The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Storyby Diane Ackerman

Published in 2007.
368 pages (including footnotes, bibliography, and index).
Orion Book Award Winner in 2008.


I loved this historical account of a Polish atheist zookeeper and his Christian wife who helped save over 300 Jews during World War II. I learned some things about the war that I didn't know before, such as the Nazi's pursuit of Aryan perfection in the animal kingdom (in addition to among humans). I enjoyed a few laugh-out-loud moments about the absurdities of the crazy combinations of human and animal existence in the zoo. Most of all, I was moved - often to tears - by the small acts of heroism related in the book that ultimately made the defeat of the Nazis possible.

A good deal of the book is based on the diaries of the "the zookeeper's wife." Here are two of my favorites of her reflections:

During this time of seismic upheaval, more and more Ghetto dwellers washed up on the deck of the villa, arriving weather-beaten, "like shipwrecked souls," Antonina wrote in her diary. "We felt that our house wasn't a light, flimsy boat dancing on high waves, but a Captain Nemo's submarine gliding through deep ocean on its journey to a safe port." Meanwhile, the war storm blew violently, scaring all, and "casting a shadow on the lives of our Guests, who fled from the entrance of crematoriums and the thresholds of gas chambers," needing more than refuge. "They desperately needed hope that a safe haven even existed, that the war's horrors would one day end," while they drifted along in the strange villa even its owners referred to as an ark. [pages 208-209]

Why was it, [Antonina] asked herself, that "animals can sometimes subdue their predatory ways in only a few months, while humans, despite centuries of refinement, can quickly grow more savage than any beast"? [page 239]

I discovered that The Zookeeper's Wife recently received the Orion Book Award, which is "conferred annually to a book that deepens our connection to the natural world, presents new ideas about our relationship with nature, and achieves excellence in writing." (I am, therefore, including this book on my Book Awards Reading Challenge list.)

2008.78

Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

Published in 2007. 413 pages.


Reading Escape, the memoir of a former polygamist wife in the FLDS Church - the cult formerly led by Warren Jeffs - is a bit like driving past a bad car accident on the freeway: one isn't sure that she really wants to see what happened but she can't help staring anyway.

A compelling read - I read nearly the whole thing in one day - Jessop's account illustrates the evil of a religion that teaches that women and children are a man's property and that discourages education and individual thought. The book could have used some better editing, as it sometimes rambles and repeats itself, but it's worth a look. Escape was a Salt Lake County Library's Reader's Choice pick for the second half of 2008.

(By the way, this was book four of my dream to read a book-a-day to the end of the year. I'm officially four books behind.)

2008.75

Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox

Originally published in 2002.
Unabridged audio book read by Michael J. Fox and Scott Brick.


A big fan of Michael J. Fox back in the Family Ties days, I enjoyed reading an excerpt of his memoir in Reader's Digest a number of years ago. Recently I had to take a short road trip by myself, so I picked up a few audio books from the library to keep me occupied and entertained. One of those was Lucky Man.

The first of the nine CDs was read by Fox himself. As I started the second disc, at first I was disappointed to hear the new reader - but Fox's personality quickly came through. Smart, honest, and funny, this was a great read. Or perhaps I should say "great listen"?

For information about Fox's work to fight Parkinson's disease, visit The Michael J. Fox Foundation Website.

2008.67

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Published in 2003. 397 pages.


I liked this book. Some of it I liked a lot.

I enjoyed the poetic language, even if that made it a bit of a slow read and sometimes put me to sleep. I had fun contemplating the symbolism. I loved the commentary about the roles and choices available to women - both then and now. And I enjoyed talking about the book with my IRL book club. (Thanks, Melissa!)

But the book didn't ever come together in a way that I just wanted to say "wow."

Other book bloggers' reviews of The Birth of Venus: If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

2008.56

1776 by David McCullough

Originally published in 2005.
Abridged audio book read by the author.

I frequently will listen to an audio book on and off during my commuting time. 1776 was going to be a pick for my church women's group book club (although we ended up not having a meeting that month to discuss it), and my mom had given my husband the abridged audio book for Christmas a couple of years ago, so I decided I'd try "reading" it that way.

With a chaotic work schedule in July, it look me into August to get through the whole book. But McCullough has a pleasant voice, and I enjoyed learning more about this important year in American history. Being a visual learner, I probably would have comprehended the "big picture" of the year better if I'd actually read the book. I obviously missed a good amount of information as well - since this abridgement has five CDs, while the unabridged version has 10 - but I'm glad that I've finally "read" this popular book of American history.

Other book bloggers' reviews of 1776:
If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

2008.46

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Subtitled Murder, Magic, and Madness
at the Fair That Changed America.
Published in 2003. 447 pages (including Notes and Index).
National Book Award Finalist in 2003.
Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime in 2004.


