#0046A The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

*****Some spoilers******
I remember working at Borders and this book coming out in paperback. We had to sell a certain amount of them every week and it was the easiest book to sell. It was already so popular overseas. Men and women alike were drawn to the book. I don't know if it was because of what they heard, or if it was the title or the bright neon yellow cover. I usually don't like reading things just because they are popular, but then I also had a great deal of people recommend it so I dived in.

"Just get through the first part of the book," they told me. "And you will get hooked." Well the first part of it was completely boring, so they were right...to an extent. It did get better for me after the first two chapters. Usually people shy away if the beginning doesn't grip you, but since I've made this goal for myself, I have trudged through several books so far that I just didn't like and I really really really wanted to put down.

After getting through the whole book (and I do mean getting through it) I placed this book in my bookcase all disappointed that I bought it. The book was pretty decent, I do have to say, but the content of the book is what bothered me. Was it just me, or did the main character sleep with ever important woman character in this book? Me being just a small bit feminist found this quite disgusting. It's not like that in real life. I know, I know, books aren't real life and whatever, but sometimes part of the story just doesn't seem real in it's own world. Women and men really shouldn't just go around sleeping with everyone, I mean it's not realistic that someone could get everyone around them.

I'm also a person that when I read a book I become the characters. That's why I hate reading sad books because all the "depressing" and "horrible" stuff happens to me. Watching movies are different for me, I can place myself out of the story mostly because I can see what the director wants me to see, but in books I can choose to make each world the way I want it to be. Frankly, I just can't help putting myself in these characters. I can be someone I'm not for a couple of hours. So, yeah, this book had a lot of rape and bad things throughout the book. I wasn't too happy about that.

For granted, the book did hold my attention and was exciting at times, but there was too much stuff eating at me throughout, so that's the reason why I didn't like it. Although, I can see why it's popular because all of the mystery, and why people like it. I don't judge. I think it's completely okay to disagree. 3 stars

#0045A The Austere Academy - Lemony Snicket

Book #5 of this series. Like I said earlier, I will update about all of them when I'm done. All I can say is that this particular book has made the series better. There are more characters to fall in love with and it makes me want to read the next book unlike the previous four. Not that they other ones are bad.

#0044A He's Just Not That Into You - Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

If anything, this book offended me. I was always told that I should read this, so I gave in. It's not written like a story, for those who thought. I actually read this completely out of order. The chapters are on a different topic each time. A guy isn't into you if he doesn't call you, or he doesn't ask you out, or sleep with you. The message I got was that a guy should do everything and you have no say in the relationship. I know the book says that women are worth all of that, but it's not fun to just sit around and wait on your knight in shining armor. I think that is a load of crap. Women these days are more strong and more aggressive. We want to do things ourselves and if we ask out a guy, it doesn't make the guy any less manly. Just my opinion. And my opinion is I didn't like it. I just don't have anything else to say about it. 2 stars

#0043A Xenocide - Orson Scott Card

Book #3 of the Ender's Game Quartet. Xenocide was not as good as the 1st one or the 2nd one, but it was still very good. Ender is still on the planet Lusitania where humans and pequeninos live together in some sort of peace. Ender has also hidden away the Bugger's Queen on their planet as well so she can repopulate her species. Ender was actually the one who killed off that species of alien many many years ago. On Lusitania, there is a virus, called Descolada, that has infested everything. While it kills humans, it helps the pequeninos enter into their "3rd life". The humans have a short amount of time to figure out how to get rid of the virus without hurting the pequeninos before the Starway Congress gets to Lusitania and kills off everyone.

