The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman #bookreview

Title: Zookeepers Wife
Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published Date: September 17th 2008
Genre: Nonfiction, WWII, History
Format:  Audiobook
Audio Time: 10 hr 56 min

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ .5

Goodreads Summary: 
The New York Times bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these "guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder that the zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy Star." Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story—sharing Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife," while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism. Winner of the 2008 Orion Award.

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 My Review:

“Why was it, she 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.” 

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken #Bookreview

Title: The Darkest Minds
Series: The Darkest Minds #1
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published Date: December 18th, 2012
Genre: Dystopian, YA, Fantasy
Page Count:488
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that had killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. She is on the run, desperate to find the only safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who have escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living. 

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 My Review:

"The darkest minds tend to hide behind the mokst unlikely faces. He put on a good leader act.. He would never have jumped in front of another person.. He would never have taken a bullet."

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel #Bookreview

Title: The Monuments Men
Author: Robert M. Edsel
Publisher: September 15th 2009
Published Date: Macmillan Audio
Genre: History, Nonfiction, Art, Book to Movie
Format: Audio

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
As Hitler was attempting to conquer the countries of Europe, and Russia, his armies were methodically pillaging the finest cultural treasures in Europe, from sculptures by Michelangelo to paintings by Da Vinci, Van Eyck, and Vermeer, all stolen for the museum Adolf Hitler intended on building-the world's greatest museum-the Führer museum. While the Monuments Men had a mandate from President Roosevelt and the support of General Eisenhower, they had no vehicles, gasoline, typewriters, food supplies, or command authority. In a race against time, each man built his own treasure map from scraps and hints. These unlikely heroes, mostly middle-aged family men with accomplished careers who had everything to lose, volunteered for service and like other members of the Greatest Generation, embodied the heroic spirit that enabled the best of humanity to defeat the worst.                              

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 My Review:

“If, in time of peace, our museums and art galleries are important to the community, in time of war they are doubly valuable. For then, when the petty and the trivial fall way and we are face to face with final and lasting values, we… must summon to our defense all our intellectual and spiritual resources. We must guard jealously all we have inherited from a long past, all we are capable of creating in a trying present, and all we are determined to preserve in a foreseeable future. Art is the imperishable and dynamic expression of these aims. It is, and always has been, the visible evidence of the activity of free minds.…” 

 During WWII a group of art experts were sent to Europe in order to save the worlds most famous and historically important works of art. They had very little provisions provided for them and most of the time, the other people in charge had no idea what to do with them. They also had no real idea if some of the pieces had been taken by allies and hidden away, or if they had been stolen by the Nazi's. It was a constant race of trying to get pieces before they were taken and trying to convince the original owners that the pieces needed to be protected at all in some situations.

Overall I found it fascinating to learn more about art/monument history during WWII. We knew that some pieces had been protected by the allies, but no real idea how they got into their hands in the first place before the Nazi's got them. Without the museum men and women that saved the world's history from possibly being destroyed in the enemy's hands so much would have been lost. So to all of them, we thank you.

For the book to movie part. I think the movie did really well and I would highly recommend it. It's hard to imagine without the photos etc, of how much the Nazi's really took.

“To save the culture of your allies is a small thing. To cherish the culture of your enemy, to risk your life and the life of other men to save it, to give it all back to them as soon as the battle was won… it was unheard of, but that is exactly what Walker Hancock and the other Monuments Men intended to do.”   

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan #bookreview

Title: Mudbound
Author:  Hillary Jordan
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published Date: March 4th, 2008
Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult, book to movie
Page Count:328
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
In Jordan's prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal. It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farm - a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family's struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura's brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not - charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion.

The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale. As Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, "Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still."

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 My Review:

“What we can't speak, we say in silence.”

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson #BookReview

Title: A Walk In The Woods
Author: Bill Bryson
Narrator: Rob McQuay
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published Date: September 25th 2012
Genre: nonfiction, humor, memoir
Format: Audiobook
Audio Time: 9 hr 47 min

My Rating: ★ ★ ★.5

Goodreads Summary: 
The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way–and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

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 My Review:

“There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. However far or long you plod, you are always in the same place: in the woods.”   

Not going to lie, if I hadn't seen the movie first I wouldn't have even given this book a second glance.

