Exherbo

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith KerrMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThis is the second time I’m reading “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”. The first time was when it was compulsory reading at school more than 30 years ago. I don’t remember much of ... [More] my reading experience back then but that I felt with Anna, the protagonist and narrator, who had to leave Pink Rabbit back in Germany when her family emigrated to escape the rising Nazism…Now, at 45, I’m impressed for different reasons: First moving from Berlin, Germany, to Zurich, Switzerland, then Paris, France and, finally, London, United Kingdom, both Anna and her brother Max are relatively quick to adapt to their new surroundings.While it’s rarely easy for either of them, their resilience in the face of difficult circumstances and optimism is deeply inspiring.Nazism always looms in the background; be it through German tourists who prohibit their children to play with Anna and Max for the sole reason of them being Jewish or the Paris concierge.Both children picture Hitler as personally enjoying the toys they had to leave behind – the eponymous Pink Rabbit and a games compendium – and, thus, make the darkest period in Germany’s history ascertainable.The book ends abruptly in a cab in London, shortly after Anna thinks…»“What a pity,” [Anna] thought. “I’ll never be famous at this rate!”«Dame Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr, Officer of “The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, wasn’t too far off the mark: It would take her children’s prodding about her childhood to make her publish this semi-autobiographical novel in 1971. This publication and the two following novels laid the foundation for Kerr’s fame that she had dreamt of as a child.The Kerr family had escaped Germany just in the nick of time – a day later and they would have been arrested by the Nazis who went on to burn Alfred Kerr’s books.Alfred Kerr died 1948 by suicide, aided by his wife, shortly after visiting Hamburg, Germany, for the first time after the war. His wife Julia died in 1965. Judith Kerr wrote children’s books and illustrated them, married in 1954 and stayed married for more than 50 years.Judith Kerr died in 2019 at the age of 95. She had outlived the Nazis who wanted to extinguish the entire family by almost 75 years. Poetic justice.Five out of five stars.View all my reviews [Less]

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith KerrMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThis is the second time I’m reading “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”. The first time was when it was compulsory reading at school more than 30 years ago. I don’t remember much of ... [More] my reading experience back then but that I felt with Anna, the protagonist and narrator, who had to leave Pink Rabbit back in Germany when her family emigrated to escape the rising Nazism…Now, at 45, I’m impressed for different reasons: First moving from Berlin, Germany, to Zurich, Switzerland, then Paris, France and, finally, London, United Kingdom, both Anna and her brother Max are relatively quick to adapt to their new surroundings.While it’s rarely easy for either of them, their resilience in the face of difficult circumstances and optimism is deeply inspiring.Nazism always looms in the background; be it through German tourists who prohibit their children to play with Anna and Max for the sole reason of them being Jewish or the Paris concierge.Both children picture Hitler as personally enjoying the toys they had to leave behind – the eponymous Pink Rabbit and a games compendium – and, thus, make the darkest period in Germany’s history ascertainable.The book ends abruptly in a cab in London, shortly after Anna thinks…»“What a pity,” [Anna] thought. “I’ll never be famous at this rate!”«Dame Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr, Officer of “The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, wasn’t too far off the mark: It would take her children’s prodding about her childhood to make her publish this semi-autobiographical novel in 1971. This publication and the two following novels laid the foundation for Kerr’s fame that she had dreamt of as a child.The Kerr family had escaped Germany just in the nick of time – a day later and they would have been arrested by the Nazis who went on to burn Alfred Kerr’s books.Alfred Kerr died 1948 by suicide, aided by his wife, shortly after visiting Hamburg, Germany, for the first time after the war. His wife Julia died in 1965. Judith Kerr wrote children’s books and illustrated them, married in 1954 and stayed married for more than 50 years.Judith Kerr died in 2019 at the age of 95. She had outlived the Nazis who wanted to extinguish the entire family by almost 75 years. Poetic justice.Five out of five stars.View all my reviews [Less]

