The Book Thief

by Mark Zusak

I can't say I really enjoyed this book. Set in Nazi Germany during World War II, this is not one of your feel-good, purity of heart triumphs over evil books. The narrator of the story is Death, and the author does an exceptional job of making the narration feel brittle and dry like you would expect Death to talk, and it is a perfect tone for the craziness of the time and place, but unfortunately I feel this distances the reader from the characters. Without the connection, the story drags a little long and ends with no resolution. After all, Death may not care, but we humans like some sort of closure, like an idea of how the events of the story impact the main character.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery

This is an interesting book to review. It was not a page turner, which I was glad for because I had my own writing and other projects to do, but it did keep my interest. While I could identify with the main characters' love of art and learning, they had cocooned themselves in their minds and their own self-importance (in a backwards way, they thought everyone else was more condescending). I kept wanting to shake them and say, "You are missing the point of life, the beauty is in the connections with other people, as feeble as we all may be." But it was a relief to read the ending; tragic as it was, they got it.

So if you want a slower paced book, give this one a chance.

Shanghai Girls

by Lisa See

This is the kind of book I love to read—as long as I have plenty of lighter stuff like fantasy, science fiction, and easy reading in between. It leaves the reader with the feeling they have seen life through another pair of eyes, a book that gives a new layer to your perspective on the world. It is a reality-check book, like City of Joy, reminding us that people have lived and do live in ways very different from our own.

First a warning, however. This is definitely not a young adult book. It is very adult, with frank portrayal of rape and mention of physical relations. But there is no way that the true horrors of war and the expectations of Chinese women in this time period could have been shown without it. In other words, it is not gratuitous.

The book is historical fiction, following two sisters from their free and easy life in Shanghai right at the beginning of World War II, to their married lives in Chinatown L.A. over the next couple of decades. The author has done her homework and beyond; she does a phenomenal job pulling the reader right into the setting, and the characters are very real. The secret the sisters must hide and the dynamics between their personalities make a compelling plot.

While the ending is a bit of a hanger, I couldn’t think of a better way to end it, and the reader can walk away quite fulfilled.

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

This historical fiction takes place during the rule of Hatshepsut. The setting is well depicted, drawing the reader into ancient Egypt. At first the characters were a little overdone for me, but by the end of the book I liked them. The storyline is fun and moves along well.

All in all, a fun adventure-filled read for anyone, and an excellent and rare depiction of ancient Egypt.

However, I would have readers be mindful that this is an author's idea of how the events could have happened. While the setting and many of the characters are real, the actual story of the rise of Thutmose is unknown. According to the evidence, Hapshepsut seems to be a more sympathetic person than the character she was made out to be, and most likely died of disease or old age.

The House of the Scorpion

By Nancy Farmer

A National Book Award Finalist, Newbery Honor

This young adult science fiction brings the reader into a futuristic world without losing any sense of reality. By placing the issues of border patrol, drug trafficking, and even cloning into the hands of a self-serving family patriarch, the reader is forced to look at the human side of these problems.

In the story, El Patron has convinced the US and Mexico to give him the borderlands between the two countries, thereby creating a new country, Opium. Mexico becomes Aztlan, and illegals crossing from both sides find themselves trapped in a new kind of slavery. At the center of the story is Matt, a clone, in a world where clones are not even considered human.

I give this one five stars--well written and leaves the reader thinking, the earmarks of a classic