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 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 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

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2014 Sally Bellerose rated it really liked it

Great book, but found the conceit of death narrating distracting and unnecessary to the story.

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 08, 2011 Emily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: i-cried

I am a great big sobbing mess.

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 25, 2011 Jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: germany, 1930s, 1940s

Starting this book, I had low expectations. I, like many teens, went through a Holocaust fiction phase about two years ago when we read "Night" for English class, and I am a little bit tired of the genre, although it is an emotional and delicate one. "The Book Thief", about a young German girl named Liesel who lives with her accordion-playing foster father and insulting but loving foster mother on Himmel Street during World War II, didn't impress me too much at first. Actually, the writing itsel ...more

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Feb 11, 2017 Angie rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooks, why-ending-why, historical-fiction, books-about-books, page-count-500

There are moments that this story is brilliant. There are times Markus Zusak describes something so masterfully I was in awe of the words on the page. There were times I was actually engaged in the characters, in this world, in the lives of the residents on this German street that have to deal with the constant threat of war. Unfortunately those times were rare. More often than not, I felt disengaged from this story and these characters. And it was honestly a chore to get through. It's not witho ...more

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Jan 06, 2012 B.L. Newport rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There are not enough stars available to properly rate this story. It was beautiful from the first word to the last and to top it off, it accomplished a feat no book has accomplished over the past near twenty years: It made me cry. Not just a snifflin' cry, but a serious-river-of-tears-down-my cheeks-my-wife-hands-me-the-whole-box-of-Kleenex-cry. I will definitely read this book again and again and I hope to find more beauty in it with every reading. I also won't mind if I cry. ...more

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Feb 21, 2014 Katrina rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult

This book was far too long. It was a little boring in parts, but mostly it was just long. Overall not my favorite but a good read if you have the time.

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