How To Get Back Into Reading If You've Lost Your Groove

When I was a kid I devoured books by the bus load. I'd tuck myself away in my parents' bedroom, the quietest room in the house, and read nonstop for hours. Hours. My father would come in to grab various things, his wallet or keys perhaps, and frequently stopped to ask, "Don't you need a break for a little bit?" He was curious and also, I think, a little astounded.

Depending on the book I was reading, I might briefly resurface from an underwater utopia, pause my hunt for buried treasure, or apparate from Hogwarts (jk I know you can't apparate from Hogwarts). I would reply to my dad,  "No, not really." Then I dived back in.

These endless reading days disappeared around the time I went to college. There was just so much studying to be done, activities to participate in, and friends to make. Reading books took a backseat and my attention span for deep reading also started to diminish. I was getting content with the accessibility of the Internet, the joy of clicking from one interesting discovery to the next without immersing myself fully into anything. 

When I tried reading books again, I could not read for hours like I used to. Thirty minutes was my max before my mind wandered and I needed to stop for food, or the Internet, or texting. But I missed reading desperately so I kept trying. I managed to make time for myself, retrain my brain for reading marathons, and also utilized five tips that might help others get their reading groove back. 

1. Use those extra moments during the day. 

Public transit is ideal for squeezing in some reading time. Read on the way to and from work. Read while dinner is in the oven. Read a little before bed to relax you. It doesn't have to be hours - just a few minutes will at least give you a jumpstart. If you're willing and able, get up a little earlier or stay up a little later to make more time in your day.

2. Complete a reading challenge.


It's easy to find tons of reading challenge lists online. Follow the given deadlines; read a book every week, or every month. Some lists will have specific categories to check off, like historical fiction or a book that became a television show. This is a great way to expand your reading possibilities and introduce you to some great new books.

3. Join a book club. 

Not everyone will have time for this one, but if you do, it's incredibly motivating. No one wants to be the only person who didn't read the book on the reading list. For those unable to do in-person meetings, online reading communities can also share book experiences and live discussions.

4. Institute a household reading time. 

With relationships and family, it can be hard to get time to yourself to read. However, if you get everyone to do some reading at the same time, you're guaranteed some peace and quiet. If your kids or partner needs extra motivation, help them find books or magazines suited to their interests. For kids, you can also make incentives for reading a certain amount of pages. Make reading a priority for your family by making time to enjoy it together. 

5. Try a new way to read. 

For a long time, I avoided e-readers and e-books. I preferred the smell of new and old books, the feel of the weight in my hand, and the sensation of turning each page. I still do. That being said, I came around to e-books for a few different reasons. The main reason is that it is much easier to carry one Kindle at work than one heavy, thick book or even multiple books. It's also easier  and quicker to order and receive a book digitally instead of going to a bookstore, library, or waiting for the package to arrive. It's important to still use these resources, but if you're in a reading rut because of inconvenience, give digital a chance.

With a busy schedule, reading is certainly hard to fit in, but not impossible. Find what works for you, reward yourself for reading regularly, and get that reading groove back. New worlds await.

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child Review, All Is Not Well (Spoilers)

Just a few days ago, I read Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and today I’m still trying to process it. I wasn’t too excited about this play in the first place, because it involved the next generation and a future for characters that I would have rather left open to the imagination. Harry Potter’s world is big enough for more than Harry Potter himself, and even more than just his kids, why tap into his life again? All was well, and I wanted it to stay that way for Harry and his family. Alas, it was not to be in The Cursed Child.

The story of TCC centers around Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. Both children are being bullied at Hogwarts due to their fathers’ legacies -- Albus for being in Slytherin and ‘nothing like a Potter’, and Scorpius for the rumors that he might be Voldemort’s son. The two form a friendship as outcasts, which causes even more problems at school and at home. As fathers, Harry and Draco are both hopeless at connecting with the two kids, and Harry can even be harsh to Albus when under stress. For some reason I’m still not sure about, Albus decides to go back in time with Scorpius to save Cedric Diggory, something Harry refuses to do. Delphi, a young woman claiming to be Amos Diggory’s niece, helps them along in the quest. She is later revealed to be Voldemort and Bellatrix’s child, and the use of time travel is a scheme to resurrect her father.   

If that last sentence made you say, ‘hey that’s like fanfiction I’ve seen ,’ then you’re not alone. 

