I Dare Ya!

Chartroose has thrown down a challenge:     To view 10 Ingmar Bergman films before the end of the year.

I accept!

I’ve actually seen ONE Bergman film (Fanny & Alexander) and I saw it the year it came out, 1984.   I was a freshman or sophomore in college (can’t remember if it was spring or fall) and saw it at the campus student-run theatre that showcased the ‘artsy fartsy’ flicks.    I also saw Eraserhead and Casablanca there.    And some other crazy alien flick that I can’t remember the title but it was about some alien lifeform that fed on human orgasms.   Yea, huh? I know.

I went to Wikipedia that awesome site to research who knows what and possibly inaccurate but awesome all the same, and I will copy the paragraph showcasing the 10 films I commit to viewing:

In the early 60′s he directed a trilogy that explored the theme of faith and doubt in Yahweh, Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en Spegel – 1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna – 1962), and The Silence (Tystnaden – 1963). In 1966, he directed Persona, a film that he himself considered one of his most important works. While the shockingly experimental film won few awards many consider it his masterpiece. Other notable films of the period include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan – 1960), Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen – 1968), Shame (Skammen – 1968) and A Passion/The Passion of Anna (En Passion – 1969). Bergman also produced extensively for Swedish television at this time. Two works of note were Scenes from a Marriage(Scener ur ett äktenskap – 1973) and The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten – 1975).

But I also reserve the right to re-view Fanny & Alexander if I can’t get one of the above.    But it looks like Netflix has them all!   GOODIE.

#owenmeany Round ONE

Welcome to the first official meeting of the Irving Owen Meany  Mini-Book Club!   (say that 3 times fast)      We are blogging and twitting and goodreads.com-ing our way through the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany and this will be the kick-off where we discuss the first three chapters and then some.    Join us! follow along!

INFORMAL SCHEDULE (<– click here to go to next in schedule)

Care – page 91 / end of Ch 3 The Armadillo – Friday 7/24 TODAY!
Lu – page 183 / end of Ch 4 The Little Lord Jesus – Monday 07/27
Ms Mazzola – page 230 / end of Ch 5 The Ghost of the Future - Wed 07/29
Jessi – page 300 / end of Ch 6 The Voice – 07/31
Jill – page 369 / end of Ch 7 The Dream -08/03
Vasilly – page 450 / end of Ch 8 The Finger –  08/06
Joanne (with an E) – ENDING/Readers Guide by August 08 which is a Saturday

QUESTIONS for DISCUSSION

First sentence of the novel:  “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God;  I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

Is this a strong first sentence?    Does it include TOO MUCH foreshadowing?   Is this too blunt to be foreshadowing? Does it give you a hint that we will have a lot to go through in the 500+ pages ahead?      Is this a religious book!?

The Wiki page for autho John Irving includes a few quotes relevant to the first sentence:

“When I finally write the first sentence, I want to know everything that happens, so that I am not inventing the story as I write it – rather, I am remembering a story that has already happened.”

“I spend about two to three months planning the path of the book in my head before I write the last sentence of the novel. From there I work back to the beginning. From the day I think of the last sentence to the book’s publication date, not more than a semicolon has changed.”

Let’s discuss this technique of writing fiction in general.    Do you think most authors do this or do you prefer – or can even tell? – when an author either plans out the story well beforehand or allows the characters to write themselves during the writing process?      I’m drawing on other author interviews that tell of actually having to write so they themselves know how the story ends.

Do you read the last page(s) of books?

Have you read any reviews lately about what this book is about or do you like to go in ‘blind’?

The Wiki page says this about Owen Meany:   “New England family epic centered around religion set in a New England boarding school. The novel was influenced by The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the works of Dickens. In Owen Meany, Irving for the first time examined the consequences of the Vietnam War – particularly mandatory conscription, which Irving avoided because he was a married father and a teacher when of age for the draft. Owen Meany became Irving’s bestselling book since Garp, and is now a frequent feature on high school English reading lists.”

Which of these influencing books have you read?    Any thoughts?   Do you know anyone who ‘had’ to read this in school?

Did you pick up on all the ‘as you shall see’s that BookZombie twitted?

