Review of The Girl Who Played with Fire (two stars)

I offer a review of this second book in the Millennium series after rating the first book as 1 star. There was a period when my book-reading acquaintances were reading and sharing their views on these books and they were all agog at the quality of the story. I’ve found the series poor, however, I find myself in an odd situation of rating this second book as 2 stars. At such rate, I hope to rate the fifth book in the series 5 stars.

 

The novel is better than the first in the series as there is more depth to the plot. The reader is challenged to hold competing threads together. I particularly appreciated how the main female had a significant absence from the book – all the while hiding up in an apartment that was within reach of the action. The re-entry of the main female was very well timed and allowed for a successful webbing together of all the competing threads.

 

A few failures:

 

>This novels reveal of Salander’s evil papa had a Star Wars “Luke, I am your father” feel about it.

 

>The notion of a diminutive female riding a burly Harley Davidson motorcycle failed.

 

>Don’t bother readers with details of the main female character’s mammoplasty unless the enhanced assets are going to play a part in the novel; Salander is not the type of lass that ranks feminine charms highly in her arsenal of skills. Her fuller jugs were probably only added to the book with a view to a screen play – although I’m open to some weird plot twist in book three; Salander disguised as a wholesome waitress at a Munich beer hall during an Oktoberfest event.

 

>Salander, who is suffering enough from a sad history of psychological and physical abuse, does not also need to be on the autism spectrum – yet, that part of the story seems to be a setup for book three.

 

>Salander seeks to keep her new abode a secret, yet Ikea workers are welcomed to complete both delivery and installation of furniture. Ikea workers must be the most upright of all workers in Sweden; not open to any bribe to reveal customer details.

 

>There are a few moments where the translation from Swedish to English seems to fail.

 

A suggestion:

 

>The inclusion of a double page map that depicts all the towns that are named in the story would assist foreign readers in following the story.

 

And, a very Swedish idea:

 

>If you are incredibly rich you still purchase Ikea! Yet being rich means you pay for both the shipping and installation!

 

Subjects covered:

 

>mental illness and treatment, psychological and physical abuse, giantism, sex trafficking, police investigation, investigative journalism, homosexuality, murder.

 

Body count:

>four

 

I have book three to read yet will break from the series to read another book for now. I do hope I can rate book three to 3 stars and then ultimately book five as 5 stars.

 

This review links from my Goodreads account. I found the book, along with book three in a Street Library. I returned the book to a second street library.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#goodreads #sweden #Oktoberfest #starwar #agreatread #books #streetlibrary #streetlibraryaustralia #streetlibraryadventure #loveyourlibrary #starwars #iamyourfather #darthvader #lisbeth #lisbethsalander #salander #millenium #series #book #literature #dragon #tattoo #thegirlwiththedragontattoo #girlwiththedragontattoo #dragontattoo #stieglarsson #novel #fiction #mystery #swedish #crimefiction

Review of "Do Ants Have Arseholes? and 101 other bloody ridiculous questions"

"Do Ants Have Arseholes? and 101 other bloody ridiculous questions" is a short book. It is a parody of magazine reader question and answer columns. 

It is worthy only in sharing the delight of the wide array of books available in local street libraries. My neighbours clearly have very diverse reading habits. My neighbours are not shy in sharing their books with others.

Read this book for a laugh. 

Some questions raise a laugh in their own right, like:

If a deaf man goes to court, is it still a hearing?

and

Is there another word for synonym?

Some questions raise a chuckle in the reader's answer, like:

Can birds fly upside down?

Where an Englishman suggests that migratory birds fly upside down over France "because the wretched place isn't worth shitting on".

And, then:

If you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant . . . what do you do?

Where a morris dancing enthusiast concludes that it is simply best to just go morris dancing.

The book also includes a letter from a gentleman Simon who took to the task of finding a new colour: Are there any colours that have not been discovered yet? Despite Simon's letter advising of the inclusion of the colour card of his aptly named discovery "Simon", the editor assures all readers that "Simon" was actually purple. 

Simon would have been wise spending his time morris dancing! 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#agreatread #books #streetlibrary #streetlibraryaustralia #streetlibraryadventure #loveyourlibrary #france #morrisdancing 

Review of The Mission Before Us: Why Sydney Anglican Church Ministry?

