When I went to Switzerland last month I bouth the book The book thief by Markus Zuzac.

It is a book I have used a long time to read, a lot longer than I usually use to read a book.

It is one of the best books I have ever read. Oh well, I do get easily touched in general, but rarely like with this one.
During the reading I have laughed and been amazed, discovered, wept and sobbed. This book is a wonderful description of a childs loss and winnings and then more loss during the second world war in Germany.

The book is narrated by Death, telling Liesel Memingers story that he has found in her diary on his 3rd meeting with Liesel. It is told mainly cronologically, but sometimes it hops into the future revealing a few points before it turns back to present again.

The book starts with Liesel Meminger loosing her little brother to death on her way to her foster parents in 1939. In the beginnig she doesnt understand why she is left to live with strangers, but she soon learns to love her new parents, especially her new father.

She grows to like her new neighbourhood a lot and she gets a new bestfriend, her neighbour Rudy Steiner. They live in one of Munichs poorer neighbourhoods and the two best friends will hang out all the time. Rudy is her best friend and protects her from possible dangers.

Papa Hubermann is a painter and he plays the accordeon, He is amazing with Liesel and when she arrives to the house it seems as he kind of wakes up from hibernation. When Liesle has her nightmares, its Papa that will read her stories, teach her to read and just keep her company.
For work Mama washes clothes for different families in Munich and one after one they have to let her go. The last family to keep Mamas services is the Mayors family and Liesel becomes freinds with the Mayors wife that has a beautiful library.

Liesel and her best friend Rudy start stealing fruits and food to fill their empty stomachs, becoming partners in crime. They also steal other stuff and one of Liesels favourite items to steal are books, but Liesel rarely steals more than one at the time. She mainly steals them from the Mayors house where the Mayors wife leaves the window open for her to slip through.

The story takes time in Nazi Germany and you learn about the little family and their struggles keeping enough food on the table, hiding a Jew in the basement for almost 2 years in honor of an old friend of Papa that once saved Papas life and the love between the family members.

We follow Liesel for 4 years in this story and most of the book I read in the train from and to work, but as I got closer and closer to the end I realized I could not finish the book in a public place and just the last time I read on the bus I cried 4 times in just 30 minutes.

Hopeless !
I had to finish this book at home alone.

So as soon as I got home I had to pick up the book again and finish it ...
This book is so touching I cried till my chest hurted and I still didnt dry up.

Its a fantastic experience to be a part of and I recommend it to everyone !

September is close and as the last days of August ends, summer is officially over. Hopefully we will still have a lot of wonderful days ahead of us before the depressing winter dark and the fall storms surrounds us totally.

Some trees have branches of leafs that has started changing colors already. Although Im not so happy to see summer go, I must admit that the change of colors in this wonderful time of the year is really spectacular.

Summer was great. After all my travels I was left in a moment of stillstand and I felt kinda demotivated as I had no more trips to look fwd too, no more new people to meet at camps and just work work work. Thankfully this moment of feeling not-so-happy quickly disappeared and once again I busied up with work and CS volunteer work.

8-10 of August - Birthday celebration
August started off visiting my dad and his new family to celebrate my sister Lindas 7th birthday, That was a nice relaxing weekend and now that I discovered the fantastic way of travelling with buses with included broadband... Whats the problem any more? For some things I just LOVE this country !

Brenda visiting
August 14 Brenda arrived and stayed on/off for 10 days visiting Norway.
It was great seeing her again (speaking of the same Brenda I visited in Oxford in March and work with in MDST on CS) and awesome to host her and have her company. She is a fantastic person. She did not spend all her days in Oslo but travelled around while she was here. The best way to go.

Housewarming party at Ornella and Asbjorns new house
On Aug 16 Ornella and Asbjorn threw their house warming party. Wow What a party !! Hehehe. Great food as always, great people, lots of drinks and Salsa dancing. Hehe. Its one of the best parties I attended in Norway this summer. Nothing beats Paella party in Gossau, SG, Switzerland and Midsummernight party in the park in Utrecht, Netherlands :D but this def. came close !

Dutch party at Wendys house
Brenda came back and left again and she came back after her trip to Gothenburg and the last weekend we ended up also hosting Francesco, Flavios best friend, as he was in dispear after an uncomfortable situation at his hosts place. We were invited for a Dutch party at Wendy and Gerrits place and that was a great party where everyone had to dress orange ! Hehe. Franzs was not so thrilled about dressing orange though...

My birthday party (-ies)
End of August summed up in LOADS of b-day parties, like august always do, including my own.
On aug 27 I had 9 friends over for a lovely dinner that I spent most of the day preparing for (that also included the cleaning up pre-party), my birthday I spent speaking on the phone with the_Rachel for a few hours and friday 29 Mariann came over from England and we went out for dinner at Dolly Dimples before we went home to watch movies (Secondhand Lions) and eat snacks !! Im def. not dieting as long as I am celebrating my birthday.
Saturday 30 I had 16 people over for a great party. A huge group with people from all over. It was the close CS friends party :D France, Hawaii, Singapore, Ireland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Portugal were all represented !
All was great with dancing and music and lots of nice people in a party mood, except from the water leakage under the kitchen zink :(

Sunday 31 was for resting. Mariann left after breakfast (Around 4) and I slept most of the day after this. Weather was so demotivating, raining and heavy winds.

This time its just a short summary. Hope to do more detailed blog entries again soon :D
Hugs