Top Ten Tuesday: Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is  Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today (These could be authors who have passed away or retired/are taking a long hiatus from writing. You could also spin this and share authors who have switched to a genre you’re not interested in.) (submitted by Rebecca @ Top100Books)

When I  checked I realise that we did this topic a couple of years ago. Most of the names are the same (although I chose different book covers to share) but I did change a couple of them! For the most part I have chosen authors who have passed away, except for the last two!

I did have another author in my list and it was only when I went to Fantastic Fiction to check that I realised that she has actually had about 5 books out in the last few years. Whoops!

Anyway, here's my list.

Diana Norman/Ariana Franklin - I loved the Mistress of the Art of Death series which this author published under the name of Ariana Franklin, but I first started reading her books under her name Diana Norman, and I particularly enjoyed her Makepeace Hedley trilogy which started with A Catch of Consequence

Sharon Kay Penman - I love SKP's books and often mention books like The Sunne in Splendour or Here Be Dragons in relation to her. This time though, I am going to use the first of her Justin de Quincy mysteries as my choice. 

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I think it is maybe time for me to reread The Shadow of the Wind. I loved that book so much. 

Susan Vreeland - It appears I have only read three of this author's books, but they definitely left an impact!

Lucinda Riley - When Lucinda Riley passed away before the last book in the Seven Sisters series was released, her son took over the writing. Recently, it's been announced that he has written a new book set in the same world. I am invested enough to want to read the book, but also not sure how I feel about it all!

Terry Pratchett - I do occasionally find myself wondering what Sir Terry would make of the world right now. 

Stieg Larsson - Remember how popular this author's books were back in the early 2000's. Crazy to think that he passed away before the books were published and so successful.

Kerry Greenwood - When this Australian author passed last year I was sad to think that we had no more Phryne Fisher novels to come, even though I still have a lot of the series to read.

Laura Florand - Laura Florand will always appear on these lists for me. No, she hasn't passed away, but she no longer writes. When I went through a reading slump that lasted for years a while ago, she was one of the few authors who I still read! 

Lisa Kleypas - Don't panic. Lisa Kleypas is alive and well. In fact, she probably shouldn't be on this list at all given that she has recently announced that there will be a new book coming out from her soon. It's just that it has been a long 5 years since the last one! This is one of her standalone books which is probably lesser known, but it is also one of my favourites.

Top Ten Tuesday: Buzz-words!

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Buzzwords or Phrases That Make Me Want to Read (or Avoid) a Book (These words or phrases can be in the title, synopsis, marketing materials, reviews, author blurbs, etc. and immediately pique your interest or immediately make you say “NOPE”. Examples include: fae, forbidden romance, morally grey characters, unreliable narrator, found family, magical worlds, love triangle, marriage of convenience, dark academia, stranded, dragons, dual points of view, starting over, etc.)

I am focussing on just one word out of that theme - Buzz!

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - I was very late to the party having only read this book around 18 months ago. (my review)

Go Tell the Bees I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon - I still haven't read this book which is the latest in the Outlander series. Maybe I will one day.

The Enlightenment of Bees by Rachel Linden - I have had this book out from the library a couple of times now. Next time I borrow it I really need to make sure that I actually read it!

All the Bees in the Hollow by Lauren Keegan - I have this second book here to read soon, and then I will go back to this one.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray - I heard Paul Murray speak about this book at Melbourne Writers Festival a couple of years ago.

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia - I did have this on my shelves for a while. I can't remember if I kept it the last time I did a book purge.

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang  - Where there's bees there is often honey! I didn't love this book when I read it at the beginning of last year. (my review)

Lion's Honey by David Grosman - I read this a very long time ago now (my review)

Honey: Recipes From a Beekeeper's Kitchen by Amy Newsome - This was a Jamie Oliver Cook Book Club selection a whie ago

The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsen - A reminder that no everything that buzzes is a bee!

Teaser Tuesday: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

First off, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments on my last post. Thankfully my grandmother is okay. She had surgery on Friday to get a pacemaker, and returned home today. We flew home last night landing just before midnight, so by the time we got home it was close to 1am. It was a struggle at work today!

