Top Ten Kick-Ass Heroines

If you haven't already, you need to watch the BAMF Girls Club

1. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy. If you looked up kick-ass in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of Katniss.

2. Lisbeth Salander from the Millenium trilogy. She may be socially inept, but she's intelligent, feisty and sure knows how to get revenge.

3. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. Without Hermione, I'm pretty sure Voldemort would still be around... and Harry probably wouldn't be. The boys wouldn't have gotten anywhere without her.

4. Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables series. Oh, Anne-girl. I have a special place in my heart for the little ginger. She belongs on this list purely for the moment she broke her slate over Gilbert Blythe's head - although she's all other kinds of awesome, too.

5. Lizzie Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie doesn't have to be a zombie slayer to kick butt: she does it classic-style, with her sharp tongue and fine eyes.

6. Josie Alibrandi from Looking for Alibrandi. I love all of Melina Marchetta's heroines, but Josie is special to me because I grew up with her. Sure, she's kinda annoying at times, but I adore Josie for her passion and her ability to fight for what she believes in.

7. Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre. C'mon, the freaking book is named for her. How kick-ass is that? What's even more kick-ass is Jane's self respect: She demands to be treated as an equal, and won't compromise herself or her values for anyone (even the swoony Rochester).

8. Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout is everything I wasn't as a kid: tomboyish, brave, unafraid to speak her mind... but I think she's amazeballs. She packs such a big punch (in more ways than one) for someone so small.

9. Rose Hathaway from the Vampire Academy series. I read this series straight after Twilight, and it's safe to say Rose is the antithesis to Bella Swan. Forget falling for vampires - she stakes them! And, uh, just falls in love with her teacher instead... moving on.

10. Matilda from Matilda. Look at that, another title-worthy character. Matilda is intelligent, brave, cheeky, strong-minded and magical - and her favourite thing in the world is books. What's not to love?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Bookish Links: BAMFs, Strange Art and Attacks of Cute

My poor blog has been a bit neglected lately, but I have big plans to get back into the swing of things in the next week. I have a few reviews coming (finally!) and some other fun features. In the meantime, here are some awesome things from the rest of the internet...

BAMF Girls Club
This new web series answers the question: What would happen if Hermione, Bella, Katniss, Lisbeth and Buffy lived in a house together? (Short answer: Hilarious amazingness).


Top Five Trashiest Teen Reads
The Vine lists what they deem as the trashiest novels for teens. Take out Sweet Valley High (I somehow missed that boat) and you have my whole childhood, basically. Thanks to Shirley Marr (who is now on Twitter!) for the link.

Speaking of Shirley, she's written this wonderful post about Operation Christmas Child. Check it out.

How to become a famous author
Warning: not actually how to become a famous author.

How to deconstruct a novel
Tips on analysing books to improve your own writing

56 Broken Kindle Screens
This project exhibiting broken Kindle screens is strangely beautiful... I still wouldn't want my new preciousss to break though.

Famous authors' school photos
So, Jack Kerouac was kind of a fox. Just sayin'.

There is a Pride and Prejudice board game
There is a PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BOARD GAME. Can you tell I'm excited?

The Stormdancer book trailer is great
I'm not usually a fan of book trailers, but this one is pretty awesomesauce.


Non-bookish (but still fun) links

Puberty is embarrassing for penguins, too

DIY Nutella. Including white chocolate. Want. Now.

Attack of the cute

Alcohol under a microscope is purdy

Someone needs to make this Captain Planet movie happen

Random YouTube clip of the week

Review: The Girl Who Played With Fire By Stieg Larsson

What a relief to finally finish this book.

I feel like I've been reading it FOREVER. Well, at least a month, anyway. Which is unusual for me. It's partly because I've been so busy, partly because of the size, but I think mostly, for awhile there, I just didn't feel compelled to pick it up at all. Don't get me wrong - the story of Lisbeth Salander accused of murdering three people, and Mikael Blomkvist's search for the truth, is an interesting one, and the writing is good overall. The first part dives straight into action, and although it still takes awhile to get to the main plot, I really enjoyed reading it. The ending is also great - once I got to the last third of the book, it was hard to put down as everything came into place. It was just the middle I had a lot of trouble with.

I think the main problem is Lisbeth Salander. She's such an amazing character and undoubtedly the star of the series. She's kick-butt, complex, uncompromising, unique and brilliant. She absolutely leaps off the page when she appears. So when she doesn't appear - like, in the whole middle section of The Girl Who Played With Fire - the pages feel flat and dull. She's still part of the story, as the team investigating the murders comes together and begins to hunt her down, but she's not actually present, and her absense is definitely felt. Now, I like me a murder investigation, but unfortunately the bulk of this one was just so boring. I felt like every time I picked up the book, a new character was being introduced, and their whole life story was revealed in intricate details, and I JUST. DIDN'T. CARE. I get it, it's Larsson's style, but there were so many characters that I had difficulty tracking who was who (especially as it was often days between readings) and I just wasn't invested in most of them at all.

When Lisbeth finally appeared again, I think I literally breathed a sigh of relief, and read the rest of the book in a matter of days. Once again, to Larsson's credit, there were some major twists that I did not see coming at all. I love it when a book catches me by surprise. So I closed the book feeling satisfied. But even though there were quite a few threads left hanging for The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, I have to say I don't think I'm going to pick that up immediately. I'll get to it soon, because I really want to know how it all ends, of course, but at the moment I feel a bit fatigued by the series. Time for some mindless, easy fluff, I think.

Rating: 3/5

Spoilery Talking Points

• ZOMG I was NOT expecting Zala to be who he was. I thought maybe Lisbeth had been kidnapped and abused as a kid, but finding out what "All the Evil" really was, was completely shocking. In a good way.
• I knew she didn't do it. Still, she's pretty mental. In a good way.

Fine Print
Genre: Crime
Published: 2009
Get It: Abe Books