So when Courtney Summers was offering up her commentary on this one, I had to check it out. I'll go ahead and say I shoulda just stuck with that rather than investing a couple weeks of reading this one.

That this was a best seller kinda slays me but doesn't really surprise me either.

What to say. . .

You know, I get how Lisbeth's a bad ass but she sure has her moments in the book where I wondered what the hell she was thinking with Blomkvist. Also, really, how the hell was he even attractive? It took nothing for any of the women in this book to jump into bed with him, even Lisbeth. But maybe my favorite part was at the end, after they'd solved all their problems (hahaha), they put on an Elvis cd and "devoted themselves to some plain old sex." Too bad (view spoiler)[ he goes and smashes her heart a few pages later. Actually, it wasn't too bad. She needed to get the eff away from him. (hide spoiler)]

I'm still wrapping my mind around all of the, uh, interesting messages about women and sex and power (or lack thereof) in this one.

Also, did you know Lisbeth weighed 90 pounds? Larsson spared no opportunity to remind us of this, thank goodness.

I suppose there was a mystery here. But mostly, it seemed like this whole book was actually just the stuff Lisbeth edited out of her original background report of Blomkvist.

Of course I'll be watching the movie shortly. Because after the investment in the book, it seems kinda like the movie might be the reward. I did enjoy my husband regularly looking over at me and asking me if I was "still reading that damn book." This book almost tore my family apart. Somehow that seems like the kinda thing Larsson would appreciate knowing. If, you know, he could.