Tag: books

The Night Bookmobile

By Audrey Niffenegger

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Abrams, 2010

Genres: General fiction, short stories

Format: Graphic novel

Series: “The Night Bookmobile is the first installment of a much larger work, The Library, which has its origins in a dream I had as a teenager” (from the first page of “After Words” at the end of the book).

ISBN: 9780810996175

Audience: Adult

Number of pages: Unpaginated

Setting: Chicago, IL

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: Alexandra relates her experiences with the Night Bookmobile and how she came to work at The Library. Continue reading “The Night Bookmobile”

The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Alfred A Knopf, c2005, 2006

Genre: Historical fiction

ISBN: 9780375831003

Audience: Adult, young adult -“Somebody’s favorite book”

Number of pages: 552

Setting: Molching, Germany (outside of Munich)

Time period: 1939- 1945

Plot summary: In January 1939, nine year old, Liesel Meminger, steals her first book while travelling by train to meet her foster parents.  Along the journey, Liesel’s younger brother dies after an intense coughing fit.  After he is buried, Liesel finds The Gravedigger’s Handbook where it had been dropped in the snow and keeps it.  The fact that she can’t read it (or anything else) does not deter her from taking it.  As Liesel grows older in Nazi Germany, she finds other occasions to pilfer a variety of items.  Her favorite things to steal, however, are books.  As she learns to read, she shares stories with others in her community (including the Jewish man hiding in her basement) and eventually writes her own story. Continue reading “The Book Thief”

Shadow of the Wind

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón; translated by Lucia Graves

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Penguin Books, c2001, 2004, 2005

Genres: General fiction, historical fiction, mystery, romance, suspense

ISBN: 9780143034902

Intended audience: Adult

Number of pages: 487

Setting: Barcelona, Spain

Time period: 1945-1966 (although some events occur prior to 1945)

Plot summary: As a boy, Daniel Sempere, finds a copy of The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax and immediately becomes engrossed in the story.  When he tries to find other works by Carax, he discovers that someone has been mysteriously buying all of Carax’s books and then setting fire to them.  It is possible that Daniel holds the last known copy of a Carax book.  As Daniel grows older, the mystery of Carax gnaws at Daniel until he begins his own investigation of Carax.  As Daniel dives deeper into the past, he discovers many horrors of love and war intertwined with Carax’s fate.  Daniel continues his quest, until the past slams fully into the present and Daniel’s own life is in danger from the knowledge of Carax and his life. Continue reading “Shadow of the Wind”