The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

There has to be something a little wrong with this author to imagine a story like this. There is a lot of sex and murder that's for sure. But, as crazy as this book is, it's not too bad. This book was a lot better than the first and was an intrigueing story. I can't say that these are the most amazing books I've ever read like a lot of people are saying, but they are interesting. Lisbeth Salander definately makes a lot more sense why she is as she is and by the end of the book you really feel sorry for her life pretty much being ruined by her father and the events that happened later. She still is pretty messed up, but at least you can sympathize with her feelings and distrust for everyone. Mikael Blomvist doesn't play a huge, major role and I honestly didn't really care for him this time. He seemed like a really decent guy the first book, but this time he seems so unable to really love and have a relationship. That's a little disappointing for him just because he messes with so many woman's emotions without realizing it. And then I really don't like Berger. She's very selfish and needs to control her sexual/personal emotions and desires. Who can't control themselves. It is amazing how many crazy sexual fantasies and needs all these characters need. These books are really centered around sex and rape that it is disturbing at times. I know there are people out there like these individuals, but I can say that I don't really care to read about it.

Aphrodite's Kiss by Julie Kenner

I got this book free on my new kindle and decided to try it out since honestly, the last few books I've read have been a little depressing dealing with war, murder, rape, etc... Nice to change it up and read something a little more light-hearted. I would not say this is a favorite or anything, but it was ok to read. Zoe Smith is turning 25 and is a superhero halfling getting ready to turn in her papers to become a Protector. She first has to learn to control her super senses and learn all the simple things of being a superhero such as levitating and flying. Yeah, a little cheesy but it works. She's not suppose to get close to mortals, but of course she falls in love with one and has to figure out how to let him know and whether or not she just wants to become a mortal herself and give up all her memories of the superhero world. And of course, it couldn't be a great story without the bad guy, her cousin, trying to find a powerful artifact that Zoe just so happens to have in order to let his father control the world and enslave mortals. So of course she's going to save the day. Yeah, if you want to read a cheesy, light-hearted book that you don't have to really concentrate on or think about, this is a decent one to read.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This was a kind of crazy book. I started to read it in December when I saw so many people talking about how great this series is. I couldn't finish reading it. I found it so boring. A month later I told myself I would check it out again and force myself to read it since so many people talk about how wonderful they are. I did read it, I wouldn't say it was terribly great or anything I would convince people to read, but it did turn out to be good. The next two books may make the series worth while so I will have to continue to read them at some point. I probably would not let younger children read these books since you have some slightly detailed rape scenes as well as murder and animal sacrafices. Yeah, if you are like me thinking that this is just a murder mystery book, you're in for a surprise. There is business scandals, sex, and murder that are all a big part of learning who the characters are and why they are the way they are.

Mikael is a journalist who is going to jail for libel but hired on to write the Vanger family story. His undercover story for Henrik Vanger is to really find out who murdered his neice 50 years ago. On the side we also have Lisbeth Salander who is a very troubled 25 year old with tattoos and piercings and is a ward of the state. (Just a side note, this does not take place in the US) She is raped by her guardian a couple times before taking matters into her own hands. She is a very resourceful girl. She works for Milton Security that pretty much does investigative work on individuals. So Lisbeth is hired on later by Mikael to help solve this mystery. They had no idea what they were getting into.

SPOILER: Seriously, how messed up is this book to have members of the Vanger family who kidnap, rape, and torture their victims before killing them and especially for a father to rape his own children and teach them how to do these things to eachother and others. It can be a slightly disturbing book. I think I may need a break and find some good, wholesome, fun, lighthearted, reading that does not leave you feeling horrible for the victims and even imagining what it would be like to go through a similar situation. Ugh.

39 Clues: Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Yep, I finally finished this series. That's the one problem with series that have more than 3-4 books, it takes forever to finish the last book because you are either waiting for it to be released or just get tired of reading the same books over and over again. I have to admit that I started out reading this series and really enjoyed it, but by the end I was just reading the books to see how it ends. I didn't mind this book and it was longer than the other books which is nice for a change since I could usually read these in one day. We got to see a lot of what was going on with each person and how they were coping with why they were looking for these clues and who were they doing it for. For most of the kids unfortunately it made their parents look very bad and selfish, but that can be a hard fact of life. Of course Dan and Amy help save the day and are able to sort of bring all the teams together, at least their generation. The older generation has some work to do. Haddix does leave the book with room for a sequel to this series and I am curious to see if they continue on or leave it. If they do continue on, will they have multiple writers for each book in the series again? I was impressed that they were able to continue this story as well as they did with so many people involved. This is a great series for younger children who are just getting into reading. There is one other book coming out, The Black Book of Buried Secrets that will add onto the 39 Clues series that recently came out.

Anne Frank

So I started reading Anne Frank as my next classic literature pick, but I have to admit. I got a quarter of the way through and can't seem to keep reading it. If people actually read this blog they would gasp when I say that this is an incredibly boring book and irritating in the sense that Anne is very full of herself. She is 13 and talks about having to turn boys down and how she is pretty much an expert at reading them and just so irritating to listen to. I know this is her diary and if someone read mine they would probably say the same thing. Yes, it is good so see how a young jewish girl handled living in hiding for years, but there were so many Jews that went through similar situations and what of those that actually endured worse situations and the concentration camps. Yes, I know the story of Anne Frank and how she did die in a camp, but that is just a side note at the end of the book. Sure, it is good for the world to read this story and I will eventually finish reading it bit by bit, but it definately is not at the top of my list to do.

