Review: "The One Hundred Nights of Hero" by Isabel Greenberg - 4/5 Stars

"The One Hundred Nights of Hero" is a re-imagined take on the classic "The Arabian Nights".
Author and illustrator, Isabel Greenberg, weaves an enchanting tale about storytellers. I love reading books about books, and that goes double for stories about storytellers. If you're unfamiliar with "Arabian Nights", or any of the other re-tellings that have surfaced, the general plot is of a ruler who takes a different wife every night, presumably because after the wedding night, the wife is killed. The story follows the current wife who cleverly comes up with stories that end on such a cliffhanger, the ruler decides not to kill her for another day because he wants to keep hearing the rest of the story. Eventually, he falls in love with her.

Probably the biggest flip this story does, is the wife, Cherry, is not the one telling the stories. It's her maid and lover, Hero, who tells the stories to a would-be suitor who is determined to steal the Cherry's virtue. If he is successful, the Cherry's husband will kill her when he returns from a business trip. There is a lot at stake, here, and by agreeing to stay and try to help, Hero has cosigned herself to whatever fate befalls Cherry if they are discovered. Ironically, in a society where women aren't allowed to read or write or have any respect, Hero's stories are all about strong, powerful women challenging the social standards around them; and the would-be suitor (and guards, for that matter) are eating it up! Cherry and Hero's love is touching and so moving it brought me to tears a couple of times. You can't help but start rooting for them, even though the odds are stacked against these two ever finding their own happily-ever-after. If you enjoy stories of star-crossed, forbidden love, this is for you.

"Hero...we should have run away. We should have done it before I married him. We should have risked it. Now his guards watch us all day. And it's too late."

The illustrations are mostly black and white with some gold and blue tones thrown in occasionally. Currently, this book is only available in hardcover or on Kindle, but I highly recommend splurging for the hardcover. Some of the full page, and two-page spreads are filled with intricate details and subtle clues that I believe wouldn't translate well to an e-reader. The art style is sketchy, or reminiscent of cave drawings, which lends a sense of antiquity to the story. I felt like I was sitting around a campfire with a bunch of women exchanging stories.

Review: "The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story" by Diane Ackerman - 4/5 Stars

This book will break your heart, rob you of breath, and stun you in the most unexpected ways. Set in Warsaw during WWII, there was already the promise of tragic events to occur, and Diane Ackerman's novel did not disappoint on those notes. What I wasn't expecting were the little moments of humor Ackerman managed to sneak into this story about the characters (both human and animal) who lived in and moved through "The House Under a Crazy Star". Those humanizing and relate-able moments only made it more devastating when tragedy struck those characters.

And strike, it did. Again, and again, and again. No spoilers here, if you lived in Warsaw during this time, things were not going to go well. Probably some of the most painful scenes were actually reading about the fate of the zoo animals when the bombings began - and continued - and then some of the atrocities that befell the ones (un)lucky enough to survive the bombings. WARNING: If you have a hard time reading about animal cruelty or slaughter, this might be one to skip. I did a lot of skimming through these moments, and have serious reservations about watching the film for fear of what scenes the director may have decided to include.

Probably the remaining 75% of this book focuses more just on the sheer ingenuity and perseverance of the Polish citizens who refused to give up fighting and refused to surrender their humanity. The underground resistance was one of the most well-organized and successful groups of people I have ever read about. And Jan, the zookeeeper, both terrified and impressed me with his daring determination to "pull one over" on the German Nazi's at every available opportunity. There are many moments where I pictured him as a sort of Polish Jack Sparrow - a good man with a good heart, turned land-locked pirate in the face of monstrous people who'd forgotten how to be human. He wasn't a perfect man, and far from a perfect husband, but I truly believe he was a good man and always tried to do the right thing.

History buffs will enjoy the numerous passages where Ackerman brings us out of the plight of Antonina, the zookeeper's wife, and shares with us some cultural background or history of some relevance at that time. It doesn't take long to realize that these breaks aren't merely to infuse a history lesson into her novel, but to feed us clues about what might have been motivating the various characters on either side of this struggle during that time. It was fascinating reading about the historical nuggets and then putting those gems together to understand a little bit what was causing the different people involved to do and say what they did.

This story has its villains, it has its heroes, and it has animals. Many perish, but some are saved in the most unbelievable and surprising ways. Many of the villains were only too eager to take the credit for their deeds, while the heroes almost seemed embarrassed by the attention their heroics garnered after the war. That is probably best exemplified in the passage below:

"Jan always shied away from praise and underplayed his bravery, saying such things as: 'I don't understand all the fuss. If any creature is in danger, you save it, human or animal.'"