Bookish Thoughts

I liked The Book Thief  so much that I decided to give Zusak's other popular book, I Am the Messenger , a try. First things first, the two books are absolutely nothing alike. I Am the Messenger  is a feel-good coming of age novel with a happy, if strange, ending. The story follows Ed, an under-aged cab driver with no direction in life. Until he starts receiving obscure messages on playing cards that encourage him to perform acts of kindness around his city. Along the way he makes some friends, becomes more involved in his community, and discovers a sense of purpose. There are a few things that I think could have been handled better. A handful of things that made me cringe. But for the most part, this was a surprisingly uplifting and affecting journey. Some of the things Ed does are as simple as buying someone an ice cream cone. Others as complicated as restoring a sense of family duty to a pair of brothers. And through it all is the mystery of who's sending Ed on these mis...

This is my second time through The Book Thief , which was just as poetic and heartbreaking as it was the first time I read it. Leslie's little life is tragic. The fact that it's narrated by Death, who has taken an interest in the young girl, makes the whole thing seem grander or more important than it really is. But that just adds to the tragedy and poetry captured in these pages. I've ended up with quite a few WWII books on my shelf lately. It certainly wasn't by design. I just picked up what looked interesting at a couple of used book sales. It's been interesting and difficult to read about this historic rise of fascism given the current political climate, but it's been cathartic in some ways, too. This book in particular shows all the hidden ways Leslie and her foster parents find to resist the Nazis and brighten their lives in the midst of a war. I also appreciated reading this as a physical book this time around. The last time I read it on my kindle, an...

How do I even being to review The Book Thief ?  I've been reading it at a pace of about two chapters a day with the Mark Reads project.  Mark Oshiro, who runs the blog, reads and reviews books a chapter at a time.  The Book Thief has incredibly short chapters, hence the accelerated reading speed.  He's already read the entire Twilight saga, the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Game s trilogy, and is now finishing up The Book Thief .  Next he starts on His Dark Materials , followed by The Lord of the Rings .  He's also working his way through Infinite Jest , which I gave up on pretty quickly, but may eventually revisit.  Reading these books along with him is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it. He also runs a sibling site called Mark Watches , in which he does the same thing with episodes of television shows.  Past projects include Firefly and Doctor Who , the current project is Avatar: The Last Airbender , and the announced future projec...