Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A lot of people have been talking about this book recently, even more so with the release of the movie. I stubbornly, as always, insisted on reading the book before I saw the (english version) of the movie. I have to say it wasn't what I thought it would be.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

With all the hype surrounding this book, I had suspected it would be a serial-killer murder mystery. And to some extent, it was: but the suspenseful plot existed within an exhaustive political narration. As a woman, the use of guardians for "incompetent" females drove me crazy, as well as the percentage of woman that report being sexually assaulted every year in that country. Staggering. I also grew to really love the girl with the dragon tattoo herself, Lisbeth. After all that has happened to her, she doesn't see herself as a victim. Instead, she refuses to accept any fate that she doesn't chose: which is great to read about and very empowering.

Like Steven King's novels, the book took a great deal of time to get into. The author writes extremely meticulously, and it can be hard to get used to the Swedish dialogue and names for people and places. It picked up for me briefly about 2/3 through, where I couldn't put it down through the climax. However, after that, the book continued its resolution for far too long. If you are a "to-the-point" reader, this book may not be for you.

That being said, I saw the movie right after I read the book: and I liked it. But I'm not sure if I liked the movie because I read the book - I knew who all the characters were, and liked knowing what was going to happen. I felt somewhat disappointed with the portrayal of the movie: I felt as though they really could have taken elements in the book a lot further visually. But the movie was very talk-y, didn't have a lot of action / movement, and had long, drawn-out scenes. Or scenes that interrupted other scenes like the book did. It was exactly as boring as the book was. I will say that Lisbeth Salander was nailed perfectly with great casting.

Bottom Line: Well thought out, cool plot - but requires a lot of patience. Great time-killing book, or for people who are into politics.

Book Review: Girls in White Dresses

I just finished this great book by Jennifer Close, "Girls In White Dresses", read on my very own Kindle-like Nook from Barnes and Noble. It's dangerous, because I've gone through 2 books in less than two weeks.

Anyway, I read about this book in the Metro a while back, and finally bought it this month. As I was reading about girls my age going through the same things I'm going through, I found myself bookmarking like crazy and saying "YES!" at every page.

"One year after graduating, they were finally on their own. It was almost like college, except they had to get up and go to work every morning. They tried (for the sake of being grown-ups) not to go out every night. 

The weather made them restless and irritable while they waited for something to start. They all knew they ought to feel different in their new lives, but they felt the same and it put them on edge...they fidgeted, asking each other 'what next?'" - Girls In White Dresses, page 26

Girls in White Dresses, Jennifer Close

This book, Ms. Close's first novel, takes you on a tour of what it's like to be a girl in her 20's, fresh out of college. She's not quite sure where to go or what to do with this next phase of her life, so she's anxiously taking a job "just for now" and dating to find "The One" so she can get married. And I'll be honest, reading about these intelligent women dating these idiots looking for the right guy for them actually stirred up a lot for me personally.

One guy, obsessed with politics, goes on the road for weeks then months at a time and eventually leaves his girlfiend. Between another self-absorbed stoner who works 4 hours a day, the lawyer who hooks up with the fresh law school graduate then tells her he's engaged when she can't stop thinking of him, and the ladies' man bartender who dates one of the women he works with as a waitress then dumps her after a few days, I kept remembering the tools of boyfrields past: knowing that the reason that women put up with this unacceptable male behavior in their 20's is that they are lonely and always believe that if they just wait it out, it will pay off.

Positively, I found myself to relating to experiences of many of the girls, and especially loved the bridezilla chapter, where their friend Kristi had 6 bridal showers that all the girls had to schlep to. I started losing interest in the last few chapters where the married girls started with the baby-making, because I'm just not in an I-want-baby-place right now. If you are looking for something fresh and relateable, especially when you're drowning in family-centered novels (i.e., Jodi Picoult), this is a great read for you.

Bottom Line: Awesome, go read it and feel better about your LIFE in this WORLD.

Book Review: Water for Elephants

One word: wow.

"Water for Elephants" had everything that I love about books inside its pages. It was dynamic, had sympathetic characters, murder, death, life, and countless other controversial subjects. The kicker? It was about the circus!

