The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is the first World War II book that I've read from a German's perspective. Fortunately, we're talking about a good German here -- a young girl who is definitely not a Nazi. The narrator of the book is Death, which was interesting. Sometimes, I forgot who the narrator was, and so I would have to read a paragraph twice after reminding myself. I'd like to blame the book for that since I'm normally not a stupid reader, but I'm pregnant right now so it probably was me. At any rate, I enjoyed this book so much that it was never a chore to re-read anything. Our narrator was a little tricky. He claimed to not like surprise endings so he claimed to be telling us the ending up front (like the upcoming death of a main character), but he still hid the really key parts. Leisel Meminger, our hero, forms great relationships in this book. Her connections to Papa, Max, Rudy, and Ilsa (oh, and the racist grumpy lady across the street) are endearing and believable. The author took the smallest things in Leisel's life and made them special. And he took every little word of this book and made it special.

I think I heard this story is based on the author's real-life grandmother or something like that, but I don't care. A good read is a good read to me regardless if it's a "true story" or not.