The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is my new favorite book. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought it was a wonderfully quick read. The characters were very well developed... I had favorites, but I could even feel something for the villains.
This book does leave me with unanswered questions at the end... but that somehow makes me want to read it again.
It's WWII, Nazi Germany.
Death is the narrator, but certainly not what I would have expected.
Leisel is a girl who keeps surviving despite the odds against her.
Her foster parents are ideal...
The best friend, Rudy, is heartbreaking...
Meanwhile Max, their Jewish friend in hiding, may be the REAL best friend...

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Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This novel would certainly stir up completely different emotions depending when it is/was read. In 1985, when it was first published, women had fewer options with regards to reproduction than we have now. It seems odd now that a novel set in the "future" would require women suffering with infertility to use surrogates and deliver at home without the supervision of a health professional. In 1985 IVF was not a widely available option... but it would surely be taken advatage of in such a society. I suppose I just have a hard time imagining a world where there is NOT an overpopulation problem.
Had I read this book in late 2001 I would probably not be able to get through it considering that the society emerged after the government was taken over violently by an ultra right wing group.
This book is a disturbingly fascinating read at any time.

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Fill in the Gaps

I recently posted my "Fill in the Gaps" list of 100 books to read within the next 5 years (or sooner HA!).

The Help

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.

Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another.

A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t."

I finally finished reading this book. I found myself picking it up.... reading a while and then putting it down fairly often. It's a wonderful story, but its predictability kept me from really getting into it.
I suppose the writer's intention was to keep the reader just a bit uncomfortable, and, I'll admit, that's what made me put the book down most of the time.... I ended up picking up a few books that were more suspenseful.

I did appreciate the different characters for who they were. Elizabeth Leefolt, in particular, really disturbed me. She is that wimpy white girl who idolizes a mean, bitchy girl who she will do anything for, while willingly participating in ruining the life of her life-long friend. If I could have reached into the book I would have given her a good slap. Meanwhile, my heart sank as the book sucked me into the life of sweet Aibileen, the black maid who develops a close friendship with writer Skeeter Phelan as the story develops.

In the end, I would still highly recommend it.... especially as a Summer "beach read."

Tinkers by Paul Harding


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I actually gave up on this book. It's just NOT enjoyable.

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Bookcrossing

I have recently become obsessed with Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction. I set out on a quest to have them on my shelf... but I have a big problem. I already have shelves full of books that I have yet to read. So.....
I am going to resolve not to buy another book unless I finish one and set it free on bookcrossing.com.
The next goal... finish the books that I have started! I am in the middle of "The Help," but I keep putting it down for some reason. In the meantime, I finished "People of the Book," by Geraldine Brooks and I am almost finished with "Water for Elephants," by Sara Gruen.
I need to stay out of bookstores...especially the big Disneyland of bookstores, Half Price Books.
But while I'm buying books I don't need.... I keep coming across things like love notes and other random book markers that keep me pouring through the aisles!!! And I end up buying more books for my already full shelves.
My new motto: READ AND RELEASE