Readings: The Girl Who Played With Fire

One thing I love about vacation time, is that I get time to finally read books again! I'm raiding my Mom's bookshelf and Kindle and it's fabulous. Between my plane ride home and some pre-dinner reading, I was able to finally finish the 2nd book to Steig Larson's series. I found the first one a bit hard to get through, but his second book left me pleasantly surprised.

What: The Girl Who Played With Fire
By: Steig Larson
My thoughts: I'm not normally one for mystery (or violent) books, but with everyone talking about this series, I've been giving it a try. The first book didnt live up to the hype; I read it months ago. With all the excitement over both the books and the upcoming movies (and the fact that I had already paid for the book!) I started The Girl Who Played With Fire last week. First thought: Wow. What an intense, violent, fast paced book.

There were so many twists and turns throughout the novel that left me second guessing what would happen next, trying to solve the murder mystery and figuring out all the characters connected to one another. The character Lisabeth Salander is so fascinating, Larson gave her so much depth and mysteriousness that you never quite have her figured out but you're invested in her character still. I loved that. The book ended at such a suspenseful moment that I immediately picked up my Mom's Kindle to start reading the third!

I will forewarn, the book is extremely violent; and at times graphic. I for one will NOT be seeing the movies, because I don't think I can handle that.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. If you didnt like the first one, I'd give the 2nd a shot. I'm already eager to read what happens to Lisabeth and Blomkvist.
What's next: The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larson and Decision Points - George Bush (I love political books regardless of political parties involved).

What are you reading? Have you read the Stieg Larson books? Did they live up to your expectations?