The Girl who Played with Fire

In the words of Randy Jackson from American Idol " Yo! Yo! Yo! Listen up y'all. Give it up for Lisbeth Salander". Those are the words that typically come to your mind as you read through the second edition of the Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy - The Girl who played with Fire.

Larsson tries to make this a stand alone book so that readers who have not read the first part can still enjoy the book. He takes his sweet time to re-establish the characters and give them some background. If you've read the first part it takes some patience to get through the first 215 pages of this book. You learn and re-learn some of the characters and get to know what has happened in their lives since the last one - mainly the two important ones, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Both have gone their separate ways - Blomkvist with his publishing job & Salander with her millions that she's expertly siphoned off from Wenestrom.

The Girl who Played with Fire is at its core a prequel of who Salander is and why she is the way she is. Sex trade and the illegal smuggling of prostitutes from the erstwhile Russian states to Sweden and beyond forms the basis for the story. Millennium magazine is about to publish the works of the couple Dag Svensson & Mia Johansson. Mia is a doctorate student who has researched and written a thesis on the sex trade. Dag takes the thesis and develops it into a book that he wants Millennium to publish. Dag and Mia's research will clearly expose a whole slew of officials from the Swedish Police force to Security Police to Judges and the lot.

The book takes it regular explosive turn when Dag and Mia are brutally murdered in their apartment. The gun used for the killing is discovered with Lisbeth's fingerprints on it and she becomes the main suspect. But when a few days later the body of her guardian Nils Bjurman is also discovered murdered in a similar manner, Lisbeth Salander becomes the most wanted criminal across Sweden. Its easy to implicate her as well given her history of psychotic illness and documented declaration of incompetence by authorities. The book wanders through the next 150 pages as the police try to locate Lisbeth is what is an open-and-shut case. But we all know how difficult that would be.

When Lisbeth comes to the scene again, the books pace picks up considerably and becomes a page turner. But from here the book does become a bit predictable. Like every crime thriller there is a ghostly figure of a Godfather, in this case a figure called Zala that does not exist in any database but is feared by the sex trade punters and the exploited prostitutes as well. Then there is a 300-pound gorilla who is Zala's feet-on-the-street and who does not feel any pain. Larsson then takes the book on four parallel investigations - Lisbeth, who obviously wants to prove her innocence while running from the authorities; Mikael, who believes that Lisbeth is innocent and wants to find out who murdered his friends; Armansky, Lisbeth's employer who also believes in Lisbeth's innocence and of course the Police who want to apprehend Lisbeth and close the case. What the Police believe is a simple open-and-shut case becomes more and more complex as the investigation proceeds and the truth of Lisbeth emerges.

Larsson's writing is interesting as he moves from one investigation to another and links the story together. Unlike the first book, however, this one takes on a bit of liberty with the characters, especially that of Lisbeth. Larsson's inability seems to be to tie the climax together. If 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' had a climax that seemed to be hastily written, this book's climax almost makes Lisbeth superhuman. She takes a bullet to her shoulder and head, gets buried alive and still comes out to vanquish the villians. It is a bit too much to take and does come as a shocker. One wonders why Larsson needs to go into a super-hero mode for Lisbeth when he has already established her as an intelligent, smart thinking person. Then, of course, is the Star-Wars-Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker takeoff on Lisbeth and Zala.

The second edition does not tie in easily with the first one. Maybe that was the intent to make this a stand alone book while at the same time tenuously connected to the first one. Its a great crime thriller to read even if you haven't read the first one.

I rate it 4/5.

By now Lisbeth Salander is a spunky, small built, intelligent, psychotic, socially incompetent, computer hacker extraordinaire, super human heroine of the series. What is in store for Book 3?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Rarely do you come across a book - a crime fiction one at that - which you want to read cover to cover in one sitting, not caring if its 1am and you've just got off a drinking session with friends. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' comes very close to being one such book.

