Rated of 5
by Susan Heartwrenching...
This is an incredibly well crafted book - one that I purchased for my personal collection & which I have now read a total of 3 times - it speaks to the heart, draws the reader into the darkest of times & allows one to experience the depth of human emotion in so many ways. Beautifully written, from a perspective I've not seen before, with death as its narrator, one feels as "he" is totally real & almost a feeling being, using colors to describe souls.
Least we forget history, may we realize the power of words...be sure to read the story with the novel, "The Word Shaker," for it is starkly true - Hitler used words to capture the trust of his people & led them like sheep to the slaughter in a bloody parade...(another lesson to be heeded), it is a deeply moving novel & in my opinion a must read for young adults as well as adults. It is one of the most powerful novels I've had the pleasure to read.
Rated of 5
by Mindy The Book Thief
This book is simply amazing. It combines humor with a serious situation, and puts the ideals in such a way that authors rarely dare to publish. I recommend it for everyone.
Rated of 5
by Ashley A Book of Emotions
The Book Thief made me laugh, cry and smile. Liesel grabs your hand and doesn't let go until the book finishes. Death describes every scene with a touch of love. I think this book was one of the best I've ever read and I would recommend it to anyone.
Rated of 5
by Susan Beautiful
I absolutely loved this book. How soon we forget that just 65 -70 years ago people lived with such horror. This book gave us hope for those who survived Hitlers relentless stupidity. I didn't want this book to end and it made me cry like no other book has ever done. I recommend this book to adults and of course young adults. Markus Zusak is my new favorite writer. Great work.
Rated of 5
by Ulrike frustrated
While I agree with the many critics who praise the elegant phrasing and often stunning metaphors, I am intensely annoyed by headlines that appear in the middle of a chapter (or at the beginning for that matter). I find this an unnecessary and distracting gimmick. Worse, the sentence structure reads as if the author's first language were German. Is this intentional? And if so, why? This device, if it is a device, frustrates this reader.
Rated of 5
by Dr. Allen A Book to "Steal" Your Heart
Words are powerful objects which when harnessed, can give their master immense power and can change the world for the better...or for the worse. This is the overall theme of Markus Zusak's novel, The Book Thief. The novel follows a young woman as she struggles with living in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Liesel Meminger, loses every single member of her family to Death (who, in fact happens to be the narrator of the story), and becomes a foster child. She is adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, and comes to live in Molching, a small town outside of the German city of Munich. Liesel has difficulty coping with the difficulties of life, love, and loss until she learns to read. She then develops a love for books, and will even steal to get them (hence, the title "The Book Thief"). The novel follows Liesel's footsteps throughout her life of excitement, love, fear, and death, and also includes interesting commentaries by Death along the way. Death too, has his own stories to tell and in many ways Zusak succeeds in an everlasting literary struggle by being able to "fill in the blanks" of the story and therefore make the reader omniscient and all-knowing. Overall, Death and Zusak together help tell the unforgettably heart-wrenching tale of just one German girl during the height of World War II as she learns just how powerful words can be.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story...
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From the first page, I was drawn in by the lyrical writing of the author and mesmerized as the narrator, eight year old Raami, remembered the years...
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Trite but true, all good things must come to an end. I so wanted to keep reading the wonderful prose, the settings that let one think they are part...
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Kenn Nesbitt is new Children's Poet Laureate(Jun 12 2013) Kenn Nesbitt has been named the new Children's Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children's Poetry to the Poetry Foundation, which noted that the two-year position...
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by Ulrike 
