“Girl who played with fire” and “Girl who kicked the hornets nest” reviews

After Salander comes back from her extended vacation rested and with a new mature look (including some implants) she comes back to find her newly appointed guardian up to crap again and while taking care of it ends up a fugitive, accused of murdering three people.

“Who played with fire” deals withthe manhunt for the “psyco lesbian satanic killer” as the media dubs her as well as her past (particularly her father, a defected soviet spy) and “kicked the hornets nest” deals with the aftermath of her arrest, and the trial.

Blomkvist again is in both using his talents in investigative journalism to find the truth behind the murders.

I LOVED this series I liked the story line in the last two books better than the first, as it brings to light a lot about lisbeths character (which was what interested me the most anyways). I can’t wait to see the 2nd movie. In the first (which is subtitled) the actress who plays lisbeth nails it perfectly! So sad that the writter is dead and we will never know what happend to lisbeths sister.

Book Review of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

Lisbeth Salander is an outcast, a ward of Sweden in her 20’s. She has an unstable past and is highly underestimated by just about everyone, who assumes she’ s some disturbed punk with piercings and tattoo’s everywhere, But at Milton security she is the best private investigator they have and possibly in Sweden and she knows every little detail of “Halle” Bloomkvist’s life.

Bloomkvist a financial journalist recently convicted of libel. Ruined both financially and in his career, he is about to resign from his position as publisher of millennium magazine, when he is hired by Henrick Vanger to freelance a chronicle about one of the wealthiest and well known families in Sweden. What Henrick is really after is for Bloomkvist to find out the truth about the unsolved disappearance (or as Henrick is convinced, the murder) of his beloved niece, Harriet Vanger, missing at age 16 in 1966. When Bloomkvist reluctantly accepts the assignment he has opened the door to the twisted vanger family tree and discovers that there’s way more to this then a missing girl, and the killer may be closer than he thought.

The first few chapters were (for me at least) an overload of information. If it weren’t for Lisbeth and her interesting story line, I probably would have fallen asleep. Once Bloomkvists starts his research and investigation into the Vanger family, the book picks up the pace.

The publisher’s canned the original Swedish title “Män som hatar kvinnor” or in english “Men Who Hate Women”
(probably for better sales) however it’s swedish title suits it much better. The villains are violent sadist. It took a while for me to get into this book. I did find parts (at least one part) a bit too graphically detailed for me, but it wasn’t horrible. I’ve read way worse (Push by Sapphire comes quickly to mind as far as too graphic) over all I found it to be an interesting entertaining crime mystery.

Book Review of Dennis Lahanes “Shutter Island”

U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels, and his newly assigned Partner, Chuck Aule, arrive at the Boston Harbor’s Shutter Island, home of Ashcliff hospital for the criminally insane. They are investigating the disappearance of Rachel Solando, A war widow, who drown her three children, who seemly vanished from her locked cell.

As they investigate, it becomes apparent to Teddy that something more sinister is going on here, and he intends to figure it out and expose it. A severe Hurricain sweeps onto the island cutting the Marshals off from everything off the island and they start to wonder if they are going to get off the island, still sane… or even alive. Set in the 1950’s during the cold war, when it seems everyone is a bit paranoid, Teddy is no exception, but is it paranoia? How’s the food taste at Ashcliff, Teddy? Need another aspirin for those migraines?

This book had me turning the pages, trying to figure out the puzzle and put all the pieces together. There were enough twists the story that kept me from completely guessing the ending, though it was obvious that no one was who they seemed to be. It still had shock factor.

I really enjoyed reading “Shutter Island”. I thought Dennis Lehane did a fantastic job with the storyline and the character development. A great read.

New slip covers!

This blog is getting boring…lol! I don’t care at least I’m writing something.

I got new slip covers for my crappy couches. To any mom who has kids that don’t know how to sit still on a couch, the slip covers I bought are amazing! I ordered them in January from Surefit and have been waiting for them since they were back ordered. They are a three-piece stretch fabric and so worth the wait. Karli and Bryson tend to do crazy flips on the couches and I’m constantly re-tucking the slip covers. With the three pieces there is nothing to re-tuck. The couch part is separate from both the back and seat cushions, it’s the closest thing to actually re-uphostering the furniture.

