The Investment Answer

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Amazon Review

What if there were a way to cut through all the financial mumbo-jumbo? Wouldn’t it be great if someone could really explain to us—in plain and simple English—the basics we must know about investing in order to insure our financial freedom?

At last, here’s good news.

Jargon-free and written for all investors—experienced, beginner, and everyone in between—THE INVESTMENT ANSWER distills the process into just five decisions—five straightforward choices that can lead to safe and sound ways to manage your money.

When Wall Street veteran Gordon Murray told his good friend and financial advisor, Dan Goldie, that he had only six months to live, Dan responded, “Do you want to write that book you’ve always wanted to do?” The result is this eminently valuable primer which can be read and understood in one sitting, and has advice that benefits you, not Wall Street and the rest of the traditional financial services industry.

THE INVESTMENT ANSWER asks readers to make five basic but key decisions to stack the investment odds in their favor. The advice is simple, easy-to-follow, and effective, and can lead to a more profitable portfolio for every investor. Specifically:

• Should I invest on my own or seek help from an investment professional?
• How should I allocate my investments among stocks, bonds, and cash?
• Which specific asset classes within these broad categories should I include in my portfolio?
• Should I take an actively managed approach to investing, or follow a passive alternative?
• When should I sell assets and when should I buy more?

In a world of fast-talking traders who believe that they can game the system and a market characterized by instability, this extraordinary and timely book offers guidance every investor should have.

Customer Review
by Stephen Huxley (MORAGA, California)

One of the advantages of a college education with a major in finance is that you learn the fundamentals, and, more importantly, you learn the boundaries of the universe in terms of what the field includes and what it excludes. Spend an hour or so reading this book, and you will also get that comfortable feeling that comes from knowing that you understand what personal investing is really all about. You will get the "big picture" and how it affects you.

I have been a full time faculty member teaching at the college level for the past 35 years and must say that the authors have managed to capture the essence of personal investing in about as few pages as I have ever seen and with a clarity that is very rare in books on this topic. I intend to make it required reading for both my undergraduate and graduate personal finance classes.

I might also add that any negative reviews posted to this site are likely to come from Wall Street brokers who make their living by exploiting the general public's ignorance on investing. These brokers don't like books that clarify and illuminate rather than mystify and obfuscate basic principles. As a lifelong educator, I applaud Goldie's and Murray's noble effort to help readers educate themselves so as not to be fooled by the same Wall Streeters who disgraced themselves in 2008 and nearly destroyed our economy with their greediness. Anyone who feels they don't know enough about investing should read this book. It is a gem.

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The Help

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Amazon Review

Starred Review. What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Review
by JK8 (Salem, NY)

The Help is about a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the black ladies' maids that every family has working for them. She writes their stories about mistreatment, abuse and heartbreaks of working in white families' homes, all just before the Civil Rights revolution. That is the story in a nutshell - but it is so much more than just stories.

This is the best book I have read in years! I can't recommend it enough! It is fabulous and I think they will make a movie out of it. I would compare it to the writings of Carson McCullers, Harper Lee, Truman Capote and even Margaret Mitchell. The story grabs you and doesn't let you go. You can smell the melted tar on the Mississippi roads, the toil in the cotton fields, the grits burning on the stove. The theme is the indomitable will of human beings to survive against all odds - because of the color of their skin. It is a heart-wrenching account and you will never fondly remember the times of the Jim Crow laws (if you ever did). The pure, down and out bitchery of the white ladies who become dissatisfied with their maids and proceed to ruin their lives is portrayed vividly. The desperation of the maids' circumstances is truly touching. I have laughed and cried my way through this book and plan to re-read it. I highly recommend this book because it is going to be talked about as the best book of the year.

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Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

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Amazon Review

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.

Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Customer Review
by A Literary socialite hostess (New York)

I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers but I think the sarcastic mockery of a few reviewers is actually out of place and uncalled-for. I may not be a believer in the traditional sense either but I've become 99% convinced of the literal truth of Colton's experience and its supernatural aspect, even if one or two minor details like the blue eyes and angel wings might maybe (but not necessarily) be the product of "false memory." There are Jews and indeed Arabs who are pale-skinned and have blue eyes, not all have brown skin and brown eyes. For example, some northern Iranians. A non-trivial minority of Middle Eastern Jews also have blue eyes (or more often, green & hazel). So Jesus could have had too. And as one reviewer pointed out, apparently there are angels with wings mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel (Old Testament). As far as I can tell from people who know their bible, there is nothing inconsistent in this story with Scripture or indeed with medical reality since near-death experiences or NDE's are well-documented and are believed by many to be real both in the religious and scientific communities.

There are skeptics who argue that even if NDE is for real, then it's only a cerebral or psychological phenomenon and that the patient's consciousness may drift from the body, explaining how Colton saw his dad in the waiting room praying, for example, but that it's not a supernatural phenomenon (no heaven). This explanation may explain how Colton saw his father in the waiting room during his surgery, but it doesn't explain the unknowable facts he came back with from Heaven about his long-deceased grandfather and miscarried sister whose existence he had never known about before and many other such verifiable examples of things which only the grown-ups around him knew. So clearly, this precludes a natural or purely mental explanation and suggests the supernatural.

If Colton and his parents are telling the truth about this experience, and I'm convinced of their integrity, then Colton actually saw things and learned things from this "out of body" ordeal which he could not have seen and learned in any normal natural way but through genuinely supernatural and spiritual revelation. I believe this amazing miraculous story.

