From the Bookshelf of The Reading Challenge Group…

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Start date: January 1, 2015

Finish date: January 31, 2015

Discussion: Group Read Archive 2014-16

Why we're reading this: Young Adult Group Read - January 2015
[close] Young Adult Group Read - January 2015

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Showing 2 of 139 topics — 2,834 comments total

Group Read Archive 2014-16

Genre Group Read (Humour) - December 2016 - You Are Not So Smart
By Allison , Quest Hound · 11 posts · 30 views

last updated Dec 28, 2016 04:05PM

Alternate Group Read (Classics) - December 2016 - Mansfield Park
By Allison , Quest Hound · 5 posts · 18 views

last updated Dec 04, 2016 09:34AM

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What Members Thought

Mar 15, 2011 Elise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books, ya-books-worth-reading

This book was powerful, disturbing, and triumphant with sympathetic and well rounded characters and a vivid sense of time and place. Book burning Nazi Germany came alive in its pages. I couldn't put it down--read the whole thing in the middle of a busy semester in only 3 days! ...more

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Jan 18, 2014 Bouchra Rebiai rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 101-in-1001-days-2, read-in-2014

This book is also another one that I wouldn't have picked up now if not for the Group Read. Since I had just finished Catch-22, another book set during WWII, I didn't expect much from this book either. I always have liked historical fiction, but Catch-22 was my first historical fiction in a war setting, and as with all firsts, I expected to have the same experience the second time around. However, I was thoroughly disappointed.

The Book Thief blew me away, within the first few pages (or rather, I ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2011 Krysta MacDonald rated it it was amazing

2016 Update: I have started teaching this to twelfth grade students. The comments I have gotten include that it is beautiful and I am cruel for making them read it. It took their hearts and threw it on the ground and stomped on them. It was the best book they have ever read. It was "okay enough for a book, I guess." And many, many tears. Well, I suppose there was also some profanity about the fact that they didn't want to cry...

The fact is, this is certainly not a perfect book. But a book that h ...more

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Feb 08, 2014 Candy Tiley rated it really liked it

Shelves: award-winning, historical-fiction, setting-in-a-foreign-culture, young-adult-books, 2014-book-list, special-books, great-american-read, 2001-2010, my-favorites

I have heard a great deal of positive admiration for this novel and it has won so many awards I decided it was worth reading even though I was not really excited about the main topic. But as is often true there is a good reason for the hype. While this book is not an entertaining read it is most definitely a book worth reading and it is very well-written.
The center of the book is a young girl and her experiences with life during the early 1940's in Germany. As the Third Reich gains power and be ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Cher Mendoza rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: inspirational, general-fiction

If there were 6 stars I would have chosen that for this book.

This is a very good book, one that I wouldn't mind reading again. The story was set in Nazi Germany at around the time that Hitler was in full power and is narrated by Death. Yes, Death. I've read in history books what happened during the World War but those history books didn't stir that much emotion in me unlike what this book did. Sure I felt pity, but in this book, you can FEEL everything that everyone must have went through at tha ...more

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Mar 16, 2011 Anki rated it it was amazing

This was just such a well written book. I cried and it left me thinking!

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Oct 16, 2012 Don rated it really liked it

Shelves: realistic-fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction

The Book Thief is the story of a young girl in Nazi Germany during World War II. She develops a love of reading and a vehement disdain for many of the Nazi practices, including but not limited to book burning ans antisemitism.

The story is moving and powerful, following the heroine as she begins to understand just what her countrymen are capable of - both the persecuted and the persecutors.

I highly recommend this book.

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Aug 16, 2011 Mickey rated it it was ok

I really tried with this one, but the writing really irked me. The bad metaphors, the overuse of adjectives, and poor use of personification really distracted me from what seemed like an interesting story. I'm just not invested in the story enough to continue dealing with the irritation. Two stars since I can see why other people like it. It just isn't for me. ...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Elle rated it liked it

This may be one I try again later. It may have been that I've just been really busy and exhausted by the time I get to sit down and read, but it felt like this book just moved too slowly for me. I didn't feel like I could really get into it. Everyone else I know seems to have rated it very high, so it may be worth a reread when life settles down. ...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Bridgette rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

A really good book kept me wanting to read more until the very end. The narrator 'death' was good as it told the story without you can see his point of view throughout the book. ...more

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