And finally,  comments on the NO ARM theme (per Ms. Mazzola’s twitter) that has frequently been featured?    From the Indian that town founder Wheelwright bought the land from, the discussion on grief and the declawed armadillo, and the dress dummy.

Anything else I should bring up?

Commenting and discussing may now commence.

Last Night in Montreal

Review   Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel, Unbridled Books 2009, 247 pages.

MOTIVATION for READING:    Finally, I have someone to blame!    And please don’t feel bad if I didn’t like it as much as you did – I liked it, just not as much.   But it’s fun to know that I read Violet’s review and then Nancy the Bookfool’s review and timing was right.   I ordered this and read it right away.    PLEASE click on these two reviews or click here for Fyrefly’s Google Search.

Violet says:    “This book had so many layers and emotions that it’s difficult to describe what exactly this book is about. All I can say is that I loved it. There is Eli who wants to find his love, Michaela who wants some answers and then there is the private investigator who watches his family fall apart in front of him but does not do anything about it. The writing is beautiful.”

Nancy says:   “Till the final pages of the novel, the reader is given little hints and it’s a bit like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together but finding that someone has removed a third of the pieces and is returning them bit by bit until the last piece falls into place at the end of the story, when things become clear and then there is a jaw-dropping bit of action. That hint of mystery made the pages fly.”

My favorite thing about this book was the actual physical color of the hardback binding.

of course, the photo doesn’t show the truest awesome purple that I see… Sir William Perkin would be proud.   I also love that the cover photo does have something to do with the story.    Well done.

I don’t want to write a negative review – I want to write something that shares my misgivings and annoyances and yet still encourages you to read this book.     I don’t want any comments that say “I’m sorry this didn’t work for you.” because I’m not sorry I read it and you certainly shouldn’t be!    I don’t want any comments that say “Well, cool.   I can skip this one now.” because it is NOT my intent to dissuade you and or save you from wasting time reading inferior crap.    This IS a cool book and extremely well-written.   The mood the author creates.  The suspense!   The mystery that unfolds slowly – you’ll just have to read it to find out.    I hope what I write isn’t spoilering but rather inspires interest.

But gosh darn it.     This is NOT a book of good parenting skills.    I was stunned by Christopher’s behavior.   And, early in the story, I can’t quite imagine a house that is so cold that a glass of water on a bedside totally freezes solid and I suppose I should just be grateful for that, but it stopped me – really?  that’s COLD.   I was annoyed that I couldn’t figure out how old the brother was, and this made me stop and flip and try to find what I missed.    It bugged me – I didn’t figure it out until the end that he was an older brother and I suppose it could have been the design of the author to do so, but it bugged me nonetheless.     The word ‘pedantic’ – do people really USE that word in spoken conversation?   Maybe I just don’t hang in high-vocab circles but this bugged me.    And I wish I knew more about the story of Icarus.    I suppose I should have STOPPED and gone to find it because it is a theme of the book – so I just might encourage you to learn of it to help NOT trip up the story; like tripping on a rug in a room but not falling – you still cross over to the kitchen but the timing gets ‘off’, ya know?     And…  this is a big one:     if Eli was so scared she was leaving, could he really have forgotten the events from the night before and just got so lost in his work when it seemed, overall, he really wasn’t all that into it!??!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!??!    that bugged me, too.

Sigh.    

However, did you see the bit in my latest review post where I tell you that THIS book referenced the Dakota language?!    I loved finding this!   I love random connections from one book to the next when they really have no obvious relation.

And from the very first sentence, “No one stays forever.” to the very last scene, I was hooked.  Bugged and tripped up occasionally, but HOOKED.

Lilia swallowed and found her voice, “You sound happy.”
“I am.”
“Where are you going?”
“Far away,”  Michaela said.  She smiled then, already leaving, and walked away down the platform to meet her train.

XXXXXXX

XXXXX

I can’t decide – between 3 and 4 pie slices…

Sticky Post – Irving’s Owen Meany Mini-Club

A few of us bloggers are reading John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany and it has been suggested that we read a few pages then discuss.  List of participants:    Lu, Softdrink, Ms Mazzola, Vasilly, and Jessi.   AND Joann!   Everyone is invited to participate!   These are just the first few who jumped on the wagon.

