The Diary of Petr Ginz by Elena Lappin

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
A rare historical find, the diaries reflect the day to day activities of a Jewish boy in Prague during 1941 - 1942. Unfortunately, the diary as a standalone book is somewhat banal. Many of the entries are simply talk about the weather and what happened in school that day.



Peppered throughout the books are glimpses of the oppression the Jews were facing. You do get to see some of his personality - he has a sense of humor. On the very first entry, he mentions that all of the Jews in town are required to wear a star on their lapel. He calls his classmates sheriffs and designates his street as the Milky Way. He also was a little bit of a prankster and mad scientist of his class. He made little cannons and exploding pencils.



The book became much more interesting to me when I googled the names and dates in the book. I don't understand why the editor claims to have the diaries from 1943 - 1944 up until he was sent to the concentration camp, and the editor even mentions that they were very interesting and full of emotional tension. She even teased us in the introduction with a few excerpts. Why weren't these diaries published?



Another point, while it's completely understandable, some of the more traumatic events in that time period, he skipped writing in the diary. When his best fried was sent to a concentration camp, he doesn't even write an entry for five days. I figured out by looking online and reading the notes in the back of the book that his friend Harry was deported and sent to an extermination camp around the missing days of Petr's diary. I don't blame him for being too upset to write, but when I simply read the diary - it seemed like nothing interesting happened that week. I had no idea that there was a whole story around those missing days.



I think some more clever editing would have helped out a lot. In the back of the book, there are detailed notes explaining the events in history, or some of the cultural references Petr made. I think these should have been printed next to each other. First of all, I didn't know that the notes existed until I finished the diary. By then I was already Googling all of this information on every other page. And I got to the notes, and they didn't make any sense unless I flipped back to the original diary entry. Some clever editing would have made this book so much better.



All in all, I found it an interesting document, but not a compelling read.


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Gamers! Free convention in Indy this weekend!

It's been a few weeks since I played a new boardgame. This weekend I am going to WhosYerCon , A FREE convention hosted by WhosYer Gamers in Indianapolis this weekend. I wanted to take some time to mention how great these guys are. They come to my own gaming event I hold where I work now and then. They bring their own games and they teach teens attending the event how to play them. And I can't belive they are hosting a free event this weekend. I'll have lots of new games to gush about really soon.

As for books right now I'm reading a new addition to our collection. It's the big giant hulking picture to the left of us. (I'm still learning, guys. Cut me some slack.) Anyway, the book is a series of autobiographical stories of being a big geek in high school.

I've only read the first story in the book, "My Friend Likes You" by Lisa Gabrielle. Oh my god. It was like reading my seventh grade diary. It was all full of those morbidly embarassing crushes that physically hurt you because they are so real. Of COURSE, just like the author, my crushes never knew I existed - or if they did, I was just part of the wallpaper. Also, she talks about not knowing much of the boys' personalities. They were just SO cute and SO popular. It was almost painful to read. I'm loving it so far!

The next story starts out with a boy meeting Zsa Zsa Gabor at his doorstep. So I don't think I'll be able to relate to that one as much.

Edited to add: Meh.. this book is hit and miss. I've liked two, felt kinda meh about one and skimmed over another.