June Book Review | Captain Freeman Inn

by Donna Cain

Hard to believe that June is almost over and the the 4th of July holiday almost upon us. For the month of June I read two great books!  I would recommend both for a good summer read.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman is a true war story set in Warsaw, Poland at the beginning of  WWII. It is filled with historical facts and actual quotes from the diaries of the main characters,  Antonina  and Jan Zabinski,  the Warsaw Zoo innkeepers. It’s a gruesome tale of how this family survived and the horrors they experienced when the Nazis invaded and occupied Poland. With the Nazi soldiers in close proximity to the zoo, this family managed to save the lives of over 300 Jews by hiding them in the destroyed buildings and the empty cages of the zoo. Stories of the horrors of war continued, as I learned of how they transported many of the exotic animals with the rest being killed by top ranking Nazi Officer’s in a hunting party.  All of the Jews were sectioned off in a section of Warsaw that they called the ghetto. Later when a high ranking Nazi officer wanted to impress Hitler by killing all of the Jews in Warsaw, they set that whole section of the city on fire. As with all of the war stories I have read, the Polish people rallied to help each other through some unbelievably cruel treatment to mankind.

I did find that the story, while being interesting, was a bit choppy. I found myself getting lost in some of the details that the author found important, such as Linden trees. Great read that made me want to visit Poland even more!

The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett.

I loved this book!

It’s a wonderful story about Shakespeare, antiