Sweden beyond Bergman, IKEA and Volvo

Not since the publication of the Harry Potter books has a series of novels created such a stir across the popular culture landscape as Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy that started with “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and was followed by “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” and the recently released, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.”
Larsson was an activist journalist who died in 2004 at age 50, a year before the first book was published in Sweden. In the ensuing five years,  the books have literally become an international phenomenon, complete with conspiracy theories, murmurs of ghost writers in the wings and a family dispute over Larsson’s estate. In short, all the elements of a great story both between and behind the covers.
All three books are crime thrillers featuring a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist, who supposedly bears more than a passing resemblance to Larsson, and his sometime partner Lisbeth Salander. Salander is “the girl” in the books’ titles, a tattooed and pierced computer hacker who moves money around the globe, can penetrate anyone’s computer hard drive and has great difficulty with normal interpersonal relationships.  This unlikely team pursues all manner of corrupt evil-doers from serial killers to sex traffickers to corrupt and bent government officials. More than a million copies of the first two books were sold in the United States before the third installment hit the market.  Interestingly, Larsson supposedly wrote one long manuscript and then divided it into three volumes, so the second and third books simply pick up where the previous one leaves off. The books are so compulsively readable that no small number of Americans, caught in mid-plot after “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” paid a premium to order the third book from Amazon UK or begged friends to send them British copies. The fact that a movie version of “Dragon Tattoo” came out this spring certainly didn’t hurt sales or lessen the buzz around the books.
While Sweden has no shortage of great crime writers, the Larsson books present a particularly dark view of the country that is a far cry from the stereotype of universal healthcare, squeaky clean fjords and tall, beautiful blondes. There’s more than a little political and feminist sub-text in the stories (the original Swedish title of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is “Men Who Hate Women”) and a whole lot of caffeine. Virtually every meeting or encounter is accompanied by a trip to the coffee pot, which could, on some level, contribute to their addictive quality.
 If you are looking for captivating summer reading, the Millennium trilogy should certainly fit the bill but if crazy computer hackers and crime-ferreting journalists are not your strong cup of coffee or you’ve already made their acquaintance,  there are plenty of new novels, biographies and works of non-fiction cramming the library shelves these days. And don’t forget the summer book sale for great reading at bargain prices. Now sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the sale is open Saturdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. See you at the library!
 
NEW FICTION
“36 Arguments for the Existence of God,” Rebecca Goldstein
“Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives,” Brad Watson
“The Aloha Quilt,” Jennifer Chiaverini
“American Subversive,” David Goodwillie
“Beatrice and Virgil,” Yann Martel
“Blue-Eyed Devil,” Robert B. Parker
“Deliver Us From Evil,” David Baldacci (also large print)*
“Hannah’s List,” Debbie Macomber
“Private Life,” Jane Smiley
“Savor the Moment,” Nora Roberts (also large print)
“The Good Son,” Michael Gruber
“Dimanche and Other Stories,” Irene Nemirovsky
“Fireworks Over Tocca,” Jeffrey Stepakoff
“Girl in Translation,” Jean Kwok
“Anthill,” Edward O. Wilson
“Heart of the Matter,” Emily Griffin*
“The Imperfectionists,” Tom Rachman*
“The Long Song,” Andrea Levy
“My Name is Memory,” Ann Brashares
“The Nearest Exit,” Olen Steinhauer
“The Secret Affair,” Mary Balogh
“Lover Mine,” J.R. Ward*
“Innocent,” Scott Turow (large print)*
“Return to Sender,” Fern Michaels (large print)
NEW NON-FICTION AND BIOGRAPHIES
“The Best Kind of Different,” Shonda Schilling
“Earth,” Bill McKibben
“How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid,” Joseph A. Califano
“The Last Stand,” Nathaniel Philbrick
“Skinny Italian,” Teresa Giudice
“War,” Sebastian Junger*
“Mike’s and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life,” Mike Greenberg
“Different Learners,” Jane M. Healy
“Dead End Gene Pool,” Wendy Burden
“George Clinton: Master Builder of the Empire State,” John Lee
“Get Capone,” Jonathan Eig
“Oprah,” Kitty Kelley
“Psychic,” Sylvia Browne
“The Publisher,” Alan Brinkley
“Spoken From the Heart,” Laura Welch Bush*
“Spoon Fed,” Kim Severson
“When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead,” Jerry Weintraub
w
 *New York Times best seller