Part 1, Arrival on Himmel Street: *** AN OBSERVATION *** A pair of train guards. A pair of grave diggers. When it came down to it, one of them called the shots. The other did what he was told. The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one?
Part 1, The Kiss: *** THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN A BOY WHO HATES YOU *** A boy who loves you.
Part 1, The Heavyweight Champion of the School Yard: *** A DEFINITION *** Watschen = a good hiding
Sister Maria. Was not impressed.
Part 4, The Wrath of Rosa: Max declined, preferring instead to rush to the sink and vomit. ... "Jesus, Mary and Joseph," Rosa muttered. "Another one." (Rosa cracks me up!)
Part 4, Pages from the Basement. I loved the entire thing; it made me cry it was so good.
Part 5, The Gamblers. When Rosa is looking for the scissors, hahaha, it reminded me of my parents/myself so much!
I'm also intrigued at the narrator, in fact, in the first chapter I thought "Really? Death? Surely the entire book will not be this way." But it is! Somehow, it just seems right for the timeline. There was so much death at that time, who better to narrate?
The indents and extra notes are really great. I wish all books had them! *** Captain Ahab *** The wooden leg pinched his knee and made him cross. His underwear chaffed too. He stood on the wooden leg all day, searching for Moby Dick. Revenge was his only anesthetic.
Oh, I can't say how much I loved your Moby Dick caption at the bottom. Priceless.
At first I was a bit dismayed by Death as the narrator and the indented captions sprinkled throughout. I'm still a little unsure how much I like the narrator, but I am really starting to enjoy the captions!
It would appear that you are both ahead of me, though only a bit at this point. However, it means that you already pointed out most of the best parts. So, I agree, I agree, I agree. :-)
A few that I found that I don't see in yours:
P. 38, the whole bit about Papa playing the accordian, especially the breathing part that J notes. Overall, I just love Papa. It makes me happy just reading about him. On that same page I liked: "it didn't really matter what that book was about. It as what it meant that was more important." I have books like this too. Sometimes I feel guilty about holding on to them, especially when I don't care for what they're about, but now I feel vindicated.
P. 41: "There was no one to really argue with, but Mama managed it expertly every chance she had." I think we all know this character. :-)
P. 42: "the Weingartners were apparently stupid people with a constantly molting Saumensch of a cat. "Do you know how long it takes me to get rid of that fur? It's everywhere!" Yep. A- I'm sure you've encountered this by now with your two?
Finally, the indent about "the only thing worse than a boy who hates you" reminded me of a conversation on "Letters to Juliet" (movie) where one woman asks, "What's worse than a man?" and the other answers "Two." :-)
I'm nearly done now- have been averaging around 80 pages each lunch hour and reading before bed. I really like the writing style and the characters are just great - a combination that makes it nearly unputdownable.
The one thing I don't like is the way death gives away huge plot points chapters and chapters before they happen. There is a BIG one that hasn't happened yet but I am dreading.....
Also even after studying history and seeing many films, reading novels, this book seems to be bringing the atrocities of this war home to me like nothing else has. Maybe I'm just at a point in my life where I'm more aware of such things?
I'm really enjoying this book too. I have to agree with A in that it has really brought home the atrocities of this war. I can't imagine growing up in this time period. Some of my favorite parts were the same as the rest of yours. One part that I enjoy is the description of Rosa. Pages 32 - 33"In fact, you could say that Rosa Hubermann had a face decorated with the constant fury. That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion." The pictures I get every time her complextion is described as "cardboard" are priceless. I also find it interesting that death is constantly looking over Lisel's shoulder. This book makes me realize how fragile life is. On the front cover of my book it says,"It's the kind of book that can be LIFE CHANGING." I am not sure that it is life changing for me. But, it certainly has reinforced my convictions about the value of human life. As of right now, I am about 150 pages from the end. I too am dreading Rudy's demise. I have come to be quite attached to him.
I finished the book on my lunch hour, reading in my car, crying. The end was so sad but yet so unavoidable. How many stories must there have been like this from that war? From all wars?
On NPR yesterday they were talking about cyber-war, war crimes, collateral damage, etc. How care must be taken to avoid civilian casualties, or, that they must be kept in proportion to military compounds destroyed. Made me wonder, how many civilian lives is a full sized base worth?
As hard as Rosa was, she ended up being one of my favorite characters. As the indent said, Rosa was good in a crisis. She won me over the day Max woke up, and she went to school looking like a madwoman.
