The Book Thief

Don't worry, there's an upcoming post all about baby, including all the exciting milestones we've met so far and how my belly expands each day and then slightly deflates overnight so that I feel like we're starting over each morning.

But there's so much to share on that front that I'm taking a break today to share the book I read this weekend. With the movie in theaters now, I'd received several recommendations to read The Book Thief, and I'm so glad I listened. I had some Amazon gift card money left from last Christmas (which I plan to hopefully replenish soon), so I purchased The Book Thief on my Kindle and read it all this weekend.

(On a side note, I'm pretty much working every day until Christmas week, so weekends are back to being all about crafts/reading/housework for now.)

The Book Thief has a fascinating narrator, novel (as in new) chapter divisions/summaries, and an anachronistic storytelling that kept me more than engaged in the plot. And the characters. Markus Zusak penned some of the most sympathetic-without being-at-all-sappy-or-ringing-untrue characters that I have read in a long time. And then he placed them in impossibly fraught situations that make you love them.

I'm talking about Germany during World War II and orphans and Jews. I shed a few tears when I finished the final pages last night. Books and movies that have other people sobbing usually evoke slightly damp eyes from me, if that. I'm not a media-induced crier. I am one of those people who cry in private when real life is just too much, but this book was just so moving (and I am 15-and-a half-weeks full of pregnancy hormones) that a couple of tears escaped down my cheeks.

And it was a satisfying end-of-book cry. I highly recommend this book, as I'm already looking forward to reading it again (and seeing the movie). Please read The Book Thief and then I will expect your heartfelt thanks in the comments once you're done.