Book Review: The Girl who kicked the Hornets' Nest

The Girl who kicked the Hornets' nest is the third and final chapter of the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Prior to reading this review, I would highly recommend reading the reviews of the first and second books to have some background knowledge. The final installment begins with Lisbeth Salander being rushed to hospital following her injuries sustained towards the end of the second book. As she is being operated on, Blomqvist has tried to get police to arrest Ronald Neidermann. However, due to a police bungle, Neidermann escapes and thus ensues a search for him as a suspect in the killings of the previous book.

In the mean time, Zalachenko too is being operated on for the injuries he sustained. Upon regaining consciousness, he denies trying to harm Salander and blames it all on Neidermann. Meanwhile, the prosecutor is preparing a case to charge Salander with grievious bodily harm and attempted murder but has to wait until she recovers completely. The fact that Salander will be on trial is uncomfortable for some people...the people who assisted Zalachenko all these years and turned a blind eye to his deeds and basically covered his arse. The people who are part of a secret section of the Security Police. Their main aim is that Salander be declared mentally incompetent and be back in a psychiatric institution.

And thus begins their journey.

Blomqvist through Salander's help in the previous book has figured out most of her history and the existence of this secret section. And he is determined to expose the people and the departments involved in pretty much destroying Salander's life and her civil liberties. In order to do this, he joins forces with Armansky, Salander's boss from Milton Security, and Holder Palmgren, her previous guardian. He also convinces his sister Annika Giannini to take on Salander's case as her lawyer. And throughout this time, unbeknownst to all around, he receives help from Salander to investigate matters the best way she can while still confined to her hospital bed.

Of course, taking on a secret government agency is not a piece of cake and Blomqvist faces threats and road blocks along the way.

Does he manage to win the battle against these faceless men?

Does Salander get convicted and have to spend her life in a psychiatric unit again?

What happens to Zalachenko?

Do the police ever catch Neidermann?

Who are the faces behind the secret section of the Security Police? And how many other conspiracies were involved?

To find out, you have to read the book and be sucked into the conspiracy theories. It was an enjoyable book but tended to drag on in some parts for me. It's a whopping 750 pages or so and does take a while. There were times I wondered whether it had been edited or not because certain paragraphs were just a waste of space. But, despite all that, it was still an interesting and exciting read as far as conspiracy theories go. I especially enjoyed the court scenes towards the end of the book. Remember though, you have to read the first two books to actually understand the third.

My rating:

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

***This has been cross-posted at Bond with Books*** 

Christmas Cheers

Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas! I know it's done in some parts of the world and I hope you guys had a good day yesterday. My own Christmas day was great --- spent the morning at the beach...my first time this summer. Hopefully, it's not going to be the only time but the weather today is back to rain.

So how was your Christmas?

I also wanted to say that Santa came early for me. Okay, so I was Santa myself. But I bought a new laptop! I went for a Toshiba this time around after two stints with HP. Don't get me wrong...HP was good to me. And I especially loved my last laptop which unfortunately died on Wednesday. And I got a great deal on the Toshiba. I managed to get the laptop which was $1000 and I got a bonus Norton 360, MS Office 2010 and two years extended warranty all for just an added $120. Courtesy Dick Smith Electronics.

I have always bought my laptops from DSE and they never fail to give me good deals but this time, they outdid themselves! They are any day better than Harvey Norman who have had appalling customer service when it comes to the tech department. I guess the great customer service and the great deals is what keeps me going back to Dick Smith stores. And no, they did not pay me for this promotion on the blog. I was just so excited upon the deal that I just knew I had to promote them. :)

Anyway, enough about that.

Hope you all have had a lovely Christmas. I'm going to sit back and enjoy Boxing Day with the cricket...

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Positive madness...

This is the age of using positive means to bring up your child. You reward them for the behaviours you want to see. Both at school and at home. At school, kids are given stickers and certificates and other forms of 'rewards' for effort, improvement, good behaviour, helping out etc. etc. Yes, consequences are still part of the system but rewards have more importance.

However, I was recently wondering --- have we taken this whole positive spin a bit too far?

