This World War II biography is written about Jan and Antonina Zabinksi. Jan was the Warsaw zoo’s zookeeper. Before the war, he and his wife lived in a villa at the zoo and enjoyed a home filled with strange and exotic pets, (besides the animals in the zoo, of course). It wasn’t unusual to see a hawk hopping throughout the house, or a baby lion being nursed. But what was once a beautifully strange and fulfilling way of life turned to a life of survival […]
Cest la vie said the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell
My book buying mirrors my father’s as dads are indeed the original hipsters. He’d pick up anything that looked interesting if it was cheap enough, and I’m pretty sure that’s how this book ended up on the family bookshelf. I was always intrigued, but man am I glad I waited until my 30s to read this because the passage of time has rendered it HILARIOUS. It ends with the speculation that Atari might turn it around with a new hit (spoiler alert: noooope), and contains […]
You’ve got sin in your blood
This is book two in the Blackshear Family series, and follows shortly after the ending of the first book. Once again, Ms Grant has ventured into unconventional territory with the heroine of the story who is a courtesan and former prostitute. I know that Loretta Chase has written one book with a courtesan, but that character wasn’t still involved with another man the way Lydia Slaughter is here. Lydia is a young woman who had to make her own way in the world, which meant […]
At least there’s no GD ghost bear.
I sit down to read A Breath of Snow and Ashes over a year after finishing the last Outlander book, A Fiery Cross, which for the uninitiated is literally just a tolerance test for how long a reader can stand the unabridged minutiae of unremarkable 18th century backwoods living, plus a sprinkling of UTTERLY BONKERS NONSENSE to trick them into believing much more is happening than is actually happening. That last sentence should hopefully provide some understanding as to why it took me so long […]
Nevertheless she persisted
I’d seen The Duchess Deal (2017) by Tessa Dare on some Cannonball reviews, and it looked interesting. I’d learned that Dare changed details about her love interest after Trump’s election because her alpha hero was rubbing her the wrong way. I appreciated the small nods to progressive feminist ideals throughout the book, the often funny banter between the leads, and the way she played with typical romantic tropes with her story. I also liked how the Duke and Emma slowly began to trust each other, but the […]
Of course, even the dragons are orderly in Prussia
After the previous novel’s odd pacing, Black Powder War was a refreshing change. While this one also involves a long journey since Temeraire, Laurence and his crew must return from China, it is a much more interesting (and dragon filled) journey. After a fire leaves the dragon transport needing repairs, the ship pulls into port at Macau where Laurence receives a message telling him to go to Istanbul to pick up three eggs with no moment to spare. Based on this, Temeraire’s crew decides to […]
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