M, I agree with you that we all know her character. I think we all know a Rudy, and Papa, and a lot of the characters. Very intentional, I realize now, because this town could have been OUR town.
Also I loved the bit about the cat, I'm glad you mentioned it.
I was a little surprised that the community did not band together more for Liesel when she was being whipped by the guards. After all, this is the girl who reads to them during the air raids. That part with Max, the parade and the village really made me think. How many Germans really believed in Hitler's vision for Germany, and how many went along for fear? The book said 90% were supportive of him; it seems high to me. Though, I guess it wasn't so long ago that nearly everyone in this country acted similarly towards blacks. It worries me that as a country we are regressing to the same treatment of Arabs and Muslims. There seems to be so much hatred right now and many people are just believing the words that are being shouted at them, without thinking or seeing the truth and real lives affected by them.
But back to the book.
Do you think Liesel and Max got married? It left that bit very much up in the air. He was about 10 years older than she, right? The end of The Word Shaker where he climbs the tree to bring her down made me wonder.
Poor Rudy. I can't really say much other than that.
I also dislike the references to future events. It builds up anticipation, which I suppose can be a good thing, but it decreases how much I'm enjoying what I'm reading because I keep mentally looking ahead instead of staying focused on the present.
This book is bringing the realities of the war to life for me too. Do you think it is because it covers it from so many perspectives rather than just one?
A few more sections that I noted and I don't see listed in any of yours:
P. 53: "But Rudy had an idea. It was the lover boy coming out of him". :-)
P. 66, when Papa decides to read the Grave Digger book with her and says, "One thing, Liesel. If I die antime soon, you make sure they bury me right. ... No skipping chapter six or step four in chapter nine." I love how she takes him so seriously.
P. 72: "'I'm asking you, I'm begging you, could you please shut your mouth for just five minutes?' You can imagine the reaction. They ended up in the basement." They're lucky they weren't kicked out onto the sidewalk!
P. 102: "It would have come as no surprise if certain members of the party had gone away and published a thousand or so books or posters of poisonous moral matter simply to incinerate them." This reminded me of a comment from the movie "Down with Love" where the author replies to a question about the high sales of her book by saying (I paraphrase): "The Churches burn it to show how much they hate it, then they buy another shipment so they can burn it again. It has helped sales immensely." Got to love it.
And finally, for now, on P. 111: 'Many jocular comments followed, as did another onslaught of "heil Hitlering." You know, it actually makes me wonder if anyone ever lost an eye or injured a hand or writs with all of that. You'd only need to be facing the wrong way at the wrong time or stand martinally too close to another person." What a way to ridicule nazis.
First of all, let me just say, that this is a FIRST, I think, we are waiting for M to finish!!
I finished last night. It took me about an hour to read the last 8 pages. 1) Get kleenex to wipe eyes and drippy nose. 2) Get one's self together. 3) Read a sentence (or paragraph). 4) REPEAT.
Angie warned me.
Some notes: Part 5 - page 242: "Even death has a heart", tears.
Part 6, The entire Snowman chapter and 13 Presents chapter, more tears.
A, I also fell in love with Rosa when she went to Leisel's school to yell at her about her hairbrush (just to tell Leisel about Max).
Part 7, page 381 "A Nice Thought" One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.
Page 381: "Rosa's face was crayoned with pride." Since I like color so much, this sentence stuck out to me. Crayon as a verb. Does this mean she had color (and which color?) or that she was covered with happy scribbles?
Part 10, page 528 "I have hated the words, and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right". Outstanding.
page 537 "Many moments of Avoidance" took me about 15 minutes to get past this phrase.
Overall, excellent.
I, too, am wondering if there really were that many Germans who believed Hitler? Or just followed along out of fear? How do you not trust anyone? That would be so hard.
I have to believe there is some "happy ever after" and so Leisel did marry Max.
I finished last night, so you didn't have to wait long for me. :-) We had been chopping onions all day for a canning fest, so I explained to Ken (as I leaked tears for about half an hour) that my eyes were still drippy from the onions.
I think we marked many the same pages. I loved so many of these characters, but especially Rosa and Papa. How can you not love her when she makes a special trip to school to tell Liesel that Max has woken up? And her foul mouth just cracked me up.