Many fans have noticed the similarity and have gone a step further by calling it bad fanfiction. Unfortunately, I see their point. Had the summary of TCC been put on a fanfiction site, I would not have been at all tempted to read it due to the unlikeliness of Voldemort’s daughter and the time travel plot. There were some good things to come out of the play, which I’ll touch on at the end of this review. Overall I was disappointed, and I’ve made a list of some issues with the play that could have been better with sometimes minor, sometimes huge, adjustments in the writing.   

1. TCC needed a new Big-Bad that wasn’t associated with Voldemort.

Voldemort having a daughter makes no sense in canon characterizations or timelines (Bellatrix wasn’t noticeably pregnant at Malfoy Manor in DH). Voldemort was a loner, relied on no one, didn’t have or want friends, intimacy, or love. He didn’t want an heir because he was his own legacy, never intending to die. He also certainly wouldn’t have a child on accident. So why in the world would he have a daughter? This contradicts everything we know about him. In any case, at the end of Deathly Hallows, Voldemort’s story is conclusively finished. A new Big Bad could have done wonders for The Cursed Child. As we’ve seen in the HP universe, there’s a ton of underlying conflict in the wizarding world.  A new evil didn’t have to deal with blood purity at all. It could have been a house-elf or goblin or centaur sick of being mistreated. It could be someone with a grudge against the Potters or the Malfoys, or someone within the Ministry. Even if they still wanted to tell the time travel story of TCC, Delphi is unnecessary. Amos Diggory could have been the sole catalyst for the plot, and a more believable one since he honestly might have wanted his son back. 

2. Time travel is messy and should have been left out.

The canon universe is beloved for a reason, and so giving characters the power to change everything we know about it should have been avoided. All the time-turners were destroyed in Order of the Phoenix, and yet two more conveniently turn up over the course of this play. That’s the coincidence on which the whole plot of The Cursed Child is hinged, and that’s way too unlikely for devoted fans to believe with so little explanation. It does not help that the time travelling also leads to several more unlikely scenarios, such as a Bitter and Cruel Hermione, Death Eater Cedric Diggory, and something called Voldemort Day. If the writers really wanted to incorporate the past, it could have been by having Albus and/or Scorpius view the past via memories or other magic. In any case, I’m sure the future holds a lot for these kids—there was no need to revisit their fathers’ adventures. 

3. Harry could be a little inept as a father, but not that much.

In the middle of a fight, Albus tells Harry he wishes Harry wasn’t his dad. Angry, Harry tells Albus that sometimes he wishes he wasn’t his son, essentially proving Al’s worst fear. It seems pretty unbelievable that Harry would say this to his child, even at his most frustrated. Perhaps an angsty fifteen year old Harry might have said that, but not an adult Harry who is acutely aware of how it feels to be considered a waste of space. Harry’s family is the most important thing in his life, all he’s ever wanted, so he certainly knows better than to treat Albus this way. 

A lot of the Harry and Albus drama doesn’t feel justified. Albus is in Slytherin and is bullied in school for not being like a Potter, and this is the core of his resentment towards Harry. But in Deathly Hallows, Albus confides his fear of being placed in Slytherin to his father, and it is Harry who reassures him. The entire epilogue suggests that at this point, Albus is actually closest to his father. He trusts him and is easily comforted by him. Harry and Albus are more similar than not. Albus is not popular at school, but neither was Harry for 90% of his time at Hogwarts. At times people considered him a liar, mad, or a show-off just wanting more fame. He was frequently humiliated by Draco, Snape, and Rita Skeeter. If anything, Harry should be able to connect more to Albus than to James and Lily, who seem to have more boisterous and outgoing personalities than Harry ever had. Like most teenagers, Albus might still be angry and trying to prove himself a little recklessly, but Harry is a mature, loving father and the writing should reflect it.

4. The books taught us about friendship, the play should have taught us about family.

Harry was an only child with no family, and so it made sense that it was a story about friendship. In TCC, however, the Trio all have multiple kids that are rarely seen. Albus’s brother and sister, raised together and very near his age, do not actually appear in the play for more than a scene or two. I’m pretty sure James Sirius Potter would have a lot to say about the events surrounding Albus, possibly trying to make the bullying better for his brother but perhaps accidentally making it worse. Lily could be supportive or bratty or both. Albus’s cousin Rose turns against him early on in the play, so we never get to see any significant interactions between them either. I love the Scorpius and Albus friendship, but there is way more going on in the future generation then we ever get to see. Teddy Lupin, the whole Weasley clan -- they’d all be front and center in Albus’s life, so they should have been front and center in the story.