Don Piper, author of the tremendous bestseller "90 Minutes in Heaven" says about this book that it's "Compelling and convincing. It's a book you should read."

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Cutting for Stone

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Amazon Review

John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times--winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. In 1992, Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules--a film with seven Academy Award nominations. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of Cutting for Stone:

That Abraham Verghese is a doctor and a writer is already established; the miracle of this novel is how organically the two are entwined. I’ve not read a novel wherein medicine, the practice of it, is made as germane to the storytelling process, to the overall narrative, as the author manages to make it happen here. The medical detail is stunning, but it never overwhelms the humane and narrative aspects of this moving and ambitious novel. This is a first-person narration where the first-person voice appears to disappear, but never entirely; only in the beginning are we aware that the voice addressing us is speaking from the womb! And what terrific characters--even the most minor players are given a full history. There is also a sense of great foreboding; by the midpoint of the story, one dreads what will further befall these characters. The foreshadowing is present in the chapter titles, too--‘The School of Suffering’ not least among them! Cutting for Stone is a remarkable achievement.--John Irving

Customer Review
by S. McGee (New York, NY)

This brilliant novel revolves around what is broken -- limbs, family ties, trust -- and the process of rebuilding them. It starts with the birth of twin boys to a nursing nun, Sister Mary Praise Joseph, in a small hospital on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; an event which no one had expected: "The everyday miracle of conception had taken place in the one place it should not have: in Sister Mary Praise Joseph's womb." The delivery rapidly becomes a debacle when it's clear that Mary Praise Joseph can't deliver her baby normally; the last minute arrival home at "Missing" (the Mission Hospital) by Indian obstetrician Hema saves the children, but their mother dies and their presumed father father, surgeon Thomas Stone, disappears into the night.

That brief summary does no justice to Verghese's powerful and remarkable prose style or the structure of the first part of the book which, although it revolves around the tragedy that claims the life of the twins' mother, also introduces the other main characters who will take the place of their biological parents. Darting back and forth between the events in the surgical theater (as Thomas Stone, horrified at what he sees, first tries to save Mary Joseph Praise's life by collapsing the skull of the infant he believes cannot be born alive), the mundane daily activities of his fellow doctor, Ghosh (trying to escape what he believes is a hopeless love for Hema) and Hema's struggle to get home to Missing from her annual holiday in India, the reader will find it impossible to put the book down and wants only to find a way of reading faster and faster to discover what happens next. By the time the twins are born, attached by a blood vessel at the head and separated at the last moment by Stone and Hema to save their lives, the reader will find himself or herself resenting every moment not spent following this story until the tale is told. And even when you are finished, the novel and its more-than-compelling characters will linger on in your mind...

Separated at birth, the twins grow up in the Ethiopia of the Emperor Haile Selaisse's reign, and Verghese introduces the reader to an ancient world that will be new to most readers, with all its flavors, colors, scents and sounds. His remarkable artistry ensures that this is never jarring but always intriguing and that the characters -- Indian expatriate doctors raising their two foster children, born to an Indian nun and an American surgeon, with the help of an Eritrean caretaker and her own daughter -- feel as familiar to us as if they were members of our own family. In the manner of a classic epic, Verghese picks his themes -- separation, the intersection of sex and death, wounds and what surgery can and can't accomplish -- and sticks to them throughout. And yet, those themes -- sweeping ones for any novelist to tackle -- never overshadow the fact that this is, at its core, the story of two brothers, Shiva and Marion -- or ShivaMarion, as Marion, the narrator, describes their single-minded unity in their youngest years.

Ultimately, the political events in Ethiopia and family betrayals send Marion fleeing to the United States. His odyssey seems to rupture all these ties and yet by the time the novel ends, we realize that every step has, in fact, been bringing Marion, Shiva and their extended family closer together as well as toward a resolution of the various plot twists. Training as a surgeon in a Bronx hospital where the only interns are from overseas ("the bloodlines from the Mayflower hadn't trickled down to this zip code", Marion reflects wryly), the finally encounters his birth father in person -- with dramatic consequences -- and has a chance to make peace with Thomas Stone, Shiva -- and himself.

Anyone familiar with Veghese's non-fiction writing (two very compelling memoirs, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story and The Tennis Partner) knows that he is an impeccable prose stylist. But relatively few non-fiction writers can also write wonderful fiction, much less produce this kind of complex drama. Rarer still is that this is a debut novel. Even the remarkable coincidences of the final third of the book never feel anything less than pitch-perfect: a real tribute to both Verghese's carefully-constructed plot and his eloquent, pitch-perfect writing.

It is rare for me to stumble over a novel of such a high caliber, one that creates the kind of characters I have never met before, characters who now are as vividly alive in my mind as any of the real individuals who populate my world. May this be only the first of many novels that Verghese produces for us, his lucky readers.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops

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Amazon Review

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter with stealth and tactical play aspect that puts players in the role of a shadow soldier fighting in a variety of historically representative fictional Black Ops missions of the Cold War era. Created with the input of actual Black Ops soldiers from the time, the game mixes traditional Call of Duty tactical shooter gameplay with new gameplay options designed to expand the players' experience. Additional features include extensive multiplayer options, along with new vehicles and explosive new weapons.

Follow-up to 2009’s blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops breaks new ground in the Call of Duty series and the video game industry at large by delving into the not-so cold conflicts of the Cold War.

Inspired by the experiences of real Black Ops soldiers of the era, the missions of Call of Duty: Black Ops take the player to a wide variety of settings, ranging from snowbound mountain strongholds in historical Soviet held territories, to the jungles and urban settings of Vietnam War era SE Asia. Throughout all, care has been taken to maintain the traditional essence of Call of Duty style combat, while also introducing new types of player action that add to the gameplay experience. Additional features include co-op, versus and team-based multiplayer options, new vehicles like the SR-71 Blackbird and lethal new weapons such as explosive-tipped crossbows.

Customer Review
by 3VOLVE

Great production value does not make a great game.
I'll start with the good things. COD:Black Ops graphics are on-par with any top-shelf title and it has an incredibly smooth feel. The game is reported to run at 60 frames per second and it feels very high def. The voice acting is good, and clearly the production value and marketing budgets are both very high. However, graphics, and hype do not make a good game. Gameplay and immersion do. Here's why COD:Black Ops Fails utterly.

1 AI is stupid. These shortcomings remind you constantly that your playing a game, and a poorly scripted one at that.
- Enemy recognition: I've seen the AI sit 2 feet away from an enemy and not shoot at them. When they finally do, they shoot it out for 10-15 seconds to score a kill on the enemy. This is ridiculous. Your allies in the field are supposed to be top-notch soldiers just like you. Why can't they do some of the heavy lifting? Why can't they do ANY lifting?
- AI Movement: Once again you are expected to lead the way no matter what. AI will lead you from one battle to another with annoying "follow me you jackass" type comments (I mean you're supposedly the "very best" soldier in the US's arsenal and your squad pampers you along like you're the greenest rookie in the armed forces, but I'll hit on this later) but once you get from one battle sequence to the next, they sit and shoot in the general direction of the enemy, but do nothing, generally, to progress the situation.
I want to ask the developers, "Have you played ANY other modern games with AI in them?" Because they do have a worthwhile influence on the outcome. Try playing Halo:Reach on legendary without the help of your squad mates you are FAR worse off. In that game, your squad shoots and accurately, and infinitely and eliminates enemies... For the really tough enemies you can time your shots with your AI squad mates to take down difficult targets with efficacy. This is entirely missing in BO.

2. Scripted non-sense battles: Once again the feel of a real battle is completely removed here. You can not move naturally through a level, but instead must figure out through countless, monotonous trial and error sessions what the best, and arguable only, (especially when playing on hardened/veteran difficulty) way through a section is. The fact that the story won't proceed to the next sequence until you trip the magic tripwire in the game is on par with 10-15yr old video games. Have the developers played anything but their own garbage in the last decade? I'm guessing no.
- Nothing is worse in battles than seeing your buddies standing in the open taking zero fire, while you are ducked behind cover, and somehow getting magically lit up by enemies invisible to you. While I understand that perhaps some finger or toe might be sticking out of cover, why in all reasonableness would the enemy concentrate the entirety of their base of fire on such an impossible target when there are readily available targets standing entirely in the open? The fact that every enemy on the field seems to ignore all targets but you is very hard to get over. It's counter intuitive. If you see your friends moving with impunity, its natural to think, "I can go with them and NOT get shot at by multiple enemies, since they are in the open and not getting shot at by multiple enemies." Treyarch rewards this logic with untimely, inexplicable death, over and over again. = totally annoying

3. Infinitely spawning enemies
- There are times when this is sensible, and there are times when it isn't. The fact that Treyarch rewards you for getting into a tactically superior position and eliminating enemies with unending waves of reinforcements is ridiculous. It's once again, counter-intuitive. While I understand the need to move, you are murdered over and over for sticking a toe out of cover, yet you are rewarded for being in cover with unending oppression. There needs to be a balance struck here where, IF you decide to take cover and use tactics to weaken the enemy force, you will get your chance to move. Maybe its simply the timing of the waves of enemies, but its seems that once you eliminate one enemy they are immediately replaced. This makes it pointless to eliminate enemies, and turns the game into a measured, Run-from-cover-to-cover type of battle where you simply hope to survive the onslaught and recover while in safety, only to do it again. Smoke grenades are the great balancer here, but they are in limited supply and that doesn't excuse how counter-intuitive it is to play a battle game without actually rewarding the player's skill and use of tactics with the ability to advance and succeed in a battlefield environment.

Awful
Game mechanics that are 10 - 15 yrs old, completely stale, and showing a complete inability to evolve
Completely lackluster AI
No rewards for player skill in a combat game

Good
Smooth, good-looking graphics
Talented voice acting

NOTE: Multiplayer is what it is, you either hate it or love it. I think its quick and addictive fun but I also greatly prefer the realism of other recent releases (MOH)
Zombies is great fun, but hardly worth a 60 pricetag.

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Ray-Ban RB2132 New Wayfarer Sunglasses

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Amazon Review

Wayfarers signify what the look of rock and roll is all about. Classically framed and completely iconic, this versatile and hip pair of sunglasses from Ray-Ban are lightweight, durable, and ready to exude some serious attitude.

Product Description

The New Wayfarer from Ray-Ban updates their iconic sunglass silhouette with a slightly smaller, more rounded shape. The end result is a contemporary look that still oozes throw-back style. Color options abound whether you're looking for classic or funky, and the crystal-clear optics provide a visual experience that is distinctly Ray-Ban.

