Candace's Book Blog: The Book Thief

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

#TheBookThief Book Club- Movie Review

On Sunday I was lucky enough to get to go to see The Book Thief movie with my book club. A few weeks previous we had met up to discuss the book. You can find that post HERE. We've been really excited to go and see how the movie turned out. While the overall reaction was that we liked it, there were some that liked it quite a lot less.

Without any spoilers it came down to this- We knew that not everything from the book could be included in the movie. However, we felt like the emotional impact was lessened because of some things that were left out. For the most part we felt it was visually appealing and that the actors played their roles well. One of us felt that the mother, Rosa, wasn't as abrasive as she was in the book. I felt like she was and that it wasn't important for her to be more abrasive in the movie. She felt true to character to me. And I really felt like Sophie Nélisse played Liesel perfectly. As a matter of fact, all the actors felt just perfect to me and while initially I was a bit unsure of Max, he actually played the role very well. In fact, I would have liked more scenes with him. For the most part we all seemed happy with the casting. If we hadn't just read the book we may have ended up enjoying the movie more, but as it was we found ourselves noticing every little detail that was changed.

Some things needed to change or be left out and that's okay, we are well aware that not everything will be able to be included. The movie was just slightly over 2 hours and we agreed that an extra half hour would have been an acceptable length and been enough to include a few more key parts of the book.

We had a wide range of opinion and it seemed like several others initial reactions were disappointment while I felt completely happy at first and only as time went on and I remembered the things missing that I felt it could have perhaps went up a notch. I also felt that lack of emotion while watching the movie because I kept waiting for it. I was prepared with a box of tissue and in fact never even had to take it out.

The ratings between the 7 of us ranged from 2 stars to 5 stars, with the average being 3 stars. I would personally rate it 4 stars myself. I felt like it was a good movie and was more true to the book then many book to movie adaptations. It's a movie I would see again, but not in the theater. It's a movie I recommend you see, but in this case I would actually suggest seeing the movie before you read the book, I think you might appreciate it better. I could be wrong though, and I'm almost always on the other side of the fence saying you need to read the book first. I'm realizing that I'm just not very happy with book to movie adaptations because my expectations are too high.

One thing we've decided is that we need to go to more movies as a group for book to movie adaptations because we really enjoyed it. We had time to chat before the movie and we chatted about it once it was over. It was a very enjoyable time and most certainly worth it for all of us. I'm looking forward to our next outing, which will hopefully be fairly soon!

Want a discussion guide? You can find one HERE.

THE BOOK THIEF – in theaters now

Based on the beloved bestselling book, THE BOOK THIEF tells the inspirational story of a spirited and courageous young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a new family in World War II Germany.

Starring Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, and Sophie Nélisse.

Directed by Brian Percival.

THE BOOK THIEF online

Visit the official website

Like THE BOOK THIEF on Facebook

Follow @BookThiefMovie on Twitter #TheBookThief

Official Movie Trailer:

Big thank you to Twentieth Century Fox for providing this wonderful opportunity!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

#TheBookThief Book Club

On Sunday I got together with a group of ladies to discuss The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. We were provided with books to read, discussion guides and everything we needed to talk about this wonderful book!

I met up with a diverse group of ladies at the city library. The library is brand new and was the perfect location. They set aside a room for us and so we had complete quiet and privacy. We got coffee and snacks in the lobby so we were set to go!

Our group had a wide variety of women. My mother in law, Jane, is an elementary school secretary; Angel is a high school English teacher; Lynn is a mother and voracious reader; Bianca is a college student and book blogger at Pages of Forbidden Love and Sara is a book blogger at Novel Novice. Two others who participated via email because of a surprise trip to Las Vegas consist of a book seller from Powells and a voracious reader who works at a college. We range from ages 21 to 60 and come from a variety of backgrounds and ethnic groups.

One thing we all have in common is our love of books and while we sometimes got off subject (there are SO many great books in the world, how could we not talk about them all?!) we had a great time discussing this brilliant book.

If you haven't yet read the book, I suggest you use caution in reading the following recap, it's chock full of spoilers.

Our first discussion was about Death and whether it was a good choice and if his voice changed

from the beginning to the end.
Someone pointed out that no one else could have told the story and that he put things in perspective for us.
I felt like his voice did change, and in the last half he felt more compassionate. Others pointed out that he couldn't have because he knew the whole story and everything had already happened even when he started. We just saw some of the compassion towards the end because that's when all the people died.

Next we talked about who survived 'well'.
That was easy, we all agreed it was Hans. He was able to put on a brave face and was calm and accepting of everyone and everything. He had survived so much already and so he was just set to be the best he could. Whether he lived or not, he just wanted to be the best for everyone else.

How did books become the vehicle for Liesel's friendships? What message was portrayed?
Words were almost like a character, they were so potent and so important.

Why was Rosa such a hardened person?
She cares so much that that is how she deals with it. We don't know her background, so we don't know what she's suffered through and that might be part of it, but we all agreed that it was how she deals and it's just her personality.

While we did discuss some other questions, it seemed like we kind of started going off subject much of the time and here are some things we brought up and discussed.
The beginning of the book is hard to get use to, the different narration being part of it. Once settled in we no longer had trouble. Angel didn't finish the book because she was rereading everything so much. This ended up being kind of good because it got us discussing things a little differently since we had read parts she hadn't and those might have been the parts that changed our perspective. For example, she didn't see Death as compassionate, while the rest of us did and Sara ended up reading a brief passage to her so she could see what we meant. One thing that was a big deal was how he carried the children. Sometimes there were too many who died and he couldn't carry them all, but he always gently lifted the children and carried them in his arms. Also his deep regret and sorrow in taking Rudy. (I'm so bawling now, AGAIN.)

Another thing we discussed is that we appreciated that we saw so much more in this book. This isn't all about the Jews, it's about the Germans. How they didn't have such a choice in the war, they were victims as well. They might not really support it, but there's not much they can do because as we see in the book, they will be punished. So everyone who opposes the war keeps it quiet because speaking up could be a death sentence. We also get to see the full street of the neighbors and the different things each of them goes through. It gave us some different perspectives as they had different lives and backgrounds and beliefs.

We all agreed that it's terrifying that it seems history could repeat itself. And while it seems strange to think that all those people went along with the war, when we see how it really happened, how it all just started with some words and a man that must have really pulled people in, it somehow spiraled out of control and how would we know if it were beginning to happen again?

One thing I wanted to discuss is: Do Liesel and Max end up together and get married? We don't know, but we decided to say yes, they do. I'll be curious to see how that ends in the movie though.

Last of all, we came up with a recipe that goes perfect with the book. This is because of Rudy and if you read the book you'll understand.
Mud Pie
Cookie Crust with chocolate pudding, whipped topping and oreos on top. Easy to make and delicious!