All Things Brave and Beautiful

"I wanted to write a book about people doing brave and beautiful things in an ugly world."

~Markus Zuzak

This book was on my reading list this summer. It's absolutely brilliant. So when I heard that Aussie author Markus Zuzak was appearing at Kepler's in Menlo Park, well, I had to go, didn't I. He told some really wonderful stories (which I hope to post at some point) and right in the middle of it all we had the earthquake. He quit talking and everyone was just sort of sitting there, riding it out. And the quake kept rolling, and someone shouted out, "Welcome to California!" Then everyone laughed. Kudos to him, he remained completely unruffled by the experience, and even made a few jokes about being the closest to the only table in the room.

The Book Thief is truly marvelous, a book that I wish I had written myself.