"The Zookeeper's Wife" was a book that was highly-endorsed by a gentleman in our book club and selected for our February read. Really, all I knew was that it was story about WWII, and assumed it was fiction.
After nearly a disc of listening, it dawned on me that this was NOT fiction but a true story! When it comes to WWII, I actually prefer the true stories because there are so many, and they generally are bigger, bolder and more horrendous than anything that can be imagined.
Synopsis: In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, one of the casualties of the bombing was the Warsaw Zoo. Many of the exhibits were destroyed, along with some of the animals. But the zookeeper and his wife, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, did not abandon it. Instead, they chose to remain there with their young son Ryszard, protecting the remaining animals and collecting a Noah's Ark of wayward creatures, such as lynx cubs, a badger, an Arctic Hare, a pig, and otters.
And hiding and smuggling Jews under the protection of the Underground movement.
A story that is bigger than life, we are told of Jan, who was the mastermind of the dozens of ways Jews could be smuggled out the ghetto, of his determination to fight back, of taking chances. Antonina was the nurturer of all living things, human and animal, and courageous in her own quiet way, maintaining even during the worst times the spirit of merriment for those under her care. Through Antonina's diaries, we experience the day-to-day struggles through her eyes, experience her fears and frustrations.
Setting itself apart from all the other WWII novels, "The Zookeeper's Wife" not only appeals to our yearning for stories of hope and the human spirit, but also includes the role of the animal kingdom into the effort to survive.
My thoughts: If there was ever a book written just for me, this would be it. If I thought I'd heard it all, I was wrong. I was equally enchanted and horrified at how animals...even INSECTS...played a part in the Jewish underground resistance.
The stories about the various ragtag group of animals living with the Zabinski's were adorable...and heartbreaking. I loved hearing about the adventures of the pet pig who liked to play chase, or the Arctic hare that turned carnivore in order to adapt and liked to give kisses. Not all the stories of the animals turned out happy though, and this ripped my heart to pieces. I was truly moved by the idea of man and beast, side by side, doing whatever they must to survive.
The Jews that the Zabinski's aided were also touching. A sculptor, a fox farmer, mothers and children, each with a story and each given a chance at life because of the Zabinski's determination and bravery.
A few words about the audio production: The narrator for this audio was Suzanne Toren. I've not experienced her work before, but she did a good job at managing the German and Polish accents. However, I found her voice to be cold and fairly unemotional, maybe even harsh, which was unfortunate. I believe this book had all the potential to be a five-star read for me, all things considered. Instead, it kept the material at a distance. While I tried to close my eyes and imagine the words without the impact of the voice, I just couldn't do it. I found myself more moved overall by reading summaries and reviews on Amazon. I would definitely recommend reading this one in print.
4 out of 5 stars
If you ever visit Krakow, Poland, you will hear people talk about touring Kazimierz district, which is the Jewish quarter. It is heartening to know that the city pays homage to this section of town, which was once a bustling center of Jewish trade and activity, but became the ghetto during WWII. This area was decidedly more run-down, but was also rich in culture.
In the middle of a reading slump, the best thing you can do for yourself is read a graphic novel. They are visual, they are short, and generally entertaining. Jenners' recommendation of this one came just at the right time.
Roz Chast, a cartoonist whose work as been featured, like EVERYWHERE, has humorously given us her list of things that make her uncomfortable, frightened, or just inspire a full-blown hate.
Perhaps this attitude could be construed as somewhat negative, but these things are real people! Most of the items on Roz's list would be on mine. We are soul sisters.
I commiserate with her fear of elevators, as shown here. Does anyone else out there mentally think through how, if the elevator suddenly careens to the bottom floor, they will jump at the exact right moment to prevent injury? I do.
I also share her irritation with doctors, heights, getting lost, and nightmares. She eases my mind a bit with her hilarious illustrations of these maladies. I am not alone, thank God.
