Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Kevin8or]

I was reading A Christmas Carol but became distracted by people in this thread discussing The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. So, I've just completed:

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

I'd like to know if Larsson's depiction of violence & discrimination against women in Sweden is accurate. To read his novels, you'd think there's a significant portion -- say, 5 or 10%? -- of Swedish men who really do hate women, especially women with a measure of success or power. I'm wholly ignorant of the truth, but the books make me wonder.

I've become convinced that I previously read these, although I have no recollection of doing so. I must have borrowed them from the library. Strange that I don't remember, and yet... the books were vaguely familiar.

Okay, then: back to A Christmas Carol!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

I was reading A Christmas Carol but became distracted by people in this thread discussing The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. So, I've just completed:

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

I'd like to know if Larsson's depiction of violence & discrimination against women in Sweden is accurate. To read his novels, you'd think there's a significant portion -- say, 5 or 10%? -- of Swedish men who really do hate women, especially women with a measure of success or power. I'm wholly ignorant of the truth, but the books make me wonder.

I've become convinced that I previously read these, although I have no recollection of doing so. I must have borrowed them from the library. Strange that I don't remember, and yet... the books were vaguely familiar.

Okay, then: back to A Christmas Carol!

I don't pretend to know the answer to your question, but by the same logic I could ask whether seemingly every other person in the US is a serial killer.

My guess would be that books about normal family guys don't sell as well. Whether they're based in Sweden, the US or wherever.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I don't pretend to know the answer to your question, but by the same logic I could ask whether seemingly every other person in the US is a serial killer.

Only the first book is about a serial killer. Well, two serial killers. The women in his three novels repeatedly encounter a hostility, even hatred, from a minority of the men they encounter. So, I'm not making the kind of extrapolation you suggest. It's actually a theme through the author's novels.

To be clear, I've formed no belief. The author clearly wished to provoke thought and discussion on the subject.

P.S. - I didn't suggest that every other Swede is a serial killer because there is one in the novel.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Does chronological/reading order matter with either her Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot series?

I haven't got to enough Miss Marples to tell, but in one or two of the Hercule Poirots there's a passing reference to earlier cases, that might be spoilers if you're paying close attention.

Personally, I'm reading them in publication order.

Spoiler:

01 The Mysterious Affair at Styles
02 The Secret Adversary
03 The Murder on the Links
04 The Man in the Brown Suit
05 Poirot Investigates
06 The Secret of Chimneys
07 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
08 The Big Four
09 The Mystery of the Blue Train
10 The Seven Dials Mystery
11 Partners in Crime
12 The Murder at the Vicarage
13 The Mysterious Mr. Quin
14 The Sittaford Mystery
15 Peril at End House
16 The Thirteen Problems
17 The Hound of Death
18 Lord Edgware Dies
19 Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
20 Murder on the Orient Express
21 Parker Pyne Investigates
22 The Listerdale Mystery
23 Three Act Tragedy
24 Death in the Clouds
25 The ABC Murders
26 Murder in Mesopotamia
27 Cards on the Table
28 Dumb Witness
29 Death on the Nile
30 Murder in the Mews
31 Appointment with Death
32 Hercule Poirot's Christmas
33 Murder is Easy
34 And Then There Were None
35 Sad Cypress
36 One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
37 Evil under the Sun
38 N or M?
39 The Body in the Library
40 The Moving Finger
41 Five Little Pigs
42 Towards Zero
43 Death Comes as the End
44 Sparkling Cyanide
45 The Hollow
46 The Labours of Hercules
47 Taken at the Flood
48 Crooked House
49 A Murder is Announced
50 They Came To Baghdad
51 Mrs McGinty's Dead
52 They Do It With Mirrors
53 A Pocket Full of Rye
54 After the Funeral
55 Destination Unknown
56 Hickory Dickory Dock
57 Dead Man's Folly
58 4.50 From Paddington
59 Ordeal by Innocence
60 Cat among the Pigeons
61 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
62 The Pale Horse
63 The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side
64 The Clocks
65 A Caribbean Mystery
66 At Bertram's Hotel
67 Third Girl
68 Endless Night
69 By the Pricking of My Thumbs
70 Hallowe'en Party
71 Passenger to Frankfurt
72 Nemesis
73 Elephants Can Remember
74 Postern of Fate
75 Poirot's Early Cases
76 Curtain
77 Sleeping Murder
78 Miss Marple's Final Cases
79 Problem at Pollensa Bay
80 While the Light Lasts
81 Black Coffee
82 Spider's Web
83 The Unexpected Guest

