Books of promise

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story
by Diane Ackerman

This is not an easy book to read: no book about Warsaw during World War II should be, I think. This non-fiction book focuses on the life of Antonina, the wife of the Warsaw Zoo head zookeeper during the war.

Why is this interesting? Her husband Jan was actively involved in the Resistance (to a degree that she was unaware of until after the war). Together, they were a stop on the Underground, helping Jews get out of the Warsaw Ghetto (and in many cases, to safety). But together, they also saw friends die, be sent away to labor and concentration camps, and they also saw the utter destruction of their zoo both through bombing and through deliberate action.

There are many heartbreaking scenes described in the book - but one of the ones that I least anticipated was when the German army comes to rip up any non-German plants (including a lush rose garden) because Polish plants are obviously inferior.

The other part I found fascinating about the book was that it’s a very clear example of how relatively small actions and steps can make a big difference in people’s lives. Many of Antonina’s actions were relatively small - but together, they helped people stay in hiding, helped keep them safe, and helped protect some significant research materials. She also, through much of the war, remembers her home as relatively happy, under the circumstances - there was music, and laughter, and because of Jan’s formal positions (and the assistance of other German-employed staff on the grounds) they generally had enough to eat and heat the house with (a rare situation in that time and place).

The book itself is a little bit scattered: at times, it jumps chronologically, or slides over information that I would have liked more detail about. But overall, it’s a fascinating and recommended read.

A Companion to Wolves
Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette

The basics

This is, as the authors describe, not the animal-companion book that you might have come to expect. They quite firmly take a lot of those tropes and stand them firmly on their head. I’ll join a number of other commentators here, and say that the two of them working together play beautifully to each other strengths: this book has evocative description, a sense of needing to keep your eyes open in case you miss something fascinating, and incredibly rich worldbuilding.

[I'll apologise here: my limited book budget means I do not yet own a copy of this, and the library copy had to go back before I got the brain to write this. I believe I'm accurate in terms of the summary/etc. below, but I'm not trying for most names or titles for fear of messing them up. The mix of language bases used - which I otherwise liked - meant that none of the precise terms stuck reliably in my memory and I keep second-guessing them.]

The basic premise is that there are trolls (who are nasty, and prone to destroying villages, killing people, and generally problematic.) There are villages with a geographic minor aristocracy - and there are the trellwolves and their human companions, who fight the trolls.

Each wolf bonds to a human - a male human - as it grows (but not instantly upon birth). While the wolf might survive the man, or the man the wolf (in which case, another bond may but does not always happen), it’s also a great loss. The wolves are governed by the alpha female - the queen wolf.

The story, in short, is the tale of Isolfr, who bonds to a young queen wolf, and of how they grow up together. Below the ‘more’ tag, I’m going to talk more about some details - I’m not actually talking about plot details as much as world-building details, but if you’re wanting to avoid spoilers, come back when you’ve read the book.

The actual coming-of-age pulled me in entirely (I admit, it’s a favorite theme of mine). That said, there is explicit sexuality in the book, some of it is fairly graphic (in the context of the wolves mating, and the effect it has on their bonded brothers) and that if you add the first two parts of the sentence together, yes, there are men having sex with men. Me, I think it’s totally appropriate in context, handled with a particular delicacy in some ways (as I discuss below), and made me think. But if you have issues with that, you probably want the warning. (It is possible to skip the page or two where the explicit stuff happens and pick up again and not miss too much, though you’ll miss a few minor hints of future plot developments.)

It’s a fantastic book, and one I think that will continue to deepen on re-reading. But really, I want to talk about other aspects of it now - like power, and ritualised roles, and informed consent, which is where we sort of hit spoilers. (Also, because I’m talking about this on the Pagan-focused book discussion blog, I’m talking about parts of this from that context, as you’ll see.)

Read the rest of this entry »

by Guy Gavriel Kay

This is more ‘classic’ Kay - a historical fiction/fantasy. In this case, there are some interesting themes from a Pagan viewpoint

The dominant tension is between two kingdoms: Gorhaut, who worship Corannos (a god), and Arbonne, who workship both Corannos and Riane (a god and goddess, in other words). Arbonne, in addition, is much like the Aquitaine of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s day: a healthy and vibrant troubrador and jongleur culture, courts of love, and other aspects of the time.

I adore Kay’s dense plotting, but more than that, in this book, I found the different approaches to power absolutely fascinating. You have various noble lords, who handle their power and responsibilities differently (and some far better than others.) You have the ruling widowed countess of Arbonne) and her daughter, now ruler over the Court of Love. You have priestesses, knights, jogleurs, and all sorts of intrigue and interrelationship.

Worth reading for the views on power, responsibilty, and ethics - even without the excellent story.

by Guy Gavriel Kay

All books are fodder for my brain - but this was a lovely example of ‘picking up the right book at the right time’.

This is a hard book to define. It has a 15 year old protagonist, and it includes a fairly substantial coming-of-age plot (which could put it squarely in the Young Adult genre). It has a strong sense of place (and of history). It has what is either a mythological underpinning, a fantastical one, or both (depending on how you view some aspects.) It has a lot of qualities I’d describe as urban fantasy (in terms of approach to magical and fantastic acts within the story), except that the setting is not really urban.

If I had to go for just one, I’d probably pick mythic fiction. But it’s a hard choice.

What I particularly like about this book is threefold: the evocation of place and that place’s history, the approach to “Yikes! Odd stuff happening!”, and the fact that it presents no easy answers. The writing is descriptive, and evocative. The challenges faced have no easy answers. And there are a lot of questions and discussion about what matters most - and when it’s time to let old gripes and grudges go.

It was, in short, a great book to be reading just before I got my 3rd degree.

After some consideration, I’ve decided to pull my book commentary out into a separate blog again. (Partly to make it easier to find things without cluttering up the Limen blog categories overly much.)

I’m transferring one post over here shortly, and will be adding a few others in the next few days.