Book Review: The Book Thief

Before I read this book, I gave it to my boyfriend’s father to explore. A keen reader, it took him only two days to complete, and he gave it 7.5 out of 10, which according to my calculations is a 3.75 out of 5 stars in my own star system. Not bad! Now let’s see what I thought!

Set in Nazi Germany, Liesel Meminger and her younger brother are being taken by their mother to live with a foster family. Liesel has no idea why, but she thinks it may have something to do with her father and the word ‘Kommunist’. On the journey, Death visits the young boy, and notices Liesel. At her brother’s graveside, she finds an object in the snow – a small publication called The Gravedigger’s Handbook.

As Liesel is an illiterate ten-year-old, her silver-eyed foster father teaches her to read. Soon books and words become an addiction, and Liesel begins stealing books from all over her adopted town – Nazi book-burnings and the mayor’s wife’s library to name a couple.

With Nazi Germany at war and a favour to repay, Liesel’s foster family then hides a Jew in their basement. Such dangerous times make Liesel question the power of words – are they that fantastic after all?

As I am an English teacher, I really loved the theme of words in this book. Words can open up people’s worlds by allowing them to step up in the world, to understand, to comprehend. But they can also be hurtful and help to brainwash people, from small insults to large propaganda campaigns. No one would have trusted the man who parted his hair on the opposite side and had a small, strange moustache if he could not speak!

I also liked how Death was Zusak’s narrator, as he/she visited characters in the story but also kept an eye on the very petite Liesel. Through this narration, Zusak was also able to use the clever writing technique called foreshadowing. Hence, Death often listed the characters who would eventually meet him/her, or gave us a brief warning that they only had a month to live, but did not disclose exactly when in the book it would occur. This created suspense in my reading and consequently I wanted more!

But be warned. I found the first few chapters a heavy slog until events began to happen. Like To Kill A Mockingbird, all the juicy stuff occurs in the second half of the book! But overall, the book is beautifully and cleverly written with some fantastic similes and metaphors included. I will finish this review with my favourite simile of the book and describes a shop-owner:

“His teeth were like a football crowd, crammed in.”

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: Tangled

 

Rating: G

Starring: Voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, and Donna Murphy

Director: Nathan Greno and Byron Howard

If you are after a movie that is simply light entertainment, then I recommend Disney’s latest animation Tangled!

The most expensive animation produced by Disney thus far, it was worth the money for me just to see how far animation has come since I was a little girl! But let's get down to what Tangled is actually about...

A modern version of the classic children’s book, Princess Rapunzel (voice of Mandy Moore) is stolen from her castle by an evil woman who is possessed by her own desires to be young and beautiful.

The evil woman is therefore awestruck by Rapunzel’s golden hair, which exhibits healing properties whenever Rapunzel sings.

Rapunzel remains locked in a tower until just before her eighteenth birthday, by which time she decides she wants to see the magical lights that curiously appear on her birthday each year.

She tricks her mother (well, adopted mother) to leave the tower for three days in search for her ideal birthday present – special paint (Rapunzel is an artist).

Luckily for Rapunzel, robber Flynn (voice of Zachary Levi) arrives at her tower with a stolen royal crown, and she makes him a deal - take her to see the lights and she will give him his crown back.

And so begins an adventure of fun, betrayal, and blackmail, with some extremely funny scenes involving a horse as well as some macho men.

I think this movie has something for everyone – slapstick comedy for the children (Rapunzel enjoys using a fry pan as a weapon) and clever one liners for the adults.

And if you do not trust my opinions, here is what I overhead some children in the cinema say about it...

“Mummy, he just got whacked over! That was so funny!” – little boy, approximately four years old.

“This is just HILARIOUS, don’t you think Mummy?” – little girl, approximately six years old.

I must also add the couple sitting behind me were in stiches during the movie. And they were in their fifties at least!

4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: My Stroke of Insight by Dr Jill Bolte Taylor

Okay, so you may be noticing a trend in the books I have reviewed thus far. I love reading about people. Not just famous people (although these are generally the most widely available), but also those with amazing, noteworthy, breathtaking stories that command me to find out more. Call me crazy, but I just find people so fascinating. So when I saw Dr Jill Bolte Taylor on The Oprah Winfrey Show, I put her book on my must-read list...

Dr Jill was a 37-year-old trained and published neuroanatomist, who also gave numerous speeches around America about the importance of brain donation for scientific purposes. Her life changed forever the morning she has a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As it was in the side of her brain that stored memories, language, and numerals, Dr Jill essentially became an infant again. She had to relearn how to read, write, walk, get dressed, all the functions we complete without even thinking. One example Dr Jill included was thinking that a fork was actually a back scratcher!

