Book Review: The Book Thief

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbours during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

I wish I could put into words just how much I adore this book. Do you want to read something that is so beautifully written it's almost poetic? Something that has you falling in love with every single character? Something that focuses on a young girl who is just as obsessed with the written word as you are? Then this is a story that you will treasure forever.

Set in the holocaust, this is not your run of the mile account of the Hitler reign. The Book Thief is narrated by Death. Yes, the scythe wielding, cloaked, skeleton figure is our storyteller and oh what a wonderful storyteller he is. Death foreshadows throughout the book, which adds to the sense of anticipation and dread you experience, and isn't that exactly what war does to a person? Has you worrying about when you or someone you love will lose their life? Instead of spoiling the events, I think this only increased my heartache when the inevitable happened and I will freely admit that this book has me sobbing uncontrollably at points.

Zusak's characters are utterly perfect. Each individual is full of flaws, interesting, rich and so full of love and kindness that it breaks your heart. Despite despising a few characters at points, Zusak let's us see qualities in everyone that are so completely human and endearing and it's this that has you weeping for every loss encountered.

There's a dark humour laced within the pages, uplifting what could be an extremely depressing subject. Death's observations of human behaviours, the characters attitudes to one another and normal behaviours in such a tense time are what bring this novel to life.

The writing in The Book Thief is the thing which makes this book one of my favourites. The story is strong, the characters are wonderful, but Markus Zusak's writing is hauntingly beautiful. Zusak has proved himself to be a poet, a lyricist, an artist and a literary genius. Yes, I said genius. That's how strongly I feel about this piece of work. This is a story about the power of words. Words brought Liesel to life, built a foundation for her most treasured relationships, and were what brought Hitler to power, and Zusak captures this with his own writing style perfectly.

As I said, there's no way I could ever articulate my love for The Book Thief. I've read it quite a few times now, and fall a little more every time I flick through it's pages. Please, please, please read it if you've not already. And do it before the film's released.

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”

― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Book Review: A Feast for Crows

I'm a fast reader. And when I sink my teeth into a book I'm a ridiculously fast reader. Yet, it took three months for me to finish this instalment in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I don't want to give too much away as I know so many people who are invested in the television show who have no interest in reading the books (these people are no longer my pals. READ BOOKS!), so I'll be limited with what I say.

The previous three books absolutely captivated me. Chapters built around individual character's viewpoints, deaths at every turn, battles, a whole lot of sex and SO MANY people to fall in love with and absolutely despise. But, A Feast for Crows didn't hold my attention in the same way. I enjoyed reading it, but I also found myself reaching for other books at the same time. I hope that it's simply because George R.R. Martin originally wrote this and the next volume A Dance with Dragons as one novel, which he then split in half due to its absurd length. This has resulted in a much slower pace and leaving the reader wondering just what's happening to many of our beloved, but AWOL friends and foes.

A Feast for Crows follows Cersei, Brienne, Samwell, Arya, Jaime and Sansa and introduces some new players into the Game of Thrones. So we are missing quite a few strong main characters, and pretty vital story lines. The story plods along, with nothing overly exciting actually happening. Journeys are drawn out, conversations are lengthy and battles are minimum. I feel like Martin uses a lot more repetition in this book, there are scenes that are oh so very awkward and the writing is just not up to par with the previous three. Not to mention that many of the new characters have similar names to existing ones (Elys, Alys, Pate, Pod and Peck?), which makes for an already hard to keep up with storyline to become even more confusing.

I really got into the stories around 80% of the way through, which is a shame. I'm loathed to say that I didn't enjoy it as much as it's predecessors as really, it is only half of a book. Nothing exciting happened? I bet it all kicks off in A Dance With Dragons (or so I hope). So, I'm off to start the next one and pray that the series hasn't lost it's momentum.

All in all, I'm so grateful that I'm a latecomer to the series as Martin's little note at the end teasing you with another finished book that then wasn't released for five years might just have made me give up.

Book Review: The Psychopath Test

(Reading definitely requires a good snack)

"In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them."

I'm usually the type of girl to pick up a fiction novel rather than a gritty, real life account but this was recommended to me and I was intrigued.

