recommendations

I really like recommending books to people- partly because I love when people recommend books to me and give a good explanation for wanting me to read the book, because then I feel compelled to find out why they liked it so much. And so- I am going to give a few book recommendations.
I just finished reading The Book Thief by Mark Zusak. It was so good! It is a little on the longer side (550 pages) but is extremely compelling. It starts off a tad on the slow side but quickly picks up. I loved this review in the NYT. The last paragraph is beautiful and really gives a good summary of some of my feelings about this novel. A few things I love about this book:
1. It's original- I LOVE books that are original and give me a new outlook or perspective.
2. The narrator is Death which I think is brilliant and fascinating.
3. It's set during WWII in Germany (and I'm fascinated by WWII) but gives a new POV than is typical for books about war- especially WWII.
4. Zusak is a great writer and this book has some great literary merit.
5. It's unlike anything I've ever read before- very postmodern- there are illustrations (-ish) and stories within the story, and the time line is a little bit skewed. Read it!