I was extremely touched by the close bond Dr Jill shares with her mother G.G. (short for her maiden name Gladys Gillman). This amazing lady flew across America without any hesitation to be by Dr Jill’s side for the first part of her recovery. G.G. taught her daughter to read and write again, and attended to her every need. Simply beautiful.

In the last few chapters of My Stroke of Insight, Dr Jill explains which part of the brain controls certain aspects of your personality. For example, many of us speak with our head (left hemisphere), while others speak with their heart (right hemisphere). While these pages were rather a lot to take in, and rather heavy in their approach, I still found it interesting that I have more control over my brain that I thought. All it takes is practice in training my brain to steer away from negative thoughts...

My Stroke of Insight was a very personal read for me. My uncle and grandfather both suffered strokes, and if I had Dr Jill’s story earlier, I would have been more aware of their needs and a lot less frightened! While Dr Jill’s story is one of triumph, hard work, and love, I think it is a must-read for all of us. I am now able to recognise the symptoms of stroke, have one detailed account of a recovery program (although these will differ from patient to patient), and feel as though I could bring a positive energy to someone recovering from a stroke.

Overall, I really loved the way Dr Jill looked upon her stroke as something positive in her life. It was an event that allowed her to see a stroke as something more than a brain disorder. She therefore highlights the need for patients to be seen as people rather than just victims.

4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

One of the most popular ‘chick lit’ novels to have been written over the last fifteen years, The Notebook can be described in just four words – a bittersweet love story.

The book follows Noah and Allie, who had a passionate summer romance as teenagers but never forgot each other. Three weeks before Allie is to marry her lawyer fiancé, she sees an article about Noah in the newspaper. Old feelings for Noah arise, and Allie decides to visit him. Of course, he has always been in love with her, so Allie becomes torn between two men.

This love triangle has been recorded in a notebook, and is read aloud by a little old man to his beloved wife, who now has advanced Alzheimer’s. No prizes for guessing who the old man and lady actually are...

Having seen the movie, but never read the book (shame on me!), I was intrigued and excited to find a beaten-up old copy at my local library. After reading the book, I think the movie does a better job at capturing Noah and Allie’s summer romance and demonstrating step-by-step how they actually fell in love. The book only touches on the initial romance, and prefers to focus on Allie returning to Noah for one last time. Having said that, the book does a far better job at exploring Alzheimer’s disease – the initial symptoms and diagnosis, to the rapid downward spiral of forgetting who you are, and how to do simple daily activities such as eating, showering, and dressing.

Like most of Sparks’ pieces, The Notebook is heavy on the melodramatic language and romantic rendezvous. However, if you look past this, it is worth the read simply for the information about Alzheimer’s. Sure, we all know it is a debilitating disease, but I think the book gives us a rare insight into how it also affects the wife or husband who has to see their partner rapidly decline right before their eyes.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Dear Fatty by Dawn French

Dear Fatty is the autobiography of British comedian and actress Dawn French. It is written as a series of letters to her loved ones, each depicting an important part of French’s life. Best known for her comedic roles in The Vicar of Dibley and French and Saunders, French has also cleverly inserted various jokes addressed to Fatty (Jennifer Saunders) to lighten the mood after a long or emotional chapter.

What became clear to me as I read French’s story was her ability to evoke different emotions to the reader. I laughed as she explained her encounter with the Queen Mother. I appreciated my own boyfriend as she thanked her husband Lenny for their joyous marriage (I wonder if she still feels the same way now they are divorced. My friend A has just come back to Australia from the United Kingdom and said the divorce was a huge story in the British media). I felt ashamed as she described the racism she witnessed between a taxi driver and an Indigenous person during a trip to Adelaide, South Australia.

However, the most gut-wrenching feeling for me was overwhelming sadness as French outlines her father’s decision to commit suicide when she was 19 years old. Dawn writes to her father about this life-changing experience, taking up two whole pages with questions that will go unanswered. Consequently, most of the letters in the second half of the book are written to French’s father, and detail how she became one of today’s best-known female comedians.

Throughout Dear Fatty, it is easy to get a sense of who French really is. My previous thoughts of her as a warm, bubbly, generous, hilarious person have proven to be correct, yet I have now added a tiny touch of tragedy to her persona.

I am looking forward to reading French’s new fictional book A Tiny Bit Marvellous.

4 out of 5 stars.