Update: Three Cups of Tea

Being Blessed: Three Cups of Tea

I added a comment to the book review. You can check it out if you want....

"The Wave"

I know, my "monthly" book review has turned into more like a weekly thing.... but I love reading and lately I have done so alot and I just want to share a good read when I stumble upon one....

Here is a book that I had to read for my English class, like twenty years ago.... When I took a history class about World War II in America, I remembered the book and did a book report on it.

So without further ado, here is the book: it's called "The Wave" by Morton Rhue. The link to the Amazon site is here - it's not the same cover I have, but my book is much older and bought in Germany at the time.

Very shortly, I want to describe what happens in the book, a fiction by the way, but based on a true story that took place in a Palo Alto (California) high school in 1969. A history teacher is showing a movie about the Nazis' persecution of the Jews during World War II. The students wonder how this could have happened, and why didn't the Germans do anything about it. A question, I am sure, that alot of people ask themselves. So the teacher introduces a disciplinary system in the classroom, as an attempt to show the students how powerful group pressure can be. It gets out of hands, of course, when it spreads like fire from the classroom to the entire school.

This book as a modern fiction novel shows, with the help of the experiment, how Hitler was able to have such a great success and how he won the masses. The book makes clear that something like the Third Reich is not past - I believe that this incident could take place at any time at any place, and most likely the same think would happen. Young adults or adolescents are looking for someone to follow, someone that leads them. So it took really place from 1933 until 1945 in Germany, and then again in 1969 in California, but I think it could take place tomorrow in another place. It doesn't matter. Teenagers at that age are so vulnerable and impressionable.

So the book deals with alot of issues that capture young readers, for it is really a young adult reading book. Though I think even adults would enjoy it, regardless from the easy writing style. It deals with things that many young adults should know more about: the Holocaust and peer pressure. The Holocaust is something that everybody should know about in order that it will never happen again. And peer pressure happens every day in this country, in every school. And it is something that one has to learn to deal with, to pass through puberty somewhat sanely....

So overall, the book is a fantastic read, for everyone. Read it!

The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas

I forgot when and how I heard about this book. But I think the title is kind of catching: The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas. Here is a link to the Amazon page.
See how the author misspelled the word pajamas? Well, reading this book, you will find lots of other things misspelled. because it is written in the eyes of a nine year old German, Aryan boy, living during World War II. The books starts in Berlin and shortly after moves to Auschwitz, which is misspelled in the book as Out-With. And there are others.

The book is a children's book, or at least for adolescents. I simply read it because it sounded intriguing. It's a very easy read. On purpose. The author is describing a short span of time during WWII and the simplistic wording makes it more 'believable'. Or not!?

I put the word believable in apostrophe because I do have to say that, being a good read, it is not fully believable to me. Yes, it is a fable, but then again, at nine years old, I would think that the boy should be a little more 'advanced'. Especially during such terrible times, children had to grow up much faster, and I believe that at nine years old, he would have been more aware of the things that happened around him. Also, I think, if he doesn't know, he would ask... If his father was such a fanatic of the Nazis, he, as a boy, would have been part of that propaganda as well! Like the Hitler Youth or such. It is very unlikely that the father is such an activist and at the same time would leave his children in total darkness about what he believes and does.

There are many other things that make the book less believable. The ending actually is the only thing that saves the book! I think....It's not a great book, it's NOT a history book - but it is a starting point to a discussion perhaps. It's a read for adults to encourage reading other books, maybe? I certainly have read my share of WWII books.

A good find

Yesterday, I saw a post on one of my groups, a German group to be exact... Someone was giving away books for free due to a return to the old country.... Of course, I wrote back that I was very interested. So she wrote back the sooner I could get there the better for her because she really wanted them out of the house....

Oh, did I mention that these were GERMAN books? Yes, something that I can not pick up at any bookstore over here, so that's why I was so excited!

So off we went in the afternoon, to retreat those books that were no longer wanted! How??? I love books, and if a move, to wherever, was ever in the talking, the books would be the first thing I'd  pack!!! If you remember me talking about my life list, you will remember that one of my 'goals' (or dreams) is to have my very own library in one of our future homes. Oh yeah! A room full of books, where I can 'hide' for hours and read. That sounds like heaven to me!

Okay, so back to the issue of rescuing those books that were calling my name. Arriving at her house, there were about one hundred books that she wanted to give away, for free. Yes, you read right, for free. I even asked her if I could give her something, because I kind of felt guilty to just take them. But she insisted on getting rid of them, preferably all of them at once. So I started scanning through them and choosing a few, say maybe fifteen. She asked if that was all..... I said I'd take more, but there might be other people interested. "No", she said, "first come, first serve, so take more." Okay, I went back up and chose another ten. To make it a short story, after going back to choose more books - and I was very hesitant on taking all of them - I came back home with 36 books!!!

Yeah, they have a new home now, in my house, and soon in a new bookshelf (that I am waiting for for the past two years). So I am working on my life list and at the same time, do what I love to do most, reading! Can't wait to get through them all - even though it might take me two years to go through them all, knowing I still have about twenty other books to read.... oh, I could read all day long, if I had no kids and if they could just raise themselves.... (okay, just kidding!) It tdoesn't look like much in the picture, I guess, but it's four bags of books.... and I told the lady if she can't find someone else to take the rest of the remaining books at her house, I will come back and take the rest....

So I got blessed with books yesterday! German books to be exact.

Major Milestone

I ran a 10K this morning! Yeah....

Could it be? It is a major distance for me as I have never done so before. How awesome!

Or not! Because I did not even get to run at all.

Got you! Fooled you!

Do you want to know why? Well, there is a major milestone, but I guess it's nothing to be real happy about. Peanut came down with a fever last night and we actually had a terrible night with her. She had runny noses before, but never such a high fever - so that's our first! And I think for a 19-months old that is not too bad.... I mean to live for nineteen months and never have a high fever.

She did not sleep well at all, kept waking up at all hours of the night. Sometimes we had to go in there and comfort her, sometimes she fell back asleep without assistance. But nonetheless, there was absolutely NO way for me to go running this morning. I was just too tired.

So the 10K will be for another time....

Happy April Fool's Day.


PS: She is doing much better this morning, less hot and is playing with big brother.. That is always a good sign. I hope she will take a good nap and we will be over with this soon....

I wrote this post this morning at around 8:30 am - Peanut just fell asleep at the lunch table - that was another first for us today! She is in her bed now, taking a much needed nap (11:40 am).

Another After-Note:
It was a tough day yesterday. After her nap, which was interrupted once for half an hour, she was less hot but soooooo whinny! It is was awful afternoon, followed by a very early bedtime. She slept for over twelve hours and guess what - this morning, no signs of what happened yesterday. No fever, all the appetite is back - no idea what that was!