After I finished her book, I gave some thought to my own list of things I hate. I didn't want to make a list of normal things, but the subtle, insidious ones that I'm almost afraid to voice aloud for fear of bringing on a curse. As a public service to you, though, I will share:
Not just bugs, or just cockroaches, but Palmetto Roaches, which can be found in warm tropical climates. These little demons from hell are about three to four inches long and FLY. You can rope and ride them. They spring out of drawers, hang out in your shoes, and get in your hair. They like to eat toothpaste and glue. If this is what is left after the nuclear holocaust, I myself prefer not to survive.
Clogged drains: I have a daughter with long, dark hair. If I notice that my shower is beginning to drain slowly, or even failing to drain at all, I would rather take a sponge bath from my sink than clean it out. This responsibility falls solely with my husband. I just know it is going to look like something from The Grudge, and will have no part of it.
Gas grills explode and incinerate homes and families. I shall not touch one or cook on one. Again, husband gets that duty.
Yes, like half of the world, I am afraid of heights. Specifically, though, I live in mortal fear of sky trams. If they stay, let's say, one or two stories off the ground all the way up the hill, I'm fine. It is when they span deep, rocky canyons that I begin to hyperventilate. Just ask my family about the one in Poland sometime. They thought I was dying.
Let's explore the heights thing a little closer. I also do not like bridges of any kind. This bit of baggage was bestowed upon me when I learned about (then later saw with my own frightened eyes) the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg FL. In 1980, a boat rammed through this bridge one stormy morning, sending a Greyhound bus and ten cars plummeting 150 feet into the water, killing 35 people. OK, just think about that for a minute. Thus I present to you the triple-duty phobia of heights, bridges, and the fear of being trapped in a car underwater.
Tires: Like Chast's fear of balloons and their imminent popping, I view tires as an imminent blowout. Thus hurtling my car, containing my loved ones, off the road, into oncoming traffic, or the worst possible scenario, off a bridge.
Runner-ups: The pool skimmer (lest I find live and dead critters, including snakes, frogs, or baby possums), my cable company (because they require me to sit home and wait for them, and once they come they can't fix anything), and hurricanes (goes without saying).
So probably by now you think of me as a slightly psycho person. But if you share these hates, then please know that I'm here for you.
4 out of 5 stars
After I saw that this movie got something like 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, I swore I would not go see it. I find myself extremely annoyed at the abundance of trashy low-budget horror movies that pander to teens.
But a teen I have, and she loves these types of movies. You can't convince her that she should discriminate. After all, she has seen the best the genre has to offer...The Exorcist, The Ring, Halloween, and even the Paranormal Activity series is pretty good.
As a family, we went to the movies on Martin Luther King Day. The boys voted for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (which I had already seen) and this thing was on at the same time, so you guessed it. The boys got intrigue, the girls got demons.
I know 99% of you out there hate these movies, so I apologize for even talking about something that makes you run the other way.
In 1989, a woman was accused of murdering three people in her home (two priests and a nun) while undergoing an exorcism. The woman was deemed incompetent and placed in an asylum in Rome.
In the present day, her daughter Isabella is interested in finding out what happened to her mother, and has enlisted a boyfriend/camera man to do a documentary. They travel to Rome, meet some people from an exorcism school, and try to determine if her mother is inhabited by a demon or just mentally ill. This just happens to be the biggest debate between "the industry" and the Catholic Church.
In order to appreciate the finer points of demonry, the exorcists take Isabella and her man to see a real example (see above photo). Then they tackle mama (see photo below), who seems to have not just one evil dude inside her but a community. And they like to body-hop, or soul-hop, or whatever. Once that happens, things get ugly, and events include attempted baby-drowning, suicide and car accidents.
Oh and the ending is left wide open for sequels. The fantasy of every low-budget horror film director. Go talk to the Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity people if you don't believe me.
Do I think the movie deserves it's 6% approval rating? No probably not. It was better than that. But I do think that the fake documentary sub-genre has run its course. They even have added a website where there are files about Isabella's mother, just to make it even more believable. Kids dig that stuff - that is why this movie has been at the top of the box office.
