A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Title: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Author: Mark Twain
Genre: Classic
Pages (words): 474 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Hank Morgan, a Yankee living in Connecticut in the late 19th century, gets transported back 13 centuries when he is hit on the head, ending up in 6th century England. He soon finds himself right in Camelot, complete with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Being a resourceful Yank, he wastes no time in using some common sense and 13 centuries' worth of knowledge to establish himself as a powerful magician and as the King's right-hand man. With his influence, he constructs some 19th-century amenities, including electricity and the telephone. But when he tries to make things better for the commoners, he meets with some serious opposition.
Thoughts: As will all Mark Twain books, A Connecticut Yankee is an enjoyable book. Twain has a great voice in his writing that is a pleasure to read. But beyond that, I can't say that I loved this book. It was entertaining and it brought out some interesting points (e.g. religion can be as bad as slavery), but much of it seemed a bit forced, like the book was simply a pretense for Twain to get out a lot of pent-up anger about society. The plot seemed like it was just draped over Twain's checklist of things that could be better about society. I don't mind an author writing books with a message in mind--in fact, I prefer it--but there are other Twain books that get his ideals across better than A Connecticut Yankee. Overall, if you're considering reading this book, my advice wouldn't be, "Don't read it," it would just be, "Don't start here." The Prince and the Pauper covers many of the same ideas and was better than this one, and of course Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are both incredible Twain books.
Disclaimer: None.

The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: Modern Fiction (set in WWII)
Pages (words): 576 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: At 9 years old, Liesel's mother can no longer care for her, and she is sent to a foster home. The Book Thief tells about her coming of age in Nazi Germany: how she grows to love her foster parents, how she begins to understand prejudices, and how she learns about the power of words to do both good and evil.
Thoughts: For me, this book had it all. First, I thought the writing was fantastic. Zusak has Death narrate the story, which is an interesting and very effective way to convey the story. His descriptions are incredibly vivid and fresh, and several parts of the story were really quite funny, although the book itself isn't. Second, the plot was great. I love that the book is not about a Jew in Nazi Germany, or the allied forces in Nazi Germany. It is about a German girl in Nazi Germany. I have often wondered how so many Germans came to follow Hitler when Hitler was so obviously insane and amoral. I think The Book Thief sheds some light on that question, with the answer being that it didn't take many people to bully the rest into obedience. Anyway, the perspective of the book was interesting to me, and really helped me see a little better the difficulties of the German people under the Nazis. Finally, The Book Thief made me want to be a better person, which is what I'm really looking for in a lot of books. And I think that Zusak pulls that off without being preachy or even too idealistic. The characters are real and they make mistakes, but by the end you're really pulling for them because you can see what makes them good. Put all of that together, and you've got a 5-star book. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: There is some blood and gore, but this book is pretty clean. There are a lot of German swear words, which didn't bother me because I don't speak German. A few of them get translated in to English, but I didn't think it was too bad.

P.S. A huge thanks to Christina for giving us this book!!