Spoiler Alert Tuesday

So here's the deal. I'm not finished with this book yet. Are you?

Since next Tuesday is actually the 1st of June (already?!) I'm gonna do the last Spoiler Alert post for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next Tuesday.

Then I'm not sure what to do...I'm just playing around with some ideas here.

Let me brainstorm out loud here...or in print, anyway.

Should we:

a) take the summer off?

b) let someone else choose the books for the summer months?

c) pick our noses? (woops. how did that one get on the list?)

d) keep on as usual?

e) have a contest to pick which book?

What? My brain is on overload right now, so I can't think.

Spoilers Below!!

Last Tuesday I asked you why you thought Salander didn't go to the police after the rape.

Did you guys read what she did?? Personally, I think it was even better than going to the police!! She got some major revenge. I'm thinking if I ever had some problem I'd want her on my side.

What sense do you get from this book so far?

Is it more of a family saga or more of a mystery?

Perhaps both rolled into a mystery wrapped in a conundrum?

What do you think of the sexual relationship between Blomkvist and Cecilia?

Is it a large part of the story or not?

Are you doing well with the weird words and the fact that it's a little different because it's written in and about Sweden? Do you think anything is "lost in translation?"

Spoiler Alert Tuesday

How is the book coming along for you?

I'm not even halfway through it yet, so I'm a little bit unqualified to ask too many questions.

I went to a site where I could see if I could find any book club questions for this book and I got a major spoiler alert of my own!! I think I found out something I didn't want to know. Ah well. I still don't know how it's gonna end, so that's good.

Spoiler Alert!!

What do you all think of Salander? Why is she the way that she is? She seems to be introverted and emotionless. She is the girl with the dragon tattoo, so she has to play a bigger part in the novel than I am aware of. What are your thoughts on why she basically lets the rape go unreported? She has a lot of distrust of anyone in authority.

Why??

Spoiler Alert Tuesday

How are you all doing with our book this month?

It's getting pretty interesting and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through.

Spoilers Below!!

Why do you think Blomkvist decided to go ahead and work for Vanger?

Do you think Vanger is obsessed with the disappearance of his niece or obsessed with taking down his family? Do you think it's both, or one more than the other?

Spoiler Alert Tuesday

Have you all started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

We got a lot of e-mails from people being concerned about the choice because of a) there are some weird names in the book that can be hard to read; and b) it starts out very slow.

In answer to the two main concerns I have two much sought after secrets to let you in on:

About the weird names; the book is actually Swedish and has been translated. The names are still weird, so I suggest coming up with different names to use instead.

Examples would be: Blomkvist pronounced as Blowhard. Just a suggestion. You can use any name you like.

And yes, the first chapter is boring. It's explaining a bunch of political and business partnerships that are confusing because we're not Swedish.

So here's a synopsis on the first chapter, in my own words, in case you are bored by it and/or don't understand it. This is seriously condensed down. And I'm not even sure I have it correct, but here

it is anyway. It's a Spoiler!

Spoilers Below!!!

The first chapter details a Financial Reporter named Blowhard Blomkvist who tried to take down a giant corporation called Wennerstrom through tips from a "secret" source. Nothing could be proved because the corporation covers it's tracks very well. Either that or possibly they paid someone on the inside off.

The whole scheme that the corporation was involved in, is kind of convoluted or murky, I think because it's lost in translation, as they say. Either that or I'm just stupid. Which could be the case.

Basically, the Swedish government gave big amounts of money to big Swedish corporations to build up

 their companies.

This corporation, Wennerstrom (here on out called Weineschnitzel, pronounced with a V), took the money and used about 2 million of it to do what they were supposed to do. They were given 50 million.

Even though they only used the 2 million, and should have given the 48 back, they sunk it into something other than what they were supposed to, but they said it went towards building the company and therefore didn't have to pay it back. So they kept a bunch of money from the government (ie, taxpayers) and spent it on who knows what, and got away with it. (hey! this sounds like it could be in the US!)

When Blowhard Blomkvist tried to take them down, they had covered it all up so well, that they were able to sue him in return and now he's headed for 3 months of jail.

Now. I have no clue what that has to do with the story. Because when the story takes off, and it does, I promise (right around page 35-40), it begins to talk about a young investigator and a murder. And a weird family. And all kinds of weird stuff.

So. Stick with it, I've heard so many good things about it, and if you get past the first chapter, you're good.

Let us know what you think so far!