Anyway, this week my teaser comes from page 267 of the third, and final, book in the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

He could not see anything remarkable, but he did observe that there was a barely visible darker area immediately adjacent to the bullet hole. He wrote a carefully worded and noncommittal comment on her chart:

Radiological examination gives a basis for definitive conclusions but the condition of the patient has deteriorated steadily during the day. It cannot be ruled out that this a minor bleed that is not visible to the images. The patient should be confined to bedrest and kept under strict observation until further notice.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Famous journalist sentenced to prison.
Mikael Blomkvist, editor of Millenium magazine, is found guilty of slandering billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom.

Henrik Vanger, C.E.O. of the powerful Vanger Corporation revives hunt for solution to niece's disappearance.
Harriet Vanger vanished 40 years ago from secluded Hedeby Island.

Lisbeth Salander declared legally incompetent

Computer hacker Lisbeth (code-name "was") loses control of her own affairs. The notoriously delinquent 24-year-old surveillance agent could not be reached for comment.

If you were to ask me what types of books are the hardest to write reviews about, normally I would say it was those books that were just mediocre in that they didn't inspire great enjoyment, but they also were not so terrible that you were tempted to wallbang them. Despite the fact that this book is definitely NOT one of those mediocre books I find myself struggling to decide where to start. The main reason for this is that there is just so much going on in this book.

There are in effect three major strands within this novel. The first is the story of Mikael Blomkvist. He is a investigative journalist and publisher who, as the book opens, finds himself on the wrong side of the law, found guilty of libel against wealth financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Not content with winning his case, Wennerstrom seems determined to destroy the magazine that Blomkvist runs with his best friend and on/off lover Erika Berger. Mikael decides that his best course of action is to make himself scarce to give the magazine the best chance of survival.

Enter wealthy industrialist Henrik Vanger. After conducting his own investigation into Blomkvist, Vanger offers him an unusual opportunity. He wants Mikael to move to the country and live on the island where many of the Vanger family make their homes, and write a family history. The more important task for Mikael is to investigate the disappearance of Vanger's niece Harriet some 40 years prior. This investigation has run into dead ends almost from the beginning and yet on his birthday he receives a gift that can only be from the killer, if there was a killer, seemingly to torment him until the end of his life.

As Mikael investigates it becomes clear that there are many secrets in this powerful family - feuds between family members, fanatical Nazism, abuse, and many other unpleasant secrets. Even Mikael cannot believe what he finds out!

The third major character is Lisbeth, the girl with the dragon tattoo. Lisbeth is a ward of the state due to the fact that she is perceived to be incapable of managing her own affairs. In fact, she has socialisation issues, but is a brilliant hacker who freelances to perform background checks and the like.

As Lisbeth and Mikael come together, events take turns that are difficult to imagine, and in the hands of a lesser writer could become over the top and unbelievable. Luckily for us, Larsson mostly avoids the potential pitfalls in such a dramatic story! That doesn't mean to say that this is a perfect book because it isn't by any means! As you read through the latter pages of the book, there appears to be at least one, if not two, possible natural endings but instead the book carries on for a further 50-100 pages, almost as though the author realised there were too many loose ends to be carried onto into the next book.

Lisbeth is unique. She is someone who skirts on the edges of society and of the law. She is edgy and difficult to those around her with lots of issues that she needs to deal with. Most of the major characters are well defined and there are very few two dimensional characters throughout the book.

Orginally written in Swedish, there are some issues with editing and translation. At one point for example he is talking about a road name where he says it was obviously enough called Stalagatan (or something like that - I've returned the book now so can't check). As someone whose only exposure to Swedish is the product names at Ikea, it was nothing obvious to me, I can tell you!

I noticed on Larsson's website that there is currently a movie being made of this book. For a first book this is an assured, complex, edge of the seat thriller that has so many different themes. Larsson died after handing in the first three books in this series, so his planned series will never be completed. However, I can't wait to read the next books in the series and to enjoy the ride that he was taking me as a reader on for as long as I can!

This book was the winner of the Boeke Prize and Glass Key for the best Nordic crime novel of 2005, and I am therefore choosing this to be one of the books that I have read for the Book Awards Challenge.

In my opinion, these awards are well deserved. I highly recommend this book.





Have you reviewed this book? If so, leave a comment and I will add a link to your review.

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