The Zookeeper's Wife

Okay, I hope all of you like history...because I do and that's partly why I chose this book for us to read. I also just kept seeing it at the library and in book stores and I was curious to find out the story.

Antonina and Jan are heroic! Their defiance and their bravery in the midst of WWII was incredible! They were such good people at heart. It would have been so much easier for them just to hole up and wait out the war, but they offered their home and their assistance to others when it was desperately needed.  They also risked their own safety not to mention the safety of their son. I kept thinking "how can this family end up 'happily ever after', I mean we're talking about WWII here...and in Poland!" Anyway, I was pleased even at the end of the book.

I loved the author's descriptions. I felt like I was at the zoo, listening to the animals, or watching through the window as Antonina played her defiant tune on the piano to warn her friends of approaching danger. I also liked how she described a lot of the plants...but that was probably just me noticing that part(by the way there are many linden trees in Rexburg).

The thing I found myself contemplating the most throughout this book was courage. Would you or I have the courage to do what Jan and Antonina did if we were in a similar situation? I don't know, but I hope so. It disgusts me how humans can get so wrapped up in ideas and ideals that they forget how sacred and important life is. Anybody's life. 

Did anyone else have any thoughts about courage as you read? I look forward to reading your comments and opinions!

Help, I need somebody

Elle Elle thank-you SO much for letting me borrow your book The Help, which I will be able to get back to you someday.

Such a great book! I'm thoroughly enjoying this little club we started. It helps me know which books to read and boy are they good.

I love historical fictions and I thought this was an awesome first novel. All the characters in the book were so well developed and you felt special ties to them. It seemed like she had every kind of character. The strong willed can't have anyone tell me what to do, the leader of the pack, the meek follower of the pack, the strong one that doesn't recognize her own strength, the quite compassionate, the ditzy blonde...incorporating all different types.

I absolutely loved seeing the growth in Skeeter. I loved seeing who she was in the beginning of the book. An unsure,awkward follower of the crowd. She just tried to fit in. When she finally realized she didn't need to follow she really blossomed and turned into a strong, confident woman who could accomplish the unthinkable.

I liked all the relationships in the book all the friendships that were stronger than anything. This was also a book I could not put down. I had to know what happened.

I was a little disappointed with the end. I know it was a good way to end it, but I wanted more. I wanted to know what happened with Skeeter and Aibileen and even the crazy blonde.

Excellent book really opens your eyes the things that happened in our history and helps your realize how far kindness can go.

Hunger Games...

I think I enjoy books and movies when you have no idea what they're about until you read them. I was number 37 for this book at the library so my loving hubby found an audio book that we listened to on our drive to Oregon. When we arrived there at 2 in the morning, I had to keep listening.

When we got home from our trip we downloaded the other two audio books and listened to them in the evenings or while doing things around the house. Oh my goodness, such intense books I couldn't have waited between them. I had to find out what happened. I won't ruin it for any of you, but the ending was very well done. And she got the guy I wanted her to :)

This book was really amazing. I want to be able to dissect it and really understand the meaning like I used too, but oh man it was SO good! It's extremely sickening to even think about, children killing children for amusement. Like some sort of extreme survivor. I can't even fathom that it happened - the arena in ancient Rome.

Suzanne plays on all of our human emotions: fear, love, sympathy, greed, arrogance, patience...everything! She exaggerates our actions and it really makes you take a look at yourself and who you are and areas that you need to improve.

At the end of the series there's an excerpt from the author and she explains where she got the idea from and what she wants us to get out from the book. I recommend you look into it. It really helped me.

All I can really say is WOW


(and of course there making a movie coming out 2013)

'The Hunger Games' 3

Summer has been so busy lately that I've neglected to read our books for the past couple of months. Thanks to Kimberly for letting me borrow her book this month or I probably wouldn't have been able to get my hands on it.

'The Hunger Games' was definitely an exciting read. I stayed up late every night last week because I just couldn't put it down. Once I finished it I stayed up even later with thoughts running through my head. I couldn't sleep. I even convinced Wesley to read this one, and he rarely reads novels. Now we are reading the second book 'Catching Fire' together. It's been fun.

Here are some of the thoughts that kept me awake all last week:

First of all it made me think of war and the brutality of it. It never leaves anyone the same, no matter the circumstances you experience it in (whether watching, or being in the thick of it or even just living close to those who have loved ones involved).

I also thought a lot about government and choices in this life. We are so blessed to have them. I can't imagine living in a world where so many things are controlled by someone so distant and withdrawn. The Hunger Games are all about power and keeping the lower classmen in their place. How sad it is that the government officials place so little value on the human life that they force people to murder for their own entertainment. It's a sick idea really, but not far from wars that take place today when you think about it.

