Book Review: The Zookeeper’s Wife

Book Review:

The Zookeeper’s Wife

By Diane Ackerman

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Based on memoirs, interviews, old photos, and other historical documents, Diane Ackerman tells the story of Jan and Antonia Zabinski, a Polish couple who ran the Warsaw Zoo when World War II broke out. When the Nazis occupied Poland, the Polish Jews became persecuted – they hid within a shadow world or moved into ghettos; many were sent to labor camps or killed.  Jan and Antonia opened their house and their destroyed zoo to old friends and unknown Guests who sought to escape to a safer place. Antonia ruled the home, the villa and the zoo, where Jewish Guests were hidden throughout the war, in closets, animal houses, tunnels, and cages. Jan played a lead rule in the Underground, the Polish resistance, where he and a network of Poles helped smuggle Jews out of Warsaw, created false papers for those staying in the city as well as fleeing, and, of course, led acts of sabotage against the Nazis (including everything from spray-paint vandalism to poisoning Nazi officials and bombing Nazi trains).

The Zookeeper’s Wife is rich with descriptions that make both life at a zoo as well as life in the Polish shadow-world come alive. Animal life  thrived, despite the war, as pets were hidden and Guests (code-named by animals) acquired qualities of those animals they were called. At the same time, Ackerman described the daily emotional struggle of the Zabinski’s and their Guests (the story often bouncing from the Zabinski’s to highlighting the story of a Guest) – the fear for themselves and their families, the guilt at endangering others with their activities – all make the Underground resistance come alive.

The Zookeeper’s Wife is an amazing glimpse into the Underground resistance. Although the Zabinski’s were aided by many friends and corrupt Nazi and Polish officials, their story shows how much impact just a couple of people could have. Over 300 Guests stayed at the Zoo, and all but a couple of them survived the war.

Recommendation: Absolutely.

Grade: A (4.5 of 5 stars on Goodreads)

Book Review: Millennium Trilogy

Book Review:

Millennium Trilogy

By Stieg Larsson

Book 1: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I started the first book in the series for book club, with a bit of apprehension. I had heard that most people either loved the book or hated it. I had also heard that it takes most people anywhere from 50-125 pages to get into the book. I will admit that I started off reading fairly slowly, but I honestly think that was more because I wasn’t in the mood to read, rather than a comment about the book.

But about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo… The book starts out with journalist Mikael Blomkvist being convicted for libel, forcing him to take a leave of absence as publisher of his magazine, Millennium. A wealthy industrialist and businessman, Henrik Vanger, offers him a chance to get away – Vanger asks Blomkvist to live near his family for a year, allegedly to write his family biography, but really, to secretly look into the death and/or disappearance of his great-niece. Blomkvist’s motivation is a promise of exacting revenge against the man who sued him for libel and attempted to take down the magazine. Blomkvist, along with researcher Lisabeth Salander, make progress in solving the decades old mystery, thereby threatening the family and its legacy. As they delve deeper into the girl’s disappearance, the pair face hostility from the family and threats from unknown parties. Will they solve the mystery before the year is up? Will Blomkvist be able to exact his own revenge?

Overall, I enjoyed the first book, certainly enough to continue reading the series, which I liked even better than the first. I’m glad I continued reading, as I got more interested in the story (and out of my reading funk), to thoroughly enjoy and appreciate Larsson’s series.

Book 2: The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire caught my interest much quicker than the first, leading me to believe that I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I started reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

In Book 2, Lisabeth Salander gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation, where she is the primary suspect. Police and social service reports, leaked to the media, paint Salander as a violent, psychopathic killer on the run. Mikael Blomkvist and the employees at Millennium return, launching their own investigation, based on suspicion that the murders were motivated by a soon-to-be-released provocative book naming criminals and clients involved in a massive sex trafficking operation, to prove her innocence.

The Girl Who Played With Fire lacks the gruesomeness of the first book of the series, though it stays true to the characters.

Book 3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

Book 3 picked up right were the previous one left off – part of the mystery surrounding the murder investigation has been solved, but not completely. Some suspects are in custody while others took flight. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest follows the investigations into these suspects, as well as the efforts to discover the history behind the story.

Salander’s friends – Blomkvist, her former guardian, and her former boss – band together with an unlikely group to defend and support her against the allegations. Salander not only tries to help herself but also attempts to seek revenge against those that have harmed her.

Concluding Impressions of the Trilogy:

I can understand some of the controversy around this series. Larsson does have a particular way of writing and developing a plot that stands out compared to most American mysteries. The plot lines are much more complicated than many American mysteries (at least the ones I read). This was actually a pleasant surprise for me – I definitely could not anticipate the ties between the characters and the twists in the story that Larsson threw at us.

