The Book Thief

It's been a month of Markus Zusak. I finished *The Book Thief* a few weeks ago and am now reading his *I Am the Messenger*. I was startled at the night-and-day differences between the voice of *The Book Thief* vs. *I Am the Messenger*, but I'll save that for the next post. This post will be devoted solely to *The Book Thief*: an honor I think it surely deserves.

I actually didn't like *The Book Thief* very much at first; in fact, not until I was well over halfway through the book did I experience a massive shift from ambivalence to awe. I almost didn't type that last sentence because I don't want to sway potential readers away from giving it a try, but I also want to assure them that, even if it takes a while to get into, it's well worth the effort.

OK, I can't believe I've typed all that and still haven't described the book. Sorry. It takes place in Hitler's Germany, with chapters alternating between first and third person narration. The third person narration tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a little girl who is adopted by a German couple after her mother becomes unable to care for her. The novel's title comes from Liesel's habit of stealing books and the importance that each title has in her life. The first person narration is by Death. You heard me right. Death is the narrator. In the author section at the end of the book, Markus Zusak explains how he originally had given Death a cruel persona, but changed his mind and instead made Death a sympathetic narrator. This device is what made the book so shattering to me. The idea of Death being tormented by all of his "work" during the Holocaust years is really haunting; in fact, at one point Death explains that he is "haunted by humans." Beautifully tragic, no?

The other element of *The Book Thief* that I loved was Zusak's use of figurative language. He combines metaphors and switches up images and descriptions to create new ways of explaining and looking at feelings, events, and objects. He also uses colors to lend additional meaning and feeling to events and people (hello, F. Scott Fitzgerald!).

Anyway, my point to all this is: Read it. Love it? Think it's too contrived? Let me know!

4 out of 4 Bananas

Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award 2010 Nominee

The Good Earth and Postmortem! Or, It's Cool to Mix Up Your Genres.

Over break I finished reading the Pearl S. Buck classic *The Good Earth*. I've been loving Chinese-related literature for the past few years, so it was only a matter of time before I read this one. It's the story of Wang Lung, a poor Chinese peasant who relies on the "good earth" for everything: his house, his food, and his work. He makes a special plea for a wife to the local rich family, and is given a servant woman named O-Lan. *The Good Earth* is the story of Wang Lung and his family throughout their multi-generational transition from poor farmers to wealthy city dwellers. It examines the importance of land and the inevitability of self-destruction as one moves away from valuing and respecting the land to valuing money, high society, and the acquisition of material possessions. My only problem with the novel is its lack of redeeming female characters. Wang Lung's wife O-Lan is regularly described as having "dull eyes" and having the dim intelligence of a farm animal. The rest of the women are lazy, greedy, slothlike, or shrill nags. On the other hand, there really aren't many redeeming male characters, either! So, in spite of a lack of likeable characters (or perhaps because of?), *The Good Earth* is a fascinating, riveting read and and I give it
4 out of 4 bananas.
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So after *The Good Earth*, I was in need of a good, fast-paced, Spring Break read. I turned to Patricia Cornwall's *Postmortem* ,recommended to me by Mrs. Cabaj. It was just what the Spring Break doctor ordered! I whiled away my vacation hours reading about Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, who ended up being instrumental to the capture of a dangerous serial killer. I finished it last night and was cringing as I turned the pages of the book's final scenes. Scary and fun, for sure! Sometimes you just need a little brain candy, you know? Thanks, Mrs. Cabaj!
3 out of 4 bananas.

Jodi Picoult's *My Sister's Keeper* Movie-- They're Changing the Ending!

Mrs. Fritz just showed me an email written by a member of the Illinois State Library Media Association. This woman had recently attended a book signing by Jodi Picoult, who mentioned to the audience that she had just found out that the movie currently being made of her popular novel *My Sister's Keeper* will have an ending DIFFERENT from the one that she had written. When she tried to convince the producers to keep the original ending, she was told, "Readers don't matter." What!? I am outraged! Ms. Picoult encouraged the book signing attendees to write directly to the directors, asking them to keep the story's original ending. So here are their addresses, and I, too, encourage you to write to them and tell them that readers DO matter!

Mark Johnson (producer) producermark@granviaprod.com

Tony Emmerich (director) directortoby.emmerich@newline.com

Can you imagine what would happen if they had changed the ending to any of the Harry Potter movies? When they finally make the movie for *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, what if Harry dies and Voldemort becomes Hogwart's headmaster? What if Ginny marries Draco Malfoy? The Readers of the world would revolt, and rightly so!

P.S. I haven't yet read *My Sister's Keeper*, so if you see me in the halls, don't spoil the ending-- I'll read it soon and would love to discuss!

The Year of Living Biblically

I just finished reading A.J. Jacobs' *The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible*. It was one of our Lit Club choices and was also recommended to me by a good reader friend. Jacobs' previous book is called *The Know It All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World*, which describes his effort to read the entire *Encyclopedia Britannica* from cover to cover, in one year. He must be crazy, right? As you can see from the book's cover, he actually went so far as to grow a beard, dress in clothing from Biblical times, and carry around a variety of props, musical instruments, etc. He didn't just jump into it haphazardly, however. He consulted lots of experts from many sects of the Jewish and Christian faiths; books; various versions of the Bible; websites; and even attended a Jerry Falwell church as well as a snake-handling church. He also visited Israel to meet a long-lost and vigorously shunned ex-member of his own family, a man he refers to as "Guru Gil". I liked this book a lot because in addition to being hilarious and different, it clears up some common myths about both the Christian and Jewish faiths.

As part of my new ranking system, I'll give this book 3 out of 4 bananas.

*Nineteen Minutes* by Jodi Picoult

I just finished reading Jodi Picoult's *Nineteen Minutes*, which is about school shooting, bullying, and popularity. I think that everyone either in high school or teaching high school should think about reading it, even though it's not the most pleasant or comfortable experience because, let's face it, the topic hits pretty close to home. Jodi Picoult obviously took a lot of her material from the Columbine shooting as well as other school shootings that have been in the news in the past few years. One of the coolest things about Picoult is that she presents an issue from many different angles, so we are experiencing this event (a school shooting that took 19 minutes-- hence the title) through the eyes of the shooter, his friends, his enemies, his parents, his defense lawyer, and the detective working the case. Reading the details of the shooting itself made me want to put the book down and stop reading because it was pretty awful, but the book is so well done and the subject treated so honestly, that I'm extremely grateful I made it through the entire thing. Having said all of that, I highly recommend *Nineteen Minutes* because it provides a lot of food for thought, is well-written, and confronts head-on a subject that makes a lot of people (myself included, sometimes) want to bury their heads in the sand.
3 1/2 out of 4 Bananas
Has anyone else read it? Tell me what you think!

Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award 2010 Nominee

My Brand New Blog

Welcome to my new blog! I'm hoping to post what I'm reading, what's new in the library, and any random library-related ramblings I might have. Join me by posting your comments, suggestions, and questions!