Bryson decides one night that he is going to walk the Appalachian trail. The problem? He doesn't hike and his wife doesn't want him to do the trail alone in case he would get injured. So as he does some research he calls up all of his old friends he knows. And as to be expected they all think he is crazy, and pass on the opportunity to do it with him. That is until one day he gets a call from Stephan Katz who he hasn't talked to in years, nor does he really like. Katz wants to do the trail with him.

Now I know what you're thinking they why would you do the trail with someone you haven't spoken to in years and don't even like. Well simple Bryson wants to do the trail and he needs a partner to do so. So even if that person is Katz who is slow as all can be, and makes some questionable choices throughout the whole experience. He is determined to make it through with him.

As time goes on and the two become friends they learn a lot about each other. As well as learning to dislike a certain other hiker who is rather annoying to hike with all day. They learn how to survive the long days, and sore feet. In the end they actually end up making  a pretty good team.
The things they get up to in the towns they passed through were hilarious to read, as well as Katz questionable idea of what was necessary to bring on the trail and his ability to throw certain things away that were actually needed!

Overall I did enjoy this book, and getting to learn a little bit more about both Bryson and Katz. At time though I'm not going to lie the little bits of random information about the trail itself got to be a little bit much as time went on. I just wanted to hear more about Bryson and Katz not so much about the creator of the trail.

For me personally the movie was better, it took all of the funny and interesting parts of the book and put them into a condensed version that still told the same basic story without ruining any Bryson's & Katz experiences

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young #BookReview

Title: The Shack
Author: Wm. Paul Young
Publisher: Windblown Media
Published Date: July 1st 2007
Genre: Christian, Religious, Adult Fiction
Page Count: 252
Format: Paperback/Audiobook

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his "Great Sadness," Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

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 My Review:

“All I want from you is to trust me with what little you can, and grow in loving people around you with the same love I share with you. It's not your job to change them, or to convince them. You are free to love without an agenda.”   

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver : #BookReview

Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published Date: March 2nd 2010
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Death, Realistic Fiction, Paranormal
Format: Audiobook
Length: 12hr 25 min

My Rating: ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.Instead, it turns out to be her last.Then she gets a second chance.Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death-and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing. 

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 My Review:

“Here's one of the things I learned that morning: if you cross a line and nothing happens, the line loses meaning. It's like that old riddle about a tree falling in a forest, and whether it makes a sound if there's no one around to hear it.
You keep drawing a line farther and farther away, crossing it every time. That's how people end up stepping off the edge of the earth. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to bust out of orbit, to spin out to a place where no one can touch you. To lose yourself--to get lost.
Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. Maybe some of you already know."

Room by Emma Donoghue : Book Review

Title: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Published Date: May 18th 2011
Genre: Fiction, Adult, Realistic Fiction
Page Count: 321
Format: Paperback

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating--a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.
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 My Review:
“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”  

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

Title: The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
Series: The Duff #1
Author: Kody Keplinger
Published Date: First Published 2010
Genre: Contemporary, YA, Romance
Page Count: 311
Format: Kindle

My Rating:★ ★ .75

Goodreads Summary:
Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “Duffy,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.


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My Review:

“No matter where you go or what you do to distract yourself, reality catches up with you eventually.”

I did end up watching the movie first and while this did affect my opinion at first, after awhile I started to think of the book and the movie as two completely different things and enjoyed each of them for very different reasons.

For Bianca her finding out she was the DUFF empowered her in a way and was almost her downfall. She grabbed onto it and clung to it for a while, but she also used it as an excuse for doing certain things. While I did like that she owned up to her slut-shaming and how using Wesley for an escape wasn't the right thing to be doing. I disliked the fact that she just dropped her friends and stopped talking to them when it started to get rough in her family life. Especially when it came to things involving her dad.

Wesley was not a like-able character in the beginning. But as Bianca started liking him I did too and I realized that he had his own problems as well and used certain things as a form of escapism to plus he made a pretty good distraction for Bianca as well. He was also a lot smarter then people give him credit for.

As for Toby I never really liked him all that much. I did see the appeal of him for Bianca, but I mostly saw him as the person that she had been crushing on for so long that her feelings on him most likely wouldn't have still been  the same as they were when she first started liking him.

Now I'm not going to lie I hated this book at first due to how Bianca acted in certain situations, how Wesley acted, and how they both escaped their problems. But after awhile I stopped hating it so much and realized that in some messed up way it actually worked and they did end up being better people. I'm also glad that I watched the movie first because I think without it I wouldn't have ever ended up reading this book.


Disclaimer: This book does contain sex and talk of sex but it is not graphic.