Book Price Comparisons
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 Better in Audio Started with the book, but changed over to the audio and enjoyed it much better. Liesel Meminger, a foster child living outside Munich during World War II, scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books--in this unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed and free the soul. The Book Thief Wonderful new paper back book; very speedy service! Received in plenty of time for Christmas! Thank you. Book Greater Than Great Can Be Imagine this: A boy is born and at the party, the gods show up, ready to honor the child with gifts. The gods line up. One gives the newborn wisdom with language, foreign and national, one gives him the ability to imagine things from an alternative prospective, and third one gives him the gift to write with a magic only a saint could possess. I believe this is how Markus Zusak was born. The Book Thief (Readers Circle) magically held my interest even when I was tired and my eyes hurt like they were being burned. I could not get his vivid characters out of my head, and, when I was reading, they felt as if they were real people, carrying out the lives today. With every problem they encountered I worried, for these characters were not invincible. The plot is of a girl, traded by her outcast mother to a pair of eccentric foster parents, in Nazi Germany. She grows up in a nation of fear, every turn she makes can backfire at her later. She and her friend Rudy have a habit of thievery, and what the girl (Liesel) likes to steal most are books. As air raids stalk the countryside, and Liesel begins to master her ability with words, tragedy and a Jew hit the land. Overall grade: A+ This is a wonderful, poignant and, often, funny book. Anyone who loves books will love this one. As another reviewer has said, there's no need to go into the plot here as that is apparent by now, but those avid readers who habitually lose themselves in a book, can identify - at least in a small way - with the little girl who loses herself in books to escape hunger, poverty, death and the other hardships of war. She also uses books to not only feed her own soul but the souls of neighbors as they huddle in crowded bomb shelters, and the soul of the young Jewish man hidden in her foster parents' basement. Although the book is narrated by death, many humorous moments keep the book from being too dark. I recommend this for all teens and adults who enjoy history, books, and a good story on the ability of the human spirit to survive. | |||||||||||||