5. Take everything convenient and get rid of it.

I understand that plays can’t have the nuance of novels, and that some things must happen far more quickly for the stage. However, the long list of convenient plot devices in TCC still read like lazy writing, and each convenience literally holds the story together. Here are some of the most problematic plot points: Voldemort having a daughter. Two time-turners existing and being found by the gang after they were supposedly all destroyed. Harry being an inexcusably bad dad, causing Albus to be reckless. The parents being unable to find the kids even though they use tons of trackable underage magic. The kids being able to break into the Ministry of Magic with very little planning. The blanket from Harry's mom, never mentioned in the books and yet all important to Harry now, and the way Albus communicates with him from the past. Kind and fair Cedric Diggory becoming a Death Eater just because he was humiliated once during the Triwizard Tournament. Harry’s transfiguration into Voldemort wearing off, when a time limit to transfiguration has never been mentioned in any of the books. These things are just unlikely and don’t fit with what we already know about magic, the wizarding world, or the characters. They shouldn’t have been used to patch up holes in the plot.

6. Get. The. Characters. Right.

This is probably the biggest issue that people had with TCC.  Many of the characters of the series just didn’t seem like themselves. Harry lashes out at Albus, tries to keep him away from his only friend, and is rude to McGonagall and Ginny and nearly everyone else at one point or another.  Hermione is kind of irresponsible in keeping the time-turner, and protects it so poorly that two fourteen year old kids can get to it. Ron is hardly in the book, but when he’s mentioned by the others, they make him out to be some Fred/George replacement, only there for comic relief. Ron could be funny and sarcastic in the HP books, but he was never a prankster, and yet Harry and Hermione refer to several of his pranks as Ron, ‘just being Ron.’ Some argue that the characterizations seem closer to the movie versions of themselves, but even the movie versions were never quite this flat and off.  

                                                         

7. There were more interesting and less forced stories to write.

 Overall I think it was a mistake to do the next generation, and specifically to focus on Albus Severus Potter. He has two parents whose stories we know essentially in full, he was named after two of the most controversial HP characters, and he looks just like his famous father. Al would always unfortunately be either a rehashing or an obviously intentional departure from Harry, and it was too fine of a line to walk. 

There were a lot of different stories that could have been told without a need for such convenient or unlikely plot points. These stories are ones fans have been most interested in seeing, and with conflicts that have already been hinted at in the books. Stories that basically write themselves. Some of particular interest to me would be seeing Grindewald vs Dumbledore, the story of Regulus Black, the love story of Pureblood Andromeda Black and Muggleborn Ted Tonks, the Marauders, or perhaps even seeing Neville’s transformation to hero in Deathly Hallows. If absolutely set on a next generation story, they could still shift the focus.  Scorpius could have been the main protagonist with Albus as the supportive sidekick instead of the other way around. Albus’s drama with Harry is less justifiable than Scorpius’s resentment towards Draco, since Draco’s actions actually hurt others and the repercussions would still be felt among Hogwarts-age students. This shift would help a lot, since Scorpius could have a much more tempting reason to want to change his father’s Death Eater past. Or instead of either boy, learning about Teddy Lupin would have been my preference. He has metamorphmagus powers which would have been fun to see a kid/teen use and abuse, and he was in Hufflepuff, a House that finally would have gotten a chance to be in the spotlight. All of this stuff would be more exciting, new, and require less mental gymnastics to make work within the HP universe.

I guess I'll end my list at 7 since it is the most magically powerful number there is.

Though I was disappointed, let me end on a brighter note by talking about the good stuff to come out of the play. The list is short but certainly worth mentioning.  The Malfoys were written in character, and we finally got to see Draco turn into a somewhat respectable human being and father. Albus Potter being in Slytherin and friends with Scorpius Malfoy was a nice chance for some House redemption. The Albus/Scorpius friendship feels very sincere and loving, and had the writers played it less safe it could have been turned into a believable romance (and many fans will forever see it that way). Speaking of Scorpius, he’s a nerdy, righteous little hero and some of his lines really show it. Ron’s become the best dad and uncle of the bunch. I enjoyed the play affirming that in any universe or timeline, Ron and Hermione's love for each other never seems to go away completely. The interactions between Portrait Dumbledore and Harry were beautiful and probably my favorite part. They highlighted the struggles of protecting kids while letting them grow, and this dialogue sounded straight from Rowling’s pen. 

