We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

I still haven't seen the movie based on this book but having read it, I really look forward to watching it. The book was less focused on the family element than I thought it would be. The author spends most of his time introducing the readers to what it was like to buy a zoo and then learn how to run one. To me it's such an outlandish idea-buying a zoo-I found myself being baffled by the choice to do so but rooting for their success all the same. I loved the way Benjamin used his inexperience in being a zoo keeper as an advantage and an opportunity to approach problems in a new way. He didn't know the way things had always been done and so took the time to think things through and come up with creative solutions that were better for all parties involved, most especially the animals. Benjamin does touch on the difficult journey he travelled with his wife up to her death and then his own struggle with grief following her passing. It's touching and heartbreaking but it isn't as much a focus as you think it's going to be going in. He has a wonderful, dry, sarcastic, very British sense of humor that I couldn't get enough of. I cried a little, laughed a lot, and loved this story. I wish this adventurous family every success and happiness. 

You will find an official plot line description at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18921907-we-bought-a-zoo. 

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. Parts of it were so engaging I couldn't put it down then all the sudden whatever I found fascinating dropped off and the author picked up something different. There is a very long stretch in the middle that screams for editing. It goes on forever offering little to no value. And the end. Dang it! No matter how I felt about the rest of the book, I still wanted it to have a proper ending! But alas, no such luck. It just stops. Drops right off. The epitome of cliff hanger. This is the first of a trilogy and if someone gives me the next one I'll read it but I certainly won't pay for it. 

You will find an official plot line description at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158565-the-thinking-woman-s-guide-to-real-magic.

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini

Historical fiction is my favorite kind of fiction but I had a hard time loving Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. Dressmaker Elizabeth was too perfect. I can't love a character with no flaws or weak spots. That kind of pristine character is too inhuman and makes the whole novel ring false. By the end of the novel I felt like I do when I listen to a doting mother go on about her perfect child for too long. I found myself issuing the mental eye roll and an obnoxious "Puh-lease" each time Elizabeth accomplished yet another feat of brilliant loving kindness despite the insanity that was Mrs. Lincoln. The aspect I found redeeming was the little bit about Abraham Lincoln. I'm a fan of his so I like to imagine what he was like in his home with his family and I always enjoy perusing what others imagine he was like. I enjoyed Chiaverini's perspective of our 16th president in that setting.

You will find an official plot line description at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15808287-mrs-lincoln-s-dressmaker.

The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles by Katherine Pancol

I love a book with lots of characters and a couple subplots to go along with the main theme. Pancol's, The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles, definitely fulfilled my wishes in that respect. Beyond that, I was disappointed. I wish I was fluent in French so I could read this novel in its original format. I suspect a great deal of the linguistic magic was quite literally, lost in translation. 

The characters fell flat for me, leaving me detached from their trials and successes. The subplots are weak and often baffling as to their purpose and resolution. I don't like sports but I LOVE sports movies. I love the prevailing hero, the winner against all odds. What I love about sports movies is also what I look for in fiction. I want a hero. I want an underdog, at some point, to come out on top announcing victory against all odds. I didn't find a hero here. All the potential in the world exists for a number of heroes, but alas, not one comes forth with the passion of a big win. Main character, Joséphine, never takes her power back with the fervor I hoped to see. I want to jump up from my chair and shout "Atta girl!" or some other like sentiment but there's none of that here. Just quiet acceptance of the potential to make an impact and then the final curtain falls. 

This novel is right on the verge of taking its place among my favorite sports-movieesque novels, it just never quite makes it. Perhaps the most poignant aspect of my disappointment is that Pancol created characters struggling with some very difficult and heart wrenching challenges but even with the groundwork all laid, the passion in those trials is missing and the opportunity to create dynamic, vibrant, lasting characters is missed. The emotions are mentioned but more as credits rolling by. I couldn't feel for characters written without feeling.

You will find an official plot line description at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/809094664.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

I know I have confessed my love and admiration for Jodi Picoult before but seriously, she is my pen-wielding hero. Sage's journey into her grandmother's past and the resulting examination of her own present had me completely ensconced for the duration. I could not put this down. I stayed up half the night and read at every available moment until the final page. WWII is one of the most widely written about times in our history. Rightfully so, of course. It's hard to imagine another event that had such a dramatic impact on so many lives around the world. Picoult flexes her literary prowess by taking a story that's been told hundreds of thousands of times and presenting it in a way that pierces the reader's heart anew. Reading The Storyteller made me feel as though I was being introduced to the horrors of the Holocaust for the first time. Is there anything better in this entire world than a novel that has you crying and cheering and hoping and holding your breath? If there is, I cannot call it to mind just now... Thank you, Jodi Picoult, for the gift you've given me in the form of The Storyteller.

You will find an official plot summary at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/779919764.