Hear me out...

I heard some months ago about how children's sports were trying to be positive and not disappoint kids and therefore not having any winners. Or giving every one in all teams a trophy. Or just not keeping score. Here's an article that mentions some of this.

Another area where positivity has gone nuts is in students' reports here in Australia. Apparently, teachers are not allowed to write anything negative. Resulting in no comments about bad behaviour. Or comments such as "learning to count" rather than having difficulty with numbers or numerical operations. Don't parents have a right to know where the child is struggling? Isn't it the right thing to do to highlight a child's negative behaviour so something can be done about it at home too?

And with the sports, aren't we teaching kids to be a bit competitive? After all, upon growing up, we don't win every single thing. People get fired from their jobs. One person can lose a business deal to another. There are winners and losers in elite sports. You can fail a subject at university. You can not get a promotion if you don't try your best. You may lose out on a promotion to another worker.

So if children are now taught that there is no such thing as losing out on something or failing something, how are they going to cope with situations like these as an adult?

Shouldn't we be teaching them how to deal with losses as well? How to cope effectively? How to get back up after falling down or hitting a speed bump on the way?

I guess these were all the questions that popped up in my head when I heard about how far we have gone with this whole positivity thing. I mean, I am all for rewarding positive behaviours with attention and praise and ignoring minor irritating behaviours and giving consequences for unacceptable behaviours. But not keeping score for sports? Giving every child a trophy or medal? Not being able to write anything negative in a report?

What do you think? Have you heard of any of these new trends? Have we taken it too far?   

Do share...

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

P.S. On a different note, I think my laptop is dying...the screen goes all pink and green with lines and then it restarts itself a few times. It's okay for a little bit and then goes funny. So in case I don't reply to your comments or visit your blogs, that's the reason. Unless of course, I do cave and buy a new one. Sigh.

Key to winning...

A depressing cloud of grey

Is hovering over us

Everything going downhill

The Ashes turning to dust

Two games down

Three more to go

The English are one up

And we have nothing yet to show

Gone seem the days

When we were invincible

Now our batting and bowling

Both seem in trouble

Struggling to get the runs

And the wickets they don't come

The batsman are looking edgy

While the bowlers coming undone

In order to get the trophy

It is but a fact

We need to go back to basics

With both ball and bat

Stay at the crease

Wait it out for long

It is a five day game

To get the score moving along

Bowling must be consistent

Both line and length

Not all over the place

With just speed the intent

If none of this works

Then, in order to win

The best bet would be

To bring the former cricketers back in! 

This was written for this week's One Single Impression Prompt No. 146: Win

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

 

Wordless Wednesday - Nuts

Important allergy advice for the bag of peanuts

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Rockin' Weekend

This weekend was a busy and fun-filled one for me. For starters, I went for the Linkin Park Concert at Acer Arena on Saturday night. And as expected, they were amazing and blew me away! They never fail to deliver. Their concerts are filled with great technological gimmicks along with their musical capability. I love Chester Bennington and have no idea how he manages to maintain his vocal chords! I'm in awe. He manages to scream and rock hard and yet, at the same time, mellows down and gives us fantastic acoustic versions.

At the end of the concert, I nursed a sore throat (as a result of all the screaming and singing), sore hands (from the clapping and the 'rocking'), sore feet (from the rocking) and of course, a compromised sense of hearing.

But it was soooooooooo worth it!

Here are just a handful of the pictures... (click to enlarge)

 So yes. Now, I am waiting for the next time they tour.

Also, yesterday, my flatmate left for her home country for 4 weeks. Which means, I have the place all to myself! Yay! She's not a bad flatmate but I do love having my own space. And then today, I had a Christmas picnic with my friends where we exchanged gifts and just had a great and relaxing arvo.

I can't believe it's back to work tomorrow. So not looking forward to it after a rocking concert and a relaxing Sunday. All that was missing was a trip to the beach. =)

Hope you all had a good weekend...

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

O gimme a break...