Part of me wants to believe that more Germans were against Hitler, especially when there seem to be so many stories of small kindnesses that are opposite the cult of hatred surrounding Hitler. On the other hand, don't you think people easily fall into the trap of believing that they are a superior race/group/religion, especially when they are feeling helpless or afraid? How many of those people who supported Hitler were just desperate to believe that they were special somehow? And I can't help but think that the victors of WWI that put such harsh sanctions on Germany were partly to blame. They made a situation where such rhetoric could gain purchase. Whoops, there's M on her bandwagon again. :-)
I think Liesel married Max. It seemed to be suggested in their reunion. Maybe I am just looking for some silver lining.
A couple of passages that no-one else has mentioned so far:
P 148, Tommy talking about Liesel: "'You never know when she might snap,' he'd confided in Rudy, half twitching and half speaking."
P: 210: "No one's urine smells as good as your own." I've heard variations on this regarding poo. It always strikes me as strangely amusing.
P. 329: "A Jewish corpse was a major problem." I loved the way this book was written and this sentence is really an illustration of that writing style. Pointing out what should be obvious in a very brief way, and yet making it so profound. Amazing. I just googled Zusak; he is really young! It looks like he's written one other book thus far, "I am the Messenger".
P 434: "'Just once I want to be there when they hit a pub, for Christ's sake. I'm dying for a beer.'"
And finally, about Rosa's face, on p. 474: "Even the wrinkles around her eyes were joining hands."
Excellent book, Joy, though I could go for a happy ending soon and I'm thinking "Love in the Time of Cholera" is not going to be it. Please, Tracy, pick something happy. :-)
So I've been trying to think of other innate objects or concepts that would also make good narrators. For instance: Father Time, Mother Nature, a cell phone, a coffee cup, a pet, an engagement ring.
Father Time is a great one. I think a day planner, pen, a bird or cloud flying above a city or village. I would like to say a toilet (after all, everyone visits it sometime during the day) but I'm not sure I would like to read about its experiences...
12 comments:
I am LOVING this book and couldn't wait to put a few comments forward, even though I'm behind all of you.....
At first, I thought DEATH? the narrator? Hmmmmmm, wondering how it will end.
Quotes from Parts 1 and 2 (since that's all I've read so far), hope page numbers are ok......
Page 25 "her mother sat with clenched thoughts", I have too at times.
Page 37 Definition not found in the dictionary. Not leaving:an act of trust and love, when deciphered by children.
Page 38: How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing (in reference to the accordion).
Page 65: The soft spoken words fell off to the side of the bed, emptying to the floor like powder.
Page 66: "the book opened - a gust of wind".
These were just so sweet and full of imagery!!
And the best:
Page 76:
Sister Maria.
Was not impressed.
Oh, how I laughed.
Also, had to love the part about Leisel painting words on the wall and once in a while, Papa would paint overtop creating a "new page".
I really like the indented portions.
My favorite bits so far.
Part 1, Arrival on Himmel Street:
*** AN OBSERVATION ***
A pair of train guards.
A pair of grave diggers.
When it came down to it, one of them called the shots.
The other did what he was told.
The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one?
Part 1, The Kiss:
*** THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN A BOY WHO HATES YOU ***
A boy who loves you.
Part 1, The Heavyweight Champion of the School Yard:
*** A DEFINITION ***
Watschen = a good hiding
Sister Maria.
Was not impressed.
Part 4, The Wrath of Rosa:
Max declined, preferring instead to rush to the sink and vomit. ...
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph," Rosa muttered. "Another one." (Rosa cracks me up!)
Part 4, Pages from the Basement. I loved the entire thing; it made me cry it was so good.
Part 5, The Gamblers. When Rosa is looking for the scissors, hahaha, it reminded me of my parents/myself so much!
I'm also intrigued at the narrator, in fact, in the first chapter I thought "Really? Death? Surely the entire book will not be this way." But it is! Somehow, it just seems right for the timeline. There was so much death at that time, who better to narrate?
The indents and extra notes are really great. I wish all books had them!
*** Captain Ahab ***
The wooden leg pinched his knee and made him cross.
His underwear chaffed too.
He stood on the wooden leg all day, searching for Moby Dick.
Revenge was his only anesthetic.
Oh, I can't say how much I loved your Moby Dick caption at the bottom. Priceless.
At first I was a bit dismayed by Death as the narrator and the indented captions sprinkled throughout. I'm still a little unsure how much I like the narrator, but I am really starting to enjoy the captions!
It would appear that you are both ahead of me, though only a bit at this point. However, it means that you already pointed out most of the best parts. So, I agree, I agree, I agree. :-)
A few that I found that I don't see in yours:
P. 38, the whole bit about Papa playing the accordian, especially the breathing part that J notes. Overall, I just love Papa. It makes me happy just reading about him.
