"I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant...I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS." -- Markus Zusak, The Book Thief 
 I loved this book. I picked it up on audiobook because it was the One Book, One Chicago book choice this year, but didn't really know anything else about it. From the start, I found the language enchanting. This is my favorite style of writing -- poetic and visual and maybe even overdone, but I love it. The words paint pictures in my mind, and since that was part of the point of the story, it seemed especially fitting. It didn't hurt that the narrator, Allan Corduner, was wonderful He also sounded a whole lot like Neil Gaiman to me. So much so that Death, as the storyteller, basically became Neil in my head and that was delightful. 
 The story was beautiful, but it wasn't easy to listen to. It made my heart hurt. It was ultimately about the perseverance of humanity in the face of adversity and the power of words to both heal and harm, but as it was set in Nazi Germany, there was an awful lot of adversity. I don't usually love books that are so much about war and death and sadness, but this one is going on my shelf of favorites.