot to like about the book, in spite of the enumerated shortcomings. Most of these had to do with the characterization, although one group member commented that she enjoyed the translation of the book despite not normally being a fan of translated works. The Page Turners also found the statistics communicated at the beginning of each section of the book interesting. We wondered if those statistics were accurate and decided that since Larsson was a journalist they probably were. Yet, it was the characterization that made the book, the character of Lisbeth in particular. Though the group hated the violence directed towards Salander, they loved how she fought against it. One reader called her punishment of guardian Bjurman “wonderful”. We also discussed the idea of Lisbeth having Asperger’s syndrome. It has been suggested in several reviews and summaries that this was the case. One Page Turner related her experience with Asperger’s and based on that felt confident that Lisbeth exhibited several signs of the syndrome, in addition to many other gifts.
We also commented on the characters of Gottfried and Martin, the father-son homicide team. Readers were surprised that there was not just one murderer spanning a period of fifty years, but two, the latter being initiated into killing by his father. We all agreed that both of these men were pretty sick, and the group members did not judge Harriet too harshly for pushing her father into the lake.
The final character we discussed in-depth was Mikael. Mikael was a strong character, in fact, readers frequently question who really serves as the protagonist of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, him or Lisbeth. Based on the later novels, I would say it is Lisbeth, although the first book does an excellent job of solidifying the two as a team, which provides the basis for their interactions in the later works. One Page Turner commented that she thought Mikael was a little over done in his role as a ladies’ man. Every female in the book seemed to want him, but she doubted he was “that sexy”. She hypothesized that Mikael represented Larsson’s fantasy for himself, the dashing journalist turning heads with every scoop.
We could not end a discussion of this book without talking about Larsson himself. By now almost every reader knows that he had planned to make Millennium into a ten book series, but died after only turning in the first three books. The circumstances surrounding his death are also widely known, Larsson collapsed from a heart attack after running up several flights of stairs at his office while the elevator was out. Due to the delicate nature of some of his journalistic work, some question whether or not there was more to the story. Many readers also know that Larsson had a long-time partner who he lived with but never married. It is rumored that the partner has a fourth or fifth book in the series in her possession but may not release it due to issues with the estate. Whatever the real story is, we were certain that either a fourth or fifth novel would find a huge audience.
As the meeting concluded, we discussed the film versions of Larsson’s books. A few of us had seen one or more of the Swedish versions, and with the library ordering copies of the DVDs many more are sure to view them as well. We await the American version of the first movie with wonder and bated breath.
As usual, flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, were made available. The reading list for 2011 was also revealed. Copies of the list will be available at all upcoming meetings.
Friday, November 12, 2010
September 23, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.
Book: Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson
Discussion:
We had a good turnout at this month’s discussion of Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm. The book received a warm reception as well, with eleven of the thirteen members attending giving the book a thumbs up vote. The remaining two readers voted sideways.
Isaac’s Storm is the third work the Page Turners have read by Larson. We read Devil in the White City in 2004 and Thunderstruck in 2009. The general consensus was that Isaac’s Storm was a good read, but not quite as good as Devil in the White City. The only drawback mentioned was the book’s somewhat choppy flow. However, one Page Turner suggested that this flow mirrored the choppiness of the storm itself and its trajectory.
In addition to the book’s style, we also commented on its characters, Isaac Cline in particular. As the title character, I expected Isaac to play a large role in the book and to be a benevolent character. Instead, he seemed a bit conceited, and Larson pointed out more than once that Isaac exaggerated about the amount of people he warned about the storm and the number of lives he saved. One of the group members remarked that Isaac always appeared concerned over whether he did the right thing by leaving the weather station and going home to his family. With so many people taking refuge in his house, it seemed that he did in fact make the right decision.
We also discussed the resentment between Isaac and his brother Joseph. The book made it sound as if most of the problem was Joseph’s jealousy of Isaac. It was unclear to me whether that jealousy was justified, if Joseph had a case of “sour grapes”, or if his contributions were under-appreciated and disregarded. I actually preferred Joseph over his brother. Whereas Isaac seemed to mention the number of people he saved who were not members of his family fairly frequently, Joseph was the one who grabbed his two nieces and jumped out the window with them as Isaac’s house collapsed.
Many of the group members stated that the book inspired them to do research on the events we read about, which is an admirable goal of any good work of non-fiction. Several readers went online and to print resources to look for pictures of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Some of these Page Turners brought this supplemental material to the meeting with them. One of the items we passed around was a newspaper that contained photographs of the hurricane’s destruction.
I must confess I also did some research after reading the book. I finished my reading near the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Afterward, I wanted to compare the strength of these two hurricanes and a third, 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. According to the National Hurricane Center, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest storm in the United States since 1851, with an estimated 8,000 fatalities. Hurricane Katrina ranks third on this list with 1,500 deaths. I was unable to locate Hurricane Andrew on this list, which cataloged all storms between 1851 and 2006 that caused over twenty-five deaths. The accompanying article did, however, mention Hurricane Andrew as the second costliest hurricane in the United States during that timeframe.