Ronson sets out on a mission to uncover a mystery, and as the pieces come together he ends up learning about various mental health disorders and the characteristics of diagnosing a psychopath. With an engaing, very personal writing style Ronson narrates his way through interviews with so-called psychopaths, associated family members and doctors, dissecting treatment methods and the check lists which field specialists are using to diagnose so many members of society. A running theme throughout is that of just how many high functioning, successful individuals would be labelled as a psychopath according to a checklist designed by Bob Hare, a clinical psychology researcher.

I found myself completely enthralled in this book, despite Ronson flitting from one case study to another. I understand that he wanted to include as many cases as possible, but I felt that we weren't given enough information about each person and found myself hitting the internet to find out more. However, he let his interviewees use their own voice within the book, rather than paraphrasing allowing the reader to form their own conclusions.

I'm struggling a little to form a coherent opinion about this, as I think The Psychopath Test has really just ignited a curiosity about the subject and left me wanting more. I've always had an interest in mental health, and the one thing that you really take away from this book is society's current views on the subject. There are different levels of what we define as "crazy" or "mad" or any of the other labels you wish to use, and too often we are diagnosing behaviours which really, we just don't know how to deal with. Rather than try to get to the base of behaviours, we label, dish out medications and pray that it stops.

As a first time reader of Ronson's, I enjoyed his writing style and will definitely pick up one of his other titles.

“There is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.”

― Jon Ronson

Book Review: Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major

"Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major brings together the three bestselling volumes of Adrian Mole's diaries for the 1980s - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, The Growing Pains of Adrian Albert Mole and True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole - with Adrian's previously unpublished diaries for 1989 and 1990. For the first time between the covers of one book, these are the complete Adrian Mole diaries, taking him from 13 3/4 to 23 3/4."

I've been immersed in the seven kingdoms, the battle for the Iron Throne and the activities beyond the wall for some time now, and as much as I love A Song of Ice and Fire, sometimes it's lovely to take a break and read something a little more light-hearted. Enter, Sue Townsend. I'm new to her work, but after listening to my flat mate chuckle for an hour non stop when reading one of her other novels, I had to ask "What on earth are you reading?" She pointed me to one of our many bookshelves and said "start with this".

Adrian Mole is a precocious, self labelled intellectual with whom no one quite knows what to do with. The story is laid out in a diary format, with almost daily entries from Mole. Some lengthy, some short and some simply including Adrian's attempts at obscure poetry. The format works well, it's face paced and reads exactly as a teenage diary should- angsty, filled with tales of unrequited love, first kisses and attempts at understanding the politicical goings on in the country (it's set in the 80's, so lots of Thatcher references). I raced through the first two thirds of the book and couldn't wait to find out what Mole was upto next, laughed at his misfortunes and wanted to give him a good shake more than half of the time. But, as a teenage character he was endearing.

This collection includes three books together, and honestly, it all goes a bit wrong when we reach "True Confessions...". Mole is now in his twenties, hasn't grown out of the same obsessions that filled his younger years, and the layout is all over the place. Without including spoilers, I would say, read the first two and perhaps skip the third instalment in this edition.

I understand that there are quite a few sequels in this series, and I've just found one of them in our bookcase. In it, Mole appears to be all grown up with a family, so I might have a little nose just to see how the character has turned out.

If you're wanting a quick, easy read that will give you a few right good laughs then I would recommend at least the first two Adrian Mole stories.

A Girl Who Reads

"I want a girl who reads
Who feeds her addiction for fiction
With unusual poems and plays
That she hunts out in crooked bookshops for days and days and days
She’ll sit addicted at breakfast, soaking up the back of the conflakes box
And the information she gets from what she reads makes her a total fox
Cos she’s interesting & unique
& her theories make me go weak at the knees"


If only more men thought like this...

Books read in 2013: 2

I thoroughly enjoyed the first installment to this series. Like many people I know, I was completely taken in by the magical world of the seven kingdoms through the t.v show before I picked up the books, and this love has just been strengthened after realising just how true to the books the show is.

The story is told through various character's perspectives, which allows you to discover about each of their little kingdoms. I especially love the Stark children's chapters, as a slightly naive view on the war that is beginning around them is refreshing after many battles and political discussions. 