Sword in the Storm by David Gemmell

So after starting to read Anne Frank, I needed to read some fantasy again. I got this book for my husband for Christmas after reading some great reviews on it. This is the first adult fantasy book and so I was afraid it would be very wordy and spend pages describing something that could take one page, you know what I mean. Anyway, I am happy to say that this was indeed a very good book. I enjoyed how it lasted longer that two days to read like many of the pre teen/teen books I read. I'm not afraid to try some other adult literature as well once I finish the Rigante Series. There are four books in this series. For those who are sensitive to sexual scenes, I would say there is a reason that this is an adult book and not for younger kids. There are a few brief sexual scenes that are a little more detailed than younger people need to necessarily read. Otherwise, it is a great story. It is mostly a war book following a young man as he travels and pretty much grows into a war hero and man. He struggles to fight his inner demons and does some pretty horrible stuff when his wife dies, but otherwise he is just a person trying to prepare his people from the oncoming war that will wipe them out if they do not improve their fighting to match these people that he fought alongside for a while. It has a little bit of mystical spirits that grant wishes to people and kill them or if you are lucky like our young hero, they constantly save his life and give him gifts for some purpose that we do not know at the moment. My only guess now is they need him to save their life from the invaders who will likely destroy them if they get control of the land.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

What a terribly sad book. It's hard to think that this book is often read in highschool and has to deal with some hard issues of slavery, loneliness, and working hard to make a living. Lennie and George are the main characters that work from job to job to stay alive. Lennie is mentally challenged and means no harm, but tends to kill animals he handles and hurt people when he gets scared. George tries to take care of Lennie and keep him out of trouble as much as possible. They find themselves working on land and cutting/harvesting barley in order to save up for a piece of land that they can live on. Unfortunately the son of the boss had a lonely wife that tries to get the attention of all the guys. Of course the guys want no trouble and try to stay away from her. Poor Lennie starts talking to her one day and touches her hair, but when she starts to get upset, Lennie gets scared and ends up killing her. What I can't believe is that George actually kills Lennie in order to save him from himself and others who are trying to hurt him for killing the lady. I had a hard time reading this book just because of the language and how all the working hands talk. It is realistic speach, but does get a little old after a while and is a little hard to keep up with at times.

Soldier X by Don Wulffson

This was another book that my husband read while student teaching. It is a historical fiction book written by experiences from two germans that fought during WWII. Erik is our main character that goes through these experiences. He is drafted into the war when he is 15 under the impression that he is going to be an intrepreter or spy since he knows Russian. This is because his mother and grandparents are Russian and father is German. Of course no one knows this otherwise his family would most likely be killed. Unfortunately for Erik, he's sent to the Russian front and finds himself behind enemy lines and in order to stay alive he switches to a Russia uniform and becomes a medical orderly for the Russians. It is nice to be able to read a book about the experiences that the Germans had to go through instead of always hearing it from an American view. The book even starts with Erik saying that he's a history teacher in the US and each year he has to tell his students that he lost his arm in WWII. He never corrects the students that he fought for Germany, not the US. I never even thought about Germans who immigrated to the US and how they had to deal with criticism from Americans, especially ones who fought for Germany. I know people who didn't even fight had a hard time, but imagine what it is like for those who were forced to fight or die.

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

So I have decided to take a break from fantasy and romance novels for a while. My brain seems to have absorbed too much of that lately that I find I no longer really enjoy what I read. It all blurs together. So to get myself out of this anti-reading block, I want to move into more school literature and even historical books. There are so many books out there that I missed out on in highschool that I would like to read them.

So the first one was Touching Spirit Bear. My husband read this with his 7th or 8th grade English class and really enjoyed it. Pretty much you follow a young, troubled, 15-year-old on the road to jail. After beating a kid up senseless, causing mental and physical trauma, Cole is in a detention center getting ready to go to trial as an adult. An officer takes special interest in him and gets him to apply for Native American Circle Justice, where he is banished on year on a secluded island in Alaska. Within the first couple days Cole is mauled by a bear and almost dies, almost losing his chance to not go to jail. Luckily he has had a change of heart and is allowed to go back to the island to face his own fears and learn how to help the kid he beat up.

This is definately a good book for students to read since they have an opportunity to understand others who are in similar situations as well as those who are victims of these people. You see how anger, mistrust, and others, especially family, can affect someone. I found it frustrating at first to see how dumb and selfish Cole could be. The first day he's on the island, he burns the shelter built for him and all his provisions because he is angry at everyone. Come on, you have to last a year and you burn everything that is given to you. It was then sad to see after Cole is mauled that they do not trust him and immediately want to send him to jail with no second opportunity. It is hard to trust someone who has manipulated the system and lied for so long. Kind of like the boy who cried wolf story. We could see the Cole had changed and this time really wanted redemption, but no one else could see that. There is so much mistrust and even anger, and prejudice in everything that goes on. There are a few people in the cirlce that do not know Cole, but represent the community and they immediately start off by saying he needs to go to jail in order to protect society and their own children. Fear causes a lot of damage.