Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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“It is finished. The tale is told truthfully, and truth is no heavier, no more beautiful than lies.”

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: a novel of war and survival by Louise Murphy

October 19, 2025 by bjornsnipe Leave a Comment

Trigger warnings: child mutilation, graphic murder, dismemberment, torture, grievous and graphic depictions of wounds, profanity, graphic descriptions of nudity (including children), graphic depictions of childbirth, gas chambers, mass cremations, talk of rape in general, rape of a child shown on page. In the last few months of the Nazi’s occupation of Poland, two children are abandoned by their father and stepmother to increase the chances of all of them surviving. Left to find safety in the dense Bialowieza Forest, the two, renamed “Hansel” and “Gretel” […]

Filed Under: Fiction, History Tagged With: fairy tale reimagining, Invasion of Poland, Jewish children in the Holocaust, Louise Murphy

bjornsnipe's CBR17 Review No:135 · Genres: Fiction, History · Tags: fairy tale reimagining, Invasion of Poland, Jewish children in the Holocaust, Louise Murphy ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Pure-blooded animals for the Aryan to kill? Let’s get right on that.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

January 5, 2022 by elderberrywine 2 Comments

During the late 1930s, Antonina and Jan Źabiński, along with their young son Ryś, were leading an idyllic life as caretakers of a small zoo, set in a parklike setting on the bank of the Vistula River in the Old Town of Warsaw, Poland.  Antonina had a special gift for dealing with animals in need, and their villa, on the zoo grounds, was full of animals that need a bit of extra help, including Ryś’ pet badger, and was fondly known as “The House Under […]

Filed Under: History, Non-Fiction Tagged With: animals, Diane Ackerman, Invasion of Poland, Pet badger, Underground resistance, WWII

elderberrywine's CBR14 Review No:1 · Genres: History, Non-Fiction · Tags: animals, Diane Ackerman, Invasion of Poland, Pet badger, Underground resistance, WWII ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments


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