See Jane Write (A girl's guide to writing Chicklit)

This book is about “how to write a chicklit book” written in a chicklit way.  It’s a very fun book to read.  I wouldn’t say it gives a whole lot about the art of writing (only because such info can be easily found on the Internet for free), but it boosts your confidence.  If you like to write that next Briget Jones Diary someday, this book will uplift your mood—because wring such genre is fun,  it’s like a therapy, it’s like dating; that there is huge market for it, and you should go for it.  It’s inspirational book, so to speak; but also a warning that writing such book has many challenge. Mlynowski (the writer of this book) gives you information about how successful authors ended up with this genre: Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, Stacy Ballis, Helen Fielding, etc. 

She also gives advice to different type of writers:  To the overwhelmed, the instant gratification addict, the procrastinator, the perfectionist, the mess (which I think I fall under), the commitment-phobe, the insecure, and the really busy (me again).  There is a chapter about developing your main (and secondary) character, elements of style, structure of  pacing up to revising. 

I was able to finish reading this book in three hours, (while I was waiting in line at the DMV to renew my license.)  It’s thin, less than 200 pages, and didn’t require intense attention.

Someone who is greenhorn to writing might benefit a great deal from this book.  For the not so green, it’s fun and uplifting.

Where in the World is Harriet Vanger?

Harriet Vanger started sending his Uncle, Henrik Vanger, pressed flowers for his birthday since she was eight years.  When Harriet was 16, she mysteriously disappeared. Yet, the pressed flowers kept on coming to Vanger for the next 40 years through the mail without a return address.  Were they coming from Harriet’s abductor?  Who was the abductor? Was he a member of the Vanger empire?  What happened to Harriet remained a mystery and Henrik brooded about it for almost four decades.

On Henrik Vanger’s 82^nd birthday, he decided to hire a financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist who has just been convicted of libeling a financier and is facing a fine and three months in jail. He was a asked to write an autobiography of Henrik Vanger and to do an investigative journalism to the disappearance of Harriet.  About to refuse but when Henrik offered him a large amount of money and help win his case, Blomvist acquiesced.

Blomkvist was partnered with Lisbeth Salander, a 24-yearl-old computer hacker with lots of tattoos (including a dragon on her back) and body piercing.  She was pale and thin and loves to wear black—a combination of gothic and trashy look. But don’t underestimate her ability to investigate by way of computer hacking.  Unfortunately, Lisbeth was also a victim of rape that perhaps contributed to her low self esteem.

These are the two characters brought together to solve a mystery that needed solving even before they were born. 

The story is very complicated that you wouldn’t want to miss even a page. It’s one of those that gets better until the end. 

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson