Yikes! I Think I Hated This: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Ok, unpopular opinion time. I just read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne and it made me "yikes" innumerable times. A lot of people love this book. A LOT A LOT. So I am open to hearing what is so great about it, but let me just lay down all the yikes for you real quick.

So what is this book about? A little German boy during World War II. He is also the son of the dude who is newly in charge of Auschwitz! But this son of an SS officer seems to know nothing at all about Nazism or Hitler. Does he know the word Jew? Nope, never heard it. Has his schooling or family or nazi family friends/neighbors ever vaguely mentioned the inherit superiority of his race? Neeever, why would they do that? Oh wait, of course they would do that. Why does this not happen??

Bruno is not an infant. Bruno is nine years old. I may not like children, but I don't think children are stupid. Children are sponges. They pick up on stuff and they internalize it.

What might be more nonsense, or at least in the same nonsense vein, is all of the weird English puns that go on. Not like funny puns... let me try to explain. Little German Bruno hears Auschwitz and thinks people are saying "out-with." He asks "out with what?" Ummmm, this doesn't make sense seeing as you don't speak English? It also does not make sense that he thinks people are saying the Fury instead of the Fuhrer. Fuhrer means leader in German! YOU KNOW THIS WORD, TINY BRUNO. And Heil Hitler isn't a gibberish way to say goodbye! How has Hitler not been covered in school/everyday life?? I get that this is trying to present an innocent child's perspective, but it's not realistic in any way. Linguistically or historically. And I think it's offensive to assume that your young readers are not smart enough to understand this story without nonsense English puns.

I'm not going to spoil this book for you all. I wouldn't do that. But basically the family moves right next door to Auschwitz and little Bruno has no idea what's going on in the concentration camp. It doesn't seem so bad, because the boys over there get to have friends and he doesn't! But anyway, one day he sneaks off to wander around the fence of the concentration camp and there he meets a little boy. Because why would there be guards near the border of a concentration camp? I'll let the fence nonsense slide (there's more of it) because it's fiction, yeah yeah, I know.

But what is STILL nonsense is that the young boy is there at all. Shmuel is there for a year. Let me repeat: I understand that it's fiction. At the same time, there's a certain amount of pandering, emotional manipulation, and historical fact bending that is destructive. Especially when it is as widely read as this book. Any little boy taken to Auschwitz was marched right to the gas chamber when he got off the train. The very real atrocities of the holocaust are completely undermined. If he wasn't killed immediately, there's no way he wouldn't have been killed within a year. He wasn't useful in any way. He wouldn't have been worth keeping alive even for the sake of torture.

There was no subtlety in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I wouldn't have been surprised if Hitler had been flipping gas chamber switches and twirling his tiny mustache while laughing maniacally at the end. Don't even get me started on how not at all traumatized sweet Bruno is by watching at least two people get shot.

I can suspend my disbelief to a certain extent, but not when the end result is damaging. Or nonsense. There's only so much a girl can take!! And I love a good cry, but there's only so much blatant manipulation I can accept before I roll my eyes. I know this book moved a lot of people and I can see why, but how unrealistic it was just pushed me over the edge and it did not work for me at all.

What level of realism do you need from historical fiction? How much history-bending is too much? Am I asking too much from a book written for a younger audience? Let me know what you think!

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Aug 24, 2015]

The book slump is official. It is so official and I have been lying to myself. Bout of Books sort of helped this past week, but I hadn't realized I'd only finished graphic novels and single issues of comics. I did SOME novel reading, just no finishing. Being at a hotel for work during the week also kind of threw me off a little. CHANGE IS WEIRD. Anybody have any tips? I just can't seem to focus right now. How do I make myself focus??