Product Features

• Frame: Polycarbonate
• Hinge Type: Alloy
• Lens: Polycarbonate
• Interchangeable Lens: No
• Polarized: No
• Face Size: Small, Medium
• Case Type: Soft
• Nose Pads: No
• Arm Pads: No
• Recommended Use: Blocking rays, looking fresh
• Manufacturer Warranty: 1 Year

Customer Review
by C.W. Hacker - Placetia, CA

I bought these for the style. There's no sense in lying. Yes, I did want something with a little more eye coverage than the relatively small sunglasses I had before (and still use for driving) but the main reason is because Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, the Blues Brothers, etc. have been looking cool in these forever.

Now, I have no problem with that aspect. They look cool. They fit that purpose great, and get a good rating for that. In addition, they are made well, very nice quality. The frames are plastic and surely not as durable as a quality metal frame that allows flex, but it is a very nice quality plastic far removed from the cheap sunglass quality you expect on cheaper glasses. And as I said, you buy these for the style, not necessarily the durability. But I think they will hold up pretty well regardless.

However, I have some issues with them. First, though it's hard to find any reliable information about the technical details - there is absolutely none on Ray-Ban's official website - I was under the impression that the G-15 lenses were supposed to provide neutral color. It should have been obvious to me by the fact that they're referred to as grey-green, I guess, but they do put a distinct green cast over everything. They are not color neutral.

Secondly, it says Ray-Ban on the exterior of the glasses in THREE places, with an additional little Rb initial etched in on one of the lenses. To me, this is not stylish, and I think it is a new addition. I've seen hundreds of videos and photos of famous people wearing these, including close-ups, and never is the branding so noticeable. These are recognizable because of the style, and the quality of construction. It's utterly ridiculous to plaster it with branding! Of course, now rip-offs have suddenly become extremely popular, including a version sold at Target, so some I guess may desire the branding, to ensure to others that theirs are genuine. But come on, if you're paying for and wearing these, does that really matter to you?

Finally, do be careful about choosing polarized or non-polarized lenses. If you plan to use these for driving, you really should get polarized ones. I purchased the one offered here as a replacement for my driving glasses (extremely necessary in Southern California) as well as to wear outside in general, including while out taking photographs.

The problem with polarized glasses and photography is that the glass in camera viewfinders has coatings that interact with the polarizer and make it impossible to use. Also, it changes your perspective on what you see vs. what the camera sees, and if you use a polarizing filter on your lens to match, then you won't be able to see anything at all through the viewfinder because the polarizers combine. So the best solution is to just not wear sunglasses.

I want to wear sunglasses to protect my eyes in the bright sun, even when I'm taking photographs, so I chose non-polarized lenses. They work fine for that (other than not being color neutral...) but unfortunately, now they're nearly useless for driving! This is my problem, not taking anything off the rating because of this - just frustrating.

The seller I purchased it from had the best price by far. However, I recommend going to a mall first to try them on, both to judge the style (to choose between the original and new wayfarer) and the size. One of the stores that's in most malls, Sunglass Hut maybe, is owned by Luxottica, who also own Ray-Ban, and should have most styles in there for you to try.

Final note - the standard Ray-Ban included accessories, the cleaning cloth and case, are very nice. I always liked their sunglasses cases - my dad, a pilot, always had his aviators and the case his car and getting my own Ray-Ban case brought back memories for me :)

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Water for Elephants: A Novel

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Amazon Review

Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan --

Customer Review

What a terrific read! Water for Elephants has been lauded as a "great pick for summer", but this book is so much more. It has a depth and a substance to it that you don't usually find in your typical "beach read". It's obvious that the author did her research into the time period (post-Depression America), and the subject matter (traveling circuses). According to the author's note at the end of the book, many of the compelling anecdotes in the story were based upon real events, culled from the diaries and personal histories of old-time circus performers. As a result, Water for Elephants is a novel that boasts the rare combination of being both entertaining and informative.

The main character is a cantankerous, still-sharp 93-year-old man, and his frustration at being trapped in an old man's body is palpable. The story of his incredible life and adventures with the Benzini Brothers circus unfolds in a way that is emotionally wrenching, and yet flashes of good humor pervade throughout. The characters are richly drawn, and even the animals are given complex personalities that make them a pivotal part of the story. There is something in the novel for everyone: it is equal parts adventure, mystery, fictional memoir, love story, and historical account.

I highly recommend this book!

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Just Dance 2

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Amazon Review

The original Just Dance game got the world dancing like never before, and now the #1 best-selling Music/Rhythm game for play on the Nintendo Wii system is back with Just Dance 2. This time around it will be just as easy to keep the party going with an all-star tracklist--more than 45 strong, plus downloadable songs--from different genres, as well as the hottest dance moves of today. In addition, Just Dance 2 pushes the envelope even further with more accurate movement recognition by the Wii Remote, allowing better dancers to reap the rewards of their superior skill, without putting the game out of reach of beginners. Finally Just Dance 2 includes all-new dance modes making the game even more party oriented than its predecessor.

Customer Review
By Nutwiisystem.Com

The original Just Dance was the first dance video game to feature "real moves" to popular music. Before it, dance games were basically exercises in timing--stomping your feet on a mat or moving your hands to match an on-screen pattern. But with Just Dance, you weren't just playing a video game: you were learning real dance moves that you could take anywhere. And as you played the game over and over, you got a great workout without even knowing it. The game was a smash success, selling over 4 million copies worldwide. The game wasn't without its faults though, the biggest of which was the accuracy of the motion control. Even if you did the moves perfectly, sometimes the system wouldn't register them.

When you start out the game, the starting menu is refreshingly simple. There are three options: Dance!, Store, Extras. When you click "Dance!", you see three options: Just Dance, Dance Battle, and Just Sweat.