What is the big deal with Oprah coming Down Under? Honestly, I just don't get it. If you were to read the papers here you would be stunned. Since last week they have had the Oprah countdown to coming here, then about all her groupies from the US touching down, then concerns about why Oprah had not yet reached, then the big hullaballoo when she did land in her private jet and then her schedule down here and her trip to Ayers Rock...

Did we really need to know all that?

Do we really care?

And apparently, they were going to treat her like a dignitary with police escorts and closing off a certain section of the city for her. Like they do when Presidents or PMs from other countries visit.

She's just a talk show host for crying out loud! Maybe one of the richest talk-show hosts but that's it!

All this O-talk is giving me a headache. And you can't avoid it when every newspaper has something about her as it's front page news.

I've never been big on Oprah. I don't understand why people get so caught up about her show. I have watched it and still don't get all the screaming ladies. Am I just not gullible enough to be part of her groupies? I had some people at work desperately trying to get tickets for her show at the Opera House but they didn't succeed and were very disappointed. I was unable to genuinely sympathise with them :P

What are you going to do?

We live in a world where Oprah's visit makes bigger news than anything else, where the PM manages to take time out to meet her while people in the country are struggling, where the NSW government goes out of it's way to make Oprah feel at home while people are still struggling every day with our roads and public transport not up to the mark. 

It's a weird world.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Silver lining

Lovely Rainbow

Rainbow in the sky

Grey skies, pretty colours

Silver Lining

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Passport-Photobia

Passport-Photobia (n): A fear and aversion of having to take passport photos. Coined by Psych Babbler (2010)

There was a reason why I kept putting off applying for my passport. Unconsciously maybe. But there was. The bloody passport photos. Why do they have to make it so hard?

No showing teeth.

Smile.

Relax.

Don't wear glasses because the flash bounces off the lens.

Relax.

Look natural.

No hair falling on the forehead.

Relax.

No showing teeth when smiling.

It's a nightmare. I went last week after work and pretty much had all of the above. How in the world do I look natural and yet smile without showing my teeth? [To those who don't know me, when I smile, it's showing my goddam teeth!] Also, they made me take off my glasses! I told the person that I wear glasses all the time and she said "Oh well, they'll just get you to take it off at customs." And for some reason, turning off the flash didn't occur to her.

Anyway, the end result of that session was that I looked like a terrorist. Okay. Maybe not a terrorist. But definitely someone who would be held up at customs for a 'random' check. Yes, it looked that bad. I kid you not.

Eventually, I went yesterday to another place and got another set done. This time with glasses and without glasses. It's not great [like most passport photos] and I look constipated but at least I doubt they will hold me up at customs!

So what kind of passport photos do you take?

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Book Review: The Girl who Played with Fire

'The Girl who played with Fire' is the second instalment in the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is back with his Millennium magazine and is living the good life after a hugely successful book published via the magazine. Lisbeth Salander is getting some rest and relaxation holidaying in the Caribbean. However, for reasons unknown to Blomqvist, she has cut ties with him. Although Salander enjoys her RnR, with a bit of adventure as she deals with a domestic violence perpetrator her way, once she is back in Sweden, she is targeted by thugs sent by her guardian Nils Bjurmann in retaliation for what she did to him the year before.

Meanwhile, Millennium is apprached by journalist Dag Svensson who along with his partner Mia Johannson, is in  the process of exposing illegal sex trade operations in Sweden. Mia is in the process of completing her doctoral thesis on the victims of this trade while Dag has focussed on the operators and their profits. It is likely to stir up a lot of controversy given that some of the people he intends on exposing include journalists, police officers, judges, or lawyers among other thugs. Most of the sex trade involves girls who are under age. Hence, those exposed would be facing criminal charges. Millennium agrees to publish Dag's book but he must polish it up and confirm his sources while they simultaneously edit what he completes.

Things start to go wrong when one night Dag and Mia are found murdered in their apartment by an unknown assailant. Luckily for the police, the murder weapon is found metres away from the crime scene. And it has fingerprints. Those of Lisbeth Salander.