Of course this book ends where the 4th book begins so after a short while I'll get to Children of the Mind. Since I started this book, I got a new job and I've only been reading during my break so it took more than a month to finish this and it was 400 pages and the font is really really tiny, but I'm not making any excuses or anything ;) The only thing that made this book hard to go through was because there was a lot of dialogue and many time where you read just the thoughts of every character. But Card does a great job shaping characters and you grow to love each and every one. This book goes more in depth with certain people that you didn't hear about much in the other books, but I guess since this is a quartet I'm slowly getting through the entire story. I quite enjoyed it though. 4 stars

#0042A Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane

I started reading this book and right away when I mentioned to people that I was reading it, I got a lot of "oh...you're reading that?" Of course this was just people's reaction because of the movie. I've gotten mixed reviews of the movie, but the book is usually always better. I've only come across one movie that was better than the book (in my opinion). Anyway, I pushed through it and I'm still not sure of what to think.

Many books written by Dennis Lehane have turned into movies. Usually they turn out pretty good, er well, to be honest I have not seen any of those, nor read any of his books before this one. I can honestly say that after reading the book, that I don't really want to see the movie. The book was pretty predictable, enough that I completely figured out the book entirely before I read through half of it. You hear about this particular story that the character is living, or has lived or whatever and then they go back over it at the end, in more detail, and now I probably won't be able to sleep because of all the horribleness of murder and craziness.

Lehane's writing was straight forward and full of profanity and seriously was quite an easy read. I did not have to think too much because it was so predictable. I don't think I was disappointed with the book. It kept my attention the entire time, it was just mediocre I guess is the correct word. 3 stars

#0041A A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

Finally finished this one. I think I was on it for at least a month. I did, however, stop to read something else right while I was in the middle of this one. I just had to. I had an overload of information.

Another non-fiction read for me. I really did love the story part of the book. Bryson and his overweight friend Stephen Katz decide to hike the entire Appalachian Trail which is from Georgia to Maine. They would have to hike 2,100+ miles through many states to reach their goal. When he talked about their hiking, I was completely enthralled with the book. He does some sort of a sense of humor, but not as much as everyone told me. I don't think I laughed at loud once through the book, so I was a bit disappointed. The other half of the book was about historical facts of the AT and other stories of how people came across bears, or died different ways hiking through different parts of the trail. I did find a bit of the book to be boring since most of the book was historical facts, but if anything this book made me want to hike more than I do. I would not ever try to hike the AT, just because I can't lift heavy things without hurting myself.

I followed Bryson quite well so his writing was pretty straight forwards and easy to read. I guess I'm getting more and more picky of what I like when it comes to books, but I'm still open to read all different kinds. Anyway, 3 stars for this one too.

#0040A Furies of Calderon - Jim Butcher

I was half way through one book and had to put it down because I grew tired of it and I was handed this one, so I started it right away. I've heard good reviews of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (which he is known for) and when I looked up his Codex Alera series I got mixed reviews. Since I haven't read any of his books, I could not expect anything with this series and see what I thought about Butcher without any prior knowledge.

I really enjoyed the storyline of Tavi, the only boy of his kind, without a fury (poor kid) and Amara, the girl Cursor. I found myself getting excited to find out that the next chapter was about one of those characters. There were some good fighting scenes and a lot of character development (many had names that started with B). I got to one extremely good chapter, involving Tavi and the Keepers (around chapter 30). Sadly that was the only portion of the book where I couldn't put it down. I guess I'm not into books that deal with politics and war.

I liked the way Butcher used magic in this book and you grow to love certian characters over others. I didn't like that one guy basically died twice and then was brought back to life both times. Even though I liked that particular character, I thought it would have been okay to let one of the main characters die (since this book has 10, and that's probably exaggerating a bit). Just the fact that there is so much going on and nothing terrible happens to anyone is a bit unbelieveable even if it is a fantasy. Butcher also liked to discribe everything completely. He seemed to want you to have no say in what his world is like. That is okay, really. Some authors do not want you "messing up" with how their characters/surroundings look. Audrey Niffenegger is like that as well and I enjoyed her books. And with that, I give it eh, a 2.7-3 stars. I really wished the whole book was more like that one chapter, then it wouldn't have taken me 3 weeks to read this.