On that same page I liked: "it didn't really matter what that book was about. It as what it meant that was more important." I have books like this too. Sometimes I feel guilty about holding on to them, especially when I don't care for what they're about, but now I feel vindicated.
P. 41: "There was no one to really argue with, but Mama managed it expertly every chance she had." I think we all know this character. :-)
P. 42: "the Weingartners were apparently stupid people with a constantly molting Saumensch of a cat. "Do you know how long it takes me to get rid of that fur? It's everywhere!" Yep. A- I'm sure you've encountered this by now with your two?
Finally, the indent about "the only thing worse than a boy who hates you" reminded me of a conversation on "Letters to Juliet" (movie) where one woman asks, "What's worse than a man?" and the other answers "Two." :-)
Alright, catching up...
I'm nearly done now- have been averaging around 80 pages each lunch hour and reading before bed. I really like the writing style and the characters are just great - a combination that makes it nearly unputdownable.
The one thing I don't like is the way death gives away huge plot points chapters and chapters before they happen. There is a BIG one that hasn't happened yet but I am dreading.....
Also even after studying history and seeing many films, reading novels, this book seems to be bringing the atrocities of this war home to me like nothing else has. Maybe I'm just at a point in my life where I'm more aware of such things?
I'm really enjoying this book too. I have to agree with A in that it has really brought home the atrocities of this war. I can't imagine growing up in this time period.
Some of my favorite parts were the same as the rest of yours. One part that I enjoy is the description of Rosa. Pages 32 - 33"In fact, you could say that Rosa Hubermann had a face decorated with the constant fury. That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion." The pictures I get every time her complextion is described as "cardboard" are priceless.
I also find it interesting that death is constantly looking over Lisel's shoulder. This book makes me realize how fragile life is. On the front cover of my book it says,"It's the kind of book that can be LIFE CHANGING." I am not sure that it is life changing for me. But, it certainly has reinforced my convictions about the value of human life.
As of right now, I am about 150 pages from the end. I too am dreading Rudy's demise. I have come to be quite attached to him.
*spoiler alert*
I finished the book on my lunch hour, reading in my car, crying. The end was so sad but yet so unavoidable. How many stories must there have been like this from that war? From all wars?
On NPR yesterday they were talking about cyber-war, war crimes, collateral damage, etc. How care must be taken to avoid civilian casualties, or, that they must be kept in proportion to military compounds destroyed. Made me wonder, how many civilian lives is a full sized base worth?
As hard as Rosa was, she ended up being one of my favorite characters. As the indent said, Rosa was good in a crisis. She won me over the day Max woke up, and she went to school looking like a madwoman.
M, I agree with you that we all know her character. I think we all know a Rudy, and Papa, and a lot of the characters. Very intentional, I realize now, because this town could have been OUR town.
Also I loved the bit about the cat, I'm glad you mentioned it.
I was a little surprised that the community did not band together more for Liesel when she was being whipped by the guards. After all, this is the girl who reads to them during the air raids. That part with Max, the parade and the village really made me think. How many Germans really believed in Hitler's vision for Germany, and how many went along for fear? The book said 90% were supportive of him; it seems high to me. Though, I guess it wasn't so long ago that nearly everyone in this country acted similarly towards blacks. It worries me that as a country we are regressing to the same treatment of Arabs and Muslims. There seems to be so much hatred right now and many people are just believing the words that are being shouted at them, without thinking or seeing the truth and real lives affected by them.
But back to the book.
Do you think Liesel and Max got married? It left that bit very much up in the air. He was about 10 years older than she, right? The end of The Word Shaker where he climbs the tree to bring her down made me wonder.
Poor Rudy. I can't really say much other than that.
I also dislike the references to future events. It builds up anticipation, which I suppose can be a good thing, but it decreases how much I'm enjoying what I'm reading because I keep mentally looking ahead instead of staying focused on the present.
This book is bringing the realities of the war to life for me too. Do you think it is because it covers it from so many perspectives rather than just one?
A few more sections that I noted and I don't see listed in any of yours:
P. 53: "But Rudy had an idea. It was the lover boy coming out of him". :-)
P. 66, when Papa decides to read the Grave Digger book with her and says, "One thing, Liesel. If I die antime soon, you make sure they bury me right. ... No skipping chapter six or step four in chapter nine." I love how she takes him so seriously.
P. 72: "'I'm asking you, I'm begging you, could you please shut your mouth for just five minutes?' You can imagine the reaction. They ended up in the basement." They're lucky they weren't kicked out onto the sidewalk!
