Dragaeran series

I've lately been reading the Dragaeran novels by Steven Brust in the order they were written. They are very much fantasy, with magic, spells, and mythical creatures, but with each book written around a open-ended problem that gets 'solved' much like an old-school Dick Tracy detective novel. They are incredibly easy to read and more than a bit addictive.

Besides the how-deep-does-this-rabbit-hole-go aspect of the stories where the main problem always grows from something small, there are two major aspects of the set of books that I find really enjoyable. First, Burst makes no claims that he wrote the books in order, in fact in interviews he has suggested reading them in a very different order than he wrote them (and that suggested order has changed over the 20 years he has been writing these short-ish books: 12 so far) so often I end up reading a story that I know how things start in books after this story so the final state is mostly known and the story is a question of how is Brust going to get there and fills in the back story for books you have already read or you read a story that is intended to be completely independent but still drops new characters in on you that everyone seems to know and be friends with and you have you figure out what is going on, because Brust knew he would later add that character in to a book taking place before the current one. These non-linear dynamics seem frustrating, and are hard to describe, but end up being a bit of a puzzle that is above the story and fun to work out (and is making me seriously think about re-reading the first couple of books in the series when I finish).

Secondly, after the series became popular, Brust clearly started using each book to play around with different styles of telling a story, which is particularly interesting to see the same characters described differently based on the narrators viewpoint for that book. I think he does a reasonably good job of making the feel of the books different by shading the descriptions of a story through the lens of a character that had not previously been a central focus of previous books. Overall, I have really been enjoying this series.

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This is a three book trilogy by a Swedish dude who died shortly after he finished the last book. The first one is a really solid mystery, which is a genre I'm not usually a big fan of. The second one edges closer to an action-y novel with a little bit of mystery involved, although I did guess the mystery piece of it pretty early on (to the astonishment of my book club, so maybe I just got lucky). Third one isn't in English yet.

The plot centers mostly around an investigative reporter named Blomkvist, but the real character of intrigue is Lisbeth Salander. You don't learn much about her in the first novel, but the mystery itself is interesting enough to keep you hooked. Have to admit that the second, while good, wasn't as fascinating for me, but I think it's because the first one set the bar so high.

First book has been turned into a movie that comes out in a month, so I guess this is really your "if you want to read the book first, you should start now" warning. Or a "there's a movie coming out that read pretty well as a book" warning. Whatever.

The Perfect Mile

Non-fiction. Takes place in the 1950s and follows these 3 guys, 1 australian, 1 american and 1 english, who are all trying to break the 4-minute mile barrier. The description of how these guys balance school, med-school, work and life with trying to achieve something athletically that no one, professional or not, has done before is pretty incredible. This one guy, Roger Bannister, is a full time med student, has his residency at a hospital, and still manages to train. There's this English ideal of the gentleman athlete to uphold, to carry on a full time job and make athletic prowess look easy. Kind of like how Roger Federer doesnt sweat, unbutton or untuck his shirt when he plays.
It's a really interesting book describing amateur athletes and the people who profit from them as well, NCAA stuff as well as the Olympics.
It struck a chord with me as a former runner and also as an ultimate player, a sport where the best in the world still have day jobs. The fact that none of these guys ever turned pro, they knew they had their window of opportunity and they put it all on the line. Pretty inspiring stuff. I highly recommend it.