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Welcome to November’s Online Book Club. This month, we’re reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. 

The Online Book Club, if you’ve never joined us before, is a book discussion group that takes place entirely online. Each week, I write a new blog post that talks about different aspects of the book, and you can interact directly with me and other readers by leaving your comments. Check back each week and see what new topics we’re talking about.

The Book Thief is about a little girl named Liesel who moves in with a foster family in Nazi Germany after she is separated from her mother. Liesel brings with her a book she has stolen, and once her foster father helps her learn to read, Liesel blossoms and becomes a book thief, always looking for another book to read. Told from the perspective of Death, this book is a somber exploration of the Holocaust and the choices and hardships every day people experienced during WWII. 

If you want to follow along with us but you aren’t interested in reading the book, you can always watch the movie version starring Geoffrey Rush. Check out the trailer above if you want to get a feel for the movie. Feel free to still leave comments on the blog posts, even if you’re only watching the movie and not reading the book.

Welcome to the final week of the The Invisible Man discussion. 

Were you satisfied with the ending? Things didn’t go the way I expected them to go. Did you predict all that would happen to Griffin in the end? 

I felt like this section was different than the first two because in this section, Griffn mostly describes all of the things that happened to him in the past, and there isn’t much current action. Did you feel like that made the book move more slowly? Did you have a hard time keeping track of all of Griffin’s experiences? I think the flashback storytelling technique is a little harder to follow than just regular narration. 

One part that I thought was interesting was the fact that Griffin made muddy footprints that other people could follow, even though he was invisible. I think, in my head, I kept thinking that if he were invisible, he would be transparent and have no mass. But, he obviously did have mass since he was able to keep a coat and hat on his body. Speaking of the hat and coat–what did you think of the part where he describes how he got his costume? I could not believe that he was angry at the shop owner for hearing him, and I could not believe that he tied that man up. Griffin had absolutely no remorse for any of his actions! He didn’t feel bad at all. I hope the shop keeper ended up being ok. We don’t hear anything more about him. Griffin seemed to have only two emotions. He was either happy or violently angry. 

I think one of the most surprising things from this section was when Griffin described the fact that when he ate food, he became visible again. He couldn’t eat, even with his jacket on because he couldn’t expose his invisble face, and he couldn’t eat when he was fully invisible because the food that he ate would be visible to others. At least that’s how I understood is predicament. I never even considered how he would eat until it was mentioned in the chapter. Were you surprised by those food facts at all? 

At the end of his conversation with Kemp, Griffin explains that he would like to enact a reign of terror and would like to go around committing just murders. I’m really not sure how he thought that would happen, and it’s really surprising that he believed that Kemp would go along with him. I think Griffin was completely delusional. Once he became invisible, he completely lost all grip on reality. 

Were you surprised that Kemp had contacted someone else to alert them about Griffin? I wasn’t too surprised since Kemp kept looking out the window. He was obviously looking for someone. At first, Griffin is able to get away, but he isn’t able to escape completely. His death scene was pretty violent and upsetting. The image of him lying broken and bleeding on the ground, fully visible once again was pretty disturbing. I understand he was a menace, but his death seemed a little over the top. 

The book ends with Marvel admitting that he still has Griffin’s notes, but he can’t read them. He also wonders what life would be like for him if he were invisible. Do you think Marvel would be tempted to recreate Griffin’s experiments if he were able to decipher his notes? Don’t you think he should have learned from Griffin’s horrible life that being invisible isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? 

Were you satisfied with the ending? Did you guess any of the final scenes? Are you glad you read the book? If you’re on the fence about watching the new movie adaptation, check out the interview clip below. It might convince you to watch!

If you enjoyed this book and would like to read and watch similar titles, check out this list I created. Make sure to let me know if you end up checking out anything on the list!

Thanks for following along this month! Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments! And, check back next month as we read The Book Thief. I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments!

Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Book Club discussion of The Invisible Man. 

Were you finally glad that Griffin explained the science behind his invisibility in this section? Did you understand anything about the science experiment? I was glad to get an explanation about the science, but I didn’t understand it at all. It didn’t seem believable to me, and I didn’t understand how any of it worked. If you’re curious about whether or not Griffin’s experiment would actually work, check out this article. I don’t think I will be trying to become invisible any time soon. 

This section definitely solidified the fact that I didn’t like Griffin at all. In the first section, I was bothered by how rude he was, but in this section, he was just horrible. He was horrible in the way he treated Marvel and the townspeople, and when he casually mentioned that he robbed his father and then his father committed suicide, I knew that I could not root for this character at all. He didn’t even seem to care that he hurt his family so deeply. I just couldn’t believe that he was so cavalier about such a tragic incident. 