Written by Stieg Larsson, its Part 1 of the Millennium trilogy and unfortunately the only set of books that he wrote before he passed away in 2004. We will never know if he was a writing genius who could have written even more gripping novels and history will judge his author abilities based on just three books.

'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' has a good combination of flawed characters that keep you engrossed in the storyline. At its core its a closed-door-kind murder mystery when Henrik Vanger, the aged former CEO of Vanger Corporation invites Mikael Bolmkvist, the recently disgraced libel-losing investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine, to re-investigate the sudden disappearance of his great-niece Harriet Vanger some 40 years earlier when she was 16 from the island where he lives. The only bridge connecting the island to the mainland was closed that day due to an accident. Henrik has been tormented by the fact that he does not know what happened to his favorite niece while at the same time suspecting that one of his family member committed the murder of Harriet. The police investigations have been closed and there is nothing that can be done.

In the first half, parallel to this story runs the story of socially outcast, psychotic but extremely intelligent hacker with a photographic memory - Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is legally incompetent and is under the care of guardians instituted by the government. Lisbeth's character is the most exciting character in this book mainly because it is so flawed that you immediately want to protect her while at the same time are extremely scared of her. One episode where she deals with her sexually abusive legal guardian makes your hair stand while you root for her and for the treatment she metes out to him.

The book is slow to pick up as you read the first part of it. Larsson takes his own sweet time to explain all the myriad characters that constitute the Vanger family and there are too many of them. Of course Henrik Vanger does not like any of them and compares them to thieves, robbers and incompetent idiots. The investigation proceeds at a leisurely pace till Lisbeth and Mikael start collaborating. The story explodes at this point and moves at an exciting pace which makes you turn the pages. When a slaughtered cat is left on the doorstep of Mikael and he is shot at, they realise that they may be on the right track to actually solving the mystery after 40 years.

Rest assured while they manage to solve the mystery, the climax of the book is cliched and expected.It does not live up to the expectation of the pace of the book and strangely like a Hindi movie Larsson extends the book with an un-required investigation into the businessman who brought Mikael down in the first place. I found it unnecessary unless this is linked to the second book.

The disturbing part of the book is that it makes you perceive that Swedish men abuse and hurt the women as if its a natural thing to do. The solving of Harriet's disappearance does not leave a sweet taste in your mouth.

'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is slow in the start, fast paced and exciting in the middle with an anti-climax at the end. It does keep you engrossed and I am looking forward to reading the second part of the trilogy.

I rate it 4/5.

And Thereby Hangs a Tale

The last line at the back cover of the book says (and I quote) "Some of these stories will make you laugh. Others will bring you to tears. And, once again, every one of them will keep you spellbound". Unfortunately none of that happened during the course of reading this book - neither the tears nor the laughter although some managed to keep me spellbound. You expect a lot more from a Jeffrey Archer book was my immediate feeling as I finished reading this motley collection of short stories from him.

Archer says that he collected these stories from across the world during his travels. Of the 15 stories in the book, 10 are based on true incidents. The stories are good but more inclined towards a story-telling-around-the-fireplace kind of manner. Some of them are cute which Archer desperately tries to garnish with his writing style to make them more presentable and read-worthy. The issue is that in each of the stories Archer tries to build up the story towards one 'Wow' moment at the end of the narration not realising that his readers are intelligent and in some cases will guess the ending. Not every story needs to have a 'twist' at the end. Some of them can just be a good story.

My categorisation of the stories are such:

• Predictable Endings: Blind Date, Members Only, Politically Correct, Caste Off.
• Fairly Interesting: The Queen's Birthday Telegram, Where There's a Will, Double-Cross, I will Survive, The Luck of the Irish.
• Better of the Lot: Stuck on You, High Heels, The Undiplomatic Diplomat, Better the Devil you know.
• Err....What?: A Good Eye, No Room at the Inn.
  

Pick this up if you have a few hours to kill at the airport or on a long flight. I expected better.

I rate this 2/5.

