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Lego has built its way into the social media world (with its new fan community, ReBrick, where users can share images of what they construct and see what other Lego users have been busy making. So long to the days of just playing with blocks!; Legos... Read the rest of this post

The trailer for the film adaptation of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ (“leaked” over the weekend, but no one really thinks it was illegally recorded and put online. Not only is the sound quality way too good, Sony... Read the rest of this post

Apple is aiming to hook (iPad users while they’re young, with a new deal to sell the device at Toys ‘R’ Us stores) (Fast Company) - Tween social net Imbee (offers unlimited streaming radio, serving up acts including Black Eyed... Read the rest of this post

As with exercise regimens and New Year’s resolutions, summer reading lists are those kind of goals that, despite the best of intentions, never seem to get finished. Still, I’m pretty jazzed about the amount of reading I’ve managed on the subway and at lunch, and I forgive myself for not getting to the rest of the list – I had two trilogies to attend to!

I realize that I never expressed my post-reading feelings about some of these titles, so here’s a round up of the books I promised I’d read, and actually did!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo AND The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson /

Murder mysteries aren’t exactly my thing, but I can see why this trilogy has so much buzz. If you can get through the first 250+ pages of exposition and keep up with the host of Swedish names, Larsson’s first book is a truly engrossing thriller, and the sequel takes it right on par from there.

I’m not sure why Dragon Tattoo, and especially detective/journalist/man-about-town Mikael Blomkvist, would be considered feminist in the least, as pointed out by The Rejectionist in this deliciously seething review. Blomkvist is exactly the man who male fiction writers like to fantasize they are (see Robert Langdon), and he spends way too much time being a lady-magnet in tweed to actually be a believable character. Salander, on the other hand, may be seriously screwy, but at least she is interesting.

I also agree that reading or watching highly disturbing scenes of rape and torture is not my idea of a good time (really, I only watch Law and Order SVU for Chris Meloni and Ice-T). I could stomach parts of the no-holds-barred Swedish film with the sound off, and reading those gruesome scenes left me needing some Glee songs and a cupcake.

That being said, take Stieg Larsson’s trilogy for what it is – crime fiction – not some icon of feminist literature. Maybe, like me, you don’t only read characters who hold to real-life moral standards (if that’s the case, knock yourself out with Left Behind, please). Get lost in Larsson’s cold, cold Scandinavian underworld… then come up for air and find something happy to do.

This Is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper /

Several months after hearing Tropper speak and praising the cover design, I finally, finally read This Is Where I Leave You… and found a voice that I wasn’t exactly prepared for. Sure, the dark comedic elements were impeccably timed, as expected. But Tropper’s protagonist, Judd Foxman, also left me with a perspective on the middle-aged male

Rooney Mara will be 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' (after weeks of speculation, Sony announces the relatively unknown actress will play heroine Lisbeth Salander for a three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy books) (EW) -... Read the rest of this post