The Book Thief

So on my way back to school my dad and I stopped at a Border's and he told me he'd buy me a book. Chelsey had previously mentioned that The Book Thief was something I may enjoy since it was set in Nazi Germany and narrated by Death. Oh yes, I was intrigued. So I bought that book.

It took me awhile to read because I've been busy with school and it's kind of a heavy book. However, it is beautiful. Beautiful in the way it describes life. The metaphors and personifications just pulling you into Death's world and seeing the world through his (is it a he?) eyes. Not just that though, but the story in general. A young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, not knowing that what is happening in the war is bad. Well, not until she befriends a Jew when her family hides one in their basement. It's a look at World War II from the eyes of youth. And innocence. Her struggle with learning to read. The death of her brother. Adjusting to living with her foster parents. Watching books being burned. Stealing others. Her best friend. Death. Life. Learning to use her words. The importance of them. Their strength. Their power. The image of a Jew in a fist fight with Hitler. Describing the sky. Reading to the broken and fearful.

It's a tragedy.

It's historical.

It's a love story.

It's poetic.

It's unique.

It's motivational.

And I like to think that Liesel and Max got married.

Death just forgot to mention that.

The Hunger Games

I usually have enough self-control to put down a book and get some sleep, but this was not the case with The Hunger Games by Suzanna Collins. In fact, my rest was the last thing on my mind through the gripping story of survival and love. The book begins in a post-apocalypse type of world in North America. There is the Capital, the ruling and ruthless center of the remaining world which hold dominion over the twelve districts that surround it by not only forcing them to live in poverty thus showing how much power and control the Capital has, but by forcing each district to participate in the Hunger Games. The games are an annual event in which each district sends one boy and one girl to be 'tributes' and fight the other chosen children until there is only one left alive. This tribute will gain wealth and comfort for themselves and their family for the rest of their lives.

This story revolves around Katniss, a young girl struggling to support her sister and mother after her father passed away in a coal-mining accident. She took what she learned from her father and hunts in the woods outside of her district, District 12, risking her life every day by breaking the law in order to support her family. When the day comes to choose tributes, her sister is chosen and, in order to save her, Katniss offers to have herself to go instead. This is allowed and Katniss, along with the boy tribute Peeta, begin a journey to the Capital and are forced to go through all the formalities of the games, and then are put into an arena where they must fight to survive.

That's as much as I am willing to divulge on the storyline since it is a book I would highly suggest everyone to read. It was a gripping story even before the games begun as Katniss struggles with her fear and tries to understand the motives behind everyones actions. Once the games begun though, I could not put the book down. The story moved from action to survival to relationship in such a way that not one subject was overdone. Each chapter held some new development and I had to keep reading in order to find out what happens next. Even now that I am done, I feel the need to go buy the next book (so far there are three). I could relate to the main character, which I always think makes a book more interesting, and I lost myself completely in the story.

Also, this book should definitely be made into a movie. It would be incredible.

Go read it.

Now.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Despite being the intensely obsessed Harry Potter fan that I am (read these books more than any others in my collection, been in love with the series since I was eight, and am currently involved with a blossoming Quidditch team here at UCSD), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a book I did not completely understand when I first read it.

Actually, I hated it more than any other book in the series.

Why?

I felt like the whole King's Cross chapter was a cop-out. Harry dies, meets Dumbledore, learns some things, and comes back to life. I never understood. Granted, I didn't remember what Horcruxes were until they happened to explain it about 400 pages in, but... still. I felt I would be left with a bit more... clarity after waiting 9 years from the books' beginning to end. However, I didn't get it. Somehow, through magic not Voldemort nor Dumbledore nor Harry could really explain or understand, Harry could simply choose to go back to his body and finish out his life. What?! That's not what happens with Avada Kedavra.

Avada Kedavra -> flash of green light -> death.

It left me wondering... In all of Voldemort's entire reign of power (which timeline-wise seems really iffy in the books, I've noticed), no one else ever died to save someone else? Was Harry the only one who could have deflected the killing curse when he was a baby because of the prophecy? If the prophecy had never been given, would there have ever been a Harry, even if someone had in fact died for someone else? Maybe because I've seen a lot of movies and television, my view of dying for someone else is a bit jaded--I thought it would be more common.

Anyway, I digress.

This time around, I read the sixth one and jumped right into the seventh one, both books consuming me for the last couple of weeks, and finally concluding today, a day in which I put aside all homework and life tasks and sat and read for hours. Beautiful. Brought me back to the good ol' days when these books would first come out. I understood it better this time. Knowing the final outcome, I was not as eager to read through it so quickly to get to the end. I stopped, I reread, I I went back to other chapters. It was good for me as I forget a story with each sentence that passes through my brain.

It's a wonderful book. A book that completes an entire series perfectly. I just think that Rowling is a genius. Whether or not she had ALL of this planned out in her head from the very beginning, it works. References to past books, past memories, seeing how one tiny detail from one book becomes important in the next... it all works. And it's bloody brilliant. I believe she's one person who truly deserves every bit of the fame and fortune she's earned. The whole tale in the thought of it's creation is genius. Compare it to another popular series, Twilight pales in comparison at how thought out and perfect the story comes together. I could go on...

I know this is a book I'm going to have to read again. I said as it as I put it away on my bookshelf tonight. This is a series I'm going to have to read again. And again. It's something to be studied, thoroughly and purely for enjoyment. I could spend a long time on this series. I know I could spend simply hours reading PotterWiki. I think one day, I'm going to have to.

I don't know what else to say. It is two in the morning and there's this insane beeping noise driving me up the way and I cannot find the source of it, but other than that, I really feel like I could talk about this book forever. I think anyone could. That's probably what keeps us going with this series. And I think that's one of the best recommendations I could give it.

(While writing this blog, I had to tell my computer to accept the words Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Horcruxes. This saddened me. But it's probably because I named my computer after a vampire.)