I also think the director or the screenwriters or someone involved was a bit heavy-handed with the anti-Catholic Church agenda. Hey, we have enough problems without some Hollywood goofball implying that we are allowing evil to exist because we ignore demonic possession. Please.
If you are into creepy horror, I'd encourage you to see this - why not? Just rent it on Netflix.
Finally, some cold weather! I woke up this morning with a cold nose. Some arctic wind blew through here and left us, finally, with some sweater weather.
Not that I'm going to allow myself to get used to it. It is supposed to be 80 by Thursday. I've never seen such a winter as this, in the 23 years I've lived in Florida.
But enough about that. I had myself a decent week...some productivity, a lot of busy. I've been continuing my workouts with the Angel of Death/uber-trainer as well as counting every last crumb that I put in my mouth. I no likey. It's hard work. But I'm down 16 pounds and I feel good.
We had our Heathrow Literary Society book club meeting this week, discussing "The Zookeeper's Wife" by Diane Ackerman. Everyone seemed to like it - in a synopsis, the premise is amazing. Within the details of the prose however, some of us felt the protagonist felt distant, and the narrator didn't do anything for me. That review will be up next week. We are reading "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns next month.
Last night my daughter had her confirmation, after months of classes. Now we will have our Thursday nights back, and I'm quite sure we will find some way to fill them. Over the next month we will be starting our volunteerism at the animal shelter, we'll have my daughter's birthday, the beginning of volleyball, the Adult Literacy League Reading Between the Wines event, my participation on the panel at Sleuthfest, and a trip to Kiawah Island and Charleston. I need to fortify myself!!!
In reading this week, I finished (and loved) Sarah Pekkanen's "Skipping a Beat". On Friday, I started "Praying For Strangers" by River Jordan, who attended SIBA and will be at the UCF Book Festival. 22 pages into it, I was already emotional. This feels like a book that could change my life.
On audio, I finished "To Be Sung Underwater" by Tom McNeal, and Holy Moses did it level me! It got off to a slow start, but the last third of that book had me under its spell. Then I listened to "Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy", which was extremely INTERESTING. Recorded four months after the President's assassination, Jackie lets it all hang out, dishing on various historical figures, who she liked and who she despised and why, and the day-to-day life of Camelot. After I finished that audio, about two minutes passed before I started on Joshilyn Jackson's "A Grown Up Kind of Pretty", her newest release. I could not be denied any longer. Jackson will be here in Orlando for the UCF Book Festival at the end of March, and I'm going to do a big feature on her sometime before then. There aren't many authors whom I've read everything they have written, but she is one of them. Her books always feature strong, Southern women, and are full of her brand of humor. She is pure joy to my ears. She is some kind of awesome.
Today we'll be churching and horsing as usual, and then we've got friends coming over for dinner. It doesn't bode well for reading, but I am going to try to sneak in a few minutes here and there. Hope you all have a great day!
Just in the last few months, Penguin Audio has started sending me audios for review. Some are exactly what I need, and others are not, but a steady stream of new audios is the kind of thing that makes my brain and heart buzz with happiness. I will listen to almost anything. Penguin Audio rocks.
So, to give myself a little break in between longish audio projects, I grabbed this title, which was only 6 discs long. I know virtually nothing about the authors, except that I hear the occasional person exclaim the wonders of Dave Barry like he is the biggest thing that has ever happen to journalism, comedy and low-flow toilets. Apparently he has even won a Pulitzer. After Googling Zweibel, it seems he is a Thurber prize-winner for American Humor. Who knew?
I really REALLY had no idea what I was in for. This was the most insane audio experience I have ever had. I don't know for sure if that is good or bad.