One funny detail in this section occurred in chapter 12. Griffin is locked in a room with Mr. Bunting and Mr. Cuss, and, of course, Griffin is mad that they took his clothes and looked through his papers. He threatens to hurt them, and then he ends up stealing their clothes, so he can escape. At the end of the chapter, we find out that Mr. Cuss and Mr. Bunting have to run away to save themselves, and H.G. Wells writes that Mr. Bunting tries to cover himself with a rug and some newspapers. It’s pretty funny to imagine a grown man trying to run away while covering himself with newspapers. I don’t think that would be very effective, and I can’t imagine that he would be able to run very fast. I think it’s interesting that Wells would include such a funny visual in the middle of all of Griffin’s violence. 

Griffin treated Marvel horribly in this section. He abused him and threatened him, and he even ran after him and, seemingly, attempted to kill him. As far as we know, Griffin was injured by the man at the bar who was protecting Marvel, but do you think that’s the end of Marvel and Griffin’s relationship? Marvel still has all of Griffin’s papers, so I can’t imagine that they won’t interact again. 

At the end of this section, Griffin confides in Kemp and shares all about his experiments and his time as the invisible man. He tells about setting a room on fire and making a cat mostly invisible, and he shares that he believes he will be able to do many wonderful things as an invisible man. Do you think Kemp will just help Griffin? Will he alert someone about all of the things that Griffin is doing? How will Griffin’s past finally catch up to him? How do you think the story is going to end? 

In the book version, Griffin becomes invisible using drugs to decolorize his blood. In the new movie version, there’s a suit with cameras on it that impact visibility. Check out the movie clip below if you’d like a peek at the suit. 

I hope you were able to make it through this section, and I hope you’re able to finish the last chapters by next week! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

Welcome to Week 2 of the Online Book Club discussion of The Invisible Man.

Did you enjoy reading this book this week? I felt like the chapters were really short, so the reading went really quickly. Short, little chapters definitely help me read books more quickly. Do you feel that way, too? When I was researching about this book, I read that it was first serialized in a periodical called Pearson’s Weekly. That definitely helps to explain the short chapters. If you’d like to see a page from Pearson’s Weekly, check out this link. I love looking at old newspaper headlines. They are just so interesting. 

The Invisible Man is incredibly unpleasant in this first section. He was so rude to the woman at the inn, and he was increasingly rude to everyone as the story progressed. I understand that he was frantic and upset because he’s unable to stop being invisible, but that didn’t endear me to him as a character at all. I wasn’t rooting for him in this first section. It was pretty obvious that he’s the one breaking into houses and causing trouble, right? Why is he always sneezing? Is that just H.G. Wells’s way of letting the reader know that the Invisible Man is around? I can’t really see any other reason for him to be sneezing so much. 

What did you think of the part where he threw his fake nose at Mrs. Hall? That was definitely a surprise. I can’t imagine how scared and surprised she was when she was expecting to see a disfigured and injured face but then saw no face instead. His invisible form must have some sort of weight and definition, right? How else could clothes and fake hair and a fake nose stay up in the air? I wonder how that works. I’m interested to learn more about the experiment that made the Invisible Man invisible. I’m assuming we’ll learn more about that as the book progresses. 

At the end of this section, the Invisible Man convinces Mr. Marvel to work with him. It seems like Mr. Marvel will be helping the Invisible Man do daily tasks. I wonder how that will work out. I can’t imagine it will work out very well. When he’s trying to convince Marvel to work for him, the Invisible Man says that an invisible man is a powerful man. Does that make you wonder if the Invisible Man really wants to give up his ability to be invisible? I bet he wants to keep the ability to be invisible, but he wants to be able to change back and forth more easily. 

Check out the video clip before if you’d like to see a clip from the 1933 movie adaptation. I think it’s a pretty true to the book account of when the Invisible Man first took off his bandages. Aren’t you impressed by the special effects, too, since this version came out in 1933? 

I hope you enjoyed this first section and are excited to keep reading! Read the next 10 chapters for next time! I hope to hear from you in the comments section. 

Welcome to October’s Online Book Club. This month, we’re reading The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. 

The Online Book Club, if you’ve never joined us before, is a book discussion group that takes place entirely online. Each week, I write a new blog post that talks about different aspects of the book, and you can interact directly with me and other readers by leaving your comments. Check back each week and see what new topics we’re talking about.

