Mi Comadre, “The Girl With Dragon Tattoo”

You might be saying to yourself, “Sara, what does Lisbeth Salander have to do with a crazy pocha like you?” Well, I would argue that a whole lot. I absolutely loved Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, but most especially I loved Lisbeth Salander. On a journalistic side note, I find it absolutely tragic that Larsson never really got to enjoy his success, something I’m sure he worked very hard for.

If you haven’t read any of these books yet — The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest — you need to! First of all, these are perfect vacation books; you will not be able to put them down, so if you have a long flight coming up or something, it’s perfect. You won’t even notice the flight, the people schooching by you on their way to the bathroom or the screaming child behind you.

Lisbeth Salander is the classic underdog, or perhaps the post-modern underdog, just because, quite literally, everyone is against her! Her family is down and out, or just not in the picture, she has few friends, trusts no one and the system has worked perfectly to keep her down — but she never lets it get her down, jamás se da por vencida, she believes in her own truth and does whatever it takes to protect the people she loves.

Following Lisbeth on her often tragic, but ultimately triumphant journey made me believe in humanity just a little bit. Oh, and of course, I’m a sucker for a good journalist story! But, as these paperbacks make their way into used bookstores and you happen upon one, take a chance, I promise it will be well worth it.

P.S. The Swedish films are brilliant, I’m not sure I even want to see the U.S. productions.