We could not avoid touching on the topic of Hurricane Katrina after reading this book. It seemed as if almost everyone in the group knew someone who was affected by that storm directly or indirectly. We also discussed the government’s involvement during and after the storm. One group member said she hoped many lessons were learned as a result of the levy situation, the events at the Superdome, and general reaction to the storm.
We also discussed tornadoes, since we see those more frequently here in the Garland area. One Page Turner brought up the Jarrell tornado, a powerful F5 cyclone, which hit the Central Texas town in May of 1997, in addition to two F2 tornadoes which touched down in the same area on the same day.
We concluded the meeting by discussing the effect the hurricane had on Galveston. At the turn of the century, Galveston and Houston were vying with each other for recognition as the premiere port city in Texas. After the hurricane, Galveston could no longer compete with Houston and has since never recovered the prestige it once enjoyed. It did, however, gain its famous seawall as a result of the storm of 1900.
As usual, flyers for upcoming programming were distributed at this month’s meeting. Group members also turned in their ballots for voting on selections for next year’s reading list. The list will be revealed next month, at which time we will be discussing Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Discussion:
We had a good turnout at this month’s discussion of Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm. The book received a warm reception as well, with eleven of the thirteen members attending giving the book a thumbs up vote. The remaining two readers voted sideways.
Isaac’s Storm is the third work the Page Turners have read by Larson. We read Devil in the White City in 2004 and Thunderstruck in 2009. The general consensus was that Isaac’s Storm was a good read, but not quite as good as Devil in the White City. The only drawback mentioned was the book’s somewhat choppy flow. However, one Page Turner suggested that this flow mirrored the choppiness of the storm itself and its trajectory.
In addition to the book’s style, we also commented on its characters, Isaac Cline in particular. As the title character, I expected Isaac to play a large role in the book and to be a benevolent character. Instead, he seemed a bit conceited, and Larson pointed out more than once that Isaac exaggerated about the amount of people he warned about the storm and the number of lives he saved. One of the group members remarked that Isaac always appeared concerned over whether he did the right thing by leaving the weather station and going home to his family. With so many people taking refuge in his house, it seemed that he did in fact make the right decision.
We also discussed the resentment between Isaac and his brother Joseph. The book made it sound as if most of the problem was Joseph’s jealousy of Isaac. It was unclear to me whether that jealousy was justified, if Joseph had a case of “sour grapes”, or if his contributions were under-appreciated and disregarded. I actually preferred Joseph over his brother. Whereas Isaac seemed to mention the number of people he saved who were not members of his family fairly frequently, Joseph was the one who grabbed his two nieces and jumped out the window with them as Isaac’s house collapsed.
Many of the group members stated that the book inspired them to do research on the events we read about, which is an admirable goal of any good work of non-fiction. Several readers went online and to print resources to look for pictures of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Some of these Page Turners brought this supplemental material to the meeting with them. One of the items we passed around was a newspaper that contained photographs of the hurricane’s destruction.
I must confess I also did some research after reading the book. I finished my reading near the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Afterward, I wanted to compare the strength of these two hurricanes and a third, 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. According to the National Hurricane Center, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest storm in the United States since 1851, with an estimated 8,000 fatalities. Hurricane Katrina ranks third on this list with 1,500 deaths. I was unable to locate Hurricane Andrew on this list, which cataloged all storms between 1851 and 2006 that caused over twenty-five deaths. The accompanying article did, however, mention Hurricane Andrew as the second costliest hurricane in the United States during that timeframe.
We could not avoid touching on the topic of Hurricane Katrina after reading this book. It seemed as if almost everyone in the group knew someone who was affected by that storm directly or indirectly. We also discussed the government’s involvement during and after the storm. One group member said she hoped many lessons were learned as a result of the levy situation, the events at the Superdome, and general reaction to the storm.
We also discussed tornadoes, since we see those more frequently here in the Garland area. One Page Turner brought up the Jarrell tornado, a powerful F5 cyclone, which hit the Central Texas town in May of 1997, in addition to two F2 tornadoes which touched down in the same area on the same day.
We concluded the meeting by discussing the effect the hurricane had on Galveston. At the turn of the century, Galveston and Houston were vying with each other for recognition as the premiere port city in Texas. After the hurricane, Galveston could no longer compete with Houston and has since never recovered the prestige it once enjoyed. It did, however, gain its famous seawall as a result of the storm of 1900.
As usual, flyers for upcoming programming were distributed at this month’s meeting. Group members also turned in their ballots for voting on selections for next year’s reading list. The list will be revealed next month, at which time we will be discussing Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
August 26, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.
Book: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Discusssion:
This month’s selection, The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, received a very positive response from the group. Of the ten members attending, nine gave the book a thumbs up, and one went sideways.