Of course, publication order is a little different for some of the short stories in the short story collections in US and UK, but this seems to be the list of current ebooks in the UK and, I think, in the US. The last three are not wholly by Agatha Christie.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

Only the first book is about a serial killer. Well, two serial killers. The women in his three novels repeatedly encounter a hostility, even hatred, from a minority of the men they encounter. So, I'm not making the kind of extrapolation you suggest. It's actually a theme of the author's novels.

To be clear, I've formed no belief. The author clearly wished to provoke thought and discussion on the subject.

I think that my point was that you have read three Swedish novels and, from that, seriously asked about the levels of misogyny in Sweden.

My further point was that I could easily point to a dozen or more American novels that clearly beg the question, according to your logic, whether or not America has a massive number of evil serial killers.

Asking questions of that nature based on reading three novels is naive to say the least.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

'd like to know if Larsson's depiction of violence & discrimination against women in Sweden is accurate. To read his novels, you'd think there's a significant portion -- say, 5 or 10%? -- of Swedish men who really do hate women, especially women with a measure of success or power. I'm wholly ignorant of the truth, but the books make me wonder.

The proportion is probably a bit high because they are stories about violence towards women. But I don't think its wildly exaggerated, nor a situation thats peculiar to Sweden. The stats on violence towards women are horrific everywhere. But perhaps this is best left to the P&R forum, if you'd like to have figures and sources.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I haven't got to enough Miss Marples to tell, but in one or two of the Hercule Poirots there's a passing reference to earlier cases, that might be spoilers if you're paying close attention.

Personally, I'm reading them in publication order.

Spoiler:

01 The Mysterious Affair at Styles
02 The Secret Adversary
03 The Murder on the Links
04 The Man in the Brown Suit
05 Poirot Investigates
06 The Secret of Chimneys
07 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
08 The Big Four
09 The Mystery of the Blue Train
10 The Seven Dials Mystery
11 Partners in Crime
12 The Murder at the Vicarage
13 The Mysterious Mr. Quin
14 The Sittaford Mystery
15 Peril at End House
16 The Thirteen Problems
17 The Hound of Death
18 Lord Edgware Dies
19 Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
20 Murder on the Orient Express
21 Parker Pyne Investigates
22 The Listerdale Mystery
23 Three Act Tragedy
24 Death in the Clouds
25 The ABC Murders
26 Murder in Mesopotamia
27 Cards on the Table
28 Dumb Witness
29 Death on the Nile
30 Murder in the Mews
31 Appointment with Death
32 Hercule Poirot's Christmas
33 Murder is Easy
34 And Then There Were None
35 Sad Cypress
36 One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
37 Evil under the Sun
38 N or M?
39 The Body in the Library
40 The Moving Finger
41 Five Little Pigs
42 Towards Zero
43 Death Comes as the End
44 Sparkling Cyanide
45 The Hollow
46 The Labours of Hercules
47 Taken at the Flood
48 Crooked House
49 A Murder is Announced
50 They Came To Baghdad
51 Mrs McGinty's Dead
52 They Do It With Mirrors
53 A Pocket Full of Rye
54 After the Funeral
55 Destination Unknown
56 Hickory Dickory Dock
57 Dead Man's Folly
58 4.50 From Paddington
59 Ordeal by Innocence
60 Cat among the Pigeons
61 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
62 The Pale Horse
63 The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side
64 The Clocks
65 A Caribbean Mystery
66 At Bertram's Hotel
67 Third Girl
68 Endless Night
69 By the Pricking of My Thumbs
70 Hallowe'en Party
71 Passenger to Frankfurt
72 Nemesis
73 Elephants Can Remember
74 Postern of Fate
75 Poirot's Early Cases
76 Curtain
77 Sleeping Murder
78 Miss Marple's Final Cases
79 Problem at Pollensa Bay
80 While the Light Lasts
81 Black Coffee
82 Spider's Web
83 The Unexpected Guest