Making Breakthrough Innovations Happen

Let's play a game. I'll say a word and you tell me the name of the first organisation that comes to mind. Innovation, and I'm sure a lot of you out there said 'Apple' or maybe 3M, Google or Sony. How about an Indian organisation? And did you just say 'Tata Nano'? Any more names? Scratching your head?

What if I told you that organisations such as Dainik Bhaskar, Aravind Eye Hospital, Shantha Bio Tech, CavinKare, SuKam, Bosch India, ITC-IBD, Titan, Chola Vehicle Finance, Trichy Police and Surat Municipal Corporation are all perfect examples of Innovation in India? I'm sure you are rolling your eyes and wondering if I've lost my marbles.

When I saw the cover of this book I thought that here is another one of those 'Innovation' books that will talk about global examples. But what caught my eye was the byliner which said - How 11 Indians pulled off the impossible. India has always been known as the country of 'jugaad'. Send us your product and we will reverse engineer it and tell you quick fixes for it. Even if we do have innovations we seem to be shy to tell the world about these. In this scenario it is important that books like these present Innovations that have stemmed from India.

Porus Munshi and his team did extensive research over six years to present these 11 cases to us. Examples of 11 Indian organisations that have led with innovation and brought fantastic results to the country and their industry. Innovation is not just about a great idea but also about effective execution of that idea. This entails Setting a challenge to the team, Enrolling members to that challenge and making sure that the overall challenge and goals don't get diluted in the long run. Porus divides the book into these parts and takes examples of how Indian organisations executed their ideas along these lines.

The writing style is very interesting and is like a biography of the idea. Each story starts with how the idea was born, how it was cultivated, what challenges did the main players face in the journey, how it finally saw the light of day and what were the results. This ensures that you are hooked to the story and want to know what happens next. Porus also intersperses the story with questions that you should be asking yourself and your organisation. This makes you think about the idea in discussion and if you can apply this to your organisation or your team. What is also interesting is that the book takes examples from across industries - manufacturing, publishing, social, healthcare and government. As you read these stories it is difficult to compartmentalise them into an industry and say that this cannot work in mine. Each innovation and Porus' writing style makes you think about your processes and organisation.

Porus introduces a concept of an 'orbit-shifting challenge or idea'. This is not shifting status quo by a marginal delta but setting a challenge at first your scoff at and then get intrigued by and finally commit yourself to doing because it will enrich your life.

Can you enter a market or geography as No 1 each time you launch? Dainik Bhaskar did it and still does.
Can you marry processes in fast food joints like McDonalds to intricate healthcare and surgery? Aravind Eye hospital did that and fundamentally changed the way eye surgeries are done in the world.
Can you launch into a category owned by big brands and give them a run for their money with your limited budgets and reach? CavinKare did that and still does.
Can you fundamentally blow up a business model and turn your division from a small nondescript division to one of the primary revenue earners? ITC's IBD (International Business Division) did that and gave established organisations such as Cargill and ConAgra a run for their money.
Can your division make a product innovation that your parent company adopts and changes the way the industry operates? Bosch India did it and changed the costing of the Diesel engine for automobiles.
Can your company take on a challenge for your industry that the best haven't been able to do and deliver? Titan did with its slimmest water resistent watch in the world. Something that the Swiss said cannot be done. This execution probably got Ratan Tata to think about the 1 Lac car.

The book also introduces you to people like J.K.Tripathy who took over as Commissioner of Police of Trichy and single handedly dropped the crime rate reporting from 11,000+ in 1999 to just 7,000 in 2004 and increased the proactive reporting of crime by public from 78% to 98%. And S.R.Rao who took over as Municipal Commissioner of Surat when it was known as the dirtiest city in the country to one of the cleanest. During his tenure Surat's malaria cases dropped from 22,000 in 1994 to 496 in 1997 - just three years. How did these two people in the most bureaucratic of organisations effect a change that was so dramatic?

This book is a MUST READ for all professionals in India. I promise you that reading this book will not only give you immense knowledge and ideas on how you can effect change in your organisation or team but also instill great pride in the country.

I rate this book a 5/5 and a MUST READ!