A Series of books and random thoughts

Here are some more books in my 52 books in 52 weeks:



Too stubborn to die by Cato Jarimillo. This book was given to me to be read as a true story of a holocaust survivor. I remember reading somewhere that someone was trying to debunk it. It is a story of a young girl living in Holland who is turned in by her Nazi sympathizing friends and spends 2 years in a concentration camp. Good story, not very well written. I've heard she tells a very good story when she makes a presentation in public.






The Book Thief by Markus Zusak This is a young adult novel, narrated by death. It is the story of a young girl left by a mother who knows she(the mother) faces a bleak future. This young girl, Liesel, can not read, but steals her first book on her trip to Germany. "the Gravedigger's Handbook". Her foster father teaches her to read and thus begins her life in Nazi Germany. I really enjoyed this book. The language is beautiful.. I fell in love in the first few pages. Just to quote from the first few pages.

"People observe the colors of the day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them."

After that first stolen book, her foster father teaches her to read. She then begins to steal books whenever she can. She steals from the piles of books at the book burnings, she sneaks into the library of the Mayor's home and steals books. She uses the skill she has learned to keep the children quiet as they hide in the basement of homes during the bombings of Munich. She even reads to a Jewish man who they hide in the basement.

"Summer came.

For the book thief, everything was going nicely,

For me, the sky was the color of Jews.

When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force
of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after Minute. Shower after shower."

Her neighborhood changes as men and boys go to war, as people disappear and as the Jew they have hidden tries to escape but is captured.



This is a riveting book with beautiful language that I would recommend to only those 12 and older. Perhaps even older than twelve. It is a dark book with no lasting happiness but alot of humanity.

It is only in hard copy and I have one and am willing to lend it.


Heartbeat by Sharon Creech.... I really enjoy her books and have read quite q few of them. This was written in a very unusual style, almost like free form narrative poetry. It was a joy to read and a very fast read.

This is the story of Annie. Annie loves to run. She learns that she loves drawing and while in her English class, she learns she loves footnotes(which she begins to use in her writing). She loves her family. Her mother is about to have a baby so she worries about her mother. Her grandfather is living with them and seems to be fading away and suffers from dementia. She has a good friend, Max who is running to escape form his current life situation.

Her grandfather was a champion runner. She loves to run and doesn't want to run with the track team. Max wants to run and "has to win". When he doesn't, he learns a secret from her grandfather, one her grandfather tells her she already knew...run for the love of running.

Doesn't that apply to almost everything that we choose to do. Granted ther are things that we all have to do. Some have to work, we all have to clean, cook, etc.... but what we choose to fill our free time with are those things which we love to do. At least that is what I would like to fill my free time with. I love spending time with people, going to the temple, reading and doing things to improve my home.

I was talking to a sister in my ward today and was reminded of a talk I had with someone when I was going through a very dark time in my life. She said "we must never SHOULD on our selves." in other words, we have a tendency to say ' oh I should do' this or 'I should have' done that. SO I have tried t adopt for myself the phrase " I SHALL NOT SHOULD ON MYSELF TODAY!" We all need to give ourselves a break! Talk about the things you are choosing to do or what you would like to do or what you have to do. Perhaps that is why I am not a good list maker and doer. It is a list of shoulds....