The Book Thief

The Book Thief

(This review first appeared in February 2007) Rating:   The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Knopf (2006), 552 pages. This is the story of a German girl living in a foster family in a working-class town in Germany during World War II. Such a setting encompasses,...
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

(This review first appeared in March 2004) Rating:  The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, by Louise Murphy. Penguin Books (2003), 306 pages. Through the trees they came, pawing at the snow to uncover the moss and leaves, eating any low-growing twigs and...
To Siberia

To Siberia

Rating:  To Siberia, by Per Petterson. Picador (2009), 246 pages. (Originally published in Norway in 1996.) The unnamed narrator in this book dreams of moving to Siberia when she grows up. She has read all about it, has studied photographs of it, and at the...
The Zookeeper’s Wife

The Zookeeper’s Wife

Rating:  The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman.  W.W. Norton & Company (2007), 348 pages. Commemorations are underway in Poland today to mark the 70th anniversary of World War II.  Coincidentally, I just finished a nonfiction book set in Warsaw during...
Dog Man

Dog Man

Rating:  Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain, by Martha Sherrill.  Penguin Press (2008), 256 pages. This is the kind of dog book that describes a particular breed—Akitas—so beautifully and with such love, I felt a sudden urgent need to go find...