The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson

I think I liked this book even better than the first one. I think the pace was more even - well, maybe even isn't the way to describe it. The first book took a while to get going, publishing and high finance are simply not topics that keep me turning pages. But I had been warned about that and the reward for continuing was well worth the effort. This one started paying back from the very beginning. I loved the way he kept "all the evil" hanging until the very end. It isn't often that a writer hands me a total surprise - although friends have told me I should have expected it - the title and all. Oh, well. I loved being surprised. I was, however, annoyed when the ending sequed into the beginning of the third book in the series. Is that a publishing trick to get people to buy the next book? I would have read the next book anyway - and it just seems like a cheap stunt.

At our last book club meeting we spent more time talking about these books than about the actual selection. Those who had read it/them loved them. A big part of our book club meetings is the discussion of "what are you reading" and "should I bother."

Actually, I finished the book a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to return it to my friend, and my other friend said that we couldn't go to lunch again until I finished it, because she didn't want to give anything away! Talk about incentive.

Now, on to my reading queue. I am reading a light-weight story with a supernatural setting recommended by my university friend. That will doubtless be next. Then I do have the next book club book, but the meeting isn't until January (we don't always try to meet during the holidays) and I have the long break to read it. I am also reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - that would be rereading the first book and getting on to the second and third. I have borrowed my friend's boxed set of the books - again with the borrowed books. Actually, I own these books - but before I could read more than the first one, my daughter borrowed them. She occasionally has time to read at work. My books are now making the rounds of the newsroom at our local paper. I rather like the idea that the people who put out the paper I read every day (well, I read it when my husband remembers to give it to me) are readers and like to read some of the same stuff that I do.