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Revival, Vol. 2: Live Like You Mean It by Tim Seeley
• Nailbiter, Vol. 2: Bloody Hands by Joshua Williamson
• Trees #12 by Warren Ellis
• Invader Zim #2 by Jhonen Vasquez
• Harrow County #4 by Cullen Bunn
• Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart

CURRENTLY READING:

I started reading Tiny Beautiful Things by Ceryl Strayed during Bout of Books, and I LOVE IT. Strayed is such a good writer and her advice to people is so on point. I just sort of jumped around through the essays to see what I would think of them and it was a solid choice. Now it's sort of the only thing I can picture myself reading, so I'm going to rip right through it.

What are you reading this week?

 

What Is A Pull List?: An Intro To Comics

Update (1/2/16): I've now added Rat Queens, Wytches, Descender, and Plutona to my pull list. I removed Trees, bc it got really really boring.

Lately I've been very interested in comics. I'm both interested in the format and the strange ecosystem that is distinctly different from book publishing and buying. I've only really mentioned this stuff in passing, but I've gotten several questions about what a pull list is and where to start with comics. Here I am with (basically) everything you need to know.

WHAT IS A PULL LIST?

If you know that you like a comic series and you want to get each single issue when it comes out, you can have your local comic book store "pull" the issues and set them aside for you. This also helps the comic book store know what they should be ordering and it helps the comic creator. Some comic book stores have a minimum amount of comics you can pull, but a lot don't have any type of rules. You'll have to ask them about it. If they aren't friendly or helpful, FIND A DIFFERENT COMIC BOOK STORE.

Here are the series I'm currently interested in enough to have pulled for me.

1. // Harrow County by Cullen Bunn - This is a creepy comic series about a young girl who is apparently a witch reincarnated sort of. The rural setting is super eerie and the "haints" (or ghosts/monsters/demons) are too.

2. // Invader Zim by Jhonen Vasquez - This is a continuation of the old Nickelodeon show, Invader Zim. Like it continues exactly where it left off. If that sets your heart aflutter, go get this immediately. It's as good as it sounds.

3. // Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick - A great feminist comic about a planet-jail where women are sent if they are non-compliant. Features an interesting, diverse cast. Volume 1 comes out in September, so check that out!

4. // Trees by Warren Ellis - Enormous alien structures that look sort of like trees get placed on the earth, crushing cities and people. Then they just sit there quietly. No explanation. This series explores the mystery of these "trees." Volume 1 is out.

5. // Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick - This is a fascinating and surreal mythical Western folklorey story about Death's daughter. It is shocking and the magical realism is great and so is the art and ugh. It's just so strange and beautiful. Volume 1 is out and it's a must read.

WHERE DO I START?

The way I started figuring out what comic series to look for was by perusing sites like Panels to see what comics people are currently talking about. From there, I get volumes of them from the library to see if I actually like them before I commit. Volumes are published books that hold 4-6 single issues of a comic in one book. If you find that you just like reading all the issues in a row in a single book, that's fine! You can do that! Some of us (me) are more impatient and can't handle the months and months of waiting for certain series, though.

If you're new to reading comics or graphic novels, here are some volumes/books you should absolutely find at a library or bookstore. Most of these are standalone graphic novels, but they will convert you into fans of the sequential art format, I swear it.

1. // Saga by Brian K. Vaughan - Running series - This. You need to read this. No exceptions. There's no way for me to describe it that would communicate how excellent it is. It's like Romeo and Juliet in space except really, really smart and funny. And with some fantastic creatures and characters. Fiona Staples' art is amazing. DO NOT SKIP THIS ONE. Bonus: It's still running, so you can add it to your pull list once you're caught up with the 4 volumes that are out!

2. // Watchmen by Alan Moore - Standalone book - I'm not into superheroes really, but Watchmen is everything. It's lauded as one of the greatest graphic novels of all time, and for good reason. There are flawed heroes and some superb commentary on our world/humanity, the superhero genre, and morality. Absolutely brilliant.

3. // Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Standalone book - A little nervous about all the space and the heroes? That's ok. You can check out this amazing graphic memoir written by the creator of the Bechdel Test. This book will make you cry. It's about her troubled relationship with her father and his death, the secrets he kept, and her own coming out story. Painful, beautiful, and funny.

