I started reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas yesterday and got so peeved (I made it through two and a half chapters) that I put it down and picked up a book about tennis. TENNIS. Nothing says desperation like picking up a tennis book.
Happily, I just checked the mail and I just received an ARC of The New Policeman. Hooray! I won't have to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome by taking my reading woes out on the Playstation.
Your description of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is what I call a "throwing book." It's good to try to read one every now and again, since it puts others into perspective so much better.
How was the tennis book?
Posted by: Kelly Fineman | 10 October 2006 at 01:36 PM
I think if I'd read any further, I would have thrown it. I've only done that a couple of times -- once, because the book was so fantastic (The Golden Compass, when I realized what a severed child was...) and once, because the book sucked SO HARD that I was mad I'd spent money on it. (That would be Shadowmancer. Worst. Book. Ever.)
Posted by: Leila | 10 October 2006 at 01:48 PM
Oh, and the tennis book was entertaining enough. Not an over-the-moon book, but entertaining. (Like I said, I'm not big on sports.)
Posted by: Leila | 10 October 2006 at 01:48 PM
I read the Horn Book review of Stiped Pajamas & now I'm glad I trusted it.
Posted by: jess | 10 October 2006 at 02:21 PM
The New Policeman rocks!
Enjoy.
Posted by: Kelly | 10 October 2006 at 02:22 PM
I'll have to find a copy -- I had heard rumblings about it online, but I had no idea it would make me so mad so FAST. Yeesh. I'm still not sure if I'll finish it or not.
But I'm super excited about The New Policeman, so yay!
Posted by: Leila | 10 October 2006 at 02:25 PM
You know I didn't request Striped Pajamas because I just thought why tell this story? There didn't seem to be any reason to revisit the Holocaust from this perspective at all. Maybe if he tried it for a genocide from another place and time (Armenians in Turkey, former Yugoslavia, Nanking, Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan) but to go back to WW2 and a place that has been covered so much in literature (even YA lit) and tell it this way.
Nope. Not interested.
Then of course the publisher sent it to me anyway. I'm not biting though. This one gets donated.
Posted by: Colleen | 10 October 2006 at 04:50 PM
I don't know y'all, but I love the blog. But about Striped Pajamas - people are talking for a reason. Really. You can throw it at the wall at the end, but it's a short book and may be worth the discussion. It brought a rousing one to our children's desk.
Posted by: Anna | 11 October 2006 at 03:16 AM
Colleen, I didn't request it either -- mostly because the buzz suggested that it didn't sound like something I'd want to read. But then I received a copy and I felt like I should at least try it. So I started it, with what I hope was an open mind. And it almost immediately ticked me off -- heck, I wanted to throw it at the wall halfway through Chapter Three.
I still might go back and try again, though. We'll see.
Posted by: Leila | 11 October 2006 at 11:26 AM