P. 102: "It would have come as no surprise if certain members of the party had gone away and published a thousand or so books or posters of poisonous moral matter simply to incinerate them." This reminded me of a comment from the movie "Down with Love" where the author replies to a question about the high sales of her book by saying (I paraphrase): "The Churches burn it to show how much they hate it, then they buy another shipment so they can burn it again. It has helped sales immensely." Got to love it.
And finally, for now, on P. 111: 'Many jocular comments followed, as did another onslaught of "heil Hitlering." You know, it actually makes me wonder if anyone ever lost an eye or injured a hand or writs with all of that. You'd only need to be facing the wrong way at the wrong time or stand martinally too close to another person." What a way to ridicule nazis.
First of all, let me just say, that this is a FIRST, I think, we are waiting for M to finish!!
I finished last night. It took me about an hour to read the last 8 pages.
1) Get kleenex to wipe eyes and drippy nose.
2) Get one's self together.
3) Read a sentence (or paragraph).
4) REPEAT.
Angie warned me.
Some notes:
Part 5 - page 242: "Even death has a heart", tears.
Part 6, The entire Snowman chapter and 13 Presents chapter, more tears.
A, I also fell in love with Rosa when she went to Leisel's school to yell at her about her hairbrush (just to tell Leisel about Max).
Part 7, page 381 "A Nice Thought"
One was a book thief.
The other stole the sky.
Page 381: "Rosa's face was crayoned with pride." Since I like color so much, this sentence stuck out to me. Crayon as a verb. Does this mean she had color (and which color?) or that she was covered with happy scribbles?
Part 10, page 528 "I have hated the words, and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right". Outstanding.
page 537 "Many moments of Avoidance" took me about 15 minutes to get past this phrase.
Overall, excellent.
I, too, am wondering if there really were that many Germans who believed Hitler? Or just followed along out of fear? How do you not trust anyone? That would be so hard.
I have to believe there is some "happy ever after" and so Leisel did marry Max.
Oh, also have to comment on Ilsa Hermann, I really loved her. I wonder what her punishment would have been if she'd been caught?
I finished last night, so you didn't have to wait long for me. :-) We had been chopping onions all day for a canning fest, so I explained to Ken (as I leaked tears for about half an hour) that my eyes were still drippy from the onions.
I think we marked many the same pages. I loved so many of these characters, but especially Rosa and Papa. How can you not love her when she makes a special trip to school to tell Liesel that Max has woken up? And her foul mouth just cracked me up.
Part of me wants to believe that more Germans were against Hitler, especially when there seem to be so many stories of small kindnesses that are opposite the cult of hatred surrounding Hitler. On the other hand, don't you think people easily fall into the trap of believing that they are a superior race/group/religion, especially when they are feeling helpless or afraid? How many of those people who supported Hitler were just desperate to believe that they were special somehow? And I can't help but think that the victors of WWI that put such harsh sanctions on Germany were partly to blame. They made a situation where such rhetoric could gain purchase. Whoops, there's M on her bandwagon again. :-)
I think Liesel married Max. It seemed to be suggested in their reunion. Maybe I am just looking for some silver lining.
A couple of passages that no-one else has mentioned so far:
P 148, Tommy talking about Liesel: "'You never know when she might snap,' he'd confided in Rudy, half twitching and half speaking."
P: 210: "No one's urine smells as good as your own." I've heard variations on this regarding poo. It always strikes me as strangely amusing.
P. 329: "A Jewish corpse was a major problem." I loved the way this book was written and this sentence is really an illustration of that writing style. Pointing out what should be obvious in a very brief way, and yet making it so profound. Amazing. I just googled Zusak; he is really young! It looks like he's written one other book thus far, "I am the Messenger".
P 434: "'Just once I want to be there when they hit a pub, for Christ's sake. I'm dying for a beer.'"
And finally, about Rosa's face, on p. 474: "Even the wrinkles around her eyes were joining hands."
Excellent book, Joy, though I could go for a happy ending soon and I'm thinking "Love in the Time of Cholera" is not going to be it. Please, Tracy, pick something happy. :-)
So I've been trying to think of other innate objects or concepts that would also make good narrators. For instance: Father Time, Mother Nature, a cell phone, a coffee cup, a pet, an engagement ring.
Any thoughts?
Father Time is a great one. I think a day planner, pen, a bird or cloud flying above a city or village. I would like to say a toilet (after all, everyone visits it sometime during the day) but I'm not sure I would like to read about its experiences...
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