I’ve got an idea… I’m going to suggest that we have a discussion FRIDAY!   with just an update where everyone is, then jump right into it.   I’ll update this sticky post (which I’m not even sure I can do here in WP) for the next update and offer a post of questions.   and then, we set a date for EACH participant to post thoughts and thus we jump around to everyone’s blog.   ‘kay?

Care – page 91 / end of Ch 3 The Armadillo – Friday 7/24
Lu – page 183 / end of Ch 4 The Little Lord Jesus – Monday 07/27
Ms Mazzola – page 230 / end of Ch 5 The Ghost of the Future - Wed 07/29
Jessi – page 300 / end of Ch 6 The Voice – 07/31
Jill – page 369 / end of Ch 7 The Dream -08/03
Vasilly – page 450 / end of Ch 8 The Finger –  08/06
Joann – ENDING/Readers Guide by August 08 which is a Saturday.

Just to get you thinking:    What did you think of the very first sentence?    (check the Reader’s Guide, too)

“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God;  I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

Yap with ya on Friday.     Is this TOO MUCH time?   shall we just agree to keep this loose and fun and if you all read faster, just check in and/or schedule your posts?      I’m really hoping to finish the book before July 31 but it’s the blogging time/deadlines I’m worried about.    THANKS!    this is FUN, remember?!  

ONE MORE THING/QUESTION:   how do you set up a Twitter tag?  do we want to twitter this, too – but only as an additional layer since a few don’t do the twitterville thing…   the tag is #owenmeany.

The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn

Review   The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn:  a lakota history by Joseph Marshall III, Penguin Books 2007, 245 pages

MOTIVATION for READING:    Our book club selection for July!   I’m sure I would not have read this if not for our club voting for it (I admit, I voted for it, too – it was the shortest!) but I did enjoy it.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:    An historical account of the Battle at Little Bighorn, formerly known as “Custer’s Last Stand”, defending the actions and motivations of the victors (the Indians or Native Americans or the indigenous people – the author debates what ‘label’ to assign) as they were only fighting for their way of life.

“Everyone is entitled to an opinion, of course, even in the interpretation of history, but there is also a duty to the whole truth of history.”

WHAT’s GOOD:    I found the information fascinating and the author presenting the Lakota side of the story attempted a calm rational discussion of the Indian’s sad tale of being conquered by those Euro-Americans on their sweep west across their lands.

The book discusses that point in time as a pivot of his people’s history and explores not only the very first possible meeting of native people with Euro-Americans, but explores present day issues and how a culture attempts to continue to exist, and even hopes to survive.

WHAT’s NOT so GOOD:     Well, it was a historical text, so some might consider it boring.    I had hopes that it was a nonfiction narrative that read like a story, but alas, no.    It seems to jump right into the scene, too, without much setup.   (Like, um, what state are we in here?  oh, it’s now Montana.)  Each chapter was a different focus of the same single event and the cause and effect over centuries:   impact to language, way of life, etc.     I found some holes or ‘lacks’ – the text never once discussed the word ‘SOUIX’ and I had questions about who/what/why some were called Lakota, some Nakota, some Dakota, and then this word ‘Souix’ was never explained.      Or I missed it?     I was glad to see an extensive bibliography and index (except ‘Souix’ wasn’t there.)

THOUGHTS and then some… One reason we join bookclubs is to have the chance to read books we may never in a million years even know about, let alone read and enjoy.   Perhaps my background of growing up in the Plains states of the ‘real’ Midwest (Ohio and Pennsylvania are not; I call anything east of the Mississippi River ‘EAST’) made me sympathetic to the discussion of these lands and the horrible devastation of the Buffalo.   I’ve visited the Badlands and the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn.     I was brought up to believe that Custer was an idiot.     And it’s possible that ‘some’ in power at the time wanted him to confront the situation knowing that a win or loss in that particular situation would eventually be a win over time.   A win of progress;   it was inevitable?

“While the soldiers of the Seventh are heroes to mainstream Americans, they are remembered as despicable enemies to the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, a fact less often mentioned in the battle talks.”

