My library had a dozen reserves on Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. I didn’t feel like waiting yet longer to read it, so I bought the audiobook from audible.com. (I can’t explain why in this case I got the audio instead of the physical book, but I did.) I hadn’t read many reviews of this
There are hundreds of book blogs reviewing The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I didn’t really read any of them before I began this book. What I did read was my cousin’s suggestion that I read it, along with some comments she had. She wrote: It addresses orphans and hunger and family separation and Jewishness
I read Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories because I wanted to read this Nobel-prize winning author and also because I remembered the imaginative premise of his magical world and wanted to experience his world as an adult. I very much enjoyed reading them again, although there are some “politically incorrect” stereotypes in them I hadn’t
We found out two weeks ago that we’re moving back to the USA (from Australia) next month. I began the process of searching online for an apartment we might want to rent. Our former home was one bedroom: we are now a family of three. That won’t work. Lo and behold, I found that buying
I thought I was going to love Beatrix Potter’s tales. Who doesn’t love Peter Rabbit? To my surprise, however, I didn’t love her stories. The book I read, Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales, is an absolutely gorgeous book. If you’re going to read Beatrix Potter, this volume is the one to have. I completely loved
I’ve been in a short story mood lately. I picked up G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown (a collection of 18 of the 49 stories about Father Brown) when I saw it on a display at the library. I’d read somewhere, maybe on a book blog, that one should read Father Brown because it’s the definitive
When I was in third grade, I was very awkward and shy (but who isn’t). Picture a skinny eight-year-old girl with red-haired pigtails and buck teeth. That was me. I sat at my desk and paid attention to my teacher. One particular day, I wasn’t happy. I had talked back to the fifth-grade teacher on
Madeleine L’Engle’s first memoir, A Circle of Quiet, is a different kind of book. The back cover of my copy calls it “Spirituality/Autobiography,” but this isn’t your typical spiritual tome or autobiography. For me, it was a subtle encouragement to write, because I can and I want to. This memoir is the first in a
I don’t usually reread children’s fantasy, but as I read one of Madeleine L’Engle’s memoirs, I decided to reread her most well-known novel, A Wrinkle in Time. A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by a number of publishers before it was finally accepted and published in 1962. It subsequently won the 1963 Newbery medal. This
As I mentioned, I nearly cried as I finished reading my son Winnie-the-Pooh a few weeks ago. I determined to find another book like it. I recalled watching a movie as a child about a Mole and a Badger and a Toad. I hardly remembered the story of The Wind and the Willows, but knowing
I read a review of Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri on The Pulitzer Project. The next day, I saw it on display at the library. I hope reading a review of it prompts you to pick it up, too. It is an incredible collection of short stories. Amazingly, this collection is the author’s first
Ignored Characters As I mentioned, to my surprise, I loved rereading Little Women. I think I liked it more now than when I first read it as a teenager, simply because the goody-goody characters were refreshing to me after the novels and the nonfiction books I’ve been reading. I related to the girls. Author Geraldine
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