I'm getting terribly behind on my reviews. I finished The Devil in the White City - which was June's pick for Book Buddies - at the end of last month. I had been wanting to read it for some time, and I had borrowed a copy several months ago from my sister Elicia. I'm glad I finally got to it!

In the interest of getting a review (any review!) posted, I'm just going to say that I greatly enjoyed this non-fictional account of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair intertwined with the tale of a serial killer who was operating in that area at the same time. The juxtaposition of these events is brilliant - the contrast between those who were building and creating and one who was cunningly ending life. One especially fun story for me was the creation of the first Ferris Wheel, designed in an attempt to outdo the Eiffel Tower from the previous World's Fair. Well-researched but written more like a novel, The Devil in the White City is a great read!

If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

• raidergirl3 (June 16, 2007)

2008.40

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make Historyby Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Published in 2007. 284 pages (including notes and index).


Almost everyone has seen a version of the statement "Well-behaved women seldom make history," maybe on a bumpersticker or a Tshirt or a coffee mug, but do they know where the statement originated? A single line in a scholarly article published by Pultizer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in 1976, the statement has become a piece of popular culture. In Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, Laurel - who happens to be my aunt - goes beyond the slogan and explores the idea of what it means to make history.

The thesis of the book - "Well-behaved women make history when they do the unexpected, when they create and preserve records, and when later generations care" (p. 229) - is centered around an analysis of three classic works of Western feminism: Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Eighty Years and More, and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.

My favorite sections of the book were "Amazons" - in which Laurel explores women warriors, including Mulan and Wonder Woman - and "Waves" - about the second-wave of feminism in the 1970s.

I'm counting this book for the "Every Month is a Holiday" challenge for Women's History Month (in March) and for the "Back to History" challenge, as well as the Spring Reading Thing.

If you've reviewed Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, please let me know. I'd love to link you here!

2008.31

A Thousand Splendid Sunsby Khaled Hosseini

Published in 2007. 367 pages.


First sentence: Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami.

Last sentence: Because, if it's a girl, Laila has already named her.

Basic storyline (adapted from Publishers Weekly): Set in Afghanistan, the story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war, and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny is endorsed by custom and law.

Two favorite passages:

But Aziza only muttered contentedly and dug her face in deeper. And when she did that, Mariam swooned. Her eyes watered. Her heart took flight. And she marveled at how, after all these years of rattling loose, she had found in this little creature the first true connection in her life of false, failed connections. [page 226]

Though there had been moments of beauty in it, Mariam knew that life for the most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it. She wished she could see Laila again, wished to hear the clangor of her laugh, to sit with her once more for a pot of chai and leftover halwa under a starlit sky. She mourned that she would never see Aziza grow up, would not see the beautiful young woman that she would one day become, would not get to paint her hands with henna and toss noqul candy at the wedding. She would never play with Aziza's children. She would have liked that very much, to be old and play with Aziza's children. [pages 328-329]

Some comparisons and contrasts between A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner: I read The Kite Runner back in 2006 (and I posted some of my thoughts here). I really loved it, as I did A Thousand Splendid Suns. Besides their common setting in Afghanistan, however, I think the books are quite different. Hosseini is a terrific storyteller, of course, and that is evident in both books. But the level of emotional intensity in The Kite Runner - at least for me - wasn't quite the same in A Thousand Splendid Suns. I suspect that the details of lives of the main characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns may stay with me longer, though. I loved that this story involved women, while the main characters of The Kite Runner were men. I learned more about the recent history of Afghanistan from A Thousand Splendid Suns - perhaps because the main character of The Kite Runner escapes from Afghanistan at the time of the Soviet invasion. One final contrast: If I can summarize the theme of The Kite Runner as guilt and redemption, then the theme of A Thousand Splendid Suns is loss and connection.

Some discussion questions: Penguin Reading Guides has some great questions. I'd love to discuss them with anyone who has read the book.

Other book bloggers' reviews of A Thousand Splendid Suns:
If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

• Dewey -
  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (October 15, 2008)


• Alessandra -
  Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns (May 8, 2008)


• Florinda -
  Book Talk: A Thousand Splendid Suns (November 3, 2007)


• Nyssaneala -
  A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (October 15, 2007)


• Marg -
  A Thousand Splendid Suns (October 5, 2007)


• booklogged -
  A Thousand Splendid Suns (August 7, 2007)


• Lisa -
  A Thousand Splendid Suns (July 15, 2007)


• Trish -
  A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini: A Review
  (July 3, 2007)
  
  

2008.28

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Published in 2001. 664 pages.


First sentence: I could hear a roll of muffled drums.

Brief plot summary: Told from the viewpoint of little-known Mary Boleyn (the "other" girl of the title), this is the story of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.

Why I read this book: A friend recommended this book to me some time ago, but I hadn't gotten to it yet. In December, I decided to put it on my 2008 TBR Challenge list, and then when Emily picked it as our IRL book club read for February, I had to read it now.