This was one of the books that I've had my eye on for a while, and just recently purchased through half.com. (If you're an avid book reader or just need the text for school, go to Half.com. It's a division of eBay that has books for mad cheap, and you just pay for shipping. I've gotten books there from $0.75-$6.00) I started it late last week, and couldn't put it down. It's a book that makes your commute fly by - so much so that you have to jolt yourself out of it so you don't miss your stop.

I feel as though the circus has a relatively unanimous appeal to people - maybe it's the animals, or the idea of running away with the circus. I almost can't literally tell you anything about the plot without ruining the whole story for you. The author, Sara Gruen, does a marvelous job weaving details and jumping from past to present. I love all of the stories of the main elephant "character", (which she later reveals most were based on fact from 1900's circus elephants!) and she had great love-to-hate characters themselves. The ending, which was totally unexpected, left me with such a feel-good feeling as well!

One of the most moving aspects of the book was when she was depicting the life of the main character as an old man in first person. It's a topic that I don't feel many people are comfortable with, especially when it comes to how we treat and respect the elderly. He is alone, living in a nursing home, with five children that come to visit him once a week - and what was fascinating about it was the mental process that he was going through. Recalling the past so lucidly, then forgetting his favorite nurse. I've only encountered this kind of mental depiction in "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova, another great read on the mind of a rapidly deteriorating Alzheimer's patient.

If you have not read this book, PLEASE do so before you go see the movie! I haven't seen it yet, but I enjoyed the book so much that I can only imagine you will too. Then you can go see the movie with that Twilight dude.

Book Review: Songs of the Humpback Whale

I really liked this Picoult book better than my last one, Picture Perfect. While she has a knack for writing annoying characters, the supporting characters and fascinating plot kept the book moving for me. This time, my character pain was the main one - Jane Jones. She is a whiny wife of a prominent humpback whale scientist who takes her daughter and up and leaves him one day after a fight. The course of the book is Jane's brother, Joley, charting them across the country to get to him in Massachusetts: which was really cool, because living here it was cool to see references to Massachusetts people.

The storyline also bounced back and forth, using her famous "gasp" moment by starting at the end when you are totally confused and not yet invested in the characters. Then, it takes you through the events leading up to it, and you are more and more horrified knowing what is about to happen, but not knowing how or when. It was a really cool concept.

I liked the notion of driving cross country, (it even got me thinking about that elusive huge road trip that I'd love to take one day!) and the plot was filled with interesting obstacles and scenarios. For instance, her daughter, Rebecca, was in a plane crash that she doesn't remember when she was two: they visit the site of the crash. They also visit the Grand Canyon, and Salt Lake City - all places I want to visit one day. Okay, so the Grand Canyon's a bit tourist-trappy, but my best friend living in SLC and it's one of those places that I think would be cool to visit! So I guess you could say I was kind of living vicariously through these characters on their trip.

So overall, I wasn't happy with the ending and Jane drove me crazy with her immaturity and whininess, although she did have some poignant moments for me, revealed later in the book. One of her quotes was how she lives such a mundane life with a husband that ignores her, that she says that if she could just have 5 minutes of something amazing, she would go back and serve the rest of her life in that horrible day-to-day. I thought that his spoke a lot about how if she just had something to dream about, she would not be so sad everyday. I think I feel that way sometimes, too.

Bottom Line: wouldn't run out and buy it, but good for 1.5 hour commutes, which I'm currently dealing with in my life and going through books like I go through gum. Almost 4 stars.

Book Review - Picture Perfect

I really do hate to say it, but I guess this makes strike two for Jodi Picoult for me. The topic for this book, Picture Perfect, was a great controversial topic that Picoult always pulls off so well. However, I found the characters once again to be annoying and stupid, and I had little sympathy for them by the book's conclusion.

The book is about a movie star, Alex Rivers, who falls in love with an anthropologist named Cassie. Their courtship and romance were a bit of a stretch for me personally, but nonetheless I sincerely liked Cassie's intelligent and passionate character at the beginning of the story. Then she met and married Alex in a rushed wedding that started the downward spiral for me - especially when I didn't feel as though there was enough of a relationship to base a marriage on in the first place.

That's when the controversy starts: when dreamy Alex Rivers reveals that he is a ruthless wife-beater. From the first time this happened, I wanted to slam the book down over and over - where was this intelligent woman that had married this idiot? Why was she constantly making excuses for him, and taking beatings that she eventually thought she deserved? You can tell that Picoult researched the mind of a battered woman to come up with Cassie's thoughts, and I suppose I was supposed to gain some lesson from how battered women feel, but it just made me pissed.

