#1B1T

I've recently put aside Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (review of the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, coming soon!) to take part in One Book One Twitter, a worldwide book club that is currently reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods. A worldwide book club! What a great idea! I've always found it fun to read books at the same time as other people, and then talk about what we've read (which is why I loved being an English major in college). And anyway, American Gods has been on my to-read list for quite a while now, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to read it. Right now I'm halfway through chapter ten (this week's twitter discussions cover chapters nine through eleven), and I'm liking the book a lot so far.

The basic premise of the novel is this: throughout history, immigrants arriving in America have brought with them their various religious beliefs, and with these beliefs came gods. European gods, African gods, Caribbean gods, you name it. Unfortunately, as the immigrants assimilated, their belief in their traditional gods declined, leaving the diminished deities to fend for themselves. Now a storm is coming: a war between the Old World gods and the new gods of technology and progress. And our hero - an ex-con by the name of Shadow - is caught in the middle of it. 

Here's the discussion schedule, in case you would like to participate (the twitter hash-tag is #1B1T):

Week 4 : May 26-June 1
Discuss Chapters 9, 10, & 11

Week 5 : June 2-8
Discuss Chapters 12, & 13

Week 6 : June 9-15
Discuss Chapters 14, 15, & 16

Week 7 : June 16-22
Discuss Chapters 17, 18, & 19

Week 8 : June 23-30
Discuss Chapter 20 and Postscript

PS - Neil Gaiman is on twitter (@neilhimself) and has been participating in live question and answer sessions about the book. Awesome!

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson

ISBN: 9781847245458 (UK)

Generally I don't read a lot of crime fiction. But once every couple of years I'll pick up mainstream thriller just for a change. When I was working in a book shop last Christmas, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy caught my eye. Firstly because the titles sounded strange to me: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. When I looked into the books, I learned that they were translated from Swedish, and that the author had died unexpectedly shortly after submitting the finished manuscripts of all three novels to his publisher in 2004. This, along with the fact that the books were enormously popular, intrigued me enough to want to read them.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist from Stockholm who has just been convicted of libel for an exposé he authored about crooked captain of industry Hans-Erik Wennerström. Discredited and depressed, Blomkvist is about to step down from his position at Millennium, a magazine he co-founded, when he is contacted by aging industrialist Henrik Vanger. Vanger offers him a job in the secluded island town of Hedestad, writing a chronicle about the Vanger dynasty, and secretly investigating the 1966 murder of Henrik's teenage niece, Harriet.

Enter the girl with the dragon tattoo: Lisbeth Salander. She is 24, has no academic qualifications (though plenty of tattoos), and barely possesses the social skills to function in society. She also has a photographic memory and is the best researcher at Milton Security. Not to mention she's an elite hacker and can break into almost any network in the world. 

When Salander and Blomkvist are thrown together in the investigation of Harriet's disappearance, they find that the case isn't as cold as it first appeared to be. In fact, someone in the extensive Vanger clan is trying to foil their investigation, and that person happens to be a sadistic murderer.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was the simple, straightforward narrative style. It's written in short chunks, with the focus switching back and forth between characters, mainly Salander and Blomkvist. The attention to detail is sometimes so minute that it's amusing. Everything is identified according to brand name, and the specs of each computer are thoroughly related, from the size of the hard drive to the width of the screen. I was once told in creative writing class not to identify items by brand name. However, in this book, with Larsson's precise narrative style, it seems to work perfectly.

Another thing I liked: unlike some of the other crime novels that I've read, this book has strong, deep characters. The two main characters are seriously flawed, but that makes them all the more sympathetic. Salander especially comes across as a sympathetic character. She is tough and super intelligent, so she can take care of herself (using violence when necessary), but her social problems make her isolated, and an easy target for those in positions of authority. It's not made clear what Salander's disability is - she refuses to cooperate with any attempts to diagnose her - but Blomkvist speculates that it may be Asperger's Syndrome. I think that Larsson using an autistic character not only as a main character, but also as the story's heroine, is fantastic.

There were only two things I didn't like in the novel. One was a description of a rape, which I found disturbing. The other was an animal coming to harm, which I hate under any circumstances. Overall though, despite these two things, I liked the book. It's fast-paced, thrilling, and has the right amount of suspense to keep the reader hooked until the very end. If you're looking for a good summer vacation book, this could very well be it. 

Online Writing Resources

Over the years I've collected a few good grammar books, like The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage, and Strunk and White's classic The Elements of Style. But the source I find myself checking most often in my everyday writing life is Paul Brians' simple website, Common Errors in English Usage. What I like about this site is that it lists common errors alphabetically, making it easy to scroll through and find what you need quickly, whether it's checking the spelling of "mother lode" or looking up the difference between "discreet" and "discrete."

Another good online resource is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab, which has sections on grammar, punctuation, and academic writing. I use this one frequently as supplemental reading for my grammar class.

So, what's your favorite grammar/writing resource?