THE BOOK THIEF BOOK DISCUSSION

This one was a pretty heavy book, but one that I had been looking forward to reading for some time.  It centers on a young girl's trials and tribulations in Nazi Germany.  It is told from the perspective of....wait for it....death.  So, yeah, not really full of sunshine and rainbows.

Luckily, to help streamline our discussion into coherent thoughts, Cat provided a discussion guide, which was very helpful.  I'll use the guide as an outline of our discussion.

What do you think drives Liesel's hunger to read?  How is that connected to the book, The Gravedigger's Handbook, which serves as a kind of guide for her?

We all agreed that the Gravedigger's Handbook served as the last connection Liesel had to her deceased brother.  Reading provided Liesel with a (much needed) escape from reality, as well as a connection to her foster father, Hans, who taught her to read.  Also, reading gave Liesel a kind control and power that she had never had before.  This was illustrated by her ability to calm everyone in the bomb shelter by reading aloud.

We also discussed how reading provided Liesel with connections to other people - Hans who taught her to read, Rudy with whom she stole books, the mayor's wife who let her read her books and let her steal her books, the people in the shelter who she calmed, the mean neighbor lady whose name escapes me, etc.  After the meeting, I realized that books are doing the same for us!  Reading the same book as another person connects us in a way nothing else really does.  Even though we all come away with different impressions and like/dislike different things, reading books provides us with a unique connection to another person that we don't really get from anything else.

How does Hans encourage her to read?  What role does his unusual "dictionary" play in Liesel's quest to learn to read?

I took issue with this question, because I felt like Liesel really had the desire and drive to learn to read and while Hans helped her, I don't think he had to necessarily "encourage" her to learn.  Anyway, we discussed how he comforted her in the night and used that time to teach her to read, and had her paint the words she did not know on the wall in the basement.

How did Rosa and Liesel's relationship evolve through the course of the story?

I think we were all impressed with Rosa's character development through the story.  She is initially a little intimidating, but her goodness is reflected at various points through the story, particularly the fact that she did not bat an eye at taking Max in, even though the consequences could have been catastrophic.  Her love for Hans was reflected by her sitting up with the accordion when he was gone.  It was also really sweet/funny how she showed up and yelled at Liesel at school in order to tell Liesel that Max had pulled through his illness.

How does Liesel's friendship with her neighbor Rudy become a transformative relationship for her?

I'm not sure if we really answered this question - if we did, it didn't make it into my notes.  (Save your insults to my note-taking, Baron!)  Basically we all talked about how we liked Rudy as a character, and the irony that he was the picture of Aryan perfection, but rejected the Nazi ideal.  He would rather be Jesse Owens!  Rudy really brought Liesel out of her shell.

Even after Liesel learns how to read, Max tells her she has much to learn about really observing the things around her.  What's the difference between reading and observing (or understanding)?  

To be honest, I don't really remember Max telling this to Liesel.  Anyway, we talked about the book's discussion of Hitler's propaganda and how Liesel came to understand that Hitler's real power came through words.

Death is the book's omniscient narrator.  Why is Death a central figure in this story?

In response to this question, we discussed how Death was "everywhere" at that time and that it was an interesting perspective.  We discussed how Death would foretell what was going to happen, and at least some of us weren't too happy about that.  But we speculated that the author may have done it that way so that the deaths would not come as such a shock.  Baron was really irked by some of Death's descriptors.

Why does Death find Liesel so exceptional?

Liesel was a survivor.  Death commented at one point on his amazement of humans' ability to endure and carry on when faced by seemingly impossible obstacles.

What besides Liesel's love of reading helps her endure the difficult conditions around her?

Primarily her relationships with her foster parents, Rudy, and Max.  And stealing.

Why do Hans and Rosa agree to hide Max in their basement?  

We talked about Hans' relationship with Max's father, but thought that Hans and Rosa were such compassionate people that they probably would have helped Max even without that connection.  We talked about Hans' act of defiance in giving bread to a Jewish person.

Overall, most of us enjoyed this book.  Cat, JB, Deuce, and I gave it 4/5 stars; Indy gave it 5/5; and Baron gave it 2/5.  We discussed our favorite characters, Hans and Rudy were the most popular, though Indy gave a shout out to Max.  Interestingly, none of us picked Liesel as our favorite, and Baron downright disliked her.

It was a very unique way of telling about a particularly rough part of history.  I thought it was interesting because it gave a snapshot of what regular German citizens thought about the war and how they were affected.

