Schadenfreude, A Love Story

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

bailed

#GrumpyRachel officially bails on another book this month. When am I going to learn that memoirs do not work for me? This starts with a college-aged author and while I expect that the book progresses beyond the ridiculous teenager-abroad tone, I don‘t care to stick around to reach that point. So far, it‘s both obnoxious and pretentious.

sprainedbrain Grumpy Rachel. š‚ 5y

Hooked_on_books Some memoir I love, and others I don‘t like at all. For me, I really don‘t enjoy most childhood memoir. I just find something very mundane about childhood and there‘s a sameness to so many childhood memoirs. It is what it is. š¤·š¸¼ā€¨ā™€ļø¸ 5y

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DGRachel

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

ā€Why was Gregor going on about his stupid job, I wondered, when the only appropriate reaction in this particular moment would be this and this exclusively: HOLT SHIT, I‘M A GIANT FUCKING BUG?ā€¯ (The author discussing Kafka‘s The Metamorphosis)

š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£

Lcsmcat Can‘t argue with that! 5y

50 likes1 comment

swynn

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

pick

In high school Rebecca Schuman fell in love with a Kafka-reading Adonis. The boy didn't last, but the thing with Kafka turned into a long-term romance with German language, literature, and culture. Schuman's memoir tells snarky, self-deprecating stories about her experiences as a tourist, student, and scholar. As a Germanophile myself, I enjoyed it a lot.

swynn For those who haven't encountered the term: "Schadenfreude" is a German word for pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune. For those who have only seen it in print, "SHAH-den-froy-deh" is close enough. 7y

Eki As a german, I can never understand how you can live without the word Schadenfreude. š„ 7y

swynn Doesn't it come in handy? And it's been in limited use in English for some time. But I've also had the experience of using "Schadenfreude" in conversation only to get a puzzled look and the reply, "Is that like Fahrvergnuegen?" 7y

10 likes3 comments

quietjenn

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

Today was kind of a bust. I bet the Germans have a word for that.

EvieBee Haha!!! 7y

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drinkteareadbooks

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

we meet again

9 likes

DGRachel

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

#yellowcovers #riotgrams

bookriot

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Peddler410

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

Okay, I'm not German nor did I study German in high school so I'm not surprised that I've never come across the word SCHADENFREUDE š™‚

Today, however, this word popped up not once but twice while I was browsing at Barnes & Nobel!

I first encountered it in Grammar Girl's 101 Words Every High School Graduate Needs to Know. š³ I have a Master's Degree and don't know this word. Well, now I do!

21 likes

SuperPunkNinja

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

Catching up on my posts with this weekend's #bookhaul. I actually won Schadenfreude. š™‚š“

Moray_Reads Schadenfreude sounds great! 8y

mrsa_d Reading GG for my book club! About halfway through. It's good, but I was easily distracted by a mystery.

Ghachar Ghochar

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balletbookworm

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

pick

A really fun and unique memoir/travel memoir about Schuman's love (possibly hate at times) relationship with German and Germans, starting with her first exposure to Kafka via a boyfriend in high school (and yes, we all know Kafka wasn't an actual German). Schuman is approximately 2 years older than me, so we experienced the same Germany in the mid-1990s. And we had very different experiences, to say the least. She has some interesting stories.

balletbookworm Chaucer sez: Dis book haz no kittehs. Also it gives no pets and haz a roach on the cover. (edited) 8y

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BethFishReads

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

I wish I could convey how crazy spring is in the book editing world. I'll read again one of these days. Anyway, two things attract me to this memoir: (1) the subtitle and (2) that it's from @flatironbooks

48 likes

balletbookworm

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

31 likes

balletbookworm

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

They were both in my bag when the aliens came for me - I guess I have variety? ¯\_(ć„)_/¯ ? #funfridayphoto

Liberty

37 likes

balletbookworm

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

Yep. It would have been way more fun if Samsa had embraced his buggy-ness

Aurora0044 š‚ 8y

Lacythebookworm I hadn't heard of this book! Love the sound of it! š 8y

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WanderingBookaneer

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

#PossibleBookHaul

TheBookmarkPR

LeahBergen I want Crosstalk. Did you get that one? I hope so! š‘¨š¸¼ 8y

WanderingBookaneer @LeahBergen : No š” It didn't hook me as much as the others. 8y

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jessicaesquire

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman

pick

If you'd like a self-deprecating and hilarious personal essay of youthful exploits blown up to fill memoir size, this is exactly where you should go. Schuman writes for Slate and you can tell she's written about herself in the Internet a lot, there are zingers right and left. If you (like me) don't care much about Germany, don't worry, this book will still work for you. A fun and light read.

10 likes

jessicaesquire

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For | Rebecca Schuman