I managed to whiz through the book pretty quickly, and unfortunately found myself skimming through parts simply because the tv show is SO true to the book, that I knew exactly what was happening/ going to occur. I'm sure that as I delve into the rest of the series it'll take a bit more time and concentration to keep up with all of the twists and turns in the fight for the Iron Throne. 

As I said before, I'm definitely not eloquent enough to type out reviews, so this is a mere recording of what I've read this year. 

“What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms . . . or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.” - George R.R Martin, A Game of Thrones

Books read in 2013: 1

Now, I'm not going to start reviewing books exactly, but after losing my reading mojo a little last year, I feel that blogging about the books I read will encourage me to read more again. So expect a few sentences on my thoughts after reading, but no eloquent reviews...if that's what you're looking for, do head over to the lovely Book Odyssey where Jenna-Kate does a fantastic job!

So, the first book this year is Skinny Bitch, which was recommended to me by a fellow non-meat eater. Unlike what the title suggests, this is not a book to promote skeletal-frames, but a no bullsh*t, attitude filled request for you to ditch chemical laden food, and eat a more wholesome, natural diet. It's got a slight tongue-in-cheek chick lit feel about it, with many, many more profanities than you would find in your usual 'diet' book.

I'm already vegetarian, however this fully promotes a vegan diet. While, I'm not quite ready for veganism, the book's direct approach really gets you thinking about how many chemicals are actually pumped into your food and how you can reduce these. I've already commited to eating a more whole-foods diet for this year, so having an easy to read guide to what to avoid will no doubt be helpful!

Skinny Bitch is a ridiculously condensed guide to a natural diet, so if you want a quick, easy to read, no-nonsense, information packed introduction to a chemical free life, I would definitely recommend giving it a read! 

World Book Night

"In the UK, 20,000 passionate readers will gift 24 copies of one of their favourite books to encourage those who don't regularly read to fall in love with reading. In addition World Book Night will be giving a further 620,000 books over the course of the year directly to the hardest to reach readers through prisons, care homes, hospitals, sheltered housing, homeless shelters, libraries and through other partner charities."- www.worldbooknight.org

I'm a very passionate reader, and have been since I was very little. Days with my Gran would be spent visiting the library or raking through her bookshelves, devouring everything I could get my small hands on. I was encouraged to read print all around me from a very young age, and I firmly believe that this encouragement started my love for the printed word. 

Growing up I read as much Enid Blyton as I could get my hands on, and I adored stories about girls at boarding school, imagining that they had a fantastic, adventurous lives far from home. I spent many nights hiding under the covers reading Goosebumps and Shivers books, and eventually moved onto "classics"; my favourites being Pollyanna and Little Women. Oh, how I would have loved to have been one of the March sisters. 

As the teenage years approached, I found comfort in Judy Blume and Jacqueline Wilson books, before starting on the usual "coming of age" novels. 

These days, I am open to reading anything. I have a list of "to-read" books, all of which I have purchased and the total currently sits at 160. I have a bit of a book-buying obsession!

When I first heard about World Book Night, I decided that I had to register to be a giver. There was no doubt in my mind about my need and want to share my love of reading with the world. You had the option of choosing from 25 books and I chose to give Pride & Prejudice, a classic by the wonderful Jane Austen. Slightly predictable, maybe, but I adore it.  I received an email a few months ago saying that I had been chosen to be a giver. Cue epic excitement!

I collected my books last Monday, and I have to say that they are just beautiful! Each book includes one of Shakespeare's sonnets on the back page, to celebrate his birth and death day, which falls on World Book Night. 

One of the requirements of being a giver is that you pass on the books to non-readers, and to pass on your passion to encourage others to read. I had originally planned to hand out books to parent's of children at my work, but circumstances changed and I woke up this morning at a bit of a loss. Thankfully, I found an event near by at Howden Park Centre in Livingston, and managed to pass on a few books there. I also braved chapping on some of my neighbours doors, and was met with much more positive reactions than I had anticipated! 

I even managed to pick up a couple of books for myself at the event, as a local library had donated a large volume of books to be shared. 

I feel so grateful to be part of this wonderful night, and have really enjoyed reading other people's stories on Twitter. Search #worldbooknight to follow the night's action.

I still have a couple of books left, so if you would like one leave a comment with your email address and I'll contact you to get your details to post one out to you!

Were you chosen to be a giver? Are you a reader or do you never find the time? Share your stories please!