The Invisible Man is about a scientist who successful conducts an experiment that renders him invisible. However, he cannot change back to his visible form, and this brings a lot of trouble to the scientist throughout the book. 

If you want to follow along with us but you aren’t interested in reading the book, you can always watch the movie version starring Elisabeth Moss. Check out the trailer above if you want to get a feel for the movie. Feel free to still leave comments on the blog posts, even if you’re only watching the movie and not reading the book.

Next week, we’ll be the first 10 chapters, so make sure to read those before reading the blog post next week. I hope you’ll check back for the blog post, and I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments section. 

Welcome to the final discussion of News of the World!

I really couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed this whole book. It is one of my favorite books that I have read recently. I liked all of it—the action, the relationships between the characters, the history. It was all good. Did you enjoy the book? Are you glad you followed along this month? 

What did you think of John Calley in this last section? I have to admit that when he first showed up and returned that money to the Captain, he didn’t stick out to me. I read that section, but the name didn’t stick. So, when he showed up at the end looking for Johanna, I had no idea who he was. I had to flip back through the chapters trying to find him. Were you surprised when he showed back up at the end of the book? Would you have ever guessed that Johanna would settle down with someone she had met earlier in the book? 

Did you laugh when Johanna killed those chickens as they were leaving town? I liked how she was being so sincere and kind to provide for the Captain, but he was so worried about being polite and proper. I couldn’t believe that he actually sent money back to the man who lost the chickens. He really went above and beyond in that situation. 

I felt sick throughout this last section because it was so sad to imagine Johanna and the Captain separating. There was one scene where Johanna attempts, in her own way, to convince Captain Kidd to keep her, and she keeps telling him to laugh, like all of the things he’s saying are just a joke. That scene was heartbreaking. He was trying to do the right thing to return her to family, but they bonded so much on the journey. Johanna definitely showed she was bonded to Kidd when they stumbled on that band of Kiowa and she didn’t betray Kidd. She could have attempted to go back to the Kiowa, but she didn’t. That was a telling incident. 

The aunt and uncle were horrible from the get go. Didn’t you just feel like they were not going to be good to Johanna? The aunt was so cold and dismissive. I could tell that she wasn’t going to be patient and loving to Johanna. You knew she was going to attempt to get Johanna to be “normal” as soon as possible. Were you shocked when the messenger told Captain Kidd that he couldn’t leave Johanna with the family? I was shocked that Captain Kidd actually left Johanna at that point. I thought the messenger saying that would have caused the Captain to steal her away right then and there. 

I wasn’t surprised when Captain Kidd came back to get Johanna in the end. I just knew he couldn’t leave her with those people. His instincts were definitely proved right when he found Johanna alone in the field dealing with the horses. I can’t imagine how happy Johanna was when she realized the Captain had come back for her. 

What did you think of the ending? I was surprised that we got to see how the characters ended up. I didn’t expect the story to give that much information about the future. I was a little surprised that Johanna got married. I guess I just envisioned her as a strong, independent woman, but that’s probably not very realistic for the time period. I was glad that the Captain was eventually back with his children. They all seemed like they had a very pleasant life. 

Is there anything you would have changed in the story? Were you satisfied with the story arc of each character? What was your favorite part? 

If you liked this story and are interested in reading similar books, check out this list I created. Make sure to let me know if you check out anything on the list!

Before you go, check out this article about a Kiowa elder who was on the set of the movie version to help the actress who played Johanna to learn the language and customs. It’s a really interesting article!

I hope you enjoyed following along this month! I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments section. And, I hope you’ll join us again next month as we read The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. 

Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Book Club discussion of News of the World. 

Did you enjoy reading this section this week? There was so much action in this section. I didn’t want to stop reading once I started. And, I really liked learning more about the characters and seeing their relationship develop. 

At the beginning of this section, Captain Kidd leaves Johanna with Mrs. Gannet, so he can go read the news. Johanna had a very hard time sleeping indoors, which I thought was interesting. It makes sense that she would be unsettled inside since she had spent so much time sleeping outside or in a tipi. I researched about Kiowa living structures after reading that chapter and found out that Kiowa lived in tipis. A couple of years ago, a Kiowa tipi was actually rediscovered in Oklahoma–if you’d like to read about the discovery and see a picture of the tipi, check out this article. 