The Sydney Rector drought has had some attention of late. However, on my reading of a book targeted at seeking men and women to put their hand to the ministry plough, "The Mission Before Us: Why Sydney Anglican Church Ministry?", I was led to an odd conclusion. Where the book spoke of drought, I was instead drawn to think of plenty. 

I had came to the book after recording, in another post, a rousting of a minister Steele by a senior. The rousting put the Gospel in the centre of the drought solution.

This book is written into a Diocese in abundance. A Diocese of a superb theological college and solid standing on the world stage. It is a Diocese that in terms of wealth is more aristocratic Vestey than stockman Lingiari. 

But the wealth didn't go towards nutting out robust strategy; instead seemingly everyone was scurrying for drought-breaking solutions. There may be a senior interest in putting Gospel at centre, yet the Diocese, despite all its resources, does not seem to have a single central whiteboard; one that would facilitate a rugged brainstorming session. I even found a Western Australian chipping-in. 

And, the pages of The Mission before Us revealed the risk of crowd-sourcing; an error of count and the subtle mentions of the so-so nature of Mission 2020. Leite’s rather thin reaction of what could be done (page 1) caused me to favour a Sydney Presbyterian’s alternate response.

 

Closing the book, I had an urge to consume writings of those who were resourced more like Lingiari. God often makes more from less. I turned from the rich Diocese’s plight and directed my sympathy towards a clergyman in COVID19 lockdown Melbourne and another cleric in his first-world impoverished ministry circumstances. 

  

The book has two redeeming qualities – Loane’s fine 1983 address and the Walter/Flinders pairing. The former has a fantastic exposition of John 3. The address caused me to think that all the Diocese’s Rector drought problems have an internal response - the Diocese needing to dig deep enough to find that response. The latter presents as a very worthy read as a set. Walter and Flinders perhaps benefitted from quick note sharing being situated a cooee from each other on Sydney’s North Shore.

 

Where the book speaks of drought of clergy, it instead strikes the reader for its drought of practice. One contributer scored half marks and Colgan, early in the book seems to be channeling Lennon’s Imagine, with his “sometimes”.

 

Colgan’s “sometimes” is depicted in this extract from page 6:

"Sometimes as I sit in cafes or on the train into the city and see the people running around in their work, their study, their shopping, their sport, I feel for Sydney something of what Jesus felt......so many people lost here on our doorstep"

 

Which appeared to have a retort in Loane's address, page 29. The address tantalisingly roars:

Henry Varley, in 1872, turned to his friend D.L. Moody and said: "The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who has wholly surrendered himself to Him. We are not used more...because our surrender is so incomplete"

 

....Varley signaling from the grave: “Colgan, your “sometimes” must be “always””, to wit:

 

 "Sometimes Always as I sit in cafes and always when I sit on the train into the city and see the people running around in their work, their study, their shopping, their sport, I feel for Sydney what Jesus felt......so many people lost here on our doorstep"

Vincent Lingiari is honoured in a song by Gough Whitlam

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

 

Note 1: As I understand it Mission 2020 started well yet failed to meet all its numerous ambitions; a church planting/greenfield sub-objective seemingly being the only solid outcome. COVID19 put to an end any hope of Mission 2020 fulfilling during its token final year.

Note 2: To be fair to Leite, his extended response, on pages 32-33, to what could be done to resolve the drought looks more like Powell’s list. Yet, why didn’t Leite offer the extended response as he opened the book?

#agreatread #books #belief #christianity #christian #JohnLennon #imagine #dlmoody #christianquotes #character #jesus #melbourne #coronavirus #COVID19

Review of a book Parramatta River Talks - reprise

As I finished the last of the book (the earlier part of the review linked here)….I could not help myself.

Error X, pages 216 and 218: A single member of the New South Wales police force referred to by the surname Blare, Blair or Blaire.

Error Y, page 219: A dog that within three sentences is firstly named “Duchess” and then answers to “Dutches”

Error Z, page 245: A call for “Austrian justice” to be carried out in Australia.

 

And yet among all those errors there was the (unforgivable-in-Australian-publishing?) error. On page 236: the dating of Anzac Day’s origins to Australian and New Zealand troops fighting in the year 1951. "1951" contains the reversal of 1 and 5 yet a good editor would have quickly made the change to 1915.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

 

#parramatta #book #reading #read #crime #agreatread #books #sydney #aboriginal #Spelling #Correction