I’ve already said that I was brought up to believe that Custer was foolish and stupid and amazingly dumb if he thought his 300 boys could conquer an enemy of over 1000, so I guess I can’t count myself as a ‘mainstream American’.     I have to agree that the Indians had every right to protect and fight for what they believed in.    It is so very sad that their way of life was eroded, encroached and stripped away from them.   In this particular battle, the soldiers all died – the Indians ‘won’.    But they sure did not win the war.   History is full of stories of to-the-victors-go-the-spoils and in most cases, congratulations are never  bestowed.   War sucks.  People die.   Follow the money.      If I was living in Massachusetts in 1876 and read the newspapers of the stories ‘out west’, I would probably have been horrified and sickened that ‘our boys’ were slaughtered.    Of course, that assumes I was of Eur0pean descent,doesn’it it?   Does it?

“People will continue to visit the site in the years and generations to come.  Whether connected directly or not so directly to the event, most visitors will talk about the battle and all the various factors that are part of its story.   And now and then, someone will say that the land itself is part of the story.  It can be an emotional experience.  Some will feel something emanate from the land itself.**  Perhaps what we seem to sense is that no one knows the complete story of that long ago battle – except the land.“

Here’s the little ‘fun’ stuff of nonfiction where my review gets oddly personal:

1.)   My great-grandfather was a missionary in Oklahoma Territory – I wish I knew more than that, and I’m not entirely sure I have that story correct!     I think, they eventually settled in Indiana before my grandparents met and moved to a farm in Kansas.   All that family history is sketchy, but I do have family members to consult if I want to know the truth.

2.)   Once the Agency and/or Reservation systems were setup, the children of the Lakotas were stripped from their families and sent to The Carlisle Industrial School for Indians in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.    How absolutely horrible!   How very FAR AWAY!?   They cut the kids hair and beat them if they spoke their native language in an attempt to make them ‘civilized’.   Civilized behavior, my ass.   Crap like this makes me ill.      But, my point and why this is a ‘fun’ fact for me is I KNOW people in Carlisle PA and it’s always cool to come across something that I can identify with in some way.   yippee.

3.)  One of my very favorite things about reading this involves LANGUAGE and the very NEXT book I happened to read:   Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel, page 26:   “There is a word in the Dakota language, gender-specific and untranslatable, that expresses the specific loneliness of mothers whose children are absent.” SEE?   a connection!    a common unusual thread that links two totally unrelated books.    cool, huh?!

Other interesting sites:

Official Website of Joseph C. Marshall III,  National Park Service Archeology, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Park, A Balanced Tour Experience?   RoadsideAttraction discussion, the Official Montana Travel Site

I won’t be able to attend my book club discussion of this and I’m very bummed about that.    I hope someone will agree to meet me for books&beer next week and tells me EVERYTHING that happens!!!

Preview Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving WINS the poll from a few days ago with 48% of the votes cast.     According to my stats, 126 total VIEWINGS of that post were tallied but only 25 votes were counted.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova won second place with 7 votes, tightly followed by A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini with 6 votes.   My Detachment by Tracy Kidder failed to garner a single affirmation.   (I need a new word for ‘vote’)      I’m sure that’s because Bybee is still on vacation?   She does have a guest post recently if you want to wander over there…

ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO DO A MINI-BOOK-CLUB with me and Vasilly and Jill/Softdrink/FizzyBeverage/FizzyThoughts/Whatzername to read this book, feel free to join in!       Details to follow once they become clear and concrete?

My Town’s Rec’d Reading List

My town’s high school has a recommended reading list for the 2009 summer.    Does yours?      I’m curious how many titles I’ve read and how many I might want to read… soon?   or someday!

I’ve read the RED titles and I want to read the GREEN titles. If the title is shown in black, I’ll likely skip or I don’t know enough to make a decision.   Care to convince me to try one or more?

Grade 9
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon- King     - never heard of this.
Search of the Moon King’s Daughter- Holeman – nor this.
Into the Wild- Krakauer
The House on Mango Street- Cisneros
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Angelou -  too much hype, too much spotlight.

