Flash forward nearly a decade and I was swept up into the life of Lisabeth Salander. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series was one of the best book series I've read in a while (since last summer when I polished through the Hunger Games in a matter of days). Many may say it's predictable, but I loved it. I was so swept up in the book and the suspense that while reading outside Starbucks one day a car back fired, and I JUMPED out of my skin with freight. The second book was my favorite, third book was second, and the first book was OK, but I prefer how the story line/setting traveled around rather than one setting as the premise of the book like in the first. I also think that Larsson's fourth and unpublished book would have been one of his best works, but we'll never know.
The movie "Lawless" came out this weekend, and I've just finished the book for which the film was based. The book is entitled The Wettest County in the World. I enjoyed the book, historical piece focused around Prohibition and bootlegging, but it was a slow read (like 2 - 5 pages a night read). The fictional biographical novel was captivating by the end, but to get to that point took a lot of character building and story development. I'm sure once I see the movie, the book will amount to about 25% of the whole script. Hollywood liberties have to be taken to make this movie more than an hour long.
The book was an interesting perspective on bootlegging that you don't hear about. It expands on the moonshine made in the mountains of Virginia. The perspective is unique, and it provides a vivid description on the potency of moonshine without killing off a whole town from lead poisoning. It was much more elaborate than my personal idea of bath tub gin, and one thing I found to be emphasized in great detail was the importance of the water source/their use of the fresh water springs filtered through the mountain.
I had enough of the serious books for a while, so I took a break for a quick beach read Where We Belong the latest Emily Giffin book. I've been reading her books since high school, so whether it seems trivial or juvenile to read, I like her writing so I'm happy to invest my time to read her latest. It's a cute, girly book that if you have a long weekend it's worth picking up for a good story. 
Now I'm just finishing Wife 22. My mom passed off the book to me saying "It's Predictable". Either way, I've enjoyed it. The book really puts on display how much you have to work at a relationship. It makes a vivid point to say you may live with someone you love, but you can become roommates if you don't work at it. I think that is a strong lesson for any relationship - whether it's dating, married, or family. So there you have it - 7 books in a summer is a rather small dent considering the number of evenings I curl up in bed to read.
