Tenth Meeting: The Book Thief

This Month's Book:

The Book Thief

by

Markus Zusak

-576 pages-

Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.

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 neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

The Plan:

• Discuss The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Vote for new books.

Discussion Highlights:

We all enjoyed this book. Beautifully written, but some of us didn't expect it to be so deep. Although it is during WWII and involves a hiding Jewish man, we were under the impression it was written for (older) children so the depth of dealing with death was surprising. Most of us did find the narrator used as a very creative and unique point of view. While it ends on a good note, it left everyone with a very somber feeling.

Book Votes (January-February):

• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Hard Mode Book Votes (Optional reads for January-February):

• Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin (Book One of the M.Y.T.H. Adventures series)
• Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

Off topic highlights:

How to make the scheduling more efficient so more members can start attending regularly. Making Hardmode meetings an official option. After this entry, Hard Mode will have separate entries from regular meetings. Refer to separate entries for Hard Mode books below:

First Hard Mode: Ender's Game
Second Hard Mode: Another Fine Myth

Next Month's Book:

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

by

Neil Gaiman

-432 pages-

Our 11th month meeting will be January 22, 2014! Have a Happy New Year and can't wait to see you then!

First Hard Mode: Ender's Game

This Month's Book:

Ender's Game
by
Orson Scott Card
-352 pages-

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is.

Discussion Highlights:

We all really enjoyed this book! Everyone was sucked in from the very beginning and we couldn't put it down! We did have different views on the detailed battle training scenes. Some of us really found the detail fascinating and others just didn't really care, but still found it interesting.

Next Month's Book:

Another Fine Myth

by

Robert Asprin

-200 pages-

Our 2nd Hard Mode meeting will be February 1, 2014! Happy a Happy New Year and can't wait to see you there!