Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

★ ★ ★ ★ When I saw this book on the shelf of the Edisto Island Bookstore this summer, I was instantly interested in reading this.   I should admit up front that part of the appeal of this book was that it was fictionalized Jewish history. I love books about Jewish people.  When I said that to Patrick, he looked at me like I was crazy. It does sound exoticizing*, but I feel this way because books about Jews make Jews less exotic, not more.  Growing up in South Carolina, I knew one Jewish person, and I had no idea what it meant to be Jewish.  I certainly never got any history lessons or world culture lessons about Jews.  I did not understand, for instance, that they are a vast and diverse culture spread across the whole planet that is made of many different groups with their own individual cultures.  Even more interesting is that I was raised in a Baptist church and grew up with the stories of the Old Testament, but no one ever told me...

★ ★ ★ ★ I read the first book in the series years ago, and only just now returned for 2 and 3.  In the intervening years, Stieg has lost none of his appeal.  I think we all know what an incredible character Lisbeth Salander is, and honestly Blomkvist is still about as appealing as an over the hill playboy ever is - so sometimes a lot, sometimes less so.  The confusion I felt about her being hung up on him at the end of the first novel was reiterated once again at the beginning of the second.  He proves incredibly loyal through books 2 and 3, and clever besides, and yet it never becomes at all clear why Lisbeth would fall in love with him.   I think the primary appeal of the novels lies neither in the plot nor the characters, but rather in Stieg Larsson's writing style. He is practically a documentarian, providing details continually throughout the entire novel that most authors wouldn't have provided to begin with.  For example, he provides incredi...

★ ★ I'd heard a lot of comparisons between Battle Royale and The Hunger Games , so I wanted to see if they were well founded.  Other than the central concept of kids battling it out, it is not particularly similar.  I realize that to say that them having the same central concept yet being totally different sounds ridiculous, but I think they are. The main act of Battle Royale is the fighting, and while the fighting is important in The Hunger Games, it's used as a way to pull out other issues.  The relationship with the state and the purpose of the games is much clearer in Hunger Games.  I think this makes the violence in Battle Royale more menacing, in that it seems without purpose, but it also makes it seem less important, almost trivial.  This is stupid, kids are killing each other. There is, perhaps a lesson there, that we need the context of Rue and Katniss's family and relationships made clear to us before we care that kids are killing each other. So...

★ ★ ★.5 When I first picked up this book, I thought the title was referring to an entire continent.  I was intrigued by the idea that the title was reducing a whole continent down that way, as simple the light between two oceans.  As it turns out, the title is both more literal and more metaphorical. The main characters are Tom and Isabel, and the story is told largely through Tom's eyes, although the omnipotent narrator provides insight into the other characters increasingly more often as the book continues. The story begins as Tom returns from the Great War to Western Australia, where he begins tending lighthouses for the government. The work is governed by strict rules and an order that Tom finds appealing after his experiences at war.  At one point he says that rules are what prevent man from becoming savages.  He clings to the safety of this order as well as his dedication to something he perceives to be larger than himself - the Janus lighthouse guidin...