Possibly The Longest Post Yet; As Usual, Says Nothing

As an attentive blogger, I try to read the recommendations that come my way from readers.  Often it is an opportunity to berate my friends.

Kiley has been a Top Reader of this blog since the outset, and has been trading books with me for about 15 years.  When she recommends a book, I listen.  Unlike when I told Kiley to go to Vet school in 11^th grade and she didn’t listen. Instead she became a graphic designer and then went back to undergrad for science classes and then to Vet school.  But all of that effort was worth it and resulted in my household scoring 6 months worth of free flea medication for The World’s Best Dog (with the Worst Behavior) Norman.

As the better listener of the two of us, I read Kiley’s recommendation A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal.  This was an easy pick for Kiley to recommend to this Bookworm, but a well told story that made me feel pretty bad during a weekend of indulgence. 

I have often wondered how memoirists remember as much as they do about their experiences.  Buergenthal was very clear about what he did and didn’t remember, which I appreciated.  I also liked that the book didn’t stop at liberation.  He described his immigration to America, and even some of the work he has done as an International Human Rights Big Wig.

I have read a lot of WW2 memoirs, leading Andrew to ask me this weekend if I was just reading the same book over and over.  This is interesting considering the source of the question watched the same episode of the Discovery Channel’s Alaska Gold Rush three times this weekend.  For the record, nothing happens on that show.

Recipient of free flea meds loves owner/soulmate.
Mom, this does not occur on any furniture.