July was a gut wrenching and hilarious reading month. Two books of each.
Let’s go with the hilarious first.
Phillip Done, Author of 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny provides a side-splitting account of one of his many years as a third grade teacher. His writing style is easy to read, and his sense of humor through all the adventures of being a teacher to a room full of 8 year olds is refreshing. If you are needing or wanting an easy and entertaining read before the school year pics up, I HIGHLY recommend this one!
The Kingdom of Auschwitz by Friedrich, Otto. Not sure what it is about WWII this year, but I have been consuming all the material I can about the horrors of the Holocaust. A view of the human spirit fighting for life amidst unspeakable terror. Small kindnesses within a wicked and evil system as Nazi nurses offer kindness to prisoners. The Sovereign God working in the midst of it all as the Ten Boom family labor to save as many as they can. And countless other stories I am just beginning to uncover. The Kingdom of Auschwitz offers an insider’s view to the inner workings of the camp and the unspeakable acts within.
A Long Way Gone : Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah. While I am familiar with the overall occurrences of WWII, the foreign nature of child soldiers made this book seem surreal – until the line by the author when he recounts coming across a 7 year old and a 9 year old boy who were carrier rifles. My son is 7 – I cannot fathom him being in the midst of civil war – I cannot imagine him being kidnapped from his family, threatened if he tries to flee, forced to slit the throat if innocent civilians, and left in the midst of the bush with a rifle bigger than he is to fight a war he knows all too much about. Ishmael Beah was one such boy taken from his home, forced to fight, but he was also a boy rescued, unlike so many others. He was rescued and rehabilitated, and given a new life with unlimited opportunities. A hard read. But for me, a necessary one, as it was a reality check to life behind my small world.
It occurs to me as I finish this review, I have only reviewed books positively thus far. Usually when I don’t care for a book, I don’t get much past the third chapter, and so I don’t have a full review to offer. Maybe I’ll simply provide a “Not recommended list” of those I tried to read but didn’t finish. For now, I hope you pick up one, or all of these from your library, or Kindle or Amazon and either laugh until you cry, or cry until you weep.