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith KerrMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThis is the second time I’m reading “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”. The first time was when it was compulsory reading at school more than 30 years ago. I don’t remember much of ... [More] my reading experience back then but that I felt with Anna, the protagonist and narrator, who had to leave Pink Rabbit back in Germany when her family emigrated to escape the rising Nazism…Now, at 45, I’m impressed for different reasons: First moving from Berlin, Germany, to Zurich, Switzerland, then Paris, France and, finally, London, United Kingdom, both Anna and her brother Max are relatively quick to adapt to their new surroundings.While it’s rarely easy for either of them, their resilience in the face of difficult circumstances and optimism is deeply inspiring.Nazism always looms in the background; be it through German tourists who prohibit their children to play with Anna and Max for the sole reason of them being Jewish or the Paris concierge.Both children picture Hitler as personally enjoying the toys they had to leave behind – the eponymous Pink Rabbit and a games compendium – and, thus, make the darkest period in Germany’s history ascertainable.The book ends abruptly in a cab in London, shortly after Anna thinks…»“What a pity,” [Anna] thought. “I’ll never be famous at this rate!”«Dame Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr, Officer of “The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, wasn’t too far off the mark: It would take her children’s prodding about her childhood to make her publish this semi-autobiographical novel in 1971. This publication and the two following novels laid the foundation for Kerr’s fame that she had dreamt of as a child.The Kerr family had escaped Germany just in the nick of time – a day later and they would have been arrested by the Nazis who went on to burn Alfred Kerr’s books.Alfred Kerr died 1948 by suicide, aided by his wife, shortly after visiting Hamburg, Germany, for the first time after the war. His wife Julia died in 1965. Judith Kerr wrote children’s books and illustrated them, married in 1954 and stayed married for more than 50 years.Judith Kerr died in 2019 at the age of 95. She had outlived the Nazis who wanted to extinguish the entire family by almost 75 years. Poetic justice.Five out of five stars.View all my reviews [Less]

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. HarrowMy rating: 4 of 5 starsIn this modern spin of “Sleeping Beauty” we meet Zinnia “Zin” Gray who is suffering from a rare condition which usually leads to death before the 22nd birthday – and Zin has just turned ... [More] 21…Since Zin is obsessed with the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” her best friend, Charm, throws her a themed birthday party during which Zin pricks herself with a spindle. As this is a modern spin, she doesn’t quite fall asleep but rather through the “multiverse” and in a trance-like state meets lots of other “Sleeping Beauties” until she steps out into one world in which she goes on an adventure with the resident “Beauty”, Princess Primrose, to, ideally, lift both their “curses”.Fortunately, this was a quick, short and amusing read because there’s simply not enough substance to either the story told here or the characters to sustain a longer novel.The one-hundred pages of this novella pretty much flew past and I was willing to overlook some questionable explanations about Zin’s condition, the mystery of full cell phone coverage in “Princess Primrose of Perceforest”’s fairy tale land and quite few other (minor) issues that I simply chose to ignore because I had a blast reading this fast-paced adventure.If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and/or are looking for a quick filler, maybe some literary fast food, you likely won’t be disappointed.Just don’t expect something like “Uprooted” or “Spinning Silver” both of which “play” in an entirely different league and are hereby highly recommended!Should Harrow decide to publish more “Fractured Fables” I’m going to read those as well – despite some reservations about a price tag of about ten Euros (roughly 12 US-Dollars) for such a slim book…Four out of five stars.View all my reviews [Less]

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. HarrowMy rating: 4 of 5 starsIn this modern spin of “Sleeping Beauty” we meet Zinnia “Zin” Gray who is suffering from a rare condition which usually leads to death before the 22nd birthday – and Zin has just turned ... [More] 21…Since Zin is obsessed with the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” her best friend, Charm, throws her a themed birthday party during which Zin pricks herself with a spindle. As this is a modern spin, she doesn’t quite fall asleep but rather through the “multiverse” and in a trance-like state meets lots of other “Sleeping Beauties” until she steps out into one world in which she goes on an adventure with the resident “Beauty”, Princess Primrose, to, ideally, lift both their “curses”.Fortunately, this was a quick, short and amusing read because there’s simply not enough substance to either the story told here or the characters to sustain a longer novel.The one-hundred pages of this novella pretty much flew past and I was willing to overlook some questionable explanations about Zin’s condition, the mystery of full cell phone coverage in “Princess Primrose of Perceforest”’s fairy tale land and quite few other (minor) issues that I simply chose to ignore because I had a blast reading this fast-paced adventure.If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and/or are looking for a quick filler, maybe some literary fast food, you likely won’t be disappointed.Just don’t expect something like “Uprooted” or “Spinning Silver” both of which “play” in an entirely different league and are hereby highly recommended!Should Harrow decide to publish more “Fractured Fables” I’m going to read those as well – despite some reservations about a price tag of about ten Euros (roughly 12 US-Dollars) for such a slim book…Four out of five stars.View all my reviews [Less]

