On The Books: Stieg Larsson basically was Mikael Blomkvist

Remember Mikael Blomkvist from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series? (He was played by Daniel Craig/Michael Nyqvist, depending on whether you watched the Swedish or American version.) Well, Stieg Larsson didn’t have to get very creative when he was writing that character because he was that character. In 1986 the Swedish Prime Minister was assassinated leaving the cinema with his wife. A few years later, a petty criminal was arrested and charged, but it was widely thought that the police bungled the investigation. Much like the Kennedy assassination, conspiracy theories swirled about what really happened. Larsson himself sent the police fifteen boxes of papers he said proved that the shooting could be traced to a “former military officer said to have had links with the South African security services.” What? Fifteen boxes?? That’s right out of a page of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I love it. He was probably one of those guys whose office was spackled with photos stuck to the walls and lampshades with pushpins and yarn. [The Guardian]

After stepping down from his post last month, Ben Bernanke announced that he will pen a memoir about his time as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. I will only read this if Marjane Satrapi agrees to make it a graphic novel. [Washington Post]

In preparation for Wes Anderson’s newest fancy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, check out this article on Stefan Zweig, the Austrian author whose work inspired the movie. Zweig was a prolific and important literary voice during the 1920’s and 30’s, but as a Jewish Austrian he was driven out of Europe as the Nazi’s rose to power. Ultimately, his tortured life ended in a double suicide. He and his wife swallowed a bottle of barbiturates in a hotel room in Rio de Janeiro in 1942. Despite, Zweig’s sad end, his stories of “disastrous passion” live on. I got a sneak preview of Grand Budapest last week and it was amazing. You definitely don’t want to miss it. [The Guardian]

In case you missed this, a new low-sugar book has been generating some buzz in the public health community. Dr. Richard Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF, has a new cookbook out called The Fat Chance Cookbook with low sugar recipes that can be made in under 30 minutes. The New York Times did a Q&A to get some basics about his dietary philosophy.