Current Reading List: Atwood, Delillo, Lagercrantz

As an avid reader, I typically have anywhere from 3 to 7 books in constant reading rotation depending on my mood, usually spanning several different styles for variety.

Currently, I'm reading three books: the latest in the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series (though this fourth book is written by a different author as the original author died during the creation of this one), Don Delillo's latest "Zero K," and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

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David Lagercrantz - "The Girl in the Spider's Web"

Lagercrantz is doing a pretty good job of keeping up with Stieg Larsson's original characters and feel of the Sweden that he'd created on the page. Some of the writing in places is a little clunky, but one wonders if that's due to the translation or to Lagercrantz's use of English. Either way, I'm currently about half-way through and I'm recommending it to friends of mine who were fans of the original trilogy. I think it's doing Larsson's work justice overall and it's still a compelling read with interesting, complex characters.

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Don Delillo - "Zero K"

I have a love/hate relationship with Delillo. For every book of his that I read and I love, the next two tend to bore me or seem to go nowhere, which I don't understand. He's a prolific writer, and a good one in many respects, but this one currently feels too heavy-handed in the message. I've been stuck on THE SAME CHAPTER for weeks now due to a seriously dense bit of monologue by one of the characters. And it's a book about dense topics: immortality, life, death, our ability to run from death. A fascinating concept, and while I'm not deep enough into it yet to make a final decision, it's not looking like I'll enjoy this one as much I wanted to when I first picked it up.

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Margaret Atwood - "The Handmaid's Tale"

This one was sitting on my "to read" pile long before it got translated to TV (which I've yet to watch as I want to finish the book first). My introduction to Atwood's work came in the form of "Oryx & Crake," a super interesting first book of a dytopian trilogy that was incredibly dark, but super unique. Unlike anything I'd read before it, so of course I became fascinated in Atwood's oeuvre. I'm not as deep into this one as I'd like to be just yet, but I imagine I will be thoroughly engrossed once I have the time to spend 10 hours on my couch reading.