Book Review: “The Book Thief”
The Book Thief was one of those stories recommended to me by my youngest daughter. Her tastes run more literary than mine normally do, and she is more of a fan of historical fiction than I am. However, she is very discerning, as well. Books she recommends are usually quite well written.
And this one is no exception.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak takes place in Nazi Germany and follows the story of one young girl as she comes of age during one of the most evil times in recent history. The story starts in 1939 when 9-year-old Liesel Meminger travels via train with her mother and 6-year-old brother. It is there that Liesel first encounters the narrator of the story. Death meets Liesel when he comes for her brother.
Shortly after the encounter, Liesel steals her first book. The first of many. She discovers a book hidden in the snow after her brother’s burial. “The Grave Diggers Handbook” becomes Liesel’s first book. She can’t read it and if she could she many have left it there in the snow. Instead, she picks it up and hides it among her possessions.
After the burial, Liesel and her mother continue their train journey which ends with Liesel being deposited at a foster home in Munich. It is there that the rest of the story unfolds. Liesel arrives unable to read and missing her family. Her foster parents, who she grows to love and call Mama and Papa, truly don’t know what to do with the young girl. Her Papa is there for every nightmare and teaches her to read and they start with “The Grave Diggers Handbook.”
The story continues as the war does. Liesel grows. She becomes a member of the Hitler Youth. She sees Jewish people marched through the streets. She witnesses a book burning.
She also keeps a huge secret. The secret of Max Vandenburg, a young Jewish man hidden in the basement.
Zusak creates a phenomenal story. Although he chose Death to narrate the story, the overall tone isn’t as morbid as it could have been. Yes, there are spots where the tone is extremely serious. However, Zusak also shows the happy moments of this girl’s life. Let’s be serious, no matter how evil war is (and it is evil) there are a few happy points in the intervening years. There must be. No one can remain in a state of depravity all the time. By telling the story of Liesel as she steals books and grows, Zusak shows a human aspect to the evils of Nazi Germany.
I really enjoyed the book and am sorry it took me so long to pick it up. Like most books with 500+ pages, there were sections that moved quicker than others, however I still found it a fairly fast-paced novel. The subject matter was serious and heart wrenching without being full of condemnation.
Although I’m glad I read The Book Thief (and do wholeheartedly recommend it to others!) I think I’m going to look for something a little lighter for my next book. Suggestions?
Nichole
Book Review: “Angel Condemned”
In case you don’t know, I love this series and look forward to the next installment.
Angel Condemned is the fifth Beaufort and Company Mystery. The series is set in Savannah, Georgia, where young lawyer Brianna Winston-Beaufort has set up her practice. Or, rather, practices. Bree is a tax attorney, but she is also a celestial advocate. Her living clients pay the bills (barely!) but the dead and damned create most of her work.
In the previous four books, author Mary Stanton has created a world with definite rules and boundaries. The angels who work for Bree can’t touch those living clients and Bree is forced to maintain two separate offices to keep her cases from mixing.
Those rules haven’t changed in this latest installment, much to Bree’s chagrin. In Angel Condemned, Bree’s aunt is accused of murdering her fiance, Prosper White. She wants to use her angel staff to help build a defense, but they aren’t allowed to help in matters of the living.
White, a museum curator, was involved with authenticating the Cross of Justinian. And that artifact has a soul attached. A soul in need of Bree’s special kind of help. Only when it becomes clear that the Cross of Justinian (and the thirty-year mystery surrounding it) are crucial to White’s murder can Bree’s angelic staff help.
Like the rest of this series, Angel Condemned is a quick read. Stanton’s characters are well written and her descriptions of Savannah are wonderful. Unlike most cozies, this one is written in third person and is very well done. I found myself trying to take notes on the writing style as I was reading the book. Because it’s the fifth in the series, I would suggest reading them in order (Defending Angels, Angel’s Advocate, Avenging Angels, and Angel’s Verdict) but I don’t think it’s necessary if you can’t. Stanton includes a “Cast of Characters” at the beginning of each book to help readers and I found that useful as well.
If you’re looking for a paranormal mystery that is vampire free, check out the Beaufort and Company series. If you’ve already tried it, what did you think?
