The Book Thief

The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak

Narrated by Allan Corduner 

Published September 14, 2006

Listening length: 13 hours, 56 minutes 

My review: 5 out of 5 stars 

Don’t miss Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak’s first novel since The Book Thief.

The extraordinary number-one New York Times best seller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist - books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

“The kind of book that can be life-changing.” (The New York Times)

“Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” (USA Today)




I don't know why it took me so long to read this book. It is a historical fiction book about a German girl during World War 2. She is in Nazi Germany living with her foster parents. Told in alternating perspectives of her and death, it is simply beautiful. Stories of this time period are always intriguing to me, and this one especially got to me because it is told from the "other side" and shows just how much grey there was. Even in Germany, people didn't know what was going on. Or they feared not going along with it. They saw what was happening and were scared. I wonder what would happen if we were put in the same situation...

Gender Queer: A Memoir

Gender Queer: A Memoir

Written and illustrated by: Maia Kobabe

Print length: 240 pages

Publication date: May 28, 2019

My review: not rated 

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

"It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." — SLJ (starred review)


I don't feel comfortable giving someone's memoir about their journey a star rating, so I will just leave it at my personal review. Content warnings taken from common sense media: "Explicit but not erotic illustrations of sexual activity include masturbation, oral sex, sex toys, kissing in an implied sex position, erections, and a fantasy image of a man holding another's penis. There are no violent acts, but there are a few bloody, nightmarish pictures showing fear and trauma surrounding menstruation and getting a Pap smear. Strong language includes "d—k," "c—k," "f—k," and "s—t."

I found this to be a very informative book about one person's journey to find themselves. Kobabe was candid about both eir gender and sexuality. I can see why some parents would want this book banned in schools, but that is the exact reason this book should be available to anyone. 

Can you imagine if this book had been available when Kobabe was young, how it could have helped them to understand a little bit more about their gender and sexual identity. 

The drawings and way that Kobabe illustrated eir thought process in this book was just perfect. I wish there was a way to capture and share them with my family. It would be an easier way to share about gender identity that I wouldn't have thought of before. 

Parents need to be aware of what is in the book and know what is appropriate for their child to read. My 13-year-old has read this book and we were able to have candid discussions about sex and gender as well as sexual identity after reading. I feel more educated after reading this book and feel it is something that should never be removed from a school library.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

The book that inspired the hit film!

Sundance U.S. Dramatic Audience Award
Sundance Grand Jury

This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.

This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.

Last night when I finished this, I gave it three stars. It just fell flat at the ed for me, but looking back, I am going to bump that up to four. 

First of all, some trigger warnings: crude language, sexual content, talk of death and dying. 

While parts of this book were completely ridiculous, others were quite true to live. Andrews definitely has a new take on the story of teenagers dealing with the death of a friend. Greg is trying his best to just get through high school living on the edges, not being too close to any one group. That's how you keep high school from completely sucking. According to the back of the book, that lasts a whole eight hours before Greg's mom makes him become friends with a girl who has cancer and "brings about the destruction of Greg's life." What Greg doesn't realize until the end of the book, he didn't have much of a life to begin with. I'm glad this book didn't go into a romance between Greg and "the dying girl," Rachel. Some of the scenes with Rachel were just plane "cringe" (in the language of my teenagers). Even Greg says so in his writing. Some of the scenes are even written out like a play. This story gets quite crude very early on. My 13-year-old daughter read it and said that it made her very uncomfortable. Didn't seem to add anything to the story other then it was from the viewpoint of a teenage boy, and apparently that's what they think and talk about? I don't know, I enjoyed how real it felt. The things that Greg was feeling about being friends with this girl out of obligation, the way he felt about her dying. It just felt genuine. 

This Book Is Gay

Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU.

There's a long-running joke that, after "coming out," a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. THIS IS THAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL. You're welcome.

Inside you'll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out and more. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.

You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don't) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book.

As part of my banned books reading journey, I picked this book up. Not realizing it was less of a story and more of a guide, I was quite excited to learn more about the gay culture. 

This book helped me understand some of the words and phrases that my kid has been using. It also had a few chapters that I skipped over such as "coming out", "where to meet people like you" and "the ins and outs of gay sex." Those just felt more like they would be aimed at someone reading the book as a gay or LGBTQ+ person. 

As the mother of someone in the community, it felt empowering to learn more about this amazing group of people. I loved the chapter about the gay icons (there is even a glossary with all the names, so you can dive deeper and learn more on your own).

I love that the author used stories and quotes from people within the community. It pulled the book together nicely. 

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out

A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens.

Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

This is a collection of stories about several transgender teens. I'm purposely not putting a star rating on this because I don't feel it appropriate to put a rating on their stories, because they are just that their stories. Seeing the journeys that each of these people have gone through is something that has helped me to grow as a person. I've tried to explain to my husband why it is so important for me to be gender affirming to those who are in this situation (or anyone for that matter) and this book just gives me more reasons to do so. You never know what someone is dealing with. If I can help one person to feel like themselves in their own skin by using pronouns that make them comfortable, I'm going to do that. This book (and others that I've read recently) are opening my eyes to the people who have been too long kept in the shadows or the closet. Let them out and let them be who they are. 

Lawn Boy

For Mike Muñoz, a young Chicano living in Washington State, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work—and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew—he knows that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life. But how?

