Over winter break I started and finished The Book Theif by Markus zusak. This book follows a newly orphaned girl, Liesel, growing up in Nazi germany. It follows her through her struggles and triumps. She finds a way to lose herself from the struggles of her life in books. These provide for her an escape from the everyday trajedies of her life. Although she does succesfully steal some books, most of the books she acquires come to her through gifts, completely undermining the idea of the title. Other than this major flaw the book seems to justify itself pretty well. The characters and plot of the story are all very strong and structured. The dialogue and "filler" chapters do not drag on and bore me and the idea of the book being told from the perspective of death, although should be immediatley apparent it is foreshadowing, is interesting and new. Markus does a great job keeping me engaged throughout the whole book up until the very end. *spoilers*Although I must add one last thing, the scenes where Liesel is reading her book to everyone in the bomb shelters seems very corny and anybody in there right mind could've guessed that a book about a girl and books would contain a scene where the girl comes people down by reading*spoilers*.