In terms of the writing style itself, not a page-turner. There's a random Indian involved with the plot line that is kind of weird, so there's some Indian culture and stories thrown in that I didn't quite get the relevance. And, I was kind of hoping that the Indians could talk some sense into her after she leaves her husband to live with them. But no. After 10 months of staying with Indians, "But THIS time he really has changed." Urgh!

There is some redemption at the end, so I got closure, but was overall frustrated. I'm thinking the fact that it was "early Picoult" may have something to do with it - I believe this book was published in the early '90s. I've got another Picoult book waiting for me on my windowsill, though - maybe 3rd one's the charm?


Bottom Line: Slightly agonizing read, but I just wanted to get to the end to find out what happened.

View all Ash Tree Book Reviews. 

Book Review: Crazy Bosses

Crazy Bosses!

Everyone encounters them at some point. Unfortunately, according to Stanley Bing, a certain amount of crazy seems to be necessary to keep management running smoothly. Huh.
Citing ridiculous examples from eyewitnesses, Bing identifies the Five Different Types of Crazy Bosses, outlining both symptoms to identify them by, and then a chart of things you can do (to maintain your sanity) corresponding to level of effectiveness. The 5 types are: The Bully, The Paranoid, The Narcissist, The Wimp, and ultimately, The Disaster Hunter.


I thought this book was funny in addition to being enlightening, albeit in an arrogant way. It gave great insight to the reasonings of those crazy people - and when these behaviors are set next to an explanation, it actually helps you understand the mentality (stress on MENTAL) of these people. Knowing that you are not alone, in addition to trying to find the humor in your situation and gaining the knowledge that you are not alone helps out a lot. One of my favorite points that Bing makes is that a crazy boss actually bands you and your coworkers together, dealing with this insane person.

Bottom Line: Quick, easy summer read. Light and funny, and a great summer or vacation book. If the topic alone doesn't intrigue you, curiosity should! :)

If you've read it, let me know what you think!

Book Review - The Tenth Circle

I've been reading way too much.

So I just finished The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult, and I have to say that I was pretty disappointed. She's my favorite author, and while I normally lament the fact that her books plots are predictable, she strayed from her usual controversial - court trial formula and it didn't quite work.

The premise of this book is that a 14 year old girl gets raped by her ex-boyfriend, and an ensuing torment of the victim at school and a huge press scandal results in a small Maine town. It was a real page-turner until just a little over halfway, where she uses up her :gasp: twist too early.



That being said, I really fell in love with one of the characters, Daniel, the victim's father. He was a comic book artist that was married to a Dante "Inferno" college professor (the victim's mom) - his latest project, inspired by his daughter, is a comic book illustration themed around Dante's levels of hell, and Picoult includes comic book pages into the novel, which were really cool. She was brilliant with the dynamic characters as always and she weaves the intricate complexities of a developing storyline beautifully. However, while the whole concept of the book had a lot of potential, it never really delivered.

What I felt was lacking was the usual "kick", as her biggest twist happened in the middle of the novel, and I felt myself dragging to the final predictable "twist" at the end. (Well, maybe not predictable, but I for some reason had a feeling about it...) That, I didn't like how the character Daniel had run away from Alaska because he hated growing up with the natives so much, but then Picoult belabored Eskimo stories and culture into nearly every one of his thought processes. Annoying. I wasn't too crazy about his daughter and wife's characters, either - I found both to be very whiny in contrast to Daniel. But hey, that's me.

Bottom Line: Okay read, I have liked her other books better. It was a refreshing attempt at a new direction for her, but slightly frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying.

As always, if you have read the book, let me know what you think!

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is hands-down my favorite contemporary fiction writer of all time. I love the simple way that she writes, that is easy to read quickly while not being boring. She always includes plot twists, and in this book she includes flashbacks to build up to the present. The only negative I have - other than the fact that I don't get why her books are so thick and it feels like I finish them in a matter of days - is the predictability of the story line. Pretty much every book she writes has a crime take place, then goes through a trial. But what better place to address two sides of an issue than in a courtroom?