4. // Ghost World by Daniel Clowes - Standalone book - This one is really funny and slightly less painful. If your personality is anything like mine, you will love this story of a snarky girl who recently finished high school and is trying to make some big decisions about what to do with her life. The characters are so quirky and judgmental and funny. This is a realistic portrayal of the awkward struggle with the new found control over one's life.


I have some pretty specific taste, so this certainly isn't an exhaustive list of excellent comics and graphic novels! But I hope this helps gets you started on a potential comic reading journey.


Want a more specific recommendation? Leave your likes and dislikes in the comments!

What comic series/graphic novels would you recommend?

Are We Harder On Books Than Movies?

Recently I've been attempting to read more horror and it's really got me thinking. I read some short stories from After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones out loud around a campfire while I was camping, because I'm rustic like that. I enjoyed them as creepy literary fiction, but I found myself getting mad that I wasn't horrified when it was a book sold to me as horror.

Later, I was reading When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, another book categorized as horror, that ended up being just kind of weird literary fiction and sort of YA. I didn't get scared at any point.

When I'm reading horror novels that are genuinely scary but are poorly written or have questionable character development, I get frustrated and want to get out of the reading situation. But I often find myself defending sub-par horror movies to people criticizing them for the same reason. When it comes to horror movies, I don't necessarily need the writing or acting to be amazing as long as the scares and atmosphere are delivered.

Is it just because books are more of a time investment? Is it because I need to use more brain power while reading a book than watching a movie? Or is it because, subconsciously, I hold the written word to higher standards? And why is that?

Even outside of the horror genre, it seems like perhaps movies are more easily forgiven for their faults than books are. Shouldn't authors be cut a little slack, considering it's (generally) one person plus one or more editors?

Perhaps, especially when it comes to horror, the writing needs to deliver a lot more, considering I have to create the world in my head. I have to spend time immersed in that world and that makes me pickier. It's easier to tune out of a movie you're watching than a book you're reading. I'm not sure if this means my harshness is justified or if I still need to keep it in check.

Do you think you're harder on books than you are movies? Is it the time investment, the "literature" factor, or something else? Should I be approaching horror books more like I do horror movies? 

When Two Book Bloggers Collide

When book bloggers write posts about why they like book blogging, one of the top answers that always shows up is "the community." Or, more specifically, the bookish friends they make while doing their own bookish stuff. For the first year and a half-ish of my book blogging, I don't think I ever really understood what that meant.

It's not that I didn't talk to anybody, necessarily. I commented on other blogs, and I had some commenters over here. But I guess I felt like that "community" wasn't open to me FOR WHATEVER REASON. In reality, I just didn't know how to put myself out there on the internet, whereas in real life I have no problem saying "be friends with me" to people that seem interesting.

Luckily, since January, I've started using Twitter more actively, which has been a huge help, and I've been more bold in forcing bookish strangers into giving me their contact info so I can live g-chat them my thoughts while I watch reality tv or whatever.

This week (as you may already know) I got to meet Shaina from Shaina Reads. In real life. AND IT WAS GREAT. So much could have gone wrong, you guys. It could have been really awkward. But bookish internet people are actually a dream in real life. I'm basing this off of my experience with one person, but I stand by my opinion.

Lucky for you, we recorded some of our experiences going to a bookstore together and answering questions that you lovely folks sent in. Well, answering some of them. We're really ramble-y. I had to edit 2 hours of footage. ENJOY!

Thank you guys again for all of your questions! ISN'T SHE THE BEST?? By the way, please don't be intimidated by Shaina's stance as my "book blogging soulmate" if you'd also like to be friends with me. If I find somebody better, I can get rid of her. Please send friendship applications to my email.

The wise words of Dance Moms' Abby Lee Miller.

Does anybody experience similar internet friend making anxiety? Please be my friend.

Is Angry Reading a Thing?

I know that angry crying is a thing, and I know that angry sex is a thing, and I know that angry eating is a thing (or is that just me?). But I am angry, and I'm over those activities. I'm having trouble with something else.

