The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

One of the best books I have ever read. I did not expect that I would love it so much, considering that I was not really interested about the storyline in the earlier pages. I also don't usually read books more than 300 pages because (yes I admit) I'm a lazy reader. But Hans Hubermann kept me going. His compassion touched me. He reminds me of Atticus Finch. I'm not saying that the two characters should be compared, but they both stay in my heart for being the characters that I admire a lot out of all the books I have read so far.

There's something so artistic about this book that attracted me so much. I noticed that some people did not like this idea but to me it was splendid. The language and style is not something that you would find in most fictions so I guess you can either hate it or love it.The author managed to bring out some humour in the midst of dark moments and that is definitely one of the reasons that kept me reading. I'm amazed by almost everything about this book. The characters are so memorable and although the ending was revealed earlier than expected, it was still so sad to read the elaborative details on what had happened to them.

Recommended to people who love books and sad but happy stories. And also to people who don't mind reading something different from the usual narrative style.

Rating: 5 stars.

The Flood by Ian Rankin

I've always been curious about the Inspector Rebus series. The Flood is not one of the books in the series but the first novel by the same author. I kept in mind that Ian Rankin wrote this while he was still a student in his 20s, so I didn't expect much from it. Rankin also made it clear in the introduction that this book is not a crime or thriller novel, but simply a book about "the perils and pitfalls of growing up".

Mary Miller's childhood background was introduced in the first part of the book. The incidents which lead to her seclusion from the community were interestingly narrated. The chapters ended with the birth of Sandy and the mystery of who was Sandy's real father.

The second part of the book mainly told the story of Sandy's adolescence and how had his mother coped over the years. It was a rather long read, with lengthy descriptions of less significant incidents. Rian, Sandy's crush (or girlfriend) was later introduced.

More suspense grew in the third part of the book. Questions and conflicts reached their peaks and the author unravelled the unsurprising truth about Sandy's father. I found it unsurprising as it was not difficult to guess since the man's character was described a lot prior to the revelation. The twist in the story was a good one, nevertheless. 

Rankin managed to describe well the conditions of living in a small village community—with judgements and gossips going around even in churches, the mindsets of young men who refuse to be more ambitious, and difficulties of the older generation to embrace changes in their community.

I would have to agree with the other reviewers who said that Rankin used many odd similes throughout the story. I would have listed them down if I hadn't been lazy. The abrupt ending was also a bit of a disappointment. Overall it was not a bad book but it wasn't something that I would want to reread either. I would still want to try reading Rankin's other books to see how much he has improved since 1984.

 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Two Brothers by Ben Elton

Two Brothers is one of the most memorable books that I have read. I saw this book for the first time around September last year and fell in love with it as soon as I looked at the cover and read the synopsis at the back. However, I only had the chance to finally purchase it last month.

The story revolves around the lives of two twins—one was adopted to replace the other twin that had died after birth. The twins, Paulus and Otto were inseparable best buddies as they grew up. They befriended Silke and Dagmar and formed a group they fondly called the Saturday Club. Both boys kept Dagmar as their childhood sweetheart and often competed to win her heart.

When Wolfgang and Frieda Stengel adopted Otto to become the other twin in 1920, it had never occurred to them that one day a cruel fate will snatch him away from them. The Stengel family were Jews, while Otto was Aryan. The birth of the Nazi Party started a horrible episode where the boys were forced to grow up to defend their family, their childhood sweetheart, and themselves. Slowly, deaths and betrayals unfold as their friendship and trust within the childhood Saturday Club were tested. The storyline also jumps back and forth into the 1950s to show how the surviving twin discovered all the secrets that were hidden for decades.

I love this book very much because Ben Elton depicted the scenes excellently. Sometimes it felt as though I was standing right where all of it happened while he narrated the story. The story was engaging and the plot twists were really something that I had not expected. There were moments when I imagined vividly the grim scenes that the characters were facing, especially the first moment when Dagmar's family was cruelly tortured in front of their own store. The contrast of characters between the two boys and how they handled problems was also an interesting thing to read and ponder about. One particular sentence that caught my attention was:

"But he (Paulus) also understood that pride and hot-headedness were not only the enemy of survival but also the enemy of revenge."

I was also determined to start my first ever vocabulary list since the writer used so many words that I have never found before. In the end I had a full page of approximately 200 words to learn. This was very helpful since I am very eager to expand my vocabulary. Despite the existence of so many words that I failed to understand at an instance, it still did not change the excellent flow of the storyline. The Afterword also portrayed how personal this story is to the writer despite only being written loosely based on his own father and uncle's early lives. The historical details in the story were also accurate, so readers get to read such a brilliant story based on a realistic and accurate setting.

The only thing that I was not really happy about was that I failed to feel that the dialogues were spoken in the 1920s-30s Germany. Otto being shortened into Otts and Dagmar Dags was rather annoying. I also did not like Wolfgang's character at the beginning because there were so many pages focussing on his background and behaviour. I was so glad to get over the first half of the book because the best part started in the second half. In spite of that, this book kept me awake for so many nights and I really look forward to reading more of Ben Elton's works. I rate this book 5 stars.