26:13: Jennifer Blood: A Woman's Work is Never Done (issues 1-6), by Gart Ennis (2012 Trade paperback)

A satirical, violent comic about a woman who is a wholesome suburban housewife by day and a sexy assassin avenging her parents by night--after drugging her husband and children and getting them in bed. Ennis's dark humor and some good artwork, shared by three artists across 6 issues, pull it off in a way that few could. I'll be curious to see what happens with the art in future volumes, hoping they will settle on a consistent look.

32.12: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson (iBook, originally published 2010)

I read and commented on the first two novels in Larsson's trilogy earlier this summer, but it took me some time to get back to my iPad and finish the third. Traveling to and from Comic Con earlier this month gave me the perfect opportunity to finish things up, and thrillers tend to be perfect airport and airplane reading--exciting enough to keep my attention but not deep enough to require real focus. All in all, I'd say that the third book follows through well and keeps the momentum started in the second book of the trilogy.

At first I was skeptical that the plot established in volume two would sustain itself for a whole third volume, but Larsson does a good job creating and revealing a complicated government conspiracy--overflowing with bad guys of all types that just can't stop doing bad stuff. It's scary and evil, but just bungled and self-serving enough to make it believable. Even more remarkably, Larsson manages to make the generally unlikeable Salander, the primary victim/protagonist of the series, a sympathetic character. I've been trying to think of a comparable literary accomplishment, but nothing comes to mind. I mean, even the people who support and defend this girl for a variety of reasons don't know how to relate to her, can't really say she is their friend, and are hard pressed to say that they really like her. Yet, somehow I actually cared about what happened to her. 

Maybe it's a Swedish thing. Until I read Lars Keplar and Hakan Nesser, as recommended by a friend and my mom, I can't be too sure.

21-22.12: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire (Books 1 and 2 of the Millennium Trilogy), but Stieg Larsson (iBook versions, originally published in English in 2008 and 2009)

Stieg Larsson's trilogy was all the rage several years ago--fueled by the release of movies in both Swedish and English--and somehow in all the media frenzy I became convinced that I had read them. While killing time in an airport bookstore this summer, however, I took the time to read the back cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and found that I hadn't, indeed, read it. I hopped on my iPad, downloaded the digital version, and soon became engrossed in the story and characters.

Prior to starting the novel, I mentioned it to my mother, a connoisseur of mystery novels, and she told me that she read Dragon Tattoo but didn't continue with the trilogy because it was too "dark." With my reading tastes, that was a bit of an endorsement. I also found that the pacing, storyline, and character development were engaging, and the cultural differences in the book made me less sure of what was going to happen next. Indeed, the relationships between characters, the description of political and social institutions, and the few bits of trivia I picked up about Larsson's Sweden were the things I most liked about the book.

In addition to exposing/discussing violence against women in an unsettling manner (the darkness my mother referred to), Larsson also does a very good job of making a societal misfit--the Girl of the titles--empathetic. The clash between the standard opinion of her and the view that a few others develop once they know her is startling, and it caused me to reflect on how this might be true in daily life. I did like the first book a bit more than the second, but that won't stop me from going on to read the third in the trilogy. 

I've heard mention of a few other Swedish authors I should check out if I liked these books, but I don't recall their names. If anyone has recommendations, please comment below.

15.12: The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley (iBook, Pub 2012)

Downloaded in SFO, read on way back from NYC in March.

80: Zero History, by William Gibson (2010 hardcover)

After I read Neuromancer (published in 1984) in the early 90s, I quickly devoured everything Gibson had written, and I have since kept up with his releases.  I was attracted to the tech themes of his early cyber-punk books and I continue to admire the way he investigates the concept of "reality" and how it is created or influenced.  In this novel he returns to some of the characters of Spook Country, which was described by the media as a "post-9/11 thriller." As best I can tell, thrillers of this genre focus on edgy characters that are either bored or fighting for their lives, depending on the moment.  Quite frequently, the thing they are fighting for don't seem particularly important (fashion, in this instance) and the bad guys and good guys are hard to discern. At times I found myself wondering why I was reading the book at all, but I was compelled to continue.  There's always the feeling that the answer--not only to the current story, but to life itself--will appear on the next page of a Gibson novel. I keep turning them.  

71-73: Stormbreaker, Point Blank, Skeleton Key (Alex Rider series, 1-3), by Anthony Horowitz (2000, 2001, 2002 paperbacks)

Review coming soon.  Tell me what you thought!

51: Scarlet (Volume 1), by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (2011 hardcover trade; issues 1-5)

Comments at later time.

50: Morning Glories (Volume 1), by Nick Spencer, Joe Esima, and Rodin Esquejo (2011 paperback trade)

Comments at a later time.