What do I read?!

You may have noticed over the past week that I haven't done a lot of blogging. Or maybe you didn't, which is ok too (I guess). Anyway, this is because my roommate is an insane person and I am constantly walking on eggshells around her. It is exhausting and this exhaustion is permeating all realms of my life. She got dumped, so I understand her being miserable and I feel for her. Hell, I gave her all the ice cream I could ever dream of drowning my sorrows in. I got that cherry garcia for days.

The problem is that she is treating me like an emotional punching bag and also being crazy rude to the realtors that are showing our apartment, often not letting them into her room at all when they are here with clients. After not letting them in and not being embarrassed by her behavior around real humans, she then screams at me as if it is my choice that they are here or I have any control over it. Ok, venting over. I'm not good with conflict and drama at all. I avoid it like I avoid the sun. It's just nonsense and anything can set her off, which has left me tense. But I'm not just tense anymore, I'm genuinely mad and it's hard not to think about it CONSTANTLY.

Normally reading is an activity I do that takes me elsewhere. But I keep trying to pick up different things that I would normally love, and I just can't get into them at all! It seems like reading would be a nice, calming experience. I can't think of a less angry place than a library. I just don't know if calming is something I want right now.

Should I be reading angsty books? Would that be the only thing suiting right now? I don't even know if I'm sure what those would be. Maybe I should read something funny, like a book of essays. Should I be reading books about murder? That might do more harm than good, but who can say (This is a joke. Let me make it very clear that this is a joke.) A horror novel might be a good time, though.

So I'm reaching out to anybody here. Do you angry read? What kind of books do you read when you're angry? Do I add fuel to the fire or try harder to stamp out the fire with words? I didn't mean to allude to book burning, it just kind of happened. I'll go alert my roommate of my wrongdoing so she can yell at me some more, BYE.

I need a drink.

Why Won't Anyone Go to Middle-Earth with Me?

It's 2 am, so obviously it's time to be stressing about Lord of the Rings. And how nobody I know wants to read it (or finish reading it).

The only time I've ever been sad near my map of Middle Earth

In my head, everyone should want to be reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy every second of their lives, but it is becoming more and more apparent to me that there are people outside of myself.
Startling.

I tried to convince my boss that he should finish reading it, because he stopped in the middle of Fellowship in high school. So I tried soliciting opinions from my coworkers as they streamed in and out of the room. "Have you read Lord of the Rings?" was met by a lot of "haha"s and "I couldn't finish them"s. Then I remembered my coworker, Luc, who is obsessed with Lord of the Rings. I rushed off to find him, dragged him to my boss, then told him to tell my boss why he should finish.

"Oh, I couldn't get through Fellowship." Devastating.

My boss questioned why I wasn't labeling things or whatever I do here. I told him I quit. Ok, I didn't actually. Well, I probably did. But I say that every other day, so I went back to my desk to move papers around (I can't remember what I was hired to do).

The Lord of the Rings has been so profoundly influential on my life. To the point where I play the Lord of the Rings MMO, just because I want to hang out in Moria and visit Tom Bombadil (most ridiculous character in anything ever). Anyway, I'm not trying to tell people that it's the best book in the world. I don't need them to convert to anything (though that would be exciting for me). I just want them to give it a shot, because I think it is so beautiful.

My list of mildly convincing things I tell people:

1. It is like the movies, but longer!
2. No no no, I'm not really a fantasy person either, this doesn't count! (What does this mean? I'm not sure.)
3. Yeah, it's sort of dense, but it is dense with beautiful words. Please just read all of them.
4. It's more exciting than The Hobbit. Period.
5. A paragraph about an herb actually made me cry! (Referring to athelas. This one normally scares people out of the conversation)
6. I will literally give you a free copy, so you have to read it.


Is anybody else met with this much resistance even from people who loved the films? Is there anything I can say to my boss to make him actually want to read this? I gave him a copy, so he sort of feels guilty/obligated. I don't think he's read it yet, though. He's been avoiding eye contact.

Help me, please.