From the Bookshelf of Mostly Sapphic…

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Start date: October 20, 2016

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Jan 27, 2009 Elizabeth added it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii, chocolate-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book in Jan. 2009 but discovered this weekend (nov. 2011) that I'd never reviewed it. However I do seem to have scrawled some notes in the back of the book I read so I thought I'd copy them here, adding the disclaimer that I enjoyed this book very much and that my notes only address the things I *didn't* like about it.

I quote myself:

- I would like this book better - I would love it - I would love the narrative voice - if the narrator weren't "Death"

Because the Narrator makes the othe ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 13, 2015 Cheri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, historical-fiction, gar

This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read. Here's what I knew about it going in: it takes place during WWII and has Nazis in it. Not a lot to go on. It had been on my TBR list for a long time but I kept passing it by, just not sure what it was about or if I was in the right frame of mind. If you've been doing the same thing, I urge you to stop doing that! Pick it next.

Did I cry? Yes, but not in the way I expected. Instead of one or two big sob sessions, I experienced many s ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 21, 2013 Darlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lending-enabled, young-adult, death, kindle-books-i-own, library-overdrive, audio-overdrive, kindle, no-tts, world-war-1, world-war-ii

Death narrates this wonderful story about a young girl in Hitler's Germany. That is a sentence I never would have thought of writing. But that is part of the many surprises in this story. If you've read Terry Pratchett's Discworld, you have a vision of Death. Though this book is covering more serious matters, the author brings in wit and wisdom, and shows us all how to care, how to love.

Early baby-boomers and their parents know deeply what happened pre and during World War II. Most books coveri ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2018 Beth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-read

What a beautiful book. A beautiful, gut-wrenching, sob-inducing book. It is hard to find the words to describe how powerful this book is and the power comes from the characters. They are so real that they live within you whilst you read, and afterwards you mourn them, truly.

This novel exposes the ordinary, extraordinary horrors of war in the most heart breaking way; showing us the intricacies of the lives of people who, despite living under the everyday terror of Nazism manage to maintain incre ...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Molly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was an achingly, beautifully written book. To use its own words to describe it:

"It’s a small story really, about, among other things:
* A girl
* Some words
* An accordionist
* Some fanatical Germans
* A Jewish fist fighter
* And quite a lot of thievery"

But I was constantly amazed at the writing. You can read a very entertaining but not particularly well-written book, but while I was reading this I was continuously thinking about how perfectly every word fit, and how everything was described. Lik ...more

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Dec 19, 2009 treehugger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, could_use_a_reread, read_2010, young_adult, popular_lit, coming-of-age, zero-to-well-read

Wow. This book knocked the wind out of me on more than one occasion - wow. The writing is gorgeous, the horrible subject is dealt with so lovingly and tolerably. The characters are, with no other description available, completely unforgettable.

Heartbreaking. HEARTBREAKING. Yet hopeful...never read a book that is able to pull off that balance so well.

Just read it. You'll never think of the Holocaust (or human nature, or "man's inhumanity to man") the same way again. ...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Traci rated it it was amazing

Shelves: must-reads

The Book Thief is one of the best books
I've ever read. I put off reading it for several
months after a friend mentioned how good it was. When I finally bought it I got a very few pages in and stopped reading cause the narration confused me just a bit. But I held on and was drawn in deeply. It was one of the few books that you are sad when it's done. I felt like I was sitting and observing all the events and knew the characters personally.

...more

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