The "Just Dance" option gets you right to dancing to individual songs, just like in the original. Up to four players can play, each holding their own Wii remote. As in the original, you try to follow a mirror image of a silhouetted figure on the screen. Stick figures scrolling along the bottom of the screen will help you prepare for the next move, an indicator on the screen will tell you how well you hit your moves, and a "score gauge" will fill up with each correct move you make.

There's a great selection of 44 new songs, with something for everyone. Whether you want to dance to Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" or Outkast's "Hey Ya". I like Ubisoft's approach; while other music games tend to focus on just one genre, Ubisoft included something for all ages and tastes.

Some of the songs feature "Duet Mode". These songs are identified by circle icon with two figures standing with their back to each other. This is a neat new feature that allows two players to dance alongside each other with each doing different choreographed moves, so you end up dancing a neat little routine together. For example, in Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend", the dancers start by pointing to each other. Then, one makes air guitar-like moves for a while while the other swings her arms. Then, the two go back to synchronized motions. It makes for a cute dance routine.

The "Dance Battle" option takes players through five rounds of competition. Up to four players can compete against each other, and the winner of each round gets a point. The player with the most points at the end of rounds is the winner. You can mix and match from these modes to create different competitions:

- Classic: In this mode, players "just dance". The player with the highest overall score gets a point.
- Duet: This mode consists of all the "Duet Mode" songs. The player in the pair who scores the highest gets a point.
- Simon Says: In this game, while dancing an icon will appear randomly for each play while dancing (Stop, spin around, clap). The player must perform the action accurately to score points.
- Medley: In this mode, each player has to dance to five song samples.
- Race: This is a frenetic mode where each player has to fill their score gauge to win the round.

"Team Battle" is the same as "Dance Battle", except that it allows up to 8 players to play in two teams (they don't all play at the same time, the system will separate the players in the teams and display the players' names when it's their turn). This is great to have at parties where you have can get lots of people playing together and rooting their own team on.

My favorite new feature, of course, is "Just Sweat" mode. In it, you set an objective of calories you want to burn, and then you just dance away until they're burned off. 30 minutes dancing sure beats 30 minutes on a boring treadmill or exercise bike, as you not only burn calories away, you get practice learning the choreographed dance moves. And after dancing to the fast part of "Proud Mary", let's say I have newfound admiration for Tina Turner!

The new "Store" option allows you to buy downloadable content, which will even further expand the playability of this title.

And now the answer to the burning question you've been waiting for: did they really fix the poor motion tracking?

The answer is, happily, yes! Even though the game still uses only one Wii remote, and still doesn't even need MotionPlus, I'm happy to say that the motion tracking picked up my motions almost perfectly. It was even accurate not just to my timing, but also my arm movements and angles. The game developers made a vast improvement over the original in this department.

Overall, Just Dance 2 is a worthy successor to the original. The improved motion tracking is just what the doctor ordered, and they made the game even more fun for people playing together. Highly recommended.

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Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System DVD Set

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Amazon Review

Shed pounds and have a blast in the process with the Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System DVD set. Loaded with red-hot dance steps, pulsating Latin rhythms, and easy-to-follow routines, this invigorating dance-fitness "party" will have you movin', groovin', and shakin' the weight off to the sexy, exotic rhythms of salsa, cumbia, samba, merengue, and more. Each routine features interval training sessions that combine fast and slow rhythms with resistance training, helping sculpt and tone your body while burning fat. As a result, Zumba fanatics can enjoy multiple long-term health benefits while having fun in the moment. Working out can be a lot of things, but it's never been known to be an exhilarating experience--until now.

The set--which comes with four DVDs and six total workouts--will work your body from head to toe, starting with the basics and then moving to your favorite targets, such as your core, thighs, and abs. The set also comes with maraca-like toning sticks to add some muscle to your body sculpting routines. The DVDs include the following workouts: Zumba Fitness Basics Workout, Zumba Fitness 20-Minute Express Workout, Zumba Fitness Sculpt & Tone Workout, Zumba Fitness Cardio Party Workout, Zumba Fitness Live! Workout, and Zumba Fitness Flat Abs Workout.

About Zumba Fitness
Celebrity fitness trainer "Beto" Perez stumbled upon the concept of Latin-inspired dance fitness in his native Cali, Colombia, in the mid-'90s. One day, he walked into his aerobics class and realized he had forgotten his aerobics music. Thinking quickly, he grabbed some tapes from his backpack, which included the traditional Latin salsa and merengue music he'd listened to all his life. Although it was tough to improvise a whole class on the spot, Beto rose to the challenge and gave birth to a revolutionary new concept in fitness: the Zumba Fitness Party. The class soon became the most popular class at his fitness facility. As of July 2009, the Zumba program is being taught at more than 50,000 locations in 75 countries, has sold millions of DVDs, and has changed the lives of Zumba fanatics worldwide, with an estimated 6 million participants taking Zumba classes every week.

Customer Review

I started taking the Zumba classes and was so in love with them that I wanted to do them at home. After researching the Zumba DVD's, I stumbled across this set and bought it. I loved it- but it wasn't like the Zumba Beginners class that I was taking. The first DVD is a beginners DVD that shows you how to do the steps, and includes a 20 minute workout. I am a fairly fit, active female, and broke a sweat in no time with just the instructional DVD. They break each step down into 'easy', 'medium', and 'hard' so you can learn the steps and be confidant enough with them to move up into the other DVD's. Other reviews thought this was lame- I actually loved it. It was very helpful, here I thought I knew the steps all along and I really didn't. It will also help me with my class. The 20 minute workout is also a good beginners dvd, but I assume would get old after you get good at the moves. The Zumba Live DVD is probably most like the Zumba classes, where there is no instruction, and everyone is just dancing in rows. Surprisingly, you can pick up what they're doing, and I really didn't see them use the moves you learn from the first DVD too much, it was a little more freestyle. Beto, the creator of Zumba is kinda crazy- he's hard to understand, but the other female instructors are great and easy to follow.