That being said, I think we're all ready for something a bit lighter, and I'm looking forward to MORIARTY next month.  By the way, happy anniversary Novel Spirits.  Looking forward to another great year of wine, wit, and wisdom with ya'll!

AUGUST 9TH BOOK CLUB MEETING

Hi Novel Spirits, here is the summary of the business portion of the August 9th meeting at JB and Cat's house. It was a beautiful, sunny day out on the back deck discussing THE BOOK THIEF.

Cat had planned on making split pea soup to pay homage to that soup's role in the book, however, the Novel Spirits revolted and the only way I could prevent them from tar and feathering poor Cat, she had to agree to not make split pea soup. Instead she made a very delicious potato soup, which consequently made no appearances in the book.

We took a brief, whistful trip down memory lane since the club turns one year old soon!! It's almost our anniversary Novel Spirits! 8/30/2014, a day which will live in infamy... oh wait wrong speech. The club has read nine books in the past year, really good I'd say. And we're still going strong.

Good news, hopefully we'll have our club t-shirts at the next meeting. Therefore, I will bring the super-secret-squirrel book safe with our stash in order to pay Deuce.

We all agreed to stop chastising Waldo, but I do want to repeat something funny that Indy said. "He's got more on his plate than he can say grace over." I was LOLing. Never heard that one before.

Diesel had a notion to make a motion (sorry I know that is a cheesy rhyme but I like it and I'm standing by it) to nominate her friend into the book club. He loves to read, majored in microbiology, but was unable to attend this meeting because he was lost in the woods. Well I guess since we are not a orienteering and land navigation club, being lost shouldn't take any value from his stock. His tentative code name is Gilligan.

Indy was chastised for never reading the Harry Potter books. And rightfully so!!!!  I mean DANG! I'm really teetering on having a notion to make a motion to send her to Novel Spirit detention until she completes HP1. She's just not American!!! wait.... She's just not British!!!!  Whatever, just read them Indy!!!

Diesel informed us that there is a fan-fiction book out now called HARRY POTTER AND THE METHODS OF RATIONALITY which provides an alternate version of the Harry Potter stories. Something about science?

Archimedes is currently reading JK Rowling's book THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, although she writes this one under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Archy is really enjoying the book and is anxious to start the sequel THE SILKWORM.

For fans of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and its two sequels, we found out that a fourth book in that series is being released, quite contraversially however. The author died after writing three books; he intended it to be a ten book series. After his death, his family had a feud with his long-time girlfriend over his unfinished fourth book. So I think in the end, his girlfriend ended up finishing the story and now we'll get to see how it is.

And to bring this too long post to a funny end, we discussed a new Broadway musical out right now called HAMILTON, based on Alexander Hamilton. Now I really admire Alexander Hamilton and I've read a few books about him. Extremely important one of our fore fathers, particularly in the area of banking and finance. But this Broadway musical is a comedy and the music is rap music. And hilarity ensues. I'd definitely go see it, but only if it comes closer to home.

Archimedes will come along shortly to post THE BOOK THIEF book discussion.  And our next book is MORIARTY by Anthony Horowitz and our next meeting is September 27th 2015 at Baron and Archy's house. We can make it a mystery dinner theater!!!

ANOTHER BOOK

Hey Novel Spirits, I wanted to post a quick entry about a book I just finished and liked quite a bit. It's called THE QUARTET, by Joseph Ellis. Here's a pic of the cover:

It's a Revolutionary period history book and it's sort of like a textbook but there is some really good information in it. In a nutshell, the book is about how our country went from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution. 

Right around the time of the Declaration of Indepedence in 1776, all the 13 colonies published the Articles of Confederation, which essentially created 13 different, autonomous countries rather than one country of the United States. 

During the 1780s and 1790s, a group of politicians led by the powerful "Quartet" of George Washingon, John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton lobbyed hard for the states to unionize into one national entity. There were other politicians that wanted to stay as independent states. 

So this book tells the story of an almost 20 year battle among all the states which ultimately gave us our current Constitution (some changes along the way), and the Bill of Rights. 

It's a very cool story since it tells about how we came very close to not have a Constitution, as well as how each side had to compromise to arrive at the current Constitution. For example, the "Nationalists" wanted both Houses of Congress to be represented by population, but the smaller states didn't want to relinquish power to the larger states, so of course, they compromised and now we have one House with population representation and the other House with exactly two votes per state. I never knew why we organized our Legislature that way but now I do. Maybe people already know that, but I didn't.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I always enjoy reading about our history, particularly Revolutionary history. I always learn how many close calls we had to not be where we are today. Pretty fascinating really.