And of course, although there were problems, seeing the Golden Trio still together as friends will always be magical to me.

The Red Rising Trilogy

Last year, I did a massive book challenge, Popsugar's Reading Challenge for 2015. I read a lot of great books for this challenge and was just barely able to finish all 52 books three days before  the start of the new year. For a look at what I read, check out my Reading Challenge Pinterest Board.   Among these books, I read the first two novels in the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown (the last one wasn't out yet.) My friend Katie had recommended them to me long before this, but I finally took the dive to discover that these books are pretty brilliant!

I like to describe Red Rising as Game of Thrones in space. It's a science fiction dystopian novel, and has similarities to series' like The Hunger Games and Ender's Game.  (Just realized all these novels have 'game' in them, how weird is that?) Red Rising  is intense and not for the faint of heart. Tons of violence, action, space slang, cursing -- and morally ambiguous but lovable characters.

The story revolves around Darrow. Born a Red, Darrow is essentially an unknowing slave of the Gold race. His people are frequently hanged and whipped for speaking out, and he spends his life working in the dangerous mines of Mars, nearly guaranteeing an early death due to the harsh conditions. It's a hard life, but Darrow is generally resigned and okay with it, until his wife Eo does something to change everything in Darrow's small world.  Eo's dream is a better life for Reds and other lowColors, to "break the chains" of their slavery and oppression. With Eo as his guide and his constant reminder of what he's working towards, Darrow is thrust into the world of the Aureate. Enhanced by genetic modification, surgery, education, and physical therapy, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and enters into The Institute, a military training school where he can rise to a position powerful enough to take down Gold from within.  However, Darrow learns that Gold society is just as cruel as the one he left behind and that it's eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.  Through it all, Darrow finds confusing friendships and loves with those he's meant to destroy.

To be honest, the Red Rising trilogy is probably the most brutal thing I've ever read, not for the young or those sensitive to violence. There is war, graphic death, off-page rape, abuse and more.  If you can handle that level of intensity, these books will by turns haunt you and charm you, make you laugh, scream, cry and want to throw the book across the room.  If you're into science fiction, action, and/or dystopian fiction you'll definitely want to check these out.

The Fault In Our Stars Review

A friend recently recommended a download of Adobe Digitial Editions so that I can have access to more books.  While it's certainly not my favorite way to read, it has given me a chance to get cheaper books which fit in my current budget, and anything that lets me read more is a great thing. One of the first things I read in this manner was The Fault In Our Stars.

This was a book that I kept hearing about in various ways, from friends and various must-read lists.  I heard about it so much that I started to assume that it was vastly overhyped.  How could it possibly live up to all of that?

Honestly, it mostly did.  The story is about Hazel Grace, a sixteen year old girl with terminal cancer of the lungs and how she copes with the idea of dying, having to leave her family, and making friends and relationships with people that her loss will most likely hurt.  Through group therapy, Hazel meets Augustus Waters.  She's immediately attracted to him and they form a friendship with hints of much more.  They share books with each other, and both take great enjoyment from An Imperial Affliction, a fictional book which ends mid-sentence without providing closure for any supporting characters.  Hazel's dream has always been to find out what happened to the characters, but the recluse author has never responded to any of her fan mail. Through Augustus's efforts, she may learn the answers and live her dream.

What Hazel and Augustus share is a young love always meant for tragedy -- Hazel's health is poor while Augustus's cancer is in remission.  This is the status quo for most of the book, and really shows what kind of hardships such a battle entails.

Unlike other cancer/terminal illness books, this one isn't about overcoming the obstacles.  It's about facing them together, and knowing the realities of fighting cancer are not one of "being strong" but having it take you over and eventually letting go.  It's very insightful, and I admit that I cried quite a bit towards the end.

This isn't my favorite book ever, and it does tend to stray a little too girly for my usual taste, but it got me to care about the characters.  I do understand the hype now, and I am glad I read it.  I will happily look for more books by the author in the future.

Review of Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

Unsouled is the third book in the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, and was released this month. I finished about a week ago and have taken this time to process it all and get my thoughts together. Even so, it's going to be hard to do this book and series justice all in one go. I therefore recommend you read my previous post here so that I don't have to recap the general series premise. (Actually just read the books. Most of this terminology is going to make no sense otherwise and reading is good for you anyway.)