The main detractors of this novel were the frequent change in viewpoint and the choice language. The story was told alternately from Danny Coughlin, Luther Lawrence, and Babe Ruth’s points of view, and all of these sections sported colorful language, which, considering Danny and Babe’s occupations of policeman and ball player, was not completely surprising.
As usual, the group spent quite a bit of time discussing the book’s characters. In particular we discussed Babe Ruth. Many of us could have taken him or left him. He was not very likeable, but his situation with his baseball career provided an interesting correlation to Danny and the other police officers’ struggles. The description of Ruth’s salary prompted a discussion about the cost of seeing a baseball game. One group member remembered when it cost about ten dollars to take her children to a game and eat hot dogs. This in turn led to many comments on the rise in cost of many things these days, such as movie tickets.
We also talked about some of the members of the Coughlin family, specifically Nora, the housekeeper who marries Danny, and Joe, Danny’s youngest brother. With Nora, we mainly discussed her first marriage in Ireland, the arrival of her husband on the Coughlin family stoop, and her resulting bigamous marriage to Danny. One group member pointed out that it was common for immigrant men to remarry once in the United States, but fairly uncommon for a woman, such as Nora, to do so.
Despite her less than glamorous past, Nora was very good to Joe while she worked in the Coughlin household. The group unanimously expressed their horror concerning his father’s beating of Joe, particularly since it was punishment for saying a word Mr. Coughlin frequently used himself. We discussed how different each of the Coughlin brothers were, Danny and Joe perhaps being the most similar. We could never pin down Joe’s exact age though, which bothered us. Some of us thought he was quite young, maybe eight or ten, whereas others pictured him older, about twelve or fourteen.
In addition to the characters, we also discussed some historical themes in connection with the novel. The first of these themes was corruption in government, which is actually not exclusively historical. We talked about immigration in relation to corruption, the melting pot expression, and the idea of there always being an underdog in the U.S. population, such as the Irish and Italians in The Given Day.
We also discussed diseases, such as the Spanish Influenza outbreak detailed in the book, the Swine Flu, and the recent salmonella scare. One Page Turner did some research on the flu epidemic of 1918 and found that millions were attacked and approximately fifty million were killed by it.
We also mentioned the change in the perception of police officers from workers forced to buy their own uniforms and weapons while being paid an extremely low wage to essential public servants.
We ended the meeting by talking about some of Lehane’s other books, the movies based on them, and the reading list for next year. Flyers for upcoming programming and next month’s selection, Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, were also made available.
Discusssion:
This month’s selection, The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, received a very positive response from the group. Of the ten members attending, nine gave the book a thumbs up, and one went sideways.
The main detractors of this novel were the frequent change in viewpoint and the choice language. The story was told alternately from Danny Coughlin, Luther Lawrence, and Babe Ruth’s points of view, and all of these sections sported colorful language, which, considering Danny and Babe’s occupations of policeman and ball player, was not completely surprising.
As usual, the group spent quite a bit of time discussing the book’s characters. In particular we discussed Babe Ruth. Many of us could have taken him or left him. He was not very likeable, but his situation with his baseball career provided an interesting correlation to Danny and the other police officers’ struggles. The description of Ruth’s salary prompted a discussion about the cost of seeing a baseball game. One group member remembered when it cost about ten dollars to take her children to a game and eat hot dogs. This in turn led to many comments on the rise in cost of many things these days, such as movie tickets.
We also talked about some of the members of the Coughlin family, specifically Nora, the housekeeper who marries Danny, and Joe, Danny’s youngest brother. With Nora, we mainly discussed her first marriage in Ireland, the arrival of her husband on the Coughlin family stoop, and her resulting bigamous marriage to Danny. One group member pointed out that it was common for immigrant men to remarry once in the United States, but fairly uncommon for a woman, such as Nora, to do so.
Despite her less than glamorous past, Nora was very good to Joe while she worked in the Coughlin household. The group unanimously expressed their horror concerning his father’s beating of Joe, particularly since it was punishment for saying a word Mr. Coughlin frequently used himself. We discussed how different each of the Coughlin brothers were, Danny and Joe perhaps being the most similar. We could never pin down Joe’s exact age though, which bothered us. Some of us thought he was quite young, maybe eight or ten, whereas others pictured him older, about twelve or fourteen.
In addition to the characters, we also discussed some historical themes in connection with the novel. The first of these themes was corruption in government, which is actually not exclusively historical. We talked about immigration in relation to corruption, the melting pot expression, and the idea of there always being an underdog in the U.S. population, such as the Irish and Italians in The Given Day.
We also discussed diseases, such as the Spanish Influenza outbreak detailed in the book, the Swine Flu, and the recent salmonella scare. One Page Turner did some research on the flu epidemic of 1918 and found that millions were attacked and approximately fifty million were killed by it.
We also mentioned the change in the perception of police officers from workers forced to buy their own uniforms and weapons while being paid an extremely low wage to essential public servants.
We ended the meeting by talking about some of Lehane’s other books, the movies based on them, and the reading list for next year. Flyers for upcoming programming and next month’s selection, Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, were also made available.
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