The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

I feel that I am about to risk my life by saying what I am about to say and willingly putting it on the internet for anyone to see. But I am going to anyway.

I did not like this book. At all.

I tried out going to a book club briefly (it wasn't for me, but that's another story for another time) and this was the first book I read with them. I was terrified going to that first meeting, feeling how I did for this book. The writing was clunky and belittling, the characters cliche and predictable and I found myself having to physically force my self to read every page knowing that I could in no way feel any empathy for such unrealistic portrays of people. Yes, it could be argued that The Book Thief is considered a young adult book, and therefore may lack some of the maturity that is to be expected of 'older' fiction, I think that with so many really good YA books on the market now, it is proving that younger readers can understand a story and its themes without being talked down to.

The only redeeming factor was the narration view point. I enjoyed that the story was told from the view of the personification of Death. That idea struck a cord with me.

So here I was, about to meet with a group of people that I have never met, with nothing but negative thoughts about a book that the entire world seems to have loved - you can imagine how worried I was about that. It was relief to no end, to hear these eight other people say the same things that I had been thinking all month.

Unsurprisingly, I only gave this one out of five stars.

Harry Potter - J K Rowling

I am a little bit ashamed to admit that I waited until I was 27 to read the Harry Potter series. I had seen the movies of course, I don't live under a rock, and I had really enjoyed them. But I had never read the books.

Which is odd in itself, not only because of the world wide phenomenon that it became, but because when The Philosophers Stone was released in 1997, eleven year old, fantasy loving me was the prime target audience. But being then, a book snob with (according to the education system) a high reading age, I was much more interested in the worlds of Eddings and Tolkin to be bothered with such a 'simple' story. I vaguely remember trying to read the first book at the time but getting half way through and deeming it "too childish" - yeah, I was that kid.

Thankfully I grew out of that phase eventually.

And I am so glad that I did. This series is worth every single scrap of hype that it has generated over the last 17 years. 

The highest praise that I think I could possibly give it, is that it made me cry. There is nothing better, in my eyes anyway, than a book (and I guess in some respects a movie) that gets you so emotionally invested in the world and in the characters, that your own world gets ignored, and both the happy and the sad events cause you to react as though they were happening to you, rather than to your imaginary friends.

Over all, four stars from five for the series - this will definitely be required reading for any children that I have.

Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction

Its quirky, its light and its fun. The idea that these two people can use sex as a means to stop time and rob banks... its something different if nothing else.

Its bad day reading at its finest. Something to come home to and have a laugh to and smile. With bright colours and simpler artwork you can't help but enjoy it. The old school letters to the editor about adult topics are also quality entertainment in their own right.

Having read the first seven 'episodes' so far, individual ratings range between two and four stars from five, over all I would give the series a three.

The Madonnas of Leningrad - Debra Dean

Unlike The Book Thief, my second attempt at the book club proved a little more enjoyable. The story of the ravages of war on the youth as told by an aging and deteriorating Alzheimer patient. Another interesting narrative, but this time pulled off with far more success.

Writing this review nearly three months after reading it however. I have realised more and more that it is what I would consider an airplane book. A book that you pick up at the airport to entertain you en route, but then kind of forget about once you land, no matter how much you enjoyed it at the time. I guess that is further proof (as if I needed it) that I shouldn't have let my self get so far behind on this goal of review all that I read.

I remember that I liked it - I read it in one sitting with generally  means that my attention is sufficiently held by a book. I remember that the imagery was well enough written that I felt that I could almost see these paintings that were being describe; that I could see and smell and feel horrors that would have been Leningrad held in the grip of war and invasion. And I also know that I wanted it to go on longer, that is where it let itself down for me. I didn't find the ending enough of a conclusion to the story.

Three out of five stars

Deathmatch - Paul Jenkins

There was something oddly satisfying about this three part graphic novel series. The parallels and similarities between these brand new characters and the familiar characters of the DC and Marvel worlds it almost seem as though picking up an old favorite: the Superman and Batman's of the world that have become - now that I am an adult - the reading equivalent of the tatty old favorite sweater that will never be parted with, no matter how many holes it gathers, because wearing that sweater has come to mean home and comfort and safety.

But despite any such feelings, these are not those characters. They are not constrained by the continuities of universes that the Superman's and Batman's and Spidermen all come out of. 

That juxtaposition, I think, is what was most satisfying about these books. The art work was fantastic, the colours brilliant and the story solid, gripping and engaging.  And the best bit, as the reader, you were actually allowed to enjoy all that because your not fighting to learn a whole new mythos or find empathy for new characters because that part of your brain is pulling on that tatty sweater and finding itself at home in the familiar.

Definitely an easy and worth while read. Four out of five stars.