You Should Read "The Book Thief"

You might recall that I'm a sucker for books about all things bookish. For that reason, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak caught my eye by title alone but the clincher was Sue telling me it was very good. I bought it immediately after that. And she was right. It's very good. You should read it.

Here's a link to more about it at Amazon.ca.

The story is about a young girl who ends up living with foster parents in Molching, Germany during World War II. As would be expected, there are some very dark parts and yet I can't say it's a depressing book. I wouldn't recommend if it were. It's a very beautifully framed and told story that I think even my chemo brain will retain. A quote from one of the reviews on Amazon, "As a memorable rendering of an unforgettable period in history it should easily capture and hold the hearts and minds of its readers."

Please read it.

You Should Read "The Book Thief"

A Good Book

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Of added interest is that Alan Bradley was the Director of Television Engineering in the media centre at the University of Saskatchewan for 25 years before taking early retirement to write in 1994. I hadn't known that when I picked up the book. Here's a link to his bio.

This book is intended to be the first in a series of books and I think the 2nd in the series is supposed to be available this month. I think Alan Bradley is going to be a very wealthy man if his next books are as good as his first! The stories will be loved by young adult readers as well as adults.

The protagonist is Flavia de Luce, a precocious 11 year old who lives in an old mansion that happens to have a Victorian era chemistry lab, which sparks in Flavia a passion for potions! She has an eccentric family and is an amateur detective. I'm not typically a mystery reader but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love reading books where I learn something and in this one I learned some things about chemistry and stamps. It was a delightful read.

Flavia also loosely reminds me of Harriet the Spy, who I adored as a young girl!

A Good Book