I watched Karli lay all over the love seat, rolling, jumping, and sliding. The cover has not moved. AWWWESOME! One more piece of sanity in my life. lol.

Amazon Kindle LOVE <3

My cell phone rang one day, after christmas, with a number I didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“Hi, can I speak to Mrs. Chartier. Please?”
“This is she”
“Hi. This is [my bank] and we are calling to let you know that you won drawing for this week.”

I love when my husband throws my name in prize drawings and tells me nothing about it, so that I embarrass myself over the phone when I think I’m being scammed! lol.

I really did win some money, and now I had to decide if I was going to do the responsible thing and pay some bills or get something I totally don’t need. Go with the luxury of course! I got a Kindle!

I had been eyeing the Kindle for at least a year. I LOVE to read. I was a regular library patron before my library lost its accreditation to its library network due to funding. There really weren’t new books coming into the library. Anything new I wanted to read I was buying, which got expensive. With the Kindle book are around $10 and they download instantly to the Kindle.

I knew I would like it, but I didn’t realize how much I would love it! It’s so convenient, and thin. It fits right in my purse. There’s a ton of free books to download (not fantastic books but entertaining) and free samples of books. I can read a chapter or two of a book and decide if I’m into it before I buy, which is really nice. I can have the Boston Globe delivered straight to it, then switch to the latest best seller without so much as reaching to a side table. I thought that I wouldn’t get used to holding it. Like, how a book disappears in your hands, the kindle does the same. I soon forget I’m reading off of a plastic screen, and it become just as natural as a paperback.

It was awesome in the hospital. I really don’t watch too much TV, and I had a lot of time to pass. I ended up reading three books while I was in there. I just went online with it (whisper net works off a 3G network and it’s free, so I was able to keep up with Facebook, too.) and downloaded from amazon. I finished “The Spark”, “Golden Compass”, and Sarah’s Key”. The nurses all thought it was the coolest thing… I felt spoiled!

I love it. Recommend it to anyone who loves reading as a completely unnecessary cool toy! My only real complaint is that the books are not sharable. My friend has a Kindle, I should be able to send a book to her account for her to borrow, just like I would hand her a paper back I just read. The Nook, a similar electronic reader does allow this, however the books are more expensive and the publisher can choose not to allow the sharing option. I can see where sharing a book would be a problem, as I’m sure people would set up a website to share Kindle accounts to get virtually any book to borrow … bad news for publishers, but isn’t that essentially an electronic library system? That would be really cool! Right now, you have to pretty much buy your books from amazon only, much like you get the majority of your iPod music from iTunes. You can borrow e books from your library (if they have e-books) but I haven’t played around with it enough to figure out how.

To the publishing companies that are afraid of the Kindle and what it would do to their sales: I am reading more and buying more books you have not had the overhead of needing print. Also, just as I did before, If I love a book I buy a physical copy. I see nothing but dollar signs for you. STOP WITHHOLDING BOOKS. I want to buy them! ;D

Spoiled Mommy… COFFEEEEE!!

Did I ever tell you how much I love coffee? Well, I do. I don’t drink a ton of it, about two cups a day. I know I’m strange, but I don’t think that running only 2 cups of water through the coffee maker tastes the same as running a whole pot. It never seems to come out right. It’s either too watery or too strong. I end up pouring, a lot of coffee down my drain.

I got some money for my birthday and spoiled myself completely. I bought a Kuerig! OMG I love that machine! For those who might not know, Kuerigs are coffee makers that you insert a k-cup (a package specifically designed for the Kuerig) press a button, and your coffee is brewed in less than a minute.
It works out great too, because my husband likes bold coffee, and I like a medium blend, sometimes flavored. I have my Nantucket blend in the morning, and my French vanilla decafe at night. I have a new favorite flavor…mountain blueberry. It’s like a warm blueberry muffin in a cup! SO good!

The cups are about .45 a piece and come in packs of 24. We order strait from Green Mountain since it’s cheaper than getting it at the store. Sounds a bit expensive, but if you’re like me and you end up pouring half a pot of coffee down the drain twice a day, than it’s perfect. That and we pretty much never run to DD anymore, which saves mullah.

Can you say spoiled, much? LOL. Oh well, I usually end up spending birthday money on the kids or on bills. This year, I thought a present for myself would be nice.