The author also begins each book with descriptions of various, more serious topics, which tend to spread throughout the book. In the first, it was Swedish politics and economics. In the second, it was about a  mathematical equation. In the third, it was a bit of politics and a lot of history of Swedish government institutions. I think this is why some people have a hard time getting into the first book and the series.

That aside, I like the characters in the book. Blomkvist is a bit naive but really wants to do the right thing. Salander and her friends that appear periodically throughout the series (Mimmi and the Evil Fingers) have spunk and attitude. And I really enjoyed the complicated plots, where there always seemed to be a twist and turn.

Recommendation: Yes, if you enjoy mysteries

Grade: B+

Best-Read Books of 2010 & A 2010 Summary

Ask anyone who knows me – I’m a voracious reader. However, being my mother’s daughter, I have a lot of books on my bookshelf and read a lot of murder mysteries. I read over 100 books in 2010, a mixture of new releases and old classics, murder mysteries, historical fiction, and young adult books (this year, at the age of 27, was the first time I read the Chronicles of Narnia!). That being said, here are some of my favorite books (in no particular order) read this year.

The Hunger Games Series (by Suzanne Collins) – a young adult series has not caught my attention as much as this since Harry Potter. A bit violent for a young adult book (I have no idea how this is going to become a movie that isn’t rated R), but a fantastic story.

  1. The Hunger Games
  2. Catching Fire
  3. Mockingjay

The Help (by Kathryn Stockett)

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (by Louise Murphy) and Sarah’s Key (by Tatiana de Rosnay) – The first is set in Poland during the end of the Nazi occupation while the latter by  is split between present day and WWII-ear France. Both a quick reads but wonderful stories of fighting and survival.

Simply from Scratch (by Alicia Bessette) – The debut novel of Bessette, I thoroughly enjoyed this fictional piece about the widow of a Katrina volunteer

Gone with the Wind (by Margaret Mitchell) – I read this classic for the first time this year and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite books.

Ella Minnow Pea (by Mark Dunn)

The Handmaid’s Tale (by Margaret Atwood)

Interesting Blog Stats

In the 14 months I had been working on this blog (November 2009 – December 2010), I only posted 22 book-related posts. My bad. I’ll try to get better about that for 2011. Part of the reason for this is that I have pretty high standards for which books I review and post about. So my trashy murder mysteries, as I like to call them, usually don’t merit a post, in my book. Perhaps it’s time to revise that policy, or to starts reading better books! 🙂

By far, my most popular book-related posts have been my Nook-ADE How To and the Nook tutorial, Removing Books. My stats for my book reviews were pretty low. Again, I’ll have to work on that.

Happy Reading in 2011!

Book Review: The Hunger Games Series (Spoilers)

Book Review:

The Hunger Games Series

By Suzanne Collins

I decided to review this series as a whole because much like the Harry Potter books, once you start this series, you won’t want to put it down. In fact, not since Harry Potter has a young adult series grabbed my attention quite like this one.

There are some spoilers below. I tried to keep the descriptions brief so that I don’t give away too much, so forgive me for the short descriptions!

Background: Set in the future, the nation of Panem took the place of what was once known as North America. The Capitol rules Panem, made up of the Capitol and 12 surrounding districts, with an iron fist. Each year, the Capitol reminds the districts of how powerful they are by forcing each district to send a boy and girl (drawn by lottery) to fight – for survival, for a better life for their district, for love – in the annual Hunger Games. Only one tribute will survive.

Continue reading “Book Review: The Hunger Games Series (Spoilers)”

Book Review: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

Book Review:

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

By Louise Murphy

Remember Grimm’s fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel? The brother and sister end up wandering the woods and follow a bird to a house made of bread, cake, and sugar. As the children begin to eat the roof, the witch who lives there invites them in. The witch keeps Hansel in a cage, fattening him up for stew, while she makes Gretel into her slave. When the witch gets hungry and tries to cook both children, Gretel pushes her into the oven. She frees her brother and the children find their way back home.

So yeah, remember that tale? The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a play on that tale. Set during the Nazi’s occupation of Poland, the True Story of Hansel and Gretel is a play on that fairy tale. Its the story of a Jewish family’s quest for survival. The children are separated from the father and stepmother and find their way into a nearby village where they are taken in by the village “witch.” They stay there for the duration of Nazi occupation, forming a little family with the witch, her niece, and another villager. Meanwhile, the children’s father and stepmother join up with a paramilitary group that sabotage and fight the Nazi troops. Will they survive the war? Will the family be united?

Despite some of the graphic descriptions of Nazi cruelty, Murphy’s retelling of the fairy tale was a fairly happy tale. The characters never lost hope that the Nazis would be defeated and their lives returned back to normal. They constantly made the best our of bad situations by sticking together and helping out each other and those in need.

Recommendation: Absolutely!

Grade: A-