The Book Thief

Markus Zusak
2005
978-0-375-84220-7

Liesel meminger is the daughter of a communist - a precarious thing to be in 1939 Germany.  She is given to a foster family in a new town, and she is taught to read from a gravedigger's manual - the first book she steals.

Words become her life, along with her new papa and Max, the Jewish fighter who is living in their basement.  Max, who depends on Liesel to be his eyes in a terrifying, hateful world.  There is also Rudy, the boy next door, her best friend and partner in crime, who can't understand why she steals books and not food.

Liesel is watched by the narrator, the busiest narrator during one of his busiest periods, and he shares her story in her own words.

Exquisitely crafted, this story lures you in to a life of everyday poverty, the spectre of war and of battles with bullies.  There is humour to be found here, and love.  And heartbreak.

This is a story that will stick with me for a long time to come.  It is haunting and chilling, intense in dark moments and endearing in lighter ones.

This is a story that I'm immensely grateful to have found.

Finished 16/11/13.
Read for Online Book Club December group read

The Dark

James Herbert
1980
ISBN 0330376209 

Bishop, paranormal investigator and skeptic, finds himself confronting an idea that goes against every scientific theory he has - that evil has managed to become a physical force, invading the minds of Londoners.  The evidence - and the bodies - pile up, but how can it be stopped?

Written in 1980, this book easily translates to the present day.  The medical and scientific terminology still fits, and serves to deepen the disquiet this book brings to the reader.

The tension builds smoothly, and I did find myself how any kind of ending could fit within the remaining pages and still do justice to everything that preceded it - and with the resolution presenting itself in the final few sentences, I was a little disappointed at the sudden, rushed climax.

The afterword tempered that slightly, but I would have liked it to be a bit more detailed.  Even so, this was a solid horror based on the scariest of ideas - that of man indulging in his darkest thoughts.

Finished 06.10.13

The Boy who Lived with Ghosts

John Mitchell

2013

ISBN 0615793207

This is not a book I would choose without a prompt to do so, but I’m glad I gave it a go.

The settings - housing estates and pubs - paint a vivid picture right from the beginning, and the interactions of the family members bring to life an interesting and volatile childhood that, although it’s revealed in a touching and amusing way, is quite shocking at the same time.

I liked the way John parroted the phrases of the adults around him, casually pointing out that he’d break his bloody neck one day, and the way he started each chapter with a complete deconstruction of any earlier optimism made it hard to remember that this isn’t fiction - this was a real childhood, shocking in places and difficult by any standards.

Margueretta takes centre stage, claiming any and all attention, healthy or not, and in the early days of mental illness diagnoses, created every kind of tension in an already tough situation.  I felt sympathetic to the entire family, but perhaps for John’s mother most of all, and her breakdown was more expected than surprising. 

This was a fascinating glimpse into a different time, and a different way of life.  

Finished 28/10/13
Read as monthly read for OnlineBookclub.org

Hyddenworld: Awakening

William Horwood

2011

0230712614 

This book opened with a more in-depth retelling of the final chapters of the book that preceded it, which I appreciated.  Dropping catch-up details throughout a book can get irritating, so it was a refreshing change to have it all done and out of the way right from the beginning.

Spring was about Brum, and Englalond.  This second installment has expanded the world to Europe, and the entire Earth, and follows characters on all sides of the struggle for the Spring gem.  Less about Jack and more about the world at large.

Judith, the Shield Maiden, is a tortured character, one moment a child and the next more adult than her parents, but her story was less interesting to me than that of Bedwyn Stort.  I wouldn’t have guessed from the first book that his thread would have been such an important one.

I found this book to be more interesting and slightly more adult than the first book.  The language is still wonderfully easy to absorb, in spite of the more complex politics and ideas, and hints of things to come.  It follows well with the idea of each book being a season in the story, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Autumn and Winter develop.

Finished 16/10/13

Hyddenworld: Spring

William Horwood
2009
0230712606

This is a re-read – I first read this book in 2010, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  This time around was prompted by finding the second book in the series, and wanting to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything important.  (it turns out that wasn’t necessary, as the first part of the second book seems to be the last few chapters of book one, which is helpful)

Easy to read and beautifully composed, this book seems at times to be written for children – the language is easy to absorb and brings to life the forgotten corners of semi-rural England – but the themes and politics keep it interesting for an older audience.

The characters are flawed, in the generally adorable manner of a trusted circle of good guys, without being overly saccharine.  The world-building isn’t overbearing, and is as much a part of the story as the unfolding of their journey.

Jack and Katherine’s love story is slow and sweet, although I did find that Jack settling into life at the cottage at the beginning seemed to be less smooth than the rest of the narrative.

I really enjoyed this as a quick retreat from the world over lunchbreaks.  Not too demanding, and interesting enough that I’m already into the sequel.

Finished: 11/10/13

The Fiction Class

By Susan Breen

Arabella’s world revolves around her two main challenges in life: her relationship with her mother, and figuring out the ending to her novel.  Neither seems like a solvable problem, but her writing class, and the conclusions she draws about her students, at least gives her a starting point.

When she is told her mother is sick, she realizes how little time she actually has left to come to terms with who her mother is – and whether or not she’s up to trying to fix their relationship.

Interspersed with her writing classes and accompanying exercises (which I didn’t do, as I was too eager to get on with the story), the story of Arabella and her mother has an arresting appeal.  Both are flawed, both are stuck on their side of their arguments and both are unwilling to budge.

I found this book quite refreshing in that there were no perfect people; even Arabella and her conclusions about people where truly human – unbalanced and unfair, but able to be changed as she discovered more about the people around her.  To me, this made her more likeable, as she was someone that I actually related to, rather than the perfect, demure but strong heroine she was named after.

In fact, the only person I didn’t like in this story was Chuck, and for the same reason that Arabella herself was reluctant to like him.  He seemed too perfect, and there wasn’t really any progress made in understanding him, or why Arabella liked him.  I thought that the others in her class were much easier to understand, as they were as flawed and human as Arabella herself.

This isn’t the normal kind of book I go for, but I’m really glad I picked this one up.  It was well-written (as a book about an author would need to be!), and I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4/5
Date finished: 23/11/12

The Last Sky

By Alice Nelson

This is the story of Maya Wise, who chooses to hide her stories between the other stories she stumbles across.  Left in Hong Kong while her husband pursues his obsessions in the desert.  She exists in a lonely haze of other people’s lives, and the feeling that she doesn’t belong.  While that’s something that everyone can relate to, to some degree, I found it difficult to understand the lack of passion in Maya’s life.  Her apathy made it difficult for me to sympathise with her, and I was much more interested in the story of Ken’s education in China that in finding out what conclusions Maya draws about her own life.

The tone of this book struck me as dreamy, and it was a relaxing read in spite of my impatience with Maya.  Hong Kong is presented as a true melting pot of cultures, and the contrasting memories of Australia, with it’s trees and sea views, and both places were as interesting as any of the characters.

Rating: 3/5
Date Finished: 14 November 2012