3. The Girl Who Sold Millions of Books- Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who..." trilogy is an international phenomenon. To me the stories themselves are suspenseful yet someone formulaic crime drama (though I have to admit I am just now half way through the second book). The stories have launched three worldwide successful films, and the American version of "Dragon Tattoo" which is currently being made will likely be a huge hit also. I have enjoyed the stories, but there is one thing that makes them special and that is the character Lizbeth Salander. Lizbeth can be heroic, complicated and unlikeable sometimes all in the same page. Her character will be the legacy of the books, and the plots are always the most compelling when she is on the page. Since Larsson died shortly after the publication of the third book, we will likely never read another book with Lizbeth as a character, but in 2010 she may have been fiction's most compelling character.
4. They've got a friend in me- Most of the time sequels come and go with apprehension and most of them never live up to the original movie from which they came. But very few expected Toy Story 3 to disappoint. That is a tall order to live up to, but Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the toybox finished up with the same same joy and excitement that they began with back in 1995. The films have always been about childhood and different passages in a child's life, but Toy Story 3 took on the most challenging passage of them all: the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. Toy Story 3 kept it light when it could as the toys made their escape from a daycare from hell, and then the movie gets serious as it leads up to its final tear inducing moments. A generation has grown up with the Toy Story movies. If a child watched the first movie when they were 5 years old they were 20 when they watched Toy Story 3. They have watched the character of Andy grow into adulthood as they have, but Andy's toys will always remain timeless.
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