The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson

I actually finished this book on the plane home from Los Angeles last week. So derelict at blogging! Okay, so I had heard nothing at all of the Millenium trilogy when the film based on the first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, came out. And since I didn't hear or see much about said film, I probably would never have seen it if we hadn't wanted to go to the Living Room Theater in Portland. That was the most interesting film playing, so we chose it, but we knew nothing going in. We didn't even know it was Swedish! The movie was utterly absorbing and thrilling, and left me wanting more. A few days after our return home from Portland, I whipped into a Book Warehouse and picked up the second book in the series. I proceeded to devour it, mostly during our trip to Los Angeles.

I can't give too much away about the plot, but rest assured that it's just as exciting as Dragon Tattoo. Something that is probably not well known is that the Swedish title for the first book actually translates to Men Who Hate Women. Therefore the line in this book about the title character being "a woman who hates men who hates women" won't have as much meaning. The repeated references to Astrid Lindgren novels didn't have much meaning for me, unfortunately. Sure, I read Pippi Longstocking, but I was a kid. I guess some parts are really just for the Swedish.

The day after I finished this, I ordered The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest from Amazon. I eagerly await reading the further adventures of Lisbeth Salander.