The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Storyby Diane Ackerman

I have posted my thoughts about this book - which I loved - on my book blog. It was my eighth - and final - book for this challenge in 2008. I look forward to some limited participation in this challenge in 2009. Thanks, Vasilly!

Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

Published in 2007. 413 pages.


Reading Escape, the memoir of a former polygamist wife in the FLDS Church - the cult formerly led by Warren Jeffs - is a bit like driving past a bad car accident on the freeway: one isn't sure that she really wants to see what happened but she can't help staring anyway.

A compelling read - I read nearly the whole thing in one day - Jessop's account illustrates the evil of a religion that teaches that women and children are a man's property and that discourages education and individual thought. The book could have used some better editing, as it sometimes rambles and repeats itself, but it's worth a look. Escape was a Salt Lake County Library's Reader's Choice pick for the second half of 2008.

(Cross-posted from my book blog.)

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faithby Anne Lamott

Published in 2007. 257 pages.


I read Anne Lamott's previous compilations of personal essays on faith - Traveling Mercies and Plan B - in 2006. (I posted some thoughts here.) I liked Grace (Eventually) about as well as Plan B but not as well as Traveling Mercies.

What I love most about Lamott's writing is that her spirituality is so "real." She takes her everyday struggles - with things like body image and her teenage son and "forgivishness" - and finds God in them. She shares her vulnerabilities with us, her readers, and we are strengthened as we realize that we, too, can receive God's grace.

Here are a few of my favorite passages:

Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking. [page 50]

When Jesus was asked about beauty, he pointed to nature, to the lilies of the field. Behold them, he said, and behold is a special word: it means to look upon something amazing or unexpected. Behold! It is an exhortation, not a whiny demand, like when you're talking to your child - "Behold me when I'm talking to you, sinner!" Jesus is saying that every moment you are freely given the opportunity to see through a different pair of glasses. "Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." But that's only the minor chord. The major one follows, in his anti-anxiety discourse - which is the soul of this passage - that all striving after greater beauty and importance, and greater greatness, is foolishness. It is untimately like trying to catch the wind. Lilies do not need to do anything to make themselves more glorious or cherished. Jesus is saying that we have much to learn from them about giving up striving. He's not saying that in "Get over it" way, as your mother or your last, horrible husband did. Instead he's heartbroken, as when you know an anorexic girl who's starving to death, as if in some kind of demonic possession. He's saying that we could be aware of, filled with, and saved by the presence of holy beauty, rather than worship golden calves. [pages 79-80]

The best way to change the world is to change your mind, which often requires feeding yourself. It makes for biochemical peace. It's almost like a prayer: to be needy, to eat, to taste, to be filled, building up instead of tearing down. You find energy to do something you hadn't expected to do, maybe even one of the holiest things: to go outside and stand under the stars, or to go for a walk in the morning, or in such hard times, both. [pages 252-253]

(Cross-posted from my book blog.)

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novelby Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel

Published in 2006.
64 pages (according to amazon.com, as the pages aren't numbered).
Robert F. Sibert Honor Book in 2007.


To Dance, a children's graphic novel recommended to me by my goodreads friend george, is a delightful look at the life of an aspiring ballerina.

(Cross-posted from my book blog.)

Lucky Man: Memoir by Michael J. Fox

Originally published in 2002.
Unabridged audio book read by Michael J. Fox and Scott Brick.


A big fan of Michael J. Fox back in the Family Ties days, I enjoyed reading an excerpt of his memoir in Reader's Digest a number of years ago. Recently I had to take a short road trip by myself, so I picked up a few audio books from the library to keep me occupied and entertained. One of those was Lucky Man.

The first of the nine CDs was read by Fox himself. As I started the second disc, at first I was disappointed to hear the new reader - but Fox's personality quickly came through. Smart, honest, and funny, this was a great read. Or perhaps I should say "great listen"?

For more about Fox's work to fight Parkinson's disease, visit The Michael J. Fox Foundation Website.

(Cross-posted from my book blog.)

Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell

Subtitled Lessons I Learned From the Freedom Writers.
Published in 2007. 265 pages.


Last year I read The Freedom Writer's Diary by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell and also watched the movie based on the book, Freedom Writers. At that point I planned to read Erin Gruwell's memoir of that same experience - and I got to it this month.

I enjoyed this just as much as I did the first book, and it added some information about Gruwell's personal life (including her marriage), a run she made for Congress, and how the film came to be. I think it was good for me to wait for a while after reading The Freedom Writer's Diary before reading this book. That way I got to experience the emotions I felt all over again.

I'd recommend this book to teachers and parents and anyone else who enjoys a powerful story.

Cross-posted from my book blog.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Originally published in 1969; 281 pages.


I was mesmerized by Maya Angelou's lyrical presentation of the high and low points of the first eighteen years of her life. Poignant and meaningful, each chapter recounts part of the life experiences that made Angelou the adult she became. These experiences include being raped at age eight by her mother's boyfriend, learning to love books through the encouragement of an adult friend, being subjected to numerous acts of racism, and working as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

My full review can be found on my book blog.

This is my first book for this challenge.

My Picks

There are so many great possibilities for this challenge! Because the rules allow me to choose the number of books I read, I've decided to list all the titles I'd like to read - and then we'll see how far I get!

Note: I will be cross-listing my "In Their Shoes" picks with the Triple 8 Challenge (in - surprise, surprise - my "In Their Shoes" category). Because I have to read eight books in each category to complete that challenge, I am committed to read at least eight of these titles in 2008.

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
  by Barbara Kingsolver (2007)


• Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet (2007)


• A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle (1972)


• Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
  by Anne Lamott (2007)


• I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy (1995)


• I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (2006)


• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
  by Maya Angelou (1970)


• Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007)


• iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It by Steve Wozniak (2006)


• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life Of Alice B. Sheldon
  by Julie Phillips (2006)


• John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth
  by Elizabeth Partridge (2005)


• Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid
  by Jerry Spinelli (1998)


• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
  by Ishmael Beah (2007)


• Looking Back: A Book of Memories by Lois Lowry (2000)


• Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox (2002)


• The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
  by Sidney Poitier (2000)


• Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far by Amy Grant (2007)


• Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding Myself by Frances Kuffel (1995)


• Personal History by Katharine Graham (1998)


• Seeking Enlightenment ... Hat by Hat: A Skeptic's Guide to Religion by Nevada Barr (2003)


• Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer (2008)


• The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
  by Karen Armstrong (2004)


• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman (1985)


• Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers by Erin Gruwell (2007)


• Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond
  by Tiki Barber (2007)


• Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei
  by David Mura (1991)


• The Way Home: Scenes from a Season, Lessons from a Lifetime by Henry Dunow (2001)