Friday, February 5, 2010

Favorites List: Books

One of my writing exercises was to pick a book I love and tell, in one sentence, why I love it. I'm not going to lie, it was hard for me to think of a book. I like to read, and I tend to only finish books that I really love, so to choose a favorite is kind of like ... letting down those other books.
But I'll say this: Right now, my FAVORITE author is Markus Zusak. I first discovered him with the book The Messenger, or I Am The Messenger (depending on what country you're in). It's a tale of adventure in redemption for the main character who is an ordinary guy given extraordinary tasks. Through these tasks, he helps strangers, his friends, his family and finally himself. Zusak is an amazing writer. This book was funny and exciting, tense and thrilling. Also, how awesome is that book cover? My dream is to have a cover as cool as that for my novel.
THEN! Zusak wrote a beautiful, descriptive story about family and love and salvation in The Book Thief. The style is the same, but the stories are so different! The Book Thief focuses on an orphaned girl and the German family she is adopted by during the Holocaust. They end up hiding a Jewish young man in their basement. The friendship that develops between the little girl and this man is heartening, but that's not all that is amazing about this story. Just trust me and read it. Narrator is Death. Seriously. Read it.
Before these two amazing new favorites, Zusak wrote a few young adult books. I've only read one of them, but again - it's a completely different story, different time period, different place, but it's still amazing writing. I kind of can't get my head around it.
Anyway, read anything by Markus Zusak. You won't be sorry.

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