September Book Review

I've decided to start writing a monthly book review, with a few short thoughts about each book I've read during the month. Why don't I just start a completely new blog dedicated to books, you ask? Because that's just too much work, I say, and this will ensure that I'll have at least one thing to write about every month. So here we go with my books from September.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. OK, I actually read this one in August, but it's such an amazing book that I had to include it. It's about a girl named Liesel who lives in Germany during World War II and finds she has both an ability and a strange need to steal books. It's narrated by Death, which seemed a little weird at first, but it works. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that this book is heartbreaking and incredibly hopeful all at once—one of those books that change you while you're reading them and then keep changing you for a long time after you're done. This is one everyone should read.

Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. This is a series of essays Lindbergh wrote while she was vacationing on the beach in the early 1950s. On top of making me want to spend an entire summer—or even just a week—living in a house next to the ocean with nothing to do but write (OK, and read), this book gave me more insights about today's world than I would have expected from a book written more than 50 years ago. I guess the universal human experience, in this case the universal female experience, crosses all boundaries of time.

The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. Good read, but nothing extraordinary. I still think Angels and Demons is his best book. This one was entertaining, but he needs to come up with a new plot line; I think this one has run its course. There were a few twists that surprised me, but I saw too many of them coming. And it left me with one question: What exactly happens to the women Robert Langdon hooks up with in his adventures? Apparently they don't make a very big impression on him, because by the start of the next book he's all alone again, swimming laps in the Harvard pool.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Isn't it strange how often young adult novels are so much better than adult ones? This is no exception: it's fantastic, but it's also very hard to explain. Let's just say that it made me cry, it made me angry, and it made me think. I can't wait to read the sequel—and then to wait for a whole year for the third book. Why do I do this to myself?

That's it for September. Just one more thing. It's Banned Books Week, so go out and be rebellious: read a book that you or somebody else will disagree with. I want to thank all those well-meaning but incredibly misguided folks who thought it best to ban some of the most fantastic books I've ever read, many of which I never would have picked up if I hadn't wanted to see what all the fuss was about. :)