The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is novel that shows the reader what many Germans (Jewish, Communist or otherwise) might have felt and experienced during World War II. Liesel, a young girl at the beginning of the novel, is the center of the story and we mainly follow her around as she attempts to navigate through a very painful and trying time. Through the use of Death as the narrator, the author gives us a window into the soul of Liesel and the other characters in the novel and makes us think about how we, as humans, might have reacted if we were a “œregular” German in a time when our friends, family, and strangers were being mistreated and taken away to their deaths.

The value of humanity: this is the theme that kept going through my head as I digested this novel and its movie. It could be that my brain is more finely tuned to this line of thinking because I had also recently finished To Kill a Mockingbird (review soon-to-come), a novel that takes place during this same time but in the United States where there was also a group of people who were being devalued due to their “œrace”.  What is it that gives us, as humans, value and what is it about us that makes us think that we can assign different levels of value to others? What makes a German less of a German because they celebrate Hanukkah or have a last name that signifies their background is other than simply German? To Kill a Mockingbird reminds me that it is not just Hitler’s Nazis who are guilty of these crimes of devaluation. And, it makes me think am I guilty of devaluing other humans?

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Yes Please by Amy Poehler

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I’m a big fan of actress and comedian, Amy Poehler. I admire her ability to completely immerse herself into any character she played on SNL with fearless abandon. As Leslie Knope on the hit show “œParks and Recreation”, Poehler is fantastic in giving the audience a complex but likeable character who is brilliant, bossy, demanding, loyal, fiercely dedicated and very funny. With these thoughts in mind, I was looking forward to reading her debut book “œYes Please”.

Unfortunately, I am disappointed. Part of my reaction was unfairly assuming “œYes Please” would be very similar to Tina Fey’s “œBossypants”. Setting that expectation aside, I still couldn’t fall in love with this book. From the very beginning, Poehler frequently laments to the reader on how hard writing a book is””which gave me the impression her heart was not into this project. Poehler utters this complaint so frequently throughout, I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s why fellow SNL alum, Seth Meyers, and both of Poehler’s parents wrote pieces for this book.

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Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Edward Craig

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Summary: How out we to live? What really exists? How to we Know?

Very Short Introduction series has been pretty hit or miss, as are most short introductions. It is hard to introduce a subject that has thousands of books and thousands of professionals working in the areas.

Philosophy is one of the better ones. My background in philosophy was pretty weak. I have tended toward theology instead of philosophy and while there can be some overlap, as I am getting older I feel my lack of background more and more often as I am reading.

Craig made some good decisions in structuring the books. He focused on the three questions in the summary as three of the questions that have been a part of philosophy since the beginning and continue to be important. Then he looks at Plato, Hume and an unknown Buddhist philosopher to illustrate how those questions were handled.

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Holy Ground: Walking With Jesus as a Former Catholic by Chris Castaldo

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Takeaway: Someone that has found meaning in a new stream of Christianity may not be the best person to talk about the stream of Christianity that they walked away from.

Over the past couple years I have been intentionally trying to read books about Catholicism and part of that has been reading several stories of Evangelicals that have become Catholic, like Scott Hahn, Francis Beckwith, and Christian Smith. I have been less interested in stories of Catholics that have become Evangelicals but I did think I needed to read “˜the other side.’

Chris Castaldo, has a chapter in Journey of Faith, a book telling the story of people converting from one Stream of Christianity to another, so I was somewhat familiar with his story. Holy Ground, however, is not so much about Castaldo’s own story as it is a book about Catholicism for Evangelicals. And I think that is where my problem really started.

The overall approach was to explain Catholicism to Evangelicals primarily using the reasons that former Catholics became Evangelical. This is has the inherent problem of not looking at those that are happy with their Catholic faith, but looking at those that are unhappy (or in most cases just unaware of their Catholic faith because of a lack of participating in it.) Castaldo is a good example of that.  While he was baptized as an infant and seems to have participated fairly frequently as a young child, once he was confirmed neither he nor the rest of his family actively participated in the church. And from my experience, this seems to be common with Catholic converts. I honestly don’t know a single person that has become Evangelical as a former Catholic if they were active. (While most Evangelical converts to Catholicism that I know of are very active in their church, theologically trained and often clergy.)

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Week of Thanksgiving Plans

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I will be traveling this whole coming week. First for work and then to see family. I have new reviews scheduled for Monday to Friday (taking Thanksgiving Day off.)  I might have time to add some free book posts, but it will probably be light and later in the day than normal when they do … Read more

Night by Elie Wiesel

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Takeaway: A book everyone should read to remind us that suffering is not a reality show or an abstract discussion.

I have never read any of Elie Wiesel‘s books. I have known of him and that he was a Nobel Prize winner and writer, but not a lot more. I ran across his first book, Night, when looking for audiobooks on Overdrive. (Overdrive is a library system that allows you to check out ebooks or audiobooks over the internet just like your regular library books.)

I ran across it months ago and kept putting it off. I knew it was about the holocaust and I just did not want to read a depressing story.  Finally, I decided to go ahead and start it. I was transfixed. I listened in less than 24 hours.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

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This is a joint book and movie review written by Bookwi.se Contributor Emily Flury with Jack, a fifth grade student.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a novel by Roald Dahl that is about a magical factory of sweets and surprises. Willy Wonka sends out five golden tickets in chocolate bars to invite five kids to his factory. The five children consist of one that eats too much candy, one that is constantly chewing gum, one that is a spoiled brat, one that watches too much television and Charlie, who is a sweet boy from a poor family. During their visit, the children tour the factory and get to see all different kinds of amazing ingredients and inventions.
We liked the book a lot because there are a lot of fun songs and funny jokes in the book. The Oompa Loompa’s songs were really great because they were fun poems with an excellent beat. Dahl included a lot of weird characters and strange events. Willy Wonka was described in a way that made him seem cool and funky. We especially liked the chocolate room with the river made entirely of chocolate. Every detail made us feel like we were there. It was fun to imagine eating the grass just as the kids did. Our only complaint is that Dahl did such a good job of making the other kids into bad nuts that it got annoying at times.
While we liked the book, we didn’t like the movie as much as the book.

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