The Book Thief: Avid Readers’ Discussion 02/07/08
February 8, 2008 at 8:36 pm | In Avid Readers, Uncategorized | Leave a CommentThe Avid Readers group convened on a cold Thursday night to enjoy some good refreshments and even better discussion about Markus Zusak’s astounding novel The Book Thief.
The novel is set in a small German town during the early years of World War II, and features a unique literary framing device: the narrator of the book is Death himself. Zusak’s narrator, who is neither grim nor a reaper, as he makes clear in one of his many asides, tells the tale of Leisel Meminger and her experiences with her foster parents in the small town of Molching, and more specifically to the poor neighborhood of Himmel Street. Leisel is a precocious, willful child who comes to her new home illiterate and clutching her first stolen book, a professional guide for beginning gravediggers. From this auspicious beginning, Death narrates the story of a few years in the life of a girl who becomes a book thief and a word shaker.
Set against a backdrop that features many harrowing aspects (the Holocaust, the Nazi book burnings, the air raid sirens, and comulsory Hitler Youth rallies), The Book Thief is primarily a coming of age story, and one that includes moments the streak across the emotional spectrum: from heart-rendingly tragic to heart-warmingly funny, often within the same chapter. The reader sees Leisel and her foster parents, the Hubermanns, bear up courageously in circumstances that would drive others to cowardice.
Leisel’s journey from illiterate foster child to intelligent, compassionate, and integral member of a family is accompanied by a colorful cast of characters. There is Rudy Steiner, Leisel’s best friend, who paints himself with charcoal to emulate his hero Jesse Owens. There is Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife, who allows Leisel to “steal” books from the Hermann’s library. There is Max Vandenburg, the Jewish fist-fighter hidden in the Hubermann’s basement. Each character is rendered vividly, and sticks with the reader long after the novel’s profound conclusion.
Our group found The Book Thief to be a compelling and unforgettable novel. One of our group even ventured that the book would be one that would wind up in her 50 Favorite Books list. We all agreed that we’d recommend the book without reservation. Zusak’s writing is clean and clear, sometimes even simple, but his novel is tightly and inventively structured. Better still, it is a book that concerns an era about which much is written that still manages to provide a fresh perspective and a compelling plot.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to read The Book Thief, we all recommend that you pick up a copy and spend some time with Leisel and the other inhabitants of Himmel Street. We promise that it is not a novel that you will soon forget.
The Avid Readers group will meet again on Thursday March 6 at 6:30PM to discuss Jim Lehrer’s novel The Franklin Affair, an historically-based mystery that promises to be a lively read.
50 Favorite Books update!!!
February 4, 2008 at 10:55 pm | In Books! Books! Books!, Uncategorized | Leave a CommentSince I heard Kevin Brockmeier speak about his constantly evolving list of 50 Favorite Books, I challenged the Avid Readers to come up with their own lists. Since no one has yet responded, I shall be the one to break the ice. I adhered to Mr. Brockmeier’s rules: all the entries are alphabetical, with an asterisk indicating my absolute favorites, and each author gets only one entry. The latter rule was hard to adhere to: singling out a favorite book from some of the impressive bodies of work that make up the ouevres of some of these authors was hard work indeed.
I realized in writing this list a few things about my taste in books:
1. I read an nearly equal amount of living and dead authors. Given the fact that there are far more of the latter than the former, I’ve deduced that my preference is for modern authors.
2. Many of these books have been adapted as films. Many of those films are very bad translations of great books.
3. There aren’t a whole lot of classics on the list. I guess that means I’m honest, and that somewhere my Intro to English Lit professors are weeping.
Without further ado, the 50 Favorite Books of Brad:
Abbey, Edward. The Monkeywrench Gang
Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot
Barker, Clive. The Books of Blood *
Bester, Alfred. The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles *
Brooks, Max. World War Z *
Bugliosi, Vincent. Helter Skelter
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. A Princess of Mars
Cain, James. The Postman Always Rings Twice
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep *
Clarke, Arthur C. Childhood’s End
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness
Dick, Philip K. A Scanner Darkly *
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Lost World
Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho
Gaiman, Neil and Pratchett, Terry. Good Omens
Gibson, William. Neuromancer
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon
Hays, Donald. The Dixie Association
Heinlein, Robert A. Stranger in a Strange Land
Herbert, Frank. Dune
Howard, Robert E. The Bloody Crown of Conan
Ketchum, Jack. Off Season
King, Stephen. Pet Semetary *
Lovecraft, H. P. At the Mountains of Madness *
Martin, George R. R., A Song of Ice and Fire series
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend *
McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian
McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove
Mieville, China. Perdido Street Station *
Nabakov, Vladimir. Lolita
Norris, Frank. McTeague
Orwell, George. 1984
Poe, Edgar Allen. The Complete Stories and Poems
Reynolds, Alastair. Chasm City
Robinson, Kim Stanley. The Years of Rice and Salt
Schwartz, Alvin. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series *
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein
Stephenson, Neal. The Baroque Cycle
Stirling, Bruce. Schismatrix
Stoker, Bram. Dracula
Thompson, Jim. The Killer Inside Me
Tolkein, J. R. R. The Hobbit
Vandermeer, Jeff. City of Saints and Madmen
Vonnegut, Kurt. Galapagos
Wells, H. G. The Island of Dr. Moreau
Welsh, Irvine. Filth
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