I also thought this was very different than my classes. I was hoping to hear some of the same music and routines that I see in the live classes I attend, but it's different- not better or worse, just different than I was expecting. The 'weighted dumbells' are kinda lame- they're long, and not real heavy- I haven't used them yet because I find it hard to add yet another dimension to these moves still. You want to make sure you have a good area in front of your TV to do this on, and that you have the ability to jump and move your body weight without having to worry about things falling off bookshelves and such. The reviews that this was cheaply done and put together are false- how could it be cheap? It looks pretty clear from the pictures what you're getting. There were several DVD's and a dumbell set and I thought Amazon.com's price was reasonable for what you get. I don't know what these other people were expecting. I guess this is going to be sold on infomercials, but I have yet to see one yet- it's put together by that Gunthey-Renker brand that touts several other 'as seen on TV' products.

In all, I would highly recommend this, and recommend you wear hip-hop shoes (like the Bloch S0538L sneakers), and as few clothes as possible- each time I try to do this in a tshirt, I end up having to put on a tank by the end of the workout. Get ready to sweat and work your butt off- and you'll be well on your way to needing hip replacement surgery after all this latin dancing!!

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JanSport Classic SuperBreak Backpack

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Amazon Review

Boasting a sturdy 600-denier polyester construction and a stylish exterior, the JanSport SuperBreak backpack easily and comfortably carries your gear for years to come. The utilitarian pack offers a single main compartment and a front pocket with an organizer, giving it enough space to store two to three textbooks, a large binder, two to three spiral notebooks, several paperbacks, a calculator, pens and pencils, a bag lunch, a cell phone, and an MP3 player--all without breaking a sweat. In addition, the SuperBreak is comfortable enough for a full day of striding from class to class, with straight-cut, padded shoulder straps and a 2/3-padded back panel for cushioning comfort. Also outfitted with a web haul loop along the top, the SuperBreak carries a lifetime warranty.

Specifications:

• Capacity: 1,551.2 cubic inches / 25.42 liters
• Dimensions: 13 by 16.7 by 8.5 inches (W x H x D)
• Weight: 12 ounces

About JanSport
For more than 30 years, JanSport has created products to help you carry the stuff you need, where you need it, in the most functional and fashionable way possible. JanSport's success extends around the globe and into walks of life that are as varied as the company's product offering. JanSport's goal is to design, engineer, manufacture, and market products that can help you get from point A to point B, wherever that may be. And the company wants to help you get there in the most functional way possible. Realizing that the pack that carries your books to school might be the same backpack that carries your gear on a Saturday day hike, JanSport incorporates flexibility into each and every design. The company is headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin, with offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Customer Review
by T. Rountree

This backpack is very large inside. It is the third year I am using this brand and style. Being a girl I have to have a new color every year. This one is green. I like the color, it's very vibrant. Last years' was pink and though it was durable, it got dirty too easy and had to be washed quite often. Yes, I wash it in the washer on gentle cycle and hang to dry. It can hold all of my school books, but I'm thankful that I don't have to bring them all at once. Front zipper pocket is very large and holds my pen pouch, a small purse, and cd player. All around great backpack and it's washable, what more could you ask for?

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The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

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Amazon Review

Thinner, bigger, faster, stronger... which 150 pages will you read?

Is it possible to:
Reach your genetic potential in 6 months?
Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better than on 8 hours?
Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing?

Indeed, and much more. This is not just another diet and fitness book.

The 4-Hour Body is the result of an obsessive quest, spanning more than a decade, to hack the human body. It contains the collective wisdom of hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of jaw-dropping personal experimentation. From Olympic training centers to black-market laboratories, from Silicon Valley to South Africa, Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, fixated on one life-changing question:

For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?

Thousands of tests later, this book contains the answers for both men and women.

From the gym to the bedroom, it’s all here, and it all works.


YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each):
How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails.

* How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends)
* How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice
* How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
* How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
* How to produce 15-minute female orgasms
* How to triple testosterone and double sperm count
* How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
* How to reverse “permanent” injuries
* How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months
* How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 50 topics covered, all with real-world experiments, many including more than 200 test subjects.

You don't need better genetics or more discipline. You need immediate results that compel you to continue.

That’s exactly what The 4-Hour Body delivers.

Customer Review

Pro: It has a lot of great information for people who are new to dieting and exercise.
Easy to read. The split into different chapters you can read without having to read the whole book was a smart choice.
Simple programs.

Con: All the information isn't exactly new or just in this book. For example, the diet is Paleo, which is fine, but not what I expected from the ads. I really hoped for something new here, and what is new sounds dubious at best.
Some of the claims in the books description are a little exaggerated.
The work out is not the best. It's great if you are new to working out, but it's not enough for someone who is already athletic and looking to improve. If you want to be the best athlete you can, this will take you far but it will not get you there.
Reversing permanent injuries can be expensive.

I have a problem with his scientific method. He did a lot of these experiments only on himself, and one after another in a short period of time. His results might be skewed. I'm currently applying a few of his suggestions and have been for 2 weeks. I will update this review in the future if there is any radicle change, but as of now nothing has really happened.