I also love how she picks such controversial topics to write about. I actually read in the back of this book that she gets inspired by news headlines, and likes to make her readers aware of the issues through her work, and likes provoking thought - which is why all of her books are "read this and then we can talk about it" types.

Nineteen minutes is about a school shooting that takes place in a quiet town in New Hampshire. While it certainly does not justify any type of school violence, it definitely makes you think about it from a different perspective - by depicting the shooter in a very human way. When you think about it, we try and justify things we don't understand and fear happening by saying that the shooter - Peter, in this case - was a monster. A result of negligent parenting and misconceptions of reality. However, she depicts his parents as being loving and normal as well as devastated about what their son has done.

.

What I loved in this book was also the depictions of bullying. The jocks were indeed the victims in the story, however she goes back continuously throughout the book showing their cruelty to Peter. She attempted to paint a picture of how he got to the shooting - combining his oversensitivity - which made him a target in the first place, his not noticing or caring how he appeared to others, and submission into the fantasy world of video gaming.

The last twist I liked was a girl named Josie, who was best friends with Peter when they were little, then became part of the "popular" crowd. Picoult successfully enter the mind of this adolescent with not just the contrived notion of popularity, but the loneliness that she felt. And the bond that Josie and Peter plays out in a way that I was both surprised and happy about.

So, please, go read one of her books. Any book. And we'll talk about it! :)

Book Review - The Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

I finished this book a couple weeks ago, and with all the "graduation" stuff floating around, I really wanted to make note of it.

It's a great book for the entrepreneur - The Purple Cow, written by Seth Godin, it asks how each of us can take our business above a business, and make it extraordinary. Like The Purple Cow. As for my purple cow, I'm still looking for it, but I think a few of my lines have the potential to be one. The trick is not only to have a purple cow, but to get it out to the "sneezers", who gladly spread the word about you and your product.


My idea to build on this cow for my calligraphy business was to create a promotion to give away free calligraphy for a bride - invites or place cards. (You can read more about that here, the deadline is June 31st!).

I really recommend this book - you have to read it to understand the importance of the cow. The greatest lesson I learned from this book was that it is more dangerous to play it safe (i.e., milking your cow) than to take a risk. Take a risk, business owners!!

And speaking of risks, I'm seriously considering opening a gallery, now that I'm graduated, in my hometown. It would be in a barn of a family friend, and I'm working out the tweaks. Wish me luck! :)

The E-Myth: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and the Technician

So I read this fantastic book that should be read by all entrepreneurs, called The E-myth by Michael E. Gerber

One of the earliest points in the book depicted how as soon as you get the Entrepreneurial "Seizure", you form your own business and make a job for yourself. Well, the last thing any of us wants is a job. With WORK. What do I mean by this?

Well, let's back up: why do most small businesses fail? It's because inside of every entrepreneur there are three personalities: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician. Liken this to your inner Fat Guy and Skinny Guy: You live like Fat Guy, eating when you're hungry, exercising when you want. Then, one day, you are watching TV and a new weight-loss solution graces your sight, and Skinny Guy comes. Skinny Guy tells you how lazy you've been, so you start dieting and working out, watching your weight every day.

BUT, on the first day you don't lose weight, Fat Guy comes back, reasoning that even though you've been working your ass off, there haven't been any visible benefits. Yes, we've all been there.

The Entrepreneur is the visionary. She sees into the future, is coming up with innovative solutions and how she can make her business better. The Technician does the work, knows how to do their work and to do it right. She doesn't like restrictions or skimping on quality - most technicians decide to work for themselves, but all they do is give themselves a job. The Manager keeps everything running smoothly: has things meeting deadlines, keeps things clean.

The Entrepreneur drives the Technician and the Manager crazy, because she always wants to change things to make them better. The Manager pisses the Technician off, because the Manager doesn't understand the care and consideration that goes into making the product.

Are you picking up on a theme here? How do you create a business, when you have these three portions of your personality that you can't even get to agree? The goal is to reconcile all these personalities with the Entrepreneur: you want to be continuously improving, and be adaptable enough so that The Manager and The Technician will go along with the ride.

I HIGHLY recommend reading this book. Or re-reading it. Your venture shouldn't be just another job - you should be able to run your business, but it should also be able to live without you.