Another year of college is in the books, and it didn't take me too long after it was done to start my summer reading. Being able to read whatever I want is almost better than not having any homework to worry about. This summer especially I've already found some great reads...
A friend recommended the Detective Harry Hole crime novels to me when we were talking about our mutual love for Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, etc.). She said that this Jo Nesbo is almost as good and is being called the next Larsson. At first I didn't know if I believed that, but after reading the first two of this currently ten book series it's becoming harder to deny. Although not quite as likable as Lisbeth Salander, Detective Harry Hole has really started to grow on me. I swiftly finished
The Bat and
Cockroaches as I could hardly put the books down, and am already well into
The Redbreast. Harry Hole is not the perfect detective, which is why I like him. The flaws of this anti-hero are what make him so appealing. Anyone remotely interested in
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or any detective series for that matter, should definitely give Jo Nesbo a try.
"Nesbo writes like an angel. As in Lucifer." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
The other book that I have been bouncing back and forth with the Harry Hole series is Adam Grant's
Give and Take. I actually started reading this one late in second semester but had to put it on hold for awhile when finals approached. The way I came across this book was pretty unique and is now a favorite story of mine to tell. I was reading an interesting article from LinkedIn on introverts that used a lot of references from, an all-time favorite book of mine,
Quiet by Susan Cain. I proceeded to post the article to my Twitter account, and it wasn't too long after I received a notification on my phone that someone "favorited" my tweet. It was Adam Grant. I didn't know who that was initially but after skimming through his profile I noticed he was a very successful Wharton professor. I thought it was pretty cool that a successful college professor with thousands of followers favorited my tweet, and I also liked what I saw of his most recent tweets so I started following him. Only a couple days later Adam Grant tweeted about his most recent book
Give and Take. I looked it up and was extremely impressed with what I saw. This book focuses on the successes found through altruistic behavior by providing research on the triumphs of givers. Not only that, but the book had many high critical remarks including high praise from Susan Cain! As soon as I read her thoughts on
Give and Take I was sold.
I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book but it already is having similar influences on me as
Quiet did a year ago. This is a very hopeful and inspiring book that I would highly recommend reading.