Thus ensues a mass search for Salander. Given that she is in the care of the state, every personal detail about Salander is made public including her stays in psychiatric units and foster homes. However, no one can find Salander despite the fact that her photo is plastered across every newspaper in Sweden. Blomqvist does not however believe that Salander murdered his two friends. After their adventures the previous year, he knows she is not a killer without being provoked. And he doesn't think his friends provoked her in any way.

Instead, Blomqvist believes that Svensson scared someone through his work and paid for it with his life. He decides to run his own investigation given that the police are busy wasting their time digging up Salander's past. This involves sifting through all the information Svensson has collected and interviewing the punters again. Moreover, the only way he can communicate with the elusive Salander is via the computer network.

Did Salander kill Svensson and Johansson? If so, why?

If not, how did her fingerprints find their way on the murder weapon?

What is "All the Evil" that Salander has referred to about her past?

Why do the welfare records and psychiatric reports about Salander portray her as a mentally disabled and unstable girl when people who know her think she is smart and possibly even a genius?

Who is Zala? Why does his name crop up in Svensson's investigations a few times?

All these questions and so many more crop up during the course of the book. How does Salander deal with all of this? Is Blomqvist too late in his quest to help Salander?

The book is yet another exciting instalment in the Millennium series. However, in my opinion, it was not as good as the first one. I think that's probably because I got a bit confused with the characters and the manner in which it was written. You have to remember the book has been translated from its original Swedish version (like the entire series) and for some reason, this translation seemed to be a bit more clunky than the first one. The first book sent chills down my spine on several occasions but this one failed to do that. On the other hand, it did answer some interesting questions about Salander's past and shed some light on why she is the way she is. It is still a thrilling ride.

My rating:

 

Go on and read it. After you read the first book (which has been reviewed here)

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

***This has been cross-posted at Bond with Books*** 

Space Invasion. Or not.

I have been watching FRIENDS (again!) Just enjoying the DVDs I have and laughing all over again. I just finished watching the episode where Rachel and Ross break up (the first time). And it got me thinking. About what led to them having to go "on a break".

For those who haven't seen it, basically, Rachel gets a job in the fashion industry through the help of some guy Mark and Ross starts to get jealous. And then with Rachel spending more and more time at work (actually working), Ross starts getting frustrated and jealous and feels like he doesn't have a girlfriend because she spends so much time at work. He gets really annoyed when she has to work over time on their first year anniversary and ends up at her work place with the plans they had for their anniversary night and making a mess of things. When they later argue at home, Ross tells her it's "just a job" and eventually they take a break from the relationship on Rachel's insistence.

Now, the point here was not for me to tell you all about FRIENDS. But when I saw this episode this time around, there were other things that stood out for me. Like how possessive Ross is. And that how Rachel's job doesn't seem to matter as much as his does (especially because when they first start going out, he has to work late on one occassion ruining their date). And that he needs to call her and be with her at all times to feel like he has a girlfriend. And it also reminded me of some people I work with and have worked with in the past. Where they would call their partners at least three or four times a day from work or vice versa! And talking about stuff like "Whatcha doin?"

And I find myself thinking... why???

Is it because people are so insecure about the relationship that they feel the need to call their partners every few hours?

Or is something stupid like they just want to brag about their relationship? (Yes, someone at work currently does that...each time her partner calls or she calls her partner is an opportunity for her to brag about the relationship and their upcoming holiday where they are flying business class)

Is your partner calling you at work or coming over to work supposed to be romantic? Or does it in some weird way mean they love you so much more??

I would hate it if my partner called me every single day at work. After all, my work place is my place. (I could so relate to Rachel's speech about liking not having Ross in that part of her life). It's where I am a professional. Where I am a psychologist. And I don't particularly like mixing personal with professional. My partner calling me every day at work or god forbid, visiting me at work, would drive me nuts!!! It would feel like he was invading a part of my life and smothering me. I don't think I would handle it too well and the end result would probably be like Rachel and Ross. Without getting back together.

What about all of you out there?

Do you or have you in the past called your partner every day from work? Or had them call you every day? [I'm not thinking about having to call them for something urgent once in a while.] If you do, please explain the reasons if you don't mind. 

Or are you more like me where you like your space?

Do share.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!