Next Meeting

So the next meeting is scheduled for the 3rd of June, which is NEXT WEDNESDAY. So, er, get reading. Here's the letter I wrote, which is also avaliable from the library. I think.

Okay, so now that we’ve tackled Austen and have debated what makes a book a classic, we thought we’d move on to the power of words and the effect books have on us. So, our next book for book club is Markus Zusak’s amazing The Book Thief. It follows the life of Liesel, a young girl living in Nazi Germany. She steals books, which keep her going through some extremely tough times. It’s told from the perspective of a very unusual narrator, death himself. Now, this book is deep, but we know you can handle it. You just read Pride and Prejudice.

Similar books you could read:
The Book Thief is quite unique, so it is hard to find books to go with it. However, there are many, many books that are either set in Nazi Germany or deal with the effects of Nazism and the holocaust, and other authors have also tried to tell these stories from different perspectives. John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the tale of Bruno, whose family moves to a place called ‘out-with’ because of his father’s new job. Narrated in the devastatingly simple language of a child, this book is heart-rendingy tragic. But very, very good. Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer, is narrated, in amusingly bad English, by a young Ukrainian who acts as a translator for an American travelling in Ukraine. The American is in search of the woman who saved his Jewish grandfather’s life when their village was invaded by the Nazis. These books, and The Book Thief, all describe the impact of Nazism from unique perspectives. How do these perspectives affect you as a reader? Do they bring something new to your interpretation of the story?

Alternatively, you could look at different interpretations of death, and read The Lovely Bones, a book narrated by a dead girl.


Have fun!