Reading Update

The Zookeeper's Wife, Ackerman

An amazing true story, based off of the memoirs of Antonina. She and her husband (and son) owned a zoo. Then WWII started. They sent many of their animals off to safety. Other animals were killed when a supposed friend lead a party of Nazis through their zoo on a "hunting party" where they murdered a bunch of the animals. Antonina and her family stayed at the zoo, having the property generate a profit by raising pigs and fur animals. Meanwhile, the family was using hidden parts of the zoo to shelter Jewish people. Though the zoo itself didn't have much in the way of animal survivors, it rescued hundreds of humans. And after the war the zoo was rebuilt, and continues today. 

A Song of Wraith and Ruin, Brown

Wow, these are impossible to put down. An amazing set of fantasy books. Definitely recommend.

Alone on the Wall, Honnold

Written before his incredible free solo climb of El Capitan (That means that he climbed a massive granite cliff with no rope- Check out the documentary Free Solo). And read this book if you want to learn more about some of his earlier accomplishments.

Paladin of Souls, Bujold

Another interesting fantasy. Different than what I usually read, and I liked it. 

 

Secrets Never Die, Ralph

This one had a very strange ending.

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Twain

This was so different than other Twain books I've read. I want to say that it's much sweeter than his usual tone, except we all know how Joan of Arc ended.

White Ibis: Wetland Wanderer, Bildstein

Everything you ever wanted to know about the white ibis! 

The Way of Kings, Sanderson

Wow, another amazing book from him. I can't wait to read more of the series. 

 

Just so Stories, Kipling

I read a couple of these a long time ago. I think this is the first time I read all of them. A collection of fanciful fairy tales, from the guy that wrote The Jungle Book.

 

7th Time Loop, Amekawa

It looks like they made an anime of this. I definitely want to watch it, because the concept is amazing. A sort of Groundhog Day thing going on, though this focuses on a single time loop. The style of the book was a bit odd, though I'm willing to attribute that to the translation from Japanese. 

 

A Pilgrimage to Guadalupe, Kriyananda

Some fascinating insights on religion.

 

Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Stewart

A look into how people lived while settling across the US. 

 

City of Beasts, Allende

I didn't realize she did young adult books. I read about half of her House of Spirits, but it was too depressing for me. City of Beasts is a strange style - it feels more like a summary (House of Spirits was similar in that way). And the boy's flute confuses the heck out of me. It must be a normal concert flute, because he plays in a band. And yet he brings his grandfather's professional concert flute out into the Amazon. And randomly hooks it to his belt while climbing down through caves. How the heck would you crawl through narrow caves with a big flute case hanging off your hip? That being said. the concept of the book was very cool.

Legacy of Yangchen, Yee

Another set of Airbender novels. This time about Avatar Yangchen - the aribender Avatar that came before Aang.  

 

Hiss and Tell, Brown

I enjoyed this series up until they started the timeline from the revolutionary war. The first book with that was okay. But then I stopped liking it so much. I don't think the author meant to, but it kinda glorifies slavery. I'm not sure if the writing just wasn't so good after that, or if I cared about it less. Though I did enjoy the first several books.

Dreams from my Father, Obama

I got the audiobook of this. It's shorter than the book, but he reads it himself! 

 

The End of Fun, McGinty

I met this author, so that's cool! It was also fun to read a story set in Nevada. 

 

The Yearling, Rawlings

I wrote a little about this in a previous post of how older books use animals. But I also liked how this book showed a slice of how people lived back in pioneer days (is this considered pioneer days? Well, sometime around there).

 

Susie King Taylor, Nurse, teacher, and freedom fighter

I also met this author! The book is based off of a real African American woman who had an important role in the Civil War. I wish there were more books like this,  focusing on real people in history (especially people I hadn't heard of before - there are so many fascinating historical figures. Actually, I think the author said she was working on a series of similar books, so that's great!) The ending of the book became a little more like a summary - I wish it had stayed more immediate and personal. But it was a great book, especially because at the end, it had the actual writings from the woman the book was about!