Book of the Week: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest

“There is a wealth of legend about fearsome female warriors from ancient Greece. These tales speak of women who were trained in the art of war from childhood–in the use of weapons, and how to cope with physical privation. They lived apart from the men and went to war in their own regiments. The tales tell us that they conquered men on the field of battle,” according to Stieg Larsson in the third of the “Millenium” series.

In Larsson’s third book, “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest,” we connect with Lisbeth Salander as she undergoes brain surgery and rehabilitation immediately following her encounter with Zalachenko, a former Russian spy, and Ronald Niedermann, a German whose physique is no match for anyone he encounters.

All the while, Mikael Blomkvist continues to be a key player in the criminal investigation that occurred in “The Girl Who Played With Fire.” What’s more, strong forces are working against Blomkvist — no one’s safe. Cover ups are alive and well in this book at throughout every level of government.

Larsson has strategically placed strong females characters throughout this novel — Salander, Annika Giannini, Blomkvist’s sister and Salander’s lawyer, and Erika Berger, former editor-in-chief of Millenium — to name a few. The dynamic personalities of these women leads tells a tale of female strength and empowerment as secrets are forced into the light.

While the American film hasn’t been made yet, the Swedish and original version is alive and well. Here’s the trailer:

Once you’ve finished reading this lengthy but oh-so-worth-it novel, you can watch the movie on Netflix streaming.

Enjoy the final Salander-Blomkvist book — Happy reading!

Book of the Week: The Girl Who Played With Fire

“Equations are classified by the highest power (value of the exponent) of their unknowns. If this is one, the equation is of the first degree. If this is two, the equation is of the second degree, and so on. Equations of higher degree than one yield multiple possible values for their unknown quantities. These values are known as roots,” according to Stieg Larsson in the opening pages of “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” the best-selling follow-up novel to “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”

As Lisbeth Salander is wanted in connection with the murders of three people, Nils Bjurman, her guardian, Mia Johansson and Dag Svensson, a scholar and a journalist working with Millenium, Blomkvist is convinced of Salander’s innocence. And as a result, Blomkvist works to put the puzzle pieces together, with the help of Salander who is in hiding, and more and more people connected to Salander come forward. We soon realize that the equation of the murders is much more interconnected than it had first appeared. This equation is of a higher degree and, as Larsson said, it will yield multiple possible values for their unknown quantities.

These murders are bigger than Salander but, in all things politics related, perception is reality.

Larsson’s literary prose blends the point of views of numerous characters with the intricate details of a sex trafficking operation.

Intriguing. Thrilling. Intense. You won’t be able to put “The Girl Who Played With Fire” down.

People magazine described it as “gripping stuff… a nail-biting tale of murder and cover-ups.”

If you start this book, then don’t plan on sleeping. With only 150 pages left, I continuously wonder how I made it through the first book. This one is by far much better (I did love the American-version movie though!).

And as for the movie adaptation of the book, the Swedish version is available on Netflix instant streaming — can’t wait to watch it once I’m finished.

Here’s the Swedish trailer with English subtitles. Enjoy!