Weekend picks for book lovers

What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include David Lagercrantz's The Girl in the Spider's Web, and Christopher Moore's latest zany outing, Secondhand Souls.

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz; Knopf, 416 pp.; fiction

 Rest easy, Lisbeth Salander fans – our punk hacker heroine is in good hands.

Since inking their way into the cultural zeitgeist, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels have sold 80 million copies worldwide. Original author Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004; now Sweden's David Lagercrantz has been enlisted to write a fourth book.

Set a few years after The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest – in which Salander was cleared of murder charges and reconciled with onetime lover Mikael Blomkvist – Spider's Web picks up with a crumbling Millennium magazine. Blomkvist hasn't landed a big scoop since the Harriet Vanger exposè in Dragon Tattoo.

But the gruff newsman isn't washed up for long. Late one night, Blomkvist is called to the home of scientist Frans Balder, only to find him shot in cold blood and his mute, autistic son the only witness to the murder.

From there, Blomkvist reconnects with Salander and enlists her hacking finesse to uncover why someone would want to kill Balder, a tortured father and developer of artificial intelligence.

Paste BN says **** out of four. "Lagercrantz takes the reins with prowess… a twisty, bloody thrill ride."

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore; William Morrow, 335 pp.; fiction

Kinda-ordinary, anti-hero weirdoes fend off Evil Incarnate from the underworld as the Golden Gate City teeters on the brink of the apocalypse; a sequel to A Dirty Job.

Paste BN says ***1/2. "Fantastically bizarre … wickedly entertaining."

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day; Touchstone, 260 pp.; non-fiction

A memoir by actress and Comic-Con favorite Felicia Day, about her adventures in geekdom.

Paste BN says ***1/2. "Written in (Day's) engaging and often hilarious voice, it's just downright fun to read."

Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont; Random House, 336 pp.; fiction

The extramarital affair between a successful New York City artist named Jack and a young woman is revealed when the latter sends a package of his printed (and sexually explicit) emails and chat logs to his wife – a package intercepted by their 11-year-old daughter.

Paste BN says ***1/2. "Told freshly and with consummate skill… (an) astonishingly precocious debut."

The Storm of the Century by Al Roker; William Morrow, 297 pp.; non-fiction

Popular NBC weatherman Al Roker examines the human drama and complex natural history of the hurricane that leveled Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 8, 1900,  killing more than 8,000 people.

Paste BN says ***. "A fascinating, multifaceted story."

Contributing reviewers: Patrick Ryan, Don Oldenburg, Kelly Lawler, Kevin Nance, Matt Damsker