Grade 10
Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale- Spiegelman – maybe, is this a graphic novel?
Peace Like a River- Enger – never heard of this.
Black Like Me- Griffin
My Sister’s Keeper- Picoult
Go Ask Alice- Anonymous

Grade 11
The Secret Life of Bees- Kidd
Snow Falling on Cedars- Guterson
Band of Brothers- Ambrose – actually, I would be willing to try this.
Girl With a Pearl Earring- Chevalier
The Last of the Mohicans- Cooper  - I tried this once and couldn’t get past page 10.
Nineteen Minutes- Picoult – not interested.

Grade 12
Three Cups of Tea- Mortenson – I’m not keen on this, either.
The Lovely Bones- Sebold
The Shipping News- Proulx
Notes from the Underground- Dostoyevsky – maybe, is it… hard?  political?
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Hosseini – I have this IN HOUSE! 
The Sun Also Rises- Hemmingway  – I’ve read The Old Man and the Sea twice.  Ugh.

Randomocity and a POLL

**********  Poll closed.   NLIM finished at 4 pm 07/20/09.   Owen Meany wins!

*****updated to say, poll will be open until I finish Last Night in Montreal.    Cuz I’m crazy like that..

I went into a Borders today and managed to escape without spending any money!   WOW.

I also want you to know that I finished my sixth book for the month and thus will have completed my goal to read seven – assuming that Last Night in Montreal won’t take me to August 1 to finish!  which is my next book.   I suppose that is counting my unhatched chickens and putting carts in front of horses but I think I can do it.

I might even be able to read eight books this month considering how many days are left in the month!      So… I now invite you to help me pick my that 8th possible book:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany

My Detachment / Tracy Kidder – would this count for World Cit????

Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

or should I buy a book from Eva’s recommendations and get started on the World Citizen Challenge already?!

I had a surprise mammogram today.    They have a new machine and it really wasn’t that bad.    Not comfortable exactly but not painfully painful, either.   The wonderful technician told me I had perfect breasts.     Isn’t that sweet?   I’m also on my way to my goal of getting an ablation.   TMI?   oh well, too bad.   Most of you are my girl’s club, ya know.       And if you don’t consider yourself as such for what ever reason, you may just celebrate good health!  Raise a toast in celebration!   and attempt to only have 3 alcoholic drinks per week?!    hmmm.  (I’m a bit past that mark…  I should cry.)

I finished The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn and I must say, I learned a lot.   I have sympathy for the Lakota people.    I think Custer was an idiot (which is neither here nor there) and it will all be in my very-likely-too-long review post hopefully posted this weekend but probably next week.    I think it was a 3 pie book – a solid apple pie three slice rating and I would recommend it to anyone interested in our US history.

Don’t forget – you have only to participate in my poll for my next book AND/or scold me to start the World Cit Challenge ASAP.   Thank you and have a nice day.

The Last Beach Bungalow

Review   The Last Beach Bungalow by Jennie Nash, Berkley Books 2008, 265 pages.

The goodreads.com blurb says this:   “A poignant novel about a woman who survives breast cancer, only to struggle with what comes next: living.“

MOTIVATION for READING:    I enjoyed ‘meeting’ Jennie Nash and her book The Only True Genius in the Family (my review) and wanted to purchase one of her books (I want to support authors so they keep working!)    Softdrink recommended this, too.   (See her hilarious post on titles.)

WHAT’s it ABOUT:     A wonderful husband is building his wife a ‘dream’ home but the wife isn’t so sure what exactly her dream home is…    Might it be that last bungalow on the beach?

the NOT-so-GOOD, the GOOD, and my random thoughts and reactions…     I didn’t like this one as much as True Genius.   (see?  I shortened it – hope that’s OK!)    I honestly didn’t like April* (the main character) all that much, if at all.   I am not sure we would be friends.    Oh, I’m sure I would be small-talkin’ at a party with her but I doubt I’d ever meet her for lunch.    I probably would be more likely to hang with her bff since she was a realtor and I used to sell houses.    And April’s husband was incredible!    But anyway, where was ?