Of course, publication order is a little different for some of the short stories in the short story collections in US and UK, but this seems to be the list of current ebooks in the UK and, I think, in the US. The last three are not wholly by Agatha Christie.

You are awesome!

I think between this list and the Christie freebie that AT recommended, I'm covered.

Thank you.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I think that my point was that you have read three Swedish novels and, from that, seriously asked about the levels of misogyny in Sweden. [...] Asking questions of that nature based on reading three novels is naive to say the least.

*Sighs* I think you're trying to pick a fight where there isn't one to be had. The author's bio in the book says

Stieg Larsson was the editor in chief of the antiracist magazine Expo, and for twenty years the graphics editor at a Swedish news agency. He was a leading expert on anti-democratic, right-wing extremist and Nazi organizations

Assuming the description is fair, Larsson earned credibility as someone who worked against racism, anti-semtism, & hate. If someone with his history writes three consecutive novels highlighting violence against women -- and the first novel is titled "Men Who Hate Women" -- then I don't assume he's a Dan Brown or Stephen King whose objective is simply to tell a tale. He has an objective of social activism. It's not naive to then ask what the real statistics may be. I agree with pdurrant that it's not specific to sweden, but Larsson was writing to his native audience about his own country. Please, try not seize on faulty analogies or assume naiveté.

Since this isn't the "Politics and Religion" section, I'll say no more.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

*Sighs* I think you're trying to pick a fight where there isn't one to be had. The author's bio in the book says



Assuming the description is fair, Larsson earned credibility as someone who worked against racism, anti-semtism, & hate. If someone with his history writes three consecutive novels highlighting violence against women -- and the first novel is titled "Men Who Hate Women" -- then I don't assume he's a Dan Brown or Stephen King whose objective is simply to tell a tale. He has an objective of social activism. It's not naive to then ask what the real statistics may be. I agree with pdurrant that it's not specific to sweden, but Larsson was writing to his native audience about his own country. Please, try not seize on faulty analogies or assume naiveté.

Since this isn't the "Politics and Religion" section, I'll say no more.

Neither will I then. I'll just leave your nonsensical questions to speak for themselves.

[bcgirl]

Originally Posted by orlok

Ummmm. Guilty as charged. It's the fact that you keep referring to the series as The Hungry Games .

It's my son, who started this, and I thought its quite funny so we keep saying Hungry Games. Gotta have fun!

[Fbone]

Started reading Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. After 70 pages it's not working for me. I'll give it some more time. Admittedly, it's not my favorite genre and at 652 pages it has an uphill battle. No pun intended.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by bcgirl

Gotta have fun!

Too true .

[carld]

On a whim I borrowed The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century from the library. Unfortunately they only had the ePub available, and I'm having to read it on my Fire in the Overdrive app. After some fiddling with the setting the renderings isn't too horrible, but I'd much rather have had the Kindle version.

The first two stories are fairly old and so aren't really written in a modern style. I've only got it for a week though, so I'll keep plugging on and then get back to the James Potter series.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Not too much, but you may not want to read the last two of either series (Curtain, and whatever the last Marple mystery was named) before reading everything else.

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Oh! Why do you suggest reading the last books first? Thank you for the titles, BTW.

I think you missed my "not" in that sentence.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I think you missed my "not" in that sentence.

Yes, yes I did ....