Nichole
Book Review: “11/22/63″
At one time, I was a huge Stephen King fan. I’ve always been a student of history. Alternate realities and the question of “what if?” appeal to the mystery author in me.
Therefore, 11/22/63 is the kind of book that could have been written just for me.
For those who aren’t the students of history, or haven’t heard the buzz around this novel, ask any American baby boomer about November 22, 1963, and he or she can no doubt tell you exactly what happened that day. No matter where that person lived or what else they had going on in their lives, at one point all attention was focused on Dallas, Texas.
The President of the United States had been shot.
History books tell us that Lee Harvey Oswald was the loan shooter and he did so from the book depository in Dallas. However, the people enjoy a good conspiracy theory, don’t they?
11/22/63 is a true exercise in “what if?” What if Oswald was solely responsible for the death of JFK? What if Kennedy had lived? What if the United States had skipped that mess in Viet Nam altogether? Wouldn’t the world of today be a much better place?
That is the premise behind 11/22/63. This is a story of a diner owner (Al) who finds that his storage room has the ability to transport him to the same day & time in 1958. And when he returns through the “rabbit hole,” no matter if he stayed in the past for an hour, a day or even years, the 2011 time is always only two minutes later. The diner owner returned to 1958 over and over just to buy cheep hamburger to keep his business cost low. Next time the “rabbit hole” is accessed it’s a “complete reset” and
Time, however, has a way of catching up to all of us and Al is no different. He’s dying.
Al believes the world of today would be a much better place if Oswald hadn’t pulled the trigger in 1963. He convinces Jake Epping, English teacher and loyal customer of the diner, to travel back in time, live there for awhile, stop the assassination of JFK, and make the world a better place.
Jake takes on the challenge. He takes care of Oswald, returns to the year 2011 — five years older just two minutes later — and everyone lives happily ever after.
Yeah, right.
Al briefly explains the butterfly effect before Jake accepts the mission. Whatever the two men change in the past, will have some impact on the future. But, if they don’t like what they’ve done, they can always just return to 1958 and it will be like it never happened.
I’m not sure how I feel about the book. While I was reading the 800+ page tome, I enjoyed it. My personal “unforgettable moments in history” start with the assassination attempt President Ronald Reagan. Because of my age, perhaps, I was enthralled with the descriptions of the late 1950s and early 1960s. King, always the master of description, didn’t let me down.
King pointed out the good (prices) and the not so good (air pollution and constant smoking) that were a part of the time. Let’s be honest. It was the way that it was and it’s no use trying to make the past seem either better or worse.
I also enjoyed the resistance Jake encountered. The past did not want to be changed and did what it could to stop him.
However, the five years Jake spends between arriving on the other end of the “rabbit hole” and the fateful day in Dallas sometimes drag on without adding to the overall plot. Yes, it’s a lot of time to fill. Yes, there were more than 800 pages to the book, giving King plenty of space to fill that time. However, I felt that we didn’t need to know a play-by-play of Jake’s every move. I’m also not sure we needed to know his every adventure in the “Land of Ago” since King really did a great job of setting some of the adventures through Al. I also disliked the way the characters seemed to ignore whatever they disagreed with or didn’t understand. Yes, that’s human nature to dismiss what doesn’t fit, however, I thought the characters did it a little too often.
Having said all that, I enjoyed the book. It was a little long and there were scenes that could have been cut or shortened, but the story was interesting and the descriptions great.
The book wasn’t the Stephen King I remember from my youth, either. And that’s not a bad thing! This novel didn’t have the horror aspects I remember from years ago. Frankly, I don’t think horror would have worked for this story.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. Have you read it? What did you think?
Book Review: “Who Do, Voodoo?”
A psychologist, a professor and a tarot deck are the stars of Rochelle Staab’s Who Doo, Voodoo?
Psychologist Liz Cooper tolerates the hocus pocus. Her mother reads tarot cards, but Liz is much more scientific minded. She humors her mother, but doesn’t believe any of it.
Nick Garfield is Liz’s brother’s former college roommate and a professor of religious studies. He’s an occult expert with an open mind. Where Liz sees coincidence, Nick credits the supernatural.
