From a corner in the library

So many books, so much work, so little time... That should be on my gravestone when I die.
Anyway, I'll try to catch up with the reviews of the books I've read, I'll keep it short.
Screw chronological order, I'll do them as I remember them, which means that I'll obviously start with the one I just finished this morning: The Book Thief.


Book Info

Name: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Date of publication: March 14th, 2006 (Worldwide)

Now, a book involving Hitler... forget it! Yeah, that's what I thought until my mom read it and told me it was good, and I trust my mom (most of the times). So one day I was in the bookstore, fighting with myself because the crazy part of me wanted to get a new book, and the rational part of me knew that there wasn't any space in my room to put it... So, I got the book (crazy beats rational, you see?).
I had tried to read it in my Kindle before, but I couldn't get past 5% This time it was different, maybe because I had spent 5 months reading The Stand in my Kindle, but once I started reading this narrative by the Death, I couldn't stop.
My copy of TBT has a Q&A with the author at the end, and he says that this is not a typical story about Hitler and Jews and the Holocaust. Don't get me wrong, all those elements are there and are important, but they are not the thing that gets you. It's Liesel and Papa and Rudy and (ohmygod) Max. It's the people, the emotions and the bonds that those people formed in such terrible situations what gets you, stays with you and makes you feel thankful.
Half way through the story, I felt that it wasn't that good. But I loved Zusak's writing style. Is it wrong if I say that I loved Death as a narrator? I posted on my GoodReads account that a good storyteller is better than a good story. While I still believe that, Zusak proved to have an amazing story (as well as an amazing narrator).
Yes, sometimes it got slow. Yes, there are some parts that I wouldn't have kept in the book. Yes, it was freaking awful how it ended. But I still liked it.


Rating: ★★★★
Favorite character: Max (?) ...OK, it was a tie between Max and Liesel.
Favorite secondary character: Hans. He's just so sweet, I loved the way he would stay up all night with Liesel when she got her nightmares.
Favorite part: I think that when she becomes friends with Max is my favorite part. They are very similar and the way they help each other is very  nice.
Favorite quote: “I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”
Least favorite character: The Führer , obviously.
Least favorite part: After the bombs hit Himmel Street, and Liesel finds Rudy and kisses him. That part was heart-breaking. Also, right after that when she finds Hans and Rosa :'(


Book Info
Name: The Stand
Author: Stephen King
Date of publication: September, 1978


I love Mr. King above all things on Earth, well... maybe I love Simple Plan more, but the case is that since I read Carrie, I loved him!
I'm reading King's books in order of publication (the novels he published under Stephen King, otherwise I would never be able to finish! Ever!). So far I have four books read: Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining and The Stand. The first two were creepy, but not really scary. There was a lot of tension, but they didn't give an answer to the question that was bothering me: How can you scare people with words? Movies I get, you have the images, the sounds, everything happening at the same time. But books? How can a book be horror? I had never read a horror book, because I'm a coward. that was what kept me from Stephen King's masterpieces for so long (Do I regret it? Yeah, maybe). But then I got to The Shining... Holy sh*t, that one kept me up for a couple of nights! So now I get how words the scare the crap out of people!
Which leads to my short review of The Stand: this book is insanely long! It took me five months to finish it, but I never gave up because (like I said before) Mr. King is a freaking genius. This story is scary because it is real; I mean not the virus and the demon guy (Flagg), but because that happened because some people wanted to control others, they wanted to be powerful and took every chance they got to harm others so they could be invincible. The story is told from different points of view: there's Frannie's story, Harold's (freaking asshole! I hate you!!), Stu's, Nick's and Larry's (just to mention a few). So the thing is that after a while, even though all characters had their own peculiar voice, the stories started to confuse me a bit. I mixed up Larry and Stu multiple times! And it was so long that I forgot many details from a part of a story when I got the following one.
Aside from that, the tension and suspense and mystery are simply perfect! Like the time Larry had to cross that tunnel... Jesus, I would've died! And when Tom felt something while he and Nick were hiding from the tornado... phew...
There are many things I'd like to talk about, but it's getting late... I'll make a list and write about it in the next post, along with the other books:
-Mother Abigail
-The babies
-Randall Flagg
-The crazy lady that ended up with Harold, but was 'saving' herself for Flagg (I forget her name...)
-And the old guy, the sociologist or something
-And the dog! Kojak (or something like that)


Right, just very quickly... The ending I am not completely happy about it. For once, I was half-expecting zombies (but as usual, when zombies are promised, I'm left waiting...). And then you brought me along this super long (fascinating) story, through the death of some many loved characters, just to "eliminate" Flaggs like that?! I mean, come on! I was expecting something mind-blowing, with blood and severed bodies everywhere and a very heroic action... but no, the desert's heat did it all... How stupid!
But I guess it made sense for what happened next and how Stu went back with Tom and stuff...

Rating: ★★★★
Favorite character: Stuart Redman. Since the beginning he was the one I liked ;)
Favorite secondary character: Nick, he's just so sweet and smart!
Favorite part: At the end, Stu's journey back to Free zone with Tom Cullen (M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen... Laws yes! LOL)
Favorite quote:  I have two this time: “That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery.” 
“God doesn't bribe, child. He just makes a sign and lets people take it as they will.” 
Least favorite character: Harold. There is no doubt about it. He was nastier than Flaggs, for fuck's sake! Just despicable. I really don't understand how he did what he did. He did deserve to die the way he did!!!
Least favorite part: Well, how about every time one of the good ones died?! Larry, Nick, the Judge... Terrible... all of their deaths. Also, all of the gross parts with dead people (eek :S)

Next time I will (try to) post about:
Just One Day (Gayle Forman)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (J.K. Rowling)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers  (Katherine Boo) 
Orange is the New Black (Piper Kerman)