What I thought: When I was a child, historical fiction was a favorite genre of mine. I haven't read a lot of it in recent years, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I only had a cursory knowledge of Tudor England before reading The Other Boleyn Girl, but I'm eager now to learn more. Philippa Gregory appears to research her topics well, even if some people have taken exception to her conclusions. She certainly writes a compelling story. As she has stated,

I am very pleased when I can tell a slightly different story from the conventional one, especially if it makes readers see the more usual story in a different light. I like to give people a sense of a different sort of past. I like to challenge the conventional views.

Favorite aspects of the story: I loved the feminist attitudes that Gregory gives to Mary. For example, at one point, Mary laments,

"If women could only have more," I said longingly. "If we could have more in our own right. Being a woman at court is like forever watching a pastry cook at work in the kitchen. All those good things, and you can have nothing." [p. 304.]

I also loved the relationship between Mary and William Stafford.

The words froze on my pen, I could not say that I regretted loving William, for every day I loved him more. In a world where women were bought and sold as horses I had found a man I loved; and married for love. I would never suggest that this was a mistake. [p. 518]

Something I didn't need: The seduction of King Henry by both Mary and Anne is quite graphically described. A friend of my 12-year-old daughter has read this book, but I told Sugar Plum that there is no way that I would allow her to read it. (I did tell my 17-year-old that she could read it, if she wants.)

Continuing the experience: My IRL book club is going to see the film version of The Other Boleyn Girl when it opens at the end of the month. In March I'm going to read The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy for my church women's group book club, which will give me another perspective on Anne Boleyn. And I suspect that before too long I'll be looking at the other books in Gregory's Boleyn series, perhaps starting with The Boleyn Inheritance.

How well I multi-tasked with this read: In addition to being the second of my 2008 TBR Challenge books, this book fulfilled requirements for the Unread Author Challenge, the 888 Challenge (in my "IRL Book Club Picks" category), the Back to History Challenge, Every Month is a Holiday (for Library Lover's Month), the Reading Full Circle Challenge, the Chunkster Challenge, the Winter Reading Challenge, and the A~Z Reading Challenge. Phew!

2008.13

I Know Why the Caged Bird Singsby Maya Angelou

Originally published in 1969. 281 pages.


To celebrate Martin Luther King Day for the Every Month is a Holiday Challenge, I chose to read this first volume of the autobiographical series of poet, educator, dancer, actress, civil rights activist Maya Angelou. This book also qualifies for the Back to History Challenge, the In Their Shoes Challenge, and my "Banned Books" and "In Their Shoes" categories of the 888 Challenge.

I was mesmerized by Angelou's lyrical presentation of the high and low points of the first eighteen years of her life. Poignant and meaningful, each chapter recounts part of the life experiences that made Angelou the adult she became. These experiences include being raped at age eight by her mother's boyfriend, learning to love books through the encouragement of an adult friend, being subjected to numerous acts of racism, and working as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

First sentence: "What you looking at me for?"

Two favorite passages:

[Bailey, Maya's brother, in recounting the discovery of a black man's corpse and the pleasure a white man took in seeing it:] "The colored men backed off and I did too, but the white man stood there, looking down, and grinned. Uncle Willie, why do they hate us so much?"

Uncle Willie muttered, "They don't really hate us. They don't know us. How can they hate us? They mostly scared."

Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less lonely by your songs, or the empty pots made less tragic by your tales?

If we were a people much given to revealing secrets, we might raise monuments and sacrifice to the memories of our poets, but slavery cured us of that weakness. It may be enough, however, to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets (include preachers, musicians and blues singers).

Bans or challenges faced by the book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is third on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. According to this site:

Since 1983 schools throughout the United States have tried to ban I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings even though it is celebrated for its elegant prose. Parents, schools, and related organizations have argued that the book encourages deviant behavior because of its references to lesbianism, premarital sex, cohabitation, pornography, and violence. The book's profanity has also caused its removal from school curriculum and library shelves. The Alabama State Textbook Committee accused it of encouraging "bitterness and hatred toward white people." Some schools have removed the book from their classes and libraries; however, many have decided to retain the book. Today the book is still among the most challenged books in American schools.

2008.11

Back to History

The Back to History Challenge, hosted by Shannon, is "designed to encourage readers to stretch themselves in the history genre." The requirement is to read one historical fiction or non-fiction book each month in 2008. Cross-listing with other challenges is allowed, but the historical books should not all be from the same sub-genre.

Here is my preliminary list, with some alternates:

Historical Fiction

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson
• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky
• Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green
• Thorn in My Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

Non-Fiction History

• 1776 by David McCullough
• The Colony by John Tayman
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
• Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
• Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 by Barbara Kingsolver
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
  by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Memoir/Biography/Autobiography
I've listed a bunch of titles in this sub-genre for the "In Their Shoes" challenge here. I will plan to cross-list some of those to this challenge - but not more than four or five.