In this installment of the series, Connor and Lev have escaped from their ruined former safe haven (The Graveyard) and must avoid juvie cops and parts pirates as they look for answers about the mysterious Jansen Rheinschild, the scientist and creator of the process that allowed unwinding to become a reality. They've uncovered that he has been wiped from the history books, the Internet, everything. It becomes increasingly clear that finding the truth about him may be the answer to ending unwinding once and for all. In order to do so, however, they must return to their home of Ohio, where it all began and where Rheinschild's wife Sonia (from the first book) still lives.

On the other side of things, Risa has renounced the media statements she was forced to make by Proactive Citizenry. In Unwholly, they had blackmailed her with the security of her friends at The Graveyard but lost their leverage when the kids were attacked, killed and/or rounded up for unwinding anyway. Risa also cut ties with Cam (a little background: Cam's a modern day, handsome Frankenstein made entirely of Unwind parts), who doesn't take it well. He's obsessed with winning her heart even if it means cutting his own ties with Proactive Citizenry (which made him) and crushing anyone in his way, especially Connor.

As you can tell, there is A LOT going on in this book, but I've broken it down into some highlights and lowlights for a quicker and more accessible review (spoilers ahead):

Highlights:

Flow: The story is still smooth, transitions mostly seamless. It still reads with the urgency of a film script and yet allows for deep introspection and characterizations more predominantly found in books.

Villains:  The new greaseball Argent Skinner is pretty hopeless as a villain, but his strange manipulative/idolizing relationship with almost equally hopeless parts pirate Nelson is amusing and will probably do some damage to our favorite characters later on. Most importantly, Starkey's villainy has really taken form. The most traumatic moments in the book are his displays of violence against all who stand in his way and represent unwinding (specifically of storks, which are children abandoned on doorsteps and who become legally a member of that family, whether they're wanted or not). 

World Building: We've learned even more about this world now. People smoke tranquilizers recreationally. A push towards allowing criminals to be unwound is on the voting ballot. Most Native Americans (now known as People of Chance or ChanceFolk) generally abstain from unwinding practices. 

Recurring characters: CyFi! Hayden! Baby Didi, renamed Dierdre! Sonia!

Biggest Bad: I love the idea that the real string pullers behind unwind are corporations profiting from it instead of the government. We've seen this before in real life -- big business winning out at the expense of the people. Society will literally rip itself apart as it's manipulated by greed.

Biggest Bad Kryptonite: Obsolescence. Also taking a page from reality. What happens when people can get organs and other parts cheaper, faster, and without having anyone be unwound?  Unwinding goes the way of the VHS player. 

Lowlights:

Uneven character usage: Right now, it's hard to remember what Risa really got to do in this book, besides be an obsession for Cam. Well, she did stuff, just nothing particularly important. Got herself caught by a parts pirate then killed him, nearly got eaten by coyotes, hung out with CyFi at his weird commune, worked/hid at a salon, hung out with Sonia. At least she got to kiss Connor instead of Cam but that's probably going to come back to haunt her (that guy just isn't right).

Resolution: The answer to ending unwinding has apparently been right under their noses with Sonia and that feels pretty convenient. I miss the open ending of Unwind, but I know that the resolution offered will be hard-won in the fourth book so maybe that's okay.

No Trio Reunion: I want the original three back together all at once. I want Risa, Connor, and Lev, that weird little dysfunctional family. Glad Connor and Lev spent some time together, but it's just not the same dynamic.

Connor/Conner: The story occasionally slips between two spellings of Connor, though Connor is the predominant version. It's a small detail, but it irritates me. Isn't an editor or someone supposed to catch that? What about Find and Replace?

General weirdness: Connor talks to Roland's hand. And the shark tattoo talks back. Cam got pieces of Samson Ward and Wil? Who else does he have in there? Roland? Also Starkey's villainy also includes the need to impregnate girls under his authority...I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

Summation: Overall, this book was pretty awesome but it does show that the longer a series goes on, the more likely it will have a few missteps and a little more beating around the bush to get to the big picture. I'm ready for the next book, the title of which has been announced as Undivided.

Unwind "Dystology": Standalone Novels vs Series

Quite a few years ago, I picked up a YA novel called Unwind, written by Neal Shusterman.  It's one of the most compelling YA novels I have ever read.  In many ways, it reads like scenes of a movie -- present tense, action-packed, and showing different points of view even from minor characters.  This all culminates into effective world-building and one thrilling story that kept me engaged the whole way through. 

