I picked up The Book Thief after seeing all of the great ratings from friends and all of the good press surrounding it. The book isn't a light read and didn't exactly end very happily. I also didn't find it hard to put down, but I did find it a pleasure to have read after I finished it.

While the wonderful characters were definitely the main thing that kept me coming back, my favorite character of all was the narrator, Death. He's just a really great story teller, and I liked his sense of humor and his humanity.

The Book Thief is the stirring story about the people of a German town during World War II. I don't believe I'd ever read a book about World War II told from the perspective of Germans before this. Specifically, it tells the story of a girl named Liesel and her foster family and neighbors. The narrator is Death, and the girl is the figure to whom he is drawn which is why we hear her story, but instead of being drawn to Liesel, I ended up being drawn to the people that Liesel loved because we see them so often through her story and her eyes.

In the end, I was very glad that I kept reading the book even when it wasn't the easiest thing in my pile to stick with.