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Comments (44)

What did you think about this title?
1 to 25 of 44 items
Aug 07, 2022hao1234 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
For how heartbreaking this story is, it is beautifully written. It lets you live during this character building time of life without feeling completely drained. She describes how creative people has to be to get through events that were…
Mar 02, 2022Anita_Dickey rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I read this book for the 52 books in 52 weeks reading challenge. I used the 2021 prompt read a book found in the 900's of the dewy decimal system. It was interesting. At times I had a little trouble keeping up, but for the most part it was…
wingertdj
Nov 12, 2021wingertdj rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
“The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story” by Diane Ackerman is the biography of the Zabinski family in Poland during WWII. Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, they capitalized on the Nazis’ obsession with rare animals in order to…
Sep 28, 202110000mefest rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A very richly told story of courageous Jewish underground war efforts during WWII. Antonia Zabinski and her husband ran a zoo in Warsaw, Poland during the German occupation. This couple helped hundreds of Jews escape the Germans. This…
Sep 08, 2021mayasarahstock rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend reading the Zoo Keeper’s wife. This true story is about a family who runs a zoo in Poland. The family lives an idyllic, peaceful life in the mid 1900’s. When Nazi Germany takes control of Poland, the family begins hiding…
user23876
Mar 23, 2020user23876 rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
My sentiments resonate with some of the other reviewers. This book simply fell flat on its nose, with not a chance of ever getting up. A barrage of facts and tidbits of useless information, that distracts from a possibly really good…
Oct 31, 2019kvanmooresma rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
I really wanted to like this book. The story itself is compelling. But the writing was just so painful to read. At one point, there were about 3 pages with nothing but a list of beetles.
May 02, 2019Liber_vermis rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
The author needed a good editor with a blue pencil to trim this historical account from 320 pages to 250 pages (the author goes off on too many tangents). With many bizarre words and phrases, I checked Diane Ackerman's background in…
Feb 22, 2019julia_sedai rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I read this for book club. I wasn't really looking forward to another WWII book but it was really interesting. It's more of a collection of stories and ideas rather than about one main person. If you are interested in history it's a good…
Feb 21, 2019ADragonInTheLibrary rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Charming and engrossing book. This was a treat to read, and I now want to visit Warsaw.
Dec 03, 2018Linyarai rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I struggled to read this, I found it extremely slow and I felt like it could have been half it's length and still told the same story.
Dec 02, 2018Tica77 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Although the style of this book is not the best, the story itself is worth reading. Based on a true story, it shows the courage of a couple of Polish zookeepers to save over 300 Jews from death during World War II. Getting caught meant…
Mar 27, 2018rpavlacic rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Back when Jerry Springer had a serious talk show (real topics with real guests), he had an episode where he reunited Jews who sought escape from the Holocaust with the families who risked their lives to shelter them until the war was over.…
Mar 05, 2018terynprice rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
As I'm in the middle of this book, that it is so difficult to get through to the next page and finally reading reviews on it I'm realizing I should have done that first. I knew this was a great book from this background but the author…
Feb 20, 2018dollface_1 rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
I read a lot of books from this time period, but this is the first one that I definitely struggled to finish. The writing style was full of historical 'don't necessarily need-to-know' facts surrounded by suppositions about what the main…
Oct 29, 2017peacebenow rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
A look a WWII through the eyes of the Zoo and people in Warsaw, Poland. Devastating details portrayed. Sometimes I got lost in this book. The details of personalities and the depths people went to help their fellow citizens was…
Aug 28, 2017
I, too, drown in the details, very difficult to follow. Author's writing style was boring. The book was mostly a study in zoology. However, there were interesting historical facts. The movie was better.
Aug 15, 2017LynJoan rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I drowned in the details... more of a sort of non-fiction presentation than a story; not well laid out somehow. I look forward to the movie as hopefully they get more story and less fact based in the presentation.
Aug 09, 2017annphi rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
This was a book of missed opportunities. The premise offered fertile ground for characters escaping the Nazis. Instead it was a study in zoology. How were they hidden or secreted. That became a secondary plot. Never warmed up to the…
Aug 05, 2017Jyclibrary rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Thought the book was okay but it did not think it conveyed how horrific the crimes really were. I never had the the sense that losses were that devastating to the characters. it was just like they accepted what happened and moved on. …
Jul 27, 2017happycanuck rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
Found the author's writing style distracting and boring. The author seems to want to educate the reader on her background research, as well as on the characteristics of the various zoo animals in addition to writing about the zookeeper…
abe28
Jul 16, 2017abe28 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Enjoyed the book. Made me want to read more about Poland's struggle and resilience during WWII. I found myself referring back to the black and white photo's in the book imagining the real life events.
Jun 14, 2017rewulff rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
This book was difficult to follow at times. It took between 75 and 100 pages before I could follow the story line clearly. I also feel that there were many more people who risked their own lives to save the lives of Jews during WWII. …
Jun 07, 2017tjdickey rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
An excellent and true story about saving human lives and saving animal lives, told by a poet. Her prose runs to sensual details, and lengthy and evocative lists ("autumn laced the air with a stitchery of migrating songbirds and chevrons of…
Apr 24, 2017cknightkc rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment! Instead of focusing on the compelling real-life story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski and their heroic efforts to rescue Warsaw Ghetto Jews during WWII, the plot line of THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE meandered and took far too…