The Strain

I found this book for a couple of bucks at Half Priced Books a while ago, and many people said it was good, so I got it. I liked it. It's a SciFi thriller, but mostly a thriller by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (seriously, reviews acted like I knew who those guys were. I don't). A doctor with the CDC is called in when an airplane arrives at JFK with all passengers dead.

Okay, it's a vampire thriller, and because this one doesn't have the main character as a brooding, fwoppy haired love interest, I like it. Vampires are a plague (literally) to be destroyed, and the CDC doctor and a former professor have to figure out how to save New York. It's the first book in a trilogy, and as long as they don't extend it to a fourth, I'm excited about this series. I'm sorry, the Twilight Books were great (except for that last tragic one), but the first movie was so bad it made my head hurt, and now the New Moon mania is driving me nuts. So go books that don't have sympathetic vampires!

The Book Thief

I had to reread this book for my book club this month, and I just love it. Marcus Zusak's WWII teen novel about a young girl, Lisel, in Germany is just fabulous. Lisel, after the death of her younger brother, is sent to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Munich, and mets an incredible cast of characters. This book is well written, with an wonderfully unique narrator. Lisel starts her career as a book thief by stealing a book called the Gravediggers handbook, but through the narrative she steals many more. It is through these books that her foster father Hans teachers young Lisel to read, and it is books more than food that she and her best friend Rudy conspire to steal. Lisel's family harbors a fugitive Jew named Max, putting them all in danger, but bringing them closer together while showing the fear that was rampant during that period of history. It's a great read, and by the fourth chapter you stop hoping that Kurt or Maria will show up (WWII story with a Lisel, of course I was thinking of the Sound of Music for most of the beginning). This Lisel's Nazi's weren't nearly as nice as Rolf (spelling on that?) though.