Oh, I do want to celebrate her five year mark of being cancer-free and I appreciate that the book was April’s dealing with her LIFE and not just her own image of a cancer survivor, if that makes sense.     This truly is a book about figuring it all out.     IT ALL being life, goals, dreams and how well we are working for what we really want – Nash is EXCELLENT at capturing day to day with humor and a light touch while still embracing (ugh, is ‘embracing’ the right word? how about)  WEAVING in the fact that shit happens and we have to deal.    Or should I reverse all that:

Nash is good at recognizing sucky things and making it real without being overly sad or a drag.

She obviously does great research and skillfully captures a time period – recent but easily dated (references to popular culture, for example.)   She can really ‘set the scene’ of everyday living – how a cafe looks and smells, the feel of lingerie and the atmosphere of shopping for it, etc.

But I still didn’t like April much even though I  was touched by the ending and can’t find too much at fault with the portrayal of her as a believable and flawed but and likable character.     Yea, by the end, I almost liked April and I was cheering for her.    I even cried a little.

And RRRrrrrrrr – I was mad about the bungalow.

Three slices of pie. 

*  The girl didn’t like dogs.     Dog owners (like me) annoyed her.      Oh, come on!   Isn’t Oscar just TOO CUTE?!

The Book Thief

Review   The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Alfred A. Knopf 2005, 550 pages.   Winner of a bunch of awards including the CFWP** for 2009.

FIVE PIEs.   Five WHOLE Pies, not mere slices.   This book is some kind of awesomeness.   You may have noticed that the last few reviews (or blabberings) I have presented were also for books that I bestowed the Five Pie Rating to and I will stick by those.   But of these three books (all this month, too), I adored The Book Thief the most.

I can’t review this.   Ich habe keine ahnung*  how to start this.   I made the mistake of reading other reviews here in lit-o-blog-o-sphere.     So let me introduce you to this book with other’s words.

The Koolaid Mom at In the Shadow of Mt. TBR loved this book and shares lots (including a companion post of excerpts) of why she loves this book:    “… Zusak writes with a poetic beauty that captures the way children take in the world around them.  He often crosses the communication of the five senses”.

I so agree!     What made this book amazing to me was how the author created a physical world of sensations with words and descriptions counter to their flat lettery two-dimensional black-and-whiteness.     He gave taste and shape to the words and their meanings; like stumbling and pouring out a different dimension of the universe.      The narrative is creative and sensation-able.

I knew I wanted to read this book after seeing tons of praise for it.      The Book Lady has also read some of these ‘it-will-change-your-life’ reviews but wasn’t quite as impressed as the hype lead her to expect to be.     She still enjoyed the book but “would have liked a bit more complexity” and less bluntness, more subtlety from Death, the narrator:    ”Instead of foreshadowing or hinting at events to come, he flat out tells us what’s going to happen”.
Personally, I didn’t find this style at all off-putting.     It worked for me and made me eager to keep reading;   a page-turner throughout.      Softdrink, too, found it a bit long – and I admit that when I realized the page count exceeded 500, I was hesitant!   I’m so not a chunkster-reader.    But I sailed right through this.

The Bookfool was braver than I;  she admitted that she was intimidated to review this but did a wonderful job! In  her summation, “The Book Thief is a thought-provoking book, full of stunning imagery and, in my opinion, technically perfect with not the slightest deviation in tone. It’s worth talking about, passing around, setting up on the good shelves for a future reread; and it has just rocketed to the top of my list of best books read in 2006.”

Well, this has rocketed to the top of my list of best books read in 2009.     I highly recommend this.   If not on YOUR tbr, put it there.   If it IS on your tbr, MOVE IT UP.

And, since I keep editing this post and finding more reviews to read, I’ll add just one more thing:    Serena of Savvy Wit and Verse and Anna of Diary of Eccentric are coordinating the challenge War Through the Generations and they post bits of reviews from submissions.   So, click here for even more thoughts, enticements, and critiques of The Book Thief.

* Ich habe keine ahnung –>   I have no idea.   or…    I have no NOTION.   I only took a bit of German in high school.    Knowing a smattering of the language and being of German heritage might be more reasons I loved the book.    Zusak sprinkles some German words into the text but almost always immediately defines it for the reader.   Without disrupting the flow of the narrative.

** CFWP = Care Five Whole Pie