books
The Book Thief
Novel Ideas makes a late appearance this week with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This is a YA? story about World War II Germany as told through the eyes of Death. More or less. Read the book to learn more. Listen to our episode to hear us discuss Death as an interesting character choice, the power of words, Nazis, and the horrors of war. We also talk about our research standards (low), our knowledge of German (also low), amalgams, and the lack of actual book thievery in this story. Also, weirdly, there is a fairly significant discussion of H.H. Holmes, who has nothing whatsoever to do with this book. Try to overlook the ambient noise in our studio, primarily generated by a squeaky office chair.
The music bump is “Roses of the South,” a waltz by Johan Strauss, performed on the accordion. Why you ask? Because READING.
The Book Thief – Amalgams and Archetypes
Our Recommendation:
7/10 books stolen. This one is an easy read despite its length and more poetic than average prose.
Matilda
It’s time for some precocious children who love books! Unless 29 and 24 year old people can no longer be considered “precocious” or “children,” in which case there is only one child. And that child is Matilda Wormwood. And that may be the first time I’ve seen her full name. It’s weirding me out, maybe that’s why Roald Dahl only refers to his title character as “Matilda.” She’s probably well known enough to have first name only status at this point. Anyhoo, join us as we discuss characters and their lack of character, where Matilda falls on the Jedi spectrum, and whether four year old children should be able to read Steinbeck. And child abuse. Lots of child abuse.
This week’s music bump is “Read a Book” by Bomani Armah, for reasons which are both clear and present. Or something like that.
Novel Ideas 