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. HarrowMy rating: 4 of 5 starsIn this modern spin of “Sleeping Beauty” we meet Zinnia “Zin” Gray who is suffering from a rare condition which usually leads to death before the 22nd birthday – and Zin has just turned ... [More] 21…Since Zin is obsessed with the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” her best friend, Charm, throws her a themed birthday party during which Zin pricks herself with a spindle. As this is a modern spin, she doesn’t quite fall asleep but rather through the “multiverse” and in a trance-like state meets lots of other “Sleeping Beauties” until she steps out into one world in which she goes on an adventure with the resident “Beauty”, Princess Primrose, to, ideally, lift both their “curses”.Fortunately, this was a quick, short and amusing read because there’s simply not enough substance to either the story told here or the characters to sustain a longer novel.The one-hundred pages of this novella pretty much flew past and I was willing to overlook some questionable explanations about Zin’s condition, the mystery of full cell phone coverage in “Princess Primrose of Perceforest”’s fairy tale land and quite few other (minor) issues that I simply chose to ignore because I had a blast reading this fast-paced adventure.If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and/or are looking for a quick filler, maybe some literary fast food, you likely won’t be disappointed.Just don’t expect something like “Uprooted” or “Spinning Silver” both of which “play” in an entirely different league and are hereby highly recommended!Should Harrow decide to publish more “Fractured Fables” I’m going to read those as well – despite some reservations about a price tag of about ten Euros (roughly 12 US-Dollars) for such a slim book…Four out of five stars.View all my reviews [Less]

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben AaronovitchMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is one for the fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s “Rivers of London”. This novella firmly establishes Abigail as an important character in that reading universe.Abigail ... [More] investigates the (temporary) disappearance of teenagers (including a friend of hers!) and in the course of said investigation finds a mysterious house in which something has been left over…Sadly, the entire House thing is just ok’ish: It made some sense but I didn’t really like this part of the mystery. Amusingly, though, as central this detail should be, the “remainder” of the novella, is much more important to me and by far outweighs the mediocre House part.Abigail’s friendship with Simon feels right and made her very likeable. Her interactions with the foxes (especially, of course, Indigo!) made me both grin and admire Abigail in equal parts for their cleverness, the mutual respect and general enjoyment.»‘Real talk, Abi,’ says Sugar Niner. ‘The air went greasy and the Nightingale blew a hole in the pavement. I was bare prang and no mistake.’ ‘Believe it, fam,’ says Indigo.«Also, the resolution of it all was really truly satisfying and, thus, this is how Abigail became a favourite character of mine within the short span of a short story and a novella!Four out of five stars!View all my reviews [Less]

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben AaronovitchMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is one for the fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s “Rivers of London”. This novella firmly establishes Abigail as an important character in that reading universe.Abigail ... [More] investigates the (temporary) disappearance of teenagers (including a friend of hers!) and in the course of said investigation finds a mysterious house in which something has been left over…Sadly, the entire House thing is just ok’ish: It made some sense but I didn’t really like this part of the mystery. Amusingly, though, as central this detail should be, the “remainder” of the novella, is much more important to me and by far outweighs the mediocre House part.Abigail’s friendship with Simon feels right and made her very likeable. Her interactions with the foxes (especially, of course, Indigo!) made me both grin and admire Abigail in equal parts for their cleverness, the mutual respect and general enjoyment.»‘Real talk, Abi,’ says Sugar Niner. ‘The air went greasy and the Nightingale blew a hole in the pavement. I was bare prang and no mistake.’ ‘Believe it, fam,’ says Indigo.«Also, the resolution of it all was really truly satisfying and, thus, this is how Abigail became a favourite character of mine within the short span of a short story and a novella!Four out of five stars!View all my reviews [Less]

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben AaronovitchMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is one for the fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s “Rivers of London”. This novella firmly establishes Abigail as an important character in that reading universe.Abigail ... [More] investigates the (temporary) disappearance of teenagers (including a friend of hers!) and in the course of said investigation finds a mysterious house in which something has been left over…Sadly, the entire House thing is just ok’ish: It made some sense but I didn’t really like this part of the mystery. Amusingly, though, as central this detail should be, the “remainder” of the novella, is much more important to me and by far outweighs the mediocre House part.Abigail’s friendship with Simon feels right and made her very likeable. Her interactions with the foxes (especially, of course, Indigo!) made me both grin and admire Abigail in equal parts for their cleverness, the mutual respect and general enjoyment.»‘Real talk, Abi,’ says Sugar Niner. ‘The air went greasy and the Nightingale blew a hole in the pavement. I was bare prang and no mistake.’ ‘Believe it, fam,’ says Indigo.«Also, the resolution of it all was really truly satisfying and, thus, this is how Abigail became a favourite character of mine within the short span of a short story and a novella!Four out of five stars!View all my reviews [Less]