Katniss was always so brave and at the same time lucky. She could have died so many times. I was touched by the acts of mercy/kindness in the arena. It shows how human they all were even in the midst of the horrors they were living. I think that in that kind of a situation it would be difficult to remember that you were really human, and that you could control what happens to you even though there are those who would make you think otherwise.

This book did NOT make me hungry!

I didn't even notice that The Hunger Games was on this list! I've been a terrible slack girls. I'm reading a lot but neglecting to look at our list. I did read this book however about a year ago. It's not one that I would say that I like, but it is an exceptional book. It has similar themes to 1984, Animal Farm...blah blah blah all the classics (not hating on those) that young people aren't likely going to pick up or read for fun.  This book series however brings up the issues of what is ethical in a government.
I just finished Catching Fire last week because the third book Mockingjay will be released on Tuesday and I'm interested to see how Suzanne Collins wraps it all up. I've been talking a lot about the books with my friend Erika and the girls she works with and we're all pulling for Gale to make a comeback.  Katniss's relationships are the light and fun part of the book to keep it from being overly depressing.  Only we're pretty sure that Peeta is going to die. Cause really who can't help but love the childhood best friend and want him to get the girl?
But back to the main story.  The bond between Rue and Katniss is a sensitive subject.  In the games each person fought for themselves, but they were really more powerful and better at surviving when they formed allegiances. I thought to myself how I would survive in the area. Quite likely I'd probably just be knocked off in the bloodbath.  The mindset that all of the characters were "raised" with is so much different than mine though.  Katniss killed animals for survival all of the time and when it came down to life in the arena she was ready to do what she had to. I cried one time when I killed a fish. Literally broke down. Yep. I'd be dead fast.
Well without having read the first book recently I'm just going to leave my thoughts here and I'm excited to see what everyone else thinks!

The Hunger Games

I haven't seen any posts on July's book, Infidel, so I am assuming that no one read it?? I was on a waiting list (surprise, surprise) and so I am reading it right now. It is very interesting, and often sad, to discover the way that people live in other countries. We are so blessed! I am only about 1/3 through it, but I would recommend that you all read it if you ever get the chance.

So . . . The Hunger Games! I had heard about this book quite awhile ago from an old roommate. She raved about this book, so I decided to give it a try since we usually have similar tastes in literature. I will admit that I did not expect a recommendation of such a - shall I say barbaric? - book from her. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed it because I think that my tastes can sometimes be a little more rough around the edges when it comes to books that include action/violence.

I found myself immediately sucked into the story. I found it so creative and intriguing. I began having dreams related to the book; sometimes during the day when my mind would wander, I would imagine up unlikely "what if" scenarios in which I would have to use my strength and brains to survive. Suffice it to say, it didn't take me long to finish this book and go on to read the second one in the series, Catching Fire. . . If you thought that the first book was incredulous, just you wait! I guess the third book in the series is coming out at the end of this month and I look forward to reading it some time in the future. While I was reading this book I couldn't help think to myself what a cool movie it would make.

Hope that those of you who are reading it are enjoying it! I look forward to reading your thoughts on it.

The Screwtape Letters

This book is very interesting to me, but often difficult to understand. I read it shortly after graduating from high school and remembered it being confusing and hard to comprehend. I thought that this time around a few years later it would be more clear to me, but to my dismay it wasn't. It is so hard to think of everything backwards and get into that kind of mindset. I can't imagine what it was like for C.S. Lewis to write this book; to write something from the perspective of a devil. But his insights into human nature and the way the devil works are so keen.

I especially liked the part about humility which I quoted in my own personal blog awhile ago. I also remember liking the part in which he describes how women grow up with distorted images of what the world tells them they are supposed to look like. I believe he described it as looking like boys (aka no curves). It has recently occurred to me that we are supposed to have curves. It is normal, and it is the way that we were created. And, get this, guys like them! Maybe you have known this for awhile, but it is a new revelation to me which helps me accept myself the way I am and realize that I can be attractive.

Anyways, I wanted to quote my absolute favorite part of the book, so here it is:

" . . . the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts . . . "

This is so true! Of course we aren't tempted to go out and murder someone in a fit of rage (hopefully), but it is the small and seemingly insignificant "little" sins that will slowly lead us away from God and before we know it, we will find ourselves out in the "Nothing." Let us beware of the things which do "easily beset us" and avoid them so we are not taken in by the devil's snares!


P.S. Sorry my post is a month late, but I didn't get a hold of the book until the very end of June.

P.P.S. The book I chose for August, The Hunger Games, is very popular so you will want to get on a waiting list at the library as soon as possible!