The story starts with tarot cards being placed on the front door of Liz’s best friend’s home. Robin is open to the messages of the cards, and takes them as a warning of doom. Especially since the cards on the door are the same cards Liz’s mother pulled for Robin’s husband the day before he died. What Robin perceives as an omen, Liz finds harassment.
Liz asks Nick—because of his expertise—to help her find out who is leaving the messages for Robin. Before they can get to the bottom of that mystery, however, Robin is arrested for murder. Liz, with total faith in her best friend (despite evidence to the contrary), sets out the prove Robin’s innocence.
This is the first in a series which will test Liz’s comfort zone as she delves into the spiritual realm.
I really enjoyed this book. Staab did a great job of creating believable characters. She added just enough romance so that it didn’t seem forced, but the romance wasn’t the focus of the story or even a “main drive” when Liz and Nick were together. I like the fact that Liz gets involved to help her friend because that seems believable to me. Heck, that’s something I would do. Staab’s mixture of psychology and the occult was a great contrast and added another level of realism to the story.
This is a quick read, but one that’s worth it. I’m really looking forward to the next “Mind for Murder” mystery in the series.
Nichole
Book Review: “Women of Justice” series
Here we have another set in the “no, I probably wouldn’t have picked that up on my own” book reviews. This time, an entire trilogy.
The Women of Justice series by Lynette Eason is a combination romance and mystery. I hesitate to call it romantic suspense because the mystery played just as large a role—if not larger—than the romance aspect of the plot. No matter what designation you would prefer to call them, however, one label is beyond question. The books are undoubtedly Christian fiction.
The books follow the lives of three women who work in the justice system.
Book one, Too Close to Home, features FBI Agent Samantha Cash as she works on a case involving missing teenage girls. Connor Wolfe is a state officer who has been following the case from the beginning. Samantha’s strong work ethic and her faith in God are cornerstones of her personality and traits that are attractive to Connor.
Too Close to Home was the most fast paced of the three and the story line was amazing.
Book two, Don’t Look Back, features Samantha’s younger sister Jamie Cash. To say Jamie has issues is an understatement. Kidnapped, raped and tortured as a teen, Jamie overcame her agoraphobia and fear of men to earn a degree in forensic anthropology. The case she’s working on, however, is frighteningly familiar to her. Young girls are found dead showing evidence of torture similar to what Jamie suffered years earlier.
Like many survivors, it was Jamie’s faith that kept her alive all those years ago and her faith is tested as she realizes the injuries on these young ladies aren’t just similar—they were made by the same person.
Don’t Look Back covers some very gritty subject matter for a Christian fiction novel and Eason does a great job of handling the details delicately, without holding back. The story line kept me engaged and it was another quick read.
Book three, A Killer Among Us, was my least favorite of the trio. In this book, Kit Kenyon is a hostage negotiator who becomes the target of a serial killer.
In this one, it’s Kit’s partner, Noah, who has the relationship with God. He goes so far as to offer his pastor’s business cards to people he thinks would need someone to talk to.
Once again the writing was good and the plot was amazing. What I didn’t like about this book was the relationship between Kit, Samantha and Jamie. It turns out the women are related (no, I won’t tell you how because I don’t want to spoil that). All of that is revealed in book two. However, I felt the relationship was contrived. It was like Eason found out she needed one more book and the woman should be related so she scrambled to figure something out.
Because the relationship was explained at the end of Don’t Look Back, I think I was frustrated enough to be biased against that aspect of the story line.
Overall, however, this was a good series. The books were well written and the characters were believable. Eason doesn’t make her Christian characters “preachy.” Instead, the characters have embraced their religion in a way that it becomes part of their personality. The characters also aren’t perfect simply because of their beliefs.
If you don’t like religion to meet fiction, I’d stay away from the series. If you don’t mind when a character has a religion or you are wondering how someone could write a more “gritty” Christian fiction mystery novel, then I would recommend this series. For those who’ve read the series, leave me a comment. I’m interested in your thoughts. Or, if you have a suggestion for another book I should look for, I’d like to hear that too!
Nichole
Book Review: “The Tin Ticket”
There are so many things about this book that aren’t “me” that I never would have picked it up if it hadn’t been highly recommended.
