I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest this afternoon. What a great read - all 600 pages! It is so sad that Stieg Larsson died just shortly after finishing The Millenium Trilogy. The plots are ingenious, and they keep you hanging until the very end. The translations are good, so if you read Swedish, they must be spectacular! There are quirks - like detailed descriptions of every piece of technology the characters touch. The lead, Mikael Blomkvist, doesn't just use his mobile, he picks up his Ericsson T10; he doesn't just open his laptop, he opens his MacBook Pro with OS2, etc. Also, in this third book, the author starts each of the four sections with a little historical piece on Amazons and women warriors through history. I think it's supposed to go with the lead female, Lisbeth Salander, but I don't think it fits at all.
At any rate, head off to your local Costco, or get in line at the library to read these books: first is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, second is The Girl Who Played with Fire and the third is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. They must be read in order! The third one will not be available in North America until May 25, 2010. Yikes! But you could pay the freight and order it online from Foyles or Blackwells, or if you know someone headed for England (or anywhere in Europe) give them the money and have them bring it back for you. Our daughter-in-law Sarah brought me mine in October. Thank you, Sarah!
I am sad to be done with this, but I know I will read this trilogy again some time.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Wednesday Book (almost)
I am almost done with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'll write about it when I've reached the end. I'll be sorry to do it, as there will be no more. Sigh. This Millenium series is really good!
We're supposed to get a lot of snow on Friday - we'll see how it goes. What came last week has stayed around, and the nights are colder. Seems like Winter is really here.
Stay tuned!
We're supposed to get a lot of snow on Friday - we'll see how it goes. What came last week has stayed around, and the nights are colder. Seems like Winter is really here.
Stay tuned!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Wednesday Book (4, or really 5)
Well, I didn't get anything written yesterday as I thought. The hours just roll on and then the day is over. (Wasn't that profound?) But yesterday was my birthday, and a lovely one it was. Lots of fun. The tradition at Holden is that you can have Happy Birthday sung to you in any manner you choose. I thought first of doing sheep - baa baa baa baa baa baa, baa baa baa baa baa baa, and so on - but then I thought, "Why not the whole barnyard?" It was hilarious!
The last Wednesday book I wrote was on October 14! I finally finished Cathedral of the Sea which was pretty good for one of those long, historical saga things. If you want to know more about 14th century Barcelona, you'll enjoy it.
The program in October here was on pilgrimage. One book we read in the community was The Ramsay Scallop by Frances Temple. It's another book in a historical setting, the turn of the 14th century in England, France, Spain. It's about two young people who are engaged, and don't like each other much. So their village priest sends them on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It's kind of a Canterbury Tales book as they pick up other pilgrims along the way, and a good coming-of-age tale. It's written for young adults, but is a good read for adults as well.
In the middle I read Olive Kitteridge, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout. I love her writing, and especially liked Abide with Me. But Olive Kitteridge is truly outstanding. I wrote in an email to Bev Christensen, I think, that reading this is like slowly sipping fabulous soup. Every sentence is to relished and enjoyed. Lynn Krog gave me this one from the Faith Women's Book Group, and she did it particularly because it's a novel built from a series of short stories, and she knows I dislike reading short stories! But this is different from the random story. It's beautifully connected throughout the book, and Olive grows on you throughout. It is one of the best books about hope I have read for a long time. Get this book and read it! And, thank you, Lynn!
I'm reading two books right now. One is Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker, another Women's Book Group gift, this one from Kristin Johnson. Kristin loves western writers, so I knew it would be good and recommended it for a Village book discussion even before I read it. (Olive Kitteridge will be coming up one week as well.) It's about a young woman in Montana in the early 1940's. I am enjoying the writing immensely, and others in the Village who are reading it are liking it a lot. I'm looking forward to the discussion on Friday. Thank you, Kristin!
My big treat is the third book in the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It just came out in translation in England on October 1 - won't be here until the first of the year. But daughter-in-law Sarah Murdoch was in England in October and picked on up for me! Thank you, Sarah! It's even better (and, I'm sorry to say, longer) than the first two. This is a great series. If you haven't yet started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don't wait another day.
That's a good book update. Happy reading.
The last Wednesday book I wrote was on October 14! I finally finished Cathedral of the Sea which was pretty good for one of those long, historical saga things. If you want to know more about 14th century Barcelona, you'll enjoy it.
The program in October here was on pilgrimage. One book we read in the community was The Ramsay Scallop by Frances Temple. It's another book in a historical setting, the turn of the 14th century in England, France, Spain. It's about two young people who are engaged, and don't like each other much. So their village priest sends them on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It's kind of a Canterbury Tales book as they pick up other pilgrims along the way, and a good coming-of-age tale. It's written for young adults, but is a good read for adults as well.
In the middle I read Olive Kitteridge, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout. I love her writing, and especially liked Abide with Me. But Olive Kitteridge is truly outstanding. I wrote in an email to Bev Christensen, I think, that reading this is like slowly sipping fabulous soup. Every sentence is to relished and enjoyed. Lynn Krog gave me this one from the Faith Women's Book Group, and she did it particularly because it's a novel built from a series of short stories, and she knows I dislike reading short stories! But this is different from the random story. It's beautifully connected throughout the book, and Olive grows on you throughout. It is one of the best books about hope I have read for a long time. Get this book and read it! And, thank you, Lynn!
I'm reading two books right now. One is Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker, another Women's Book Group gift, this one from Kristin Johnson. Kristin loves western writers, so I knew it would be good and recommended it for a Village book discussion even before I read it. (Olive Kitteridge will be coming up one week as well.) It's about a young woman in Montana in the early 1940's. I am enjoying the writing immensely, and others in the Village who are reading it are liking it a lot. I'm looking forward to the discussion on Friday. Thank you, Kristin!
My big treat is the third book in the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It just came out in translation in England on October 1 - won't be here until the first of the year. But daughter-in-law Sarah Murdoch was in England in October and picked on up for me! Thank you, Sarah! It's even better (and, I'm sorry to say, longer) than the first two. This is a great series. If you haven't yet started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don't wait another day.
That's a good book update. Happy reading.
Monday, November 2, 2009
It's About Time!
No blog since October 14. It's been a wild time here in the mountains. The weather has been various - enough snow for a snow-guesser winner (everyone picks a day for the first "official"snowfall, which is 1"on the ground at the weather station for 24 hours), but then it warmed up and rained and it all went away.
Halloween was great. Here are a some pictures:
We had a nice celebration of All Saints yesterday, with people telling their own saint stories for the sermon. Tonight we did El Dia de los Muertos for Vespers, and people brought mementos for an ofrenda we had in Koinonia. There were really a lot of things. One person mentioned how interesting it was that people carry these things with them even to Holden, where one tends to bring only essentials.
We had a whole slew of guests leave yesterday, and some wonderful staff today. We're down to about 50 people for the next two weeks, so it is very quiet. Should be nice.
I'll write a little bit every day this week, and may get the Old Miner himself to write his own update!
Halloween was great. Here are a some pictures:
We had a nice celebration of All Saints yesterday, with people telling their own saint stories for the sermon. Tonight we did El Dia de los Muertos for Vespers, and people brought mementos for an ofrenda we had in Koinonia. There were really a lot of things. One person mentioned how interesting it was that people carry these things with them even to Holden, where one tends to bring only essentials.
We had a whole slew of guests leave yesterday, and some wonderful staff today. We're down to about 50 people for the next two weeks, so it is very quiet. Should be nice.
I'll write a little bit every day this week, and may get the Old Miner himself to write his own update!
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