A lot of the action in this section centered on that creepy man, Almay. Wasn’t your heart in your throat the whole time you were reading the chapters about him? I was glad that Captain Kidd was attempting to escape from Almay and his band of men, but I just knew that Almay was going to catch up to Captain Kidd and Johanna. How shocked were you when Johanna ended up being the one to save the day? I had never heard of using dimes to make a shotgun shell shoot farther. Had you heard of that before? I wonder how she learned that skill? She mentions that this is not her first gunfight, but still, I wonder how the people she lived with knew to do something like that? That was wild, and it was definitely effective. I tried to find some information about people putting dimes in shotgun shells, but everything I was finding didn’t give me any definitive answers. Let me know in the comments section if you have any resources to prove the validity of this scene!

If you’re curious, check out the way this scene plays out in the movie version. 

I think one of my favorite parts of this section was when Johanna was ready to go scalp Almay after the battle was done and Kidd said to her, “No scalping…it is considered very impolite” (118). She was such an effective warrior, so it’s no surprise that she wanted to do what she was taught and scalp her enemy after he was vanquished. I just really liked how Kidd had such a low key reaction–it was just a juxtaposition to what she was about to do. 

I was really nervous when Captain Kidd and Johanna showed up at the next town and had to pay to get in. I just can’t believe how much danger they keep encountering. It’s all so scary. They never know what’s going to be waiting for them just around the bend. 

Weren’t you sad for Johanna when she was yelled at for trying to bathe and cool off in the river? She was treated so meanly and unfairly. I was glad that the woman eventually relented and felt bad for the way she had treated Johanna. I just hate when people’s first reactions are ones of anger instead of understanding of what another person is going through. Johanna wasn’t trying to hurt anyone or cause a problem. 

By the end of the section. Kidd and Johanna have a definite connection with each other. She’s calling him Kontah (grandfather), and Kidd wonders if he should kiss her at the end of the section. Do you think Kidd will have a hard time letting go once he gets Johanna to her family? Do you think she’ll be able to leave him, especially since she has already encountered so much loss in her short life? Do you have any guesses about the end of the book? 

I hope you enjoyed this section! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy reading the end of the book for next week!

Welcome to Week 2 of the Online Book Club discussion of News of the World. 

How did the reading treat you this week? I absolutely loved this first section, but I have to admit it took me a couple of pages to get into the story. I think what threw me was the fact that there weren’t any quotation marks for the dialogue. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book that didn’t use quotation marks. Once I got used to that, I flew through the first section. 

In this section, we get to know Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd pretty well. Once I got to know the character and knew how much he traveled and exposed himself to dangerous situations, I was surprised by his age. I assumed, since he was doing all of those things, that he was a younger man. I couldn’t believe he was in his seventies. I definitely appreciated how he treated Johanna like a little girl, not like a savage beast. He was the best person to take her on the journey back to her family. What did you think of the section where we traveled back in time and learned about the Captain’s past war experience? That definitely helped make his a more realistic and fleshed out character. 

What did you think of Johanna in this section? It was interesting that she had no memory of her life before she was with the Kiowa. I felt so sorry for her throughout this section since she had experienced so much loss throughout her short life. I can’t even imagine how sad and scared she was. She really had to trust that the Captain had her best interests in mind. The part where they ran into those soldiers and she was so scared was really sad. She definitely saw adults doing very scary things to each other, so it’s understandable that she was so skittish around people. 

Did you appreciate having some of Johanna’s thoughts displayed throughout these chapters? I was glad to understand why some of the things we would consider “normal” were so scary to her. Things like pointing at oneself or saying “an enchanting naming word” were very scary to her, and I was glad to have a little context as to why those things were affecting her. 

This section ended with Simon and Doris losing track of Johanna while the Captain was reading the news. I understand why she ran away, and I understand why she wanted to catch the attention of the Kiowa she saw, but that whole thing was so scary. A lot of people could have gotten really injured. I’m glad they were all safe, and I’m glad the Captain went out looking for her. I think other people might not have risked their safety to chase after her.

What other things stood out to you in this section? Did you like the chapters? Are you excited to read more? Do you have any idea what might happen to the main characters as the book progresses? 

If you’re interested in some of the newspapers that Captain Kidd might have been reading from, check out this link with1870’s Texas newspapers. I love looking at old newspapers. I’m always so surprised by how small the print is and how many stories are put on one page. If you are really curious, you can check out some non-Texas newspapers here. 

Before you go, check out a clip from the movie version in which Captain Kidd reads the news. Do you think you would like to go to an event where someone reads the news aloud? 

Thanks for joining us this week. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this section in the comments. Make sure to read through chapter 14 for next week!