The Book Thief

If you haven't read The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, stop whatever you're doing and get to it. One of my students recommended it to me this year - he actually wanted our lit class to read it, but I got it from the library and saw that it was too long, so I never got around to reading it until now. It is the best book I have read in a long time. Fair warning: it's also quite heartbreaking. It's about WWII, and though I was into darker stuff when I was younger (Clockwork Orange, etc), I've never done well with the real stuff - I have a hard time watching movies about Vietnam, for instance. And of course, reading about the Holocaust. I just don't understand how people can do what they did. Or maybe I do understand it, and that's why it's so hard. I am always amazed at what people are able to survive, and I know it's going on today, with rape camps in the Congo, and, and, and... It just doesn't seem possible. Anyway. Read this book.