I also do not like that this book has gotten so many perfect reviews so quickly, and that critical reviews are being removed.

All in all, the book is grand if you need to be introduced to the word of nutrition and exercise. But if you have read widely on the subjects already and looking for something different and radically new, this book doesn't really deliver.

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

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Amazon Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2010 As the finale to Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is not content to merely match the adrenaline-charged pace that made international bestsellers out of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Instead, it roars with an explosive storyline that blows the doors off the series and announces that the very best has been saved for last. A familiar evil lies in wait for Lisbeth Salander, but this time, she must do more than confront the miscreants of her past; she must destroy them. Much to her chagrin, survival requires her to place a great deal of faith in journalist Mikael Blomkvist and trust his judgment when the stakes are highest. To reveal more of the plot would be criminal, as Larsson's mastery of the unexpected is why millions have fallen hard for his work. But rest assured that the odds are again stacked, the challenges personal, and the action fraught with neck-snapping revelations in this snarling conclusion to a thrilling triad. This closing chapter to The Girl's pursuit of justice is guaranteed to leave readers both satisfied and saddened once the final page has been turned. --Dave Callanan

Customer Review

For the ending of this book alone, it is worth reading. However, while I wish I could say that this book was of the same caliber as that of the prior two books, in my opinion it was not. The book picked up right where the last left off, with Salander in the hospital being treated for her injuries. Blomkvist continues to sleuth on her behalf in order to expose those who have made her life hellish and attempted to frame her for all manner of crimes. Of course, in his spare time he also still manages to attract every woman within a 500-yard-radius like a bee to honey, but I digress. All of the other familiar characters from the prior books return.

I don't want to spoil the plot of the book, so I will give a general review. The overall feel of the book to me is that it was the least edited and least considered of the three. This would make sense if Larsson had intended to go back and do some more tweaking and editing before publication, but he was obviously unable to do so after his death. There are entire sections of the book that meander on and on with no apparent purpose with regard to moving the story forward. These sections would have benefited greatly from some serious editorial paring.

To me, the plot did not at all move along at the same clip as the prior books. The suspense just wasn't there to the same degree. I recall that I simply could not put down the previous books, but I was nowhere near as riveted by this one. In addition, there were a number of somewhat annoying grammatical errors, sentence fragments, etc.

For the good points of the book, the ending (if that is what we can call the last 150-200 pages) is a very nice, tightly written section that ties everything together beautifully. Again, it struck me that perhaps Larsson had written the ending earlier than the rest of book three, as it appeared to be the best-constructed section of the entire book. For the ending alone, this story is worth reading. I wavered between a 3-and 4- star review for this reason. Ultimately, I considered whether the book, standing alone without the other two, would be a 4-star book, and I don't believe that would be the case.

As an aside, one minor issue is that on the book cover of the copy I picked up while in Belgium, the first blurb says "The Trial", as if the book is mostly about Salander's trial itself, which it is not. The trial itself takes up about the last tenth of the book. Whether this type of advertising will occur with the North American edition I don't know, but I write this warning simply so you might know what to expect.

In summary, anyone who has read the first two books simply will not be able to deny themselves the final installment, nor should they. Although I did not find the book to hold the same level of suspense and I sometimes found it rather dull, the ending of the book makes it very worthwhile reading. It is a great loss that Mr. Larsson passed away before he could really fine-tune the final book, and before he could write another.

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The Girl Who Played with Fire

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Amazon Review

Amazon Best of the Month, July 2009: The girl with the dragon tattoo is back. Stieg Larsson's seething heroine, Lisbeth Salander, once again finds herself paired with journalist Mikael Blomkvist on the trail of a sinister criminal enterprise. Only this time, Lisbeth must return to the darkness of her own past (more specifically, an event coldly known as "All the Evil") if she is to stay one step ahead--and alive. The Girl Who Played with Fire is a break-out-in-a-cold-sweat thriller that crackles with stunning twists and dismisses any talk of a sophomore slump. Fans of Larsson's prior work will find even more to love here, and readers who do not find their hearts racing within the first five pages may want to confirm they still have a pulse. Expect healthy doses of murder, betrayal, and deceit, as well as enough espresso drinks to fuel downtown Seattle for months. --Dave Callanan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Customer Review

In THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, the second volume in the late Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, publisher Mikael Blomkvist and the police are conducting parallel investigations into three horrifying murders -- and their initial evidence points straight at young computer genius and social misfit Lisbeth Salander. Kalle Bastard Blomkvist (as Salander has begun referring to him) hasn't seen Salander in nearly two years, except for one night when he happened to witness a huge man attempting to kidnap her and both she and the attacker eluded him. He's bewildered about why she cut him off cold, but had accepted her decision -- until now. He doesn't believe Salander killed these victims. Well, at least not two of them. He has to contact her, find out how she's become embroiled in this, and help her. Salander, as usual, has her own ideas about who she'll see and when....

In THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Larsson partnered Blomkvist and Salander as they unraveled a twisted tale of corporate greed, Fascist connections, and perverse sex and violence. FIRE highlights another subject on which Larsson wanted to shine light, namely the underbelly of the sex trade, a swill of human misery being forcibly imposed for money and simple loathing of women. Blomkvist's magazine, Millennium, plans an issue devoted to the subject based on the interviews and reporting of a criminologist and a journalist, and there follows much in-house discussion of the lurid material and how it should be presented to the public. But the three murders turn the magazine and its people on their heads.