In this funny, angry, touching, and ultimately deeply inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man on a journey to discover himself, a search to find the secret to achieving the American dream of happiness and prosperity. That’s the birthright for all Americans, isn’t it? If so, then what is Mike Muñoz’s problem? Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can’t seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it. And it’s looking really good.

Lawn Boy is an important, entertaining, and completely winning novel about social class distinctions, about overcoming cultural discrimination, and about standing up for oneself.

Trigger warnings: homophobic language, sexual content, language, drug abuse, alcohol use

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This was the strangest book I have read in a long while, but I think I liked it. Mike is just trying to figure himself out. Through the changing jobs and the people who are drifting in and out of his life, I was beginning to wonder about the choices he was making. Then I started to see him become more sure in his own decisions and understood. This isn't about the decisions I would make, but about him becoming the man he was supposed to be. I love how supportive his family is, how much his friend comes beside and supports him (even if he is a real homo-phobe a**hole). I just love teh realness of this story.

Some of my favorite quotes, these are scattered through the book - percent of the way through shown in parenthesis after the quotes, if you are interested:

  

At this point, I feel like I’m nothing more than what everybody needs me to be or whatever the situation demands of me. (3%)

That’s what kids should do, they should laugh. If there’s a better, righter sound in the whole world than the laughter of children, I don’t know what it is. (5%)

I’ve come to believe that to a large degree we are products of our environment. (10%)

No matter how deep the infection runs, family is family. The only other choice is to cut them off like rotten limbs. (31%)

the moments are fleeting, like my mom’s smile, and it’s not often we have control over them, and that just makes them all the sweeter. (39%) 

when the questions become too numerous and the considerations begin to feel a little overwhelming, you just have to look away for a minute and regather your vision for the thing, try to see it the way it originally came to you. Ask yourself, how did I arrive here? What was I trying to accomplish? (90%)

So, whoever you are, whatever your last name is, wherever you came from, whichever way you swing, whatever is standing in your way, just remember: you’re bigger than that. Like the man said: you contain multitudes. (90%)

All American Boys

Rashad is absent again today.

That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all…

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.

And that’s how it started.

And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.

Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.

Cuz that’s how it can end.

This book takes you in alternating perspectives between Rashad and Quinn. I loved being able to be in both kids shoes (so to speak). To see how Rashad felt in the moments when this was happening to him. To see the situation as it happened from Quinn's point of view. Then the aftermath from both sides. Racism is something that is still very prevalent today and I think this book opens an important door to help us white people begin to understand some of the things the black community has been suffering with for a long time. I can tell you it has opened a dialogue with my children. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a foreward by Markus Zusak & interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney

This was not what I was expecting. 

It was less a streamlined story and more of a collection of short stories about Alexie's life growing up. While it did seem to come together at the end, at the beginning it felt quite broken up. 

This is another that I wish I had the physical book copy, since it has illustrations, but it was still a good book. Interesting look at how the Native American people are still dealing with social injustice and prejudice. Alexie was great at reflecting his emotions into his writing, while at times I cried for him other times I actually laughed out loud. Definitely a good read to see life from another perspective.

The Hate U Give

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

Trigger warnings: shooting deaths, gang violence, racism, adult language, drug use, drinking

My rating: five out of five stars

This book was a powerful read. I cried repeatedly listening to this audiobook. 

A story about a girl who witnesses the death of her friend at the hands of a police officer is all too relevant today's climate. 

As a white person, it is hard to imagine, but this author does an amazing job of putting you into the shoes of this black young person, seeing the world through her eyes.

The Prince and the Dressmaker

TW: I can't think of any, it does have cross-dressing in it. It brings up the question of gender identity. 

Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride―or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia―the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!

Sebastian’s secret weapon is his brilliant dressmaker, Frances―his best friend and one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears dresses. But Frances dreams of greatness, and being someone’s secret weapon means being a secret. Forever. How long can Frances defer her dreams to protect her friend?

Jen Wang weaves an exuberantly romantic tale of identity, young love, art, and family. A fairy tale for any age, The Prince and the Dressmaker will steal your heart.

I loved this graphic novel. It is a classic story told in a beautiful new way. I borrowed this book from my local library but plan on buying a copy for my bookshelf at home. BEAUTIFUL! 

I gave this FIVE out of five stars on goodreads.

The Handmaid's Tale

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now . . .

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

TW: cheating, death, family separation, forced pregnancy, hanging, oppressive government, prostitution, rape, sexism 

I don't know what I though this book was going to be, but this wasn't it. I guess I was thinking it was more "old timey" but this is like a look at a future possibility of the world. Scary! Not sure if I will continue this series or not. If I do, I think I will pick up the actual book versus listening. I didn't love the narrator's voice. 

I gave this book three out of five stars on goodreads.

The Kite Runner

1970s Afghanistan: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what would happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realizes that one day he must return to an Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

TW: Rape, suicide, war, death, cancer.

Although it is a work of fiction, you can sometimes lose yourself so much in the story that you forget. I can imagine this kind of story happens every day... It was so real I often had to remind myself it was a work of fiction. I wanted to know where are they now?? But, they aren't. They aren't real.

I can see why this book is on the list. Some of the scenes are quite graphic, including the sexual assault of a child by other children. Still don't agree with the "decision" because it is the life some children are living.