I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of ... [More] other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. 🙂 Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram Der Vorleser by Bernhard SchlinkMy rating: 5 of 5 starsVor vielleicht einem Jahr kam meine Tochter auf mich zu und fragte, ob wir eine Ausgabe von Schlinks “Der Vorleser” besäßen. Sie brauche es für den Deutsch-Leistungskurs in der Schule.Ein Vierteljahrhundert vorher war Schlinks Roman gerade erschienen und machte Furore. Meine damalige Freundin schenkte es mir 1995 zum 20. Geburtstag und ich habe es verschlungen und geliebt.Mir war ein wenig bange, als ich das Buch zurückerhielt und durchaus nicht zu Unrecht, denn für meine Tochter überwog die Kritik. (Und außerdem: Ein Buch, das heute in den Lehrplänen steht? Das ich als junger Mann geliebt hatte? Konnte das heute noch etwas sein?)Ich hingegen hatte einen großartigen Roman über Schuld, Pflicht und Verbundenheit im Hinterkopf.So pirschte ich mich kürzlich mit etwas flauem Gefühl in der Magengegend an eines meiner Lieblingsbücher nach so langer Zeit erneut heran. In Wahrheit allerdings hat die Geschichte mir aufgelauert, mich harmlos-scheinend geködert und dann wie einst überfallen, mitgerissen und völlig eingenommen…Michael Berg, beim ersten Zusammentreffen gerade einmal 15, begegnet zufällig Hanna Schmitz und wird fortan nie mehr wirklich frei von ihr sein.Schnell entwickelt sich zwischen beiden eine eigenartige Routine: Vor allem anderen liest Michael Hanna vor.»Vorlesen, duschen, lieben und noch ein bißchen beieinanderliegen – das wurde das Ritual unserer Treffen.«Doch diese Treffen nehmen ein jähes Ende als Hanna ohne ein Wort verschwindet. Für lange Jahre verschwindet sie aus Michaels Umfeld, aber nicht aus seinem Kopf. Er legt sich einen Panzer aus Arroganz zu, um nur nicht wieder derart verletzt zu werden, denn er hat »die Erinnerung an Hanna zwar verabschiedet, aber nicht bewältigt«.Ausgerechnet im Gerichtssaal eines Prozesses gegen Wärterinnen des Konzentrationslagers Auschwitz trifft Michael als Jura-Student erneut auf Hanna, die dort angeklagt ist. Schnell wird klar: Hanna ist schuldig.Für Michael wird aber auch klar, daß Hanna Analphabetin ist. Im Laufe des Verfahrens versteht er: Hanna wird jede Strafe auf sich nehmen, will aber um keinen Preis ihren Analphabetismus bloßgestellt wissen.Michael kann die Bilder, die er von “seiner” Hanna mitnahm nicht mit denjenigen der KZ-Wärterin in Einklang bringen. Zeitweise verschwimmen beide gar miteinander.Hanna wiederum weiß um ihre Schuld, sie bestreitet nicht die Fakten, aber während des Prozesses versteht sie dennoch nicht, wie es dazu kommen konnte.Letztlich wird Hanna zu lebenslangem Gefängnis verurteilt und verschwindet somit wieder für Jahre aus Michael Bergs Leben – bis dieser beginnt, laut zu lesen und dies aufzunehmen. Die so entstehenden Kassetten-Aufnahmen schickt er Hanna ins Gefängnis – über einen Zeitraum von zehn Jahren. Noch immer ist Berg gewissermaßen gefangen in ihrem Bann und ist einerseits stolz auf sie, weil sie Lesen und Schreiben gelernt hat, gleichzeitig aber »traurig über sie, traurig über ihr verspätetes und verfehltes Leben«.Als Hanna nach 18 Jahren im Gefängnis begnadigt wird, bereitet Berg “draußen” alles für sie vor und besucht sie im Gefängnis. Doch wiederum bekommt sein Bild von Hanna Risse; er hat sie als “immer frisch” riechend in Erinnerung und trifft auf eine Hanna, die, neben ihm sitzend, wie eine alte Frau riecht.Hanna, die spätestens nach diesem Besuch weiß, daß das Vorlesen nunmehr wirklich zu Ende ist und sie sich letztlich auch von Berg nichts versprechen kann und darf, nimmt sich daraufhin das Leben. Ihre Beschäftigung mit dem KZ-System, dessen Bestandteil sie war, kann sie nicht rehabilitieren. Auschwitz kann man nicht vergeben und darf es nicht vergessen.Auch Michael Berg wird nie wirklich von der gemeinsamen Geschichte frei sein. Er ist und bleibt gefangen in der Ambivalenz seiner subjektiven Geschichte mit Hanna.Ich wiederum kann diesem Buch nicht gerecht werden. Was auch immer ich schreibe, bleibt hinter meinen eigenen Erwartungen zurück. Auch 26 Jahre nachdem ich es zum ersten Mal las, bleibt es mir ein unvergeßliches Meisterwerk.Fünf von fünf Sternen und eine unbedingte Lese-Empfehlung.»Die Schichten unseres Lebens ruhen so dicht aufeinander auf, daß uns im Späteren immer Früheres begegnet, nicht als Abgetanes und Erledigtes, sondern gegenwärtig und lebendig. Ich verstehe das. Trotzdem finde ich es manchmal schwer erträglich.« [Less]