Cross-genre protagonists

I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a few weeks ago. I was a bit wary - there's been so much hype. It took me about 100 pages to get into it, but once I sorted out who the characters were, I was hooked. It's a little more violent than books I usually read, but it had a great sense of the "whodunnit".

I'm almost finished with Graceling, recommended by C (as part of the awesomeness that is Recommendation Sunday), and I was startled by how similar the protagonists are. Both are very strong young women (who don't think of themselves as strong), who have been ostracised because of they way they are. Neither of them are inclined to trust men (or anyone, really).

Anyway, both books are really good. I'm trying to ration Graceling because I'm almost done and I love it. I've just checked the author's website (linked from the title above) and there's a prequel already published and a sequel in the works. WOOT.

The picture is a gratuitous bell-ringing picture (Cotton, last February)...just because. It's cold and wintry.