Book Review: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I had watch the film, the boy in striped pyjamas and was highly disappointed, but everyone I spoke to about the book said it was powerfully affecting original book, and I guess on some level it was. However, I finish the book and was left with an empty feeling.

The book is set in Berlin, 1942 and follows the life of Bruno who is nine year old. Bruno returns home from school one day, to discover his belonging being packed in crates.  His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house. There behind an wire fence, Bruno met Shmuel (the boy in the striped Pyjamas) who lives a life very different from him. As their relationship develops Bruno journey from blissful ignorance to painful knowledge which results in devastating consequences.

The problem with this novel is the inaccuracies and ludicrous details in this story. Let’s look at Bruno for example, he is meant to be nine years old but he read like he is 6. Furthermore, his ignorance of his basic is frustrating , for example he thinks that Der Führer is "The Fury" and Auschwitz is out-with, despite being corrected several time and seeing it written down, plus “Heil Hitler!” is a fancy word for hello, because he understands neither “heil” nor “Hitler”. I could have actually put up with this, as it play to the character of Bruno, as innocent and naive and leads to the concept that people can be just ignorant about deeply unpleasant thing happening right in front of them.

What annoyed me the most was the it was historical incorrect, though it is billed as a fable, i think any book that is written as historical fiction has the responsibility to be historically accurate. I do thing that there is room for creative freedom but i think this was taken too far.  What happened to the real children in the holocaust would shock you and make you feel sick to the core of your being.

Working in an aged care home, that primarily has people of Jewish Decent; I have seen the impact of the holocaust on the survivors, but also on the children and grandchildren. I have heard the stories, i have cried with this people and i have been touched by their strength and courage.

Book Review: Breaking Dawn

 

They say the final book in the #1 bestselling twilight saga, will take your breath away. However, this was not the case, i painstakingly read this book as i had read the other and once i start a set of books i like to finish them. Unfortunately, The twilight saga, is just as painful as nails going down a chalk board. However, i must say that any book that get teenagers reading is a bonus so i will say for this reason and this reason alone, twilight has done some good in the world. Anyway, back to Breaking  Dawn, there were moment when i laugh but for the most part i was waiting for something to happen, i actually thought this books was heading somewhere unlike it previous books but nothing happened, and i finish reading, I thought to myself what a waste of time and effort. And the main story line, Bella's pregnancy and the half- vampire and half- human baby is oven done. Book such as Vampire  Academy, L.J. Smith's Night World: Huntress have one or more, and movies like Blade and Underworld also have this concept, and even one of my all time favorite TV shows, Angel had Connor.

  

As this is the final Twilight book, i will thankful not have to read another one, and if  Stephanie Myer write another book about anything, i will not be reading it.

Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down

"New Year's Eve at Toppers' House, North London's most popular suicide spot. And four strangers are about to discover that doing away with yourself isn't quite the private act they'd each expected
Four strangers, who moments before were convinced that they were alone and going to end it all that way, share out the pizza and begin to talk ... Only to find that they have even less in common than first suspected." Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down is a novel that asks some of the big questions: about life and death, strangers and friendship, love and pain, and whether a group of losers, and pizza, can really see you through a long, dark night of the soul"

I never read a book by Nick Hornby and after reading this one I am  not sure I will read another, I am sure a lot of people will find this book rather enjoyable and I would not say it was bad but at so many moments I just wanted to put it down and not pick it up again.

There were moments that were funny and could help but lol, and I love the ending because it was not the typical Hollywood ending , however the characters in the book were not like able, there was nothing enduring about them, nothing that drew me to them... when I read a book I want to love my characters or love to hate them but with this book I felt nothing, I did not care for them at all.
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The President's Wife

Blurb: "Her youth, charisma and freshness have endeared her to thousands. Photographers lay siege to her family home. She is followed everywhere.

But who is she? Young, beautiful, with an impeccable political pedigree, she is the women in love with Marshell Avery, the next President of the United States. And while Beth has the poise not to falter under the barrage of flashbulbs, it can't protect her from a would-be assassin's bullet.... "

When I finish started reading this book I was surprised to learn that it was written by an Australia author, I guess I presumed since written about America, it was written by an American. After discovering this I was not sure if I wanted to read this, after all an Australia writing a very American book, However, Thea Welsh pulls it off, I very much enjoyed The President’s Wife, it’s engaging and well written. The book is a suspenseful, gripping tale of marriage in the public spotlight and the private anguish that comes with it, which gives us an fantastic examination of the way certain women-like Diana and Jackie- live there life.

Book Review: Good to a Fault

One of the items on my 27 by 28 list (see this post) is to read a book per month, so far i have read two. The First is Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott

Blurb:-Absorbed in her own failings, Clare Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara tries to do the right thing and- against all habit and comfort- moves the family into her own house, upending her life in the process.

As Lorraine walks the borders of death, Clara expands into life, finding purpose, energy and unexpected love amidst the hard, unaccustomed work of sharing her day. But the burden is not only Clara's: the children must cope with the guilt of divided loyalties, and Lorraine must live with the growing, unpayable debt to Clara- an the feeling that Clara has taken her place.

Review

At First i was unable to get into good to a fault, i picked it up, i put it down but once i got past the first few opening chapters i was surprised that i was having trouble reading it. At first the situation that Clara Purdy adopts for her self seams unrealistic, who would really let a family of strange into her house, however if you ignore this fact, the Story of Clary and the family she adopts is a amusing, sad and will keep you complete hooked.
Overall, Good to a Fault is a very interesting and thoughtful book about what it means to be good, and the prices we pay for being good and doing kindness to others. Where is the line drawn between selfish and self-serving.