Meanwhile, Salander travels, changes her appearance, and matures in the early chapters of the 569-page book that covers four months in total and is told in four parts. Among her pursuits: attempting to proof Fermat's Last Theorem in a way Fermat himself might have done, furnishing her new abode, and keeping tabs on Bjurman (whom, recall, she memorably tattooed in DRAGON). Then, she disappears for quite a spell as the murder investigation gets cranking, and finally, she regains the spotlight as the book rushes headlong into a heart-stopping denouement.

The last book in this series -- tentatively entitled THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST in its English translation -- is not scheduled for release until 2010. However, the entire trilogy has already been published in Swedish (naturally), French, and German. Larsson reportedly had planned a ten-volume series. He had written part of the fourth book and had outlined volumes five, six, and seven. Sadly, due to his early death, only the trilogy is complete and will, according to his father, be published. After reading FIRE, the thought creeps in that perhaps the trilogy will not provide closure, and that the reader could be left dangling, unsatisfied. That would be a crying shame because Salander and Blomkvist -- along with other continuing characters -- do burrow themselves deeply into the reader's (at least this reader's) affections. Fortunately, reviewers who have read, in the other aforementioned languages, the entire story arc, including the final novel, seem generally very satisfied. Some claim that the last book, also the longest, is a grand finale that answers all outstanding questions. A few are less effusive, stating that the last book can't meet the anticipatory heights set by the stunning, unusual first one.

This last criticism can be applied to the second book as well. FIRE does not pack quite the punch of uniqueness that DRAGON did. One can perhaps think of the movie trilogy THE MATRIX, MATRIX RELOADED, and THE MATRIX REVOLUTION as an analogy. The smash introductory film awed with its mind-bending perspective. The second and third passes were very solid, even amazing, partners, but they only reiterated the cutting-edge magic so novel in The MATRIX, building on it, not inventing something mind-blowingly fresh. Familiarity takes a bit of the bloom off the rose, but it certainly doesn't breed contempt in these instances. Larsson's FIRE lags a little during the mid-section in which criminal investigation procedure grinds along and the author belabors certain points, seeming to believe his readers novices at crime mysteries. But overall, FIRE accelerates the enthralling story of Lisbeth and Mikael with panache. One can't help thinking the world they inhabit is too slimy, too vicious, but Larsson was a man with many crusades and causes, and his trilogy vividly paints the harsh pictures of society that he hoped to reform. The Millennium Trilogy encompasses uncompromising social critique; prickling thrills; and curious, bittersweet romance. FIRE drew me like a moth, and I can't wait to get my hands on HORNET. 4.4 stars.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tatto

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Amazon Review

Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave Callanan

Customer Review

A 24-year-old computer hacker sporting an assortment of tattoos and body piercings and afflicted with Asperger Syndrome or something of the like has been under state guardianship in her native Sweden since she was thirteen. She supports herself by doing deep background investigations for Dragan Armansky, who, in turn, worries the anorexic-looking Lisbeth Salander is "the perfect victim for anyone who wished her ill." Salander may look fourteen and stubbornly shun social norms, but she possesses the inner strength of a determined survivor. She sees more than her word processor page in black and white and despises the users and abusers of this world. She won't hesitate to exact her own unique brand of retribution against small-potatoes bullies, sick predators, and corrupt magnates alike.

Financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist has just been convicted of libeling a financier and is facing a fine and three months in jail. Blomkvist, after a Salander-completed background check, is summoned to a meeting with semi-retired industrialist Henrik Vanger whose far-flung but shrinking corporate empire is wholly family owned. Vanger has brooded for 36 years about the fate of his great niece, Harriet. Blomkvist is expected to live for a year on the island where many Vanger family members still reside and where Harriet was last seen. Under the cover story that he is writing a family history, Blomkvist is to investigate which family member might have done away with the teenager.

So, the stage is set. The reader easily guesses early that somehow Blomkvist and Salander will pool their talents to probe the Vanger mystery. However,Swede Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is no humdrum, formulaic whodunit. It is fascinating and very difficult to put down. Nor is it without some really suspenseful and chillingly ugly scenes....

The issue most saturating The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that of shocking sexual violence primarily against women but not excluding men. Salander and Blomkvist both confront prima facie evidence of such crimes. Larsson's other major constituent elements are corporate malfeasance that threatens complete collapse of stock markets and anarchistic distrust of officialdom to the point of endorsing (at least, almost) vigilantism. He also deals with racism as he spins a complex web from strands of real and imagined history concerning mid-twentieth century Vanger affiliations with Sweden's fascist groups.

But Larsson's carefully calibrated tale is more than a grisly, cynical world view of his country and the modern world at large. At its core, it is an fascinating character study of a young woman who easily masters computer code but for whom human interaction is almost always more trouble than it is worth, of an investigative reporter who chooses a path of less resistance than Salander but whose humanity reaches out to many including her, and of peripheral characters -- such as Armansky -- who need more of their story told.

Fortunately, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in English translation will be followed by two more in the Millennium series: The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Air Castle that Blew Up. I can't wait. Larsson also made a 200-page start on a fourth book, but sadly he succumbed to a heart attack in 2004 and his father decided the unfinished work will remain unpublished.

I recommend this international bestseller to all who eagerly sift new books for challenging intellectual crime thrillers, who luxuriate in immersing themselves in the ambience of a compellingly created world and memorable characters, who soak up financial and investigative minutiae as well as computer hacking tidbits, and who want to share Larsson's crusade against violence and racism.

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