Talk to yall later

Baron

JUNE 28 MEETING NOTES

Yes, sorry this post is for the business portion of our Huck Finn meeting back at the end of June. I have received much chastisement and I don't know how much more my poor heart can take :.(...
And on that note, if we made a line graph of the amount of chastisement at the beginning of our club all the way through now, it would be exponential growth. This is a pretty brutal group. Well the Novel Spirits are a selective group and not everyone is cut out for this hard core lifestyle. Such is life.

The Huck Finn club meeting was at Indy's place and wow what a great set-up she's got up there! Streams, lakes, four wheelers, gators (mechanical kind not animal kind), fire pit, hot dogs, smores.... it was really great.

I brought the club's very first purchase, the book safe, and it was fairly well approved by everyone I think. Also, I think we have a completed drawing for our Novel Spirits logo, which is posted near the top of this blog.

We planned to take a club field trip to Thomas Wolfe's house in Asheville, NC since we had recently read LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL. We were going to go on August 9th but unfortunately we discovered that the house is not open on Sundays, or maybe just that Sunday, not sure.

Also, big news!!!!: There was a sighting of the rare Waldo!! He briefly made an appearance but left shortly thereafter. The man is a legend.

We also dressed up in Huck Finn attire! That was fun and slightly nerdy, but we are proud nerds. I know pictures were taken, but I don't seem to have any on my phone or computer. Maybe I'll break my policy of striving for online anonymity and post some of our pictures on this blog if I can get copies of them. I'll get everyone's permission first.

Bean and Taz obtained name changes: Bean is now Chief, and Taz is now Boss. Both eerily accurate names.

Chief's next book (which we have already read and discussed by now) was JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. I don't think any of us liked it. It was quite strange and random.

And I think Indy updated the "Off the Grid" segment? Someone did and it wasn't me. Leave us alone NSA!!!!!

Our next book was revealed as THE BOOK THIEF, which again, we have already read and discussed. The post for that discussion will follow soon.

Sorry for the hiatus (again) Novel Spirits, I'm ready for the relentless chastisment of you pain inflicters....

Until next time

HUCK FINN BOOK DISCUSSION

Hey there Novel Spirits!  It's Archimedes.  I really enjoyed our most recent meeting, and, having now been properly chastised, I am back on the blogging wagon.  This entry will be short and sweet, owing primarily to my abysmal note taking.

Huck Finn was a crowd-pleaser, and garnered rave reviews from even our pickiest readers (yes, I'm talking about you, Baron).  I believe all of us gave it 5 stars.  A good portion of our book discussion was just talking about parts of the book that we found amusing, because a good deal of the book's charm is the way it is told through Huck Finn's unique perspective.  Like many children, Huck's observations are spot on and refreshingly honest.

We did discuss some of the heavier aspects of the book.  The book was banned at one time, due primarily to the use of a particularly offensive word.  This led us to a discussion about the book's treatment of slavery and race, particularly noting how Huck reflected the ideas of the time through the lens of a child.  For example, when Jim risks his life to help save Tom Sawyer's life Huck says that he knew Jim was "white inside."

Indy and JB pointed out some of the "cameo" appearances in the book, the soliloquy from Hamley, the Hatfield's and the McCoys, and the young female poet who writes about death - a parody of Julie A. Moore (so I learned for the following article: 10 Facts About "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."  We also discussed some of the symbolism of the book, such as the river being symbolic for the passage through life.

Other observations that were among the lucky few that made it into my notes include: Huck Finn is widely considered the first American novel; we were impressed by Twain's use of the different dialects for the characters, although some were a tad difficult to interpret at first; Twain's knowledge of life on the river really shone through in the book; we were all glad that the con artists got what they deserved, but a little disappointed that Huck felt bad for them; and we really enjoyed Huck and Jim's time together on the raft, where they could really be themselves.

I'm sure there were many interesting points that didn't make it into my notes or this blog because I was enjoying the sunshine and "adult" lemonade, so feel free to add anything I missed in the comments!

The Book Thief discussion guide

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/book-clubs/

More T. C. Boyle

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/tc-boyle-by-heart/389895/

I read T.C. Boyles'  San Miguel on Pam's recommendation. Its a well written book. He just seems to find rather 'dark' stories to tell.