The story takes place in a futuristic (but still very recognizable as our own) society in which medicine and science have progressed to the point of making all body parts viable for human transplant.  Arms, legs, eyes, brain and other internal organs -- all of it can now be removed from donors, stored, and surgically grafted onto needy recipients.  This medical advancement and the Second Civil War (a war between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice citizens) have resulted in a compromise of sorts in society.  Abortion is now illegal, but parents or guardians may now legally elect to have their 13-18 year olds "unwound" -- a process in which they are surgically dismembered but in which all their body parts will "live on" in transplant recipients.  The story centers on Connor, Risa, and Lev -- Unwind teens trying to escape that fate and survive until 18.  

The novel touches on many social issues, like how social conflicts of the present can affect future generations, ethics of law, right to life, abortion, and even theology such as the concept of the soul.  Even though it discusses these heavy issues, it never attempts to sway.  This is the story of the characters, dealing with the world and the law as they affect their own lives and destiny.  Every chapter moves the story forward, giving no time to linger and very little breathing room.

By the end of the novel, I was satisfied.  It was compelling and refreshing to see a standalone novel fulfill me so much.  These days, it seems like true standalone YA novels don't actually exist.  Nearly everything, and certainly everything popular, is part of a series.  I championed the book not only for its amazing storytelling but for that reason as well. 

And then, years later, it was announced that it would be a trilogy, which later turned into a series of four (not including a short novella e-book) when the third book ran over 600 pages long.  The mixed feelings I had about this were understandably intense.  I wanted more of that world, more of those characters, just more in general.  But Unwind had felt so complete and I just wanted to believe that amazing standalones could exist in the world.  And then Unwholly was released and I fell right back into it; the same quality of writing, but with old and new characters, and old triumphs heralding new problems and -- it was amazing, once again. Even if some elements of the world-building did feel a tiny bit tacked on.

Overall, it was great storytelling and I cannot wait for the next book to come out in just a couple short weeks.

But I do still wonder if standalones can ever hold the same kind of appeal and popularity of a series, and whether this is good, bad, or just the way it is.  Are there any series you believe could and should have been standalones, or visa versa?  Do series become more loved simply because readers get to spend more time with the characters?  If you find out a book is part of a series, does that make you more or less likely to check it out?

Feel free to sound off with a comment and check out the Unwind series while you're at it.

Markus Zusak's Other Book

If you know the name Markus Zusak, it's probably because you've heard of and/or read his YA novel, The Book Thief.  It's popular, been on several "Must Read" lists and has now been made into a feature film coming soon to theaters near you.  I borrowed my roommate's copy and you know what?  It didn't do it for me, though I desperately wanted it to.  It's got an interesting writing style, with the narrator being Death, and I tend to like gimmicks like that, but not this time.  Maybe it was just because it's a period piece and that's not typically a genre I connect well with, or because the main character was also considerably younger than my age range at the time.

Or maybe I just had outrageously high expectations because I read Markus Zusak's "other book" first.  It's called I Am the Messenger here in the states, and just The Messenger elsewhere.  I picked it up at a bookstore knowing nothing about it.  The cover didn't look all that appealing, but I'd read a page or two in the store and liked the writing style and decided to take a chance on it.

I devoured the novel in hours and to this day, though I'm loathe to play favorites between books, it is one of mine.

I Am the Messenger is about an underage cab driver named Ed Kennedy, and here's a few things about him:  he's smart but unambitious, working a dead-end job and living a dead-end life.  He's pathetic in romance, in the eyes of his Ma,and generally going nowhere in a run-down town filled with run-down people.  He's averagely average with no prospects for more.  Until the day he unwittingly stops a bank robbery in progress.  Until the day he gets the first ace in the mail.

From then on, Ed is thrown into a whirlwind beyond what he could have imagined.  The first ace playing card gave him a list of addresses, at each address something he needed to fix.  They range from the unimaginably horrific to the simply sad, and it's up to Ed to change everything: change the world with one good deed at a time, lose himself in the beautiful broken people, and learn to live up to his potential.  It's narrated by Ed himself, and somehow from his simple and average perspective, the flowing metaphors and sensory descriptions are even more poignant.

Not to sound overly sentimental, but it truly is beautiful.

In short, I never did finish The Book Thief.  I tried and wanted to like it because of the author recognition, but it didn't capture me in the same way.  And I'm fairly sure I'll watch the film, but even if it takes me in more than the novel could, my heart will still be with Ed and the Aces.