Synopsis: Phillip Horkman is a happy family man who runs a small pet store called The Wine Shop, and officiates kids' soccer on the weekend. Jeffrey Peckerman is a forensic plumber with the attitude that the whole world is full of idiots, except for him. Their fates collide the day that Phillip called Jeffrey's daughter offside in an important soccer tournament. From there, the two go at each other, head to head, which catapults them on an adventure that includes:
A kidnapped Lemur
Low-speed car chases
Bomb threats on the George Washington bridge
Hijacking a clothing-optional cruise ship
A terrorist dressed up as Chuck E. Cheese
Homicidal bears
A nun on hiatus
Extortion
A rebellion against Fidel Castro
Lots of diarrhea
Feeding a starving nation with bananas
Pirates from Somalia
Peacekeeping in the Middle East and in China
Peeing on Sarah Palin
Donald Trump
My thoughts: And people, that is only the tip of the iceberg. Because I was listening and not reading, I have no notes, so this is just what I can recall off the top of my head.
At first, I was belly-laughing and shaking my head. What the hell? But a little bit of this brand of goofy, juvenile humor goes a long way. After the second disc, I had to consume it in small doses. It honestly felt like two (funny) guys getting drunk and brainstorming the most bizarre adventure that could ever possibly occur. And yes, they had to have been drunk because the language is FOUL. In other words, don't listen to this around small ears.
Also be aware that all ethnicities, skin colors, sexual orientations, sizes, and genders are thrown under the bus. If you are particularly offended by jokes about homosexuals, the overweight, or the simple-minded, look elsewhere.
On the other hand, if you are extremely open-minded and are looking for something to lighten your load, give it a go. Why not? You really haven't "seen it all" until you experience this.
A few words about the audio production: The authors narrate this little beauty themselves. Which I guess is a good thing because they and only they can communicate the spirit in which it was originally intended.
3 out of 5 stars
The Bloggers (the term used for our band of blogging women who took SIBA by storm this year) met Taylor Polities at the welcome reception held the first evening of SIBA. He was a little nervous. He had just finished his first novel "The Rebel Wife", and this was sort of his launch party, if you will. But we struck up a great conversation with him, and soon learned that this guy had a passion for the South and all things Gone With the Wind, and was a vivacious and hilariously funny guy. We adopted him as our own.
It is probably an understatement to say that I was excited to see what Taylor had to offer. If his personality had any bearing, I knew I was in for a delightful read.
Synopsis: Back during the years of prosperity before the Civil War, Augusta "Gus" Branson was once a society girl, born in a family of wealth and power. Her friendships and dreams are dashed when it is arranged that she marry a much older man whom she does not love. After the end of the war, in Reconstruction Alabama, her husband suddenly dies of a mysterious blood disease, possibly a plague, and Gus's life is turned upside down. She discovers that in fact her husband was a scalawag and has left her penniless.
Except there is rumor of a large sum of money that was hidden by her husband before he died, and everyone wants to find it. People who Gus thought she could trust...friends, family, even her servants...all seem to be ready to stab her in the back for personal gain. She is faced with hatred, bigotry, greed, corruption, and a war that never really ended, her lone ally a reserved and wise servant. Gus must take a breath and summon the courage to protect her son and herself from those who want to ruin her, or possibly even kill her.
My thoughts: I'd say it takes some serious skills for a modern male author to channel an antebellum female trying to survive in the 1860's, but Taylor has done it. And done it well. Gus is a protagonist that the reader can invest in. In some ways she is a product of her time, fearful of speaking up for herself and believing that it is her duty to take advice from men. She has moments of weakness, but when the going gets tough, she kicks ass. I was doing mental fist pumps every ten minutes towards the end of the book.
Taylor has also created an incredibly authentic, atmospheric setting for us. There is a drought. It is suffocatingly hot. There is an epidemic that is scaring the hell out of people. You feel Gus's paranoia and tension closing in on you, and it builds slowly and maddeningly throughout the duration of the story. I felt genuine FURY towards those who wanted to hurt Gus. Inspiring this kind of emotion is a tribute to Taylor's talent as an up-and-coming writer. I for one cannot wait for his next book. A sequel? I sure hope so.
4 out of 5 stars
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