The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women by Deborah J. Swiss is non-fiction and covers an overlapping section of the history of the United Kingdom and Australia. While I do enjoy history, I don’t normally gravitate toward non-fiction tomes, especially ones which discuss recent history (the past 200 years or so) in foreign lands (i.e. not the United States). However, this book does have a few things which peaked my interest: mainly some very strong female characters and an almost conversational writing style.
The book follows the journey of three women (the back of the book says four, but one was not mentioned as in depth as the others) from Europe to Van Dieman’s Land, which later became Tasmania. The women were exiled forever from their homelands for stealing some silverware or stockings in the early to mid 1800s. In Europe at the time, the poor were starving. The Industrial Revolution wasn’t providing jobs quickly enough and famine was forcing farmers to the city in a vein attempt to find work. The rich were getting richer and the poor were dying.
It was the policy of England at the time to ship their convicts off. First to the “New World” of America and later to the colony of Australia. The policy really served two purposes: it got those “undesirables” away from the “respectable” society and it populated the colonies. The seven year sentence most women received was really a life sentence since the former convicts would have no way to return to their homelands once released from the prisons.
So these women were exiled to the other end of the world. Some didn’t survive the four month voyage by sea. But many did.
In The Tin Ticket, Swiss not only covers the policies which forced the women to Australia, but follows them as they forge ahead after their releases. These were the women who helped shape Australia into the country it is today–their version of the pioneers.
The story Swiss tells is compelling and fast paced. In addition to putting “names and faces” on the convict women, the author gives enough historical background that the reader doesn’t feel lost. Swiss also included almost one hundred pages of documentation on the specific women she chose to highlight in the book. What comes across is a story of strong, independent women on both sides of the law who did what was necessary to survive.
It wasn’t the story I expected.
Let’s be honest. I have a strong sense of justice and a rudimentary understanding of the legal system in the UK. I normally think that the judges and lawyers do their best to present a clear and compelling case and that the facts will win out. Okay, I’m not truly naive enough to think the system always works and I know there are grave mistakes in justice. But I also think it’s the best system out there and will support it.
Given my predisposition on the subject, I could have had some serious issues with this book. We’re talking about women who were convicted of crimes. But Swiss doesn’t lecture on the justice system of the day. She presents the facts as she finds them and allows readers to come to their own conclusions.
Would I recommend this one? Yep. In fact, I already have. If you’re looking for a book that will teach you something without reading like the history books of your youth or a book with female role models who made the most out of a terrible situation, I would recommend picking up The Tin Ticket.
If you do, let me know what you think of it!
Nichole
The ups and downs of NaNoWriMo
November is National Novel Writers Month. I’m not going to go into what that is or why people participate. I’ve done that before on various blogs. Instead I’m going to give a “Day 2″ update.
November 1 I was on a role. I’m not sure if that’s because all the stars were aligned just right or if it being the first day of deer season was a contributing factor. Whatever the reason, the house was quiet and I was able to crank out more than 600 words before lunch. Another 1100 followed and I ended the day with 1700–almost 40 words above the daily goal. Not a lot of wiggle room, but I was feeling good about it.
Then came November 2. This was a day that saw “The Mighty Hunter” start to butcher his kill. And he was just so darn proud of himself that he wanted lots of pictures. It was also a day that one of my web design clients needed some timely updates to their site, but didn’t have the formatting of the documents correct. I spent hours getting the documents to format correctly.
I only wrote about 600 words all day. I’m disappointed in the total, but not the effort.
NaNoWriMo is about getting those words out. I’m fully aware some (if not all) of what I spew this month won’t be worth saving. But that’s truly what the editing process is for. I don’t care how quickly or how slowly you get those words out, the first draft isn’t going to cut it. Editing is crucial.
NaNoWriMo 2011 will be, for me, the time to re-build the writing habit. And that’s a promise to myself.
Nichole
Second Wind Blog Post
I blog at http://secondwindpub.wordpress.com on the 28th of each month. This month, I compared a chocolate pie to writing a novel.
What do you think?
Nichole
25 or 40? Which direction do I go?
I found a pin a few weeks ago at a shop in a mall in Pierre, South Dakota. The pin was so “me” that I had to buy it. It’s got a 1950s-style woman with the words “Even if the voices aren’t real, they’ve got some really good ideas.” The whole design is on a bottle-cap type background. It’s a great pin. And it fits me. But it also sums up my biggest problem right now.
This past year hasn’t been kind to my writing life. There have been computer crashes and family changes; outside obligations and inner turmoil; too much to do and too few hours to make it happen. I’ve neglected my craft in favor of my life.
Having said that, I have learned a lot this past year. A lot about the business of writing, a lot about the people I love, a lot about me. And none of that is a bad thing. But now I’m finally getting my “poop in a group” as one of my good friends would say. I’m working on Sleeping Bear, the sequel to Ghost Mountain, and plan to have it completed by the end of January. I’ve been able to listen to those voices again.
Well, I never actually stopped listening to them. I just let the embodied voices of humans over-ride them.
Now that my mind is more tuned into the writing muse, however, I’ve found another set of voices vying for my attention. My problem is that this set isn’t as well defined as Cerri was when she showed up in my mind’s ear. And I’ve learned that ignoring the ideas floating around in my head only works for so long. It’s similar to a dieter craving chocolate: you can put it off for a little while and still be fine, but if you keep avoiding the chocolate truffle eventually you will devour the entire cake and the pint of ice cream with it! The longer I avoid writing this new story, the louder the ideas become. Like in life, though, louder doesn’t make for more coherent.
So I’ve compromised with the voices in my head. I will finish Sleeping Bear during my “regular” writing time, while working on this new series as my NaNoWriMo project. (Oh! Friend me there. I’m listed as just Nichole.)
The “Pens and Needles” series will take place in a small South Dakota town where my protagonist moves. She purchases a home and rents a storefront on the town’s main drag. The store, Pens and Needles, will be a combination book and craft store—”pens” for the books and “needles” for the crafts.
I know how the first murder takes place, and even have an idea of the culprit. I know why my protagonist, Allison, gets involved and some of how she solves the case.
Like a stereotypical woman, however, Allison won’t tell me her age. Some days I imagine her 25, an orphan who inherited her money. Other days she’s a 40-year-old divorce who moves to the Black Hills for a fresh start. Some days she has no family to speak of. Other days she’s a single mom. Either way, Allison does not want to be a cliche. Or maybe I don’t want her to be one.
So here’s my question: How old do you think Allison is? Is she just starting out? Or starting over? Which do readers prefer?
I would love some input!
Nichole
Book Review: “Merry, Merry Ghost”
Yes, I’m fully aware that this is September. Christmas isn’t for months. The temperature in the beautiful Black Hills last week reached the upper 90s.
Sounds like a great time to pick up a winter book, doesn’t it?
Okay, maybe most people wouldn’t select a book set in late December as their summer beach reading, but I did.
Merry, Merry, Ghost by Carolyn Hart is the second of the paranormal cozies featuring Bailey Ruth MacNeill, a heavenly emissary who returns to her former hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma, in an effort to help people out.
Bailey Ruth is a spunky, free-thinking woman with a heart of gold. She is one of those souls who truly wishes to help people, even if that means breaking the rules. I imagine her motto is something like “the ends always justify the means.”
That’s not to say she doesn’t suffer the consequences. Wiggins, who is in chard of Heaven’s Department of Good Intentions, has laid out a number of precepts for emissaries to follow (he hates the term ghost), and Bailey Ruth manages to break them all: from allowing humans to see her to conversing with the recently departed.
In Merry, Merry Ghost, Bailey Ruth is dispatched to protect a young boy. Keith, an orphan, is dropped off at his grandmother’s estate in Adelaide right before Christmas. Bailey Ruth’s job is to protect him until his grandmother can have her will changed to include him. Unfortunately, a murderer decides that sharing the inheritance isn’t a good idea and offs the grandmother before the will can be signed.
This leads Bailey Ruth on a mission. She takes the role of Keith’s protector seriously and does whatever it takes to ensure his future, which actually causes the bending (if not breaking) of a number of Wiggins’ precepts.
I’ve read the first in this series—Ghost at Work—and enjoyed it, so I had high hopes for the sequel. I wasn’t disappointed. This is a quick read and Hart combines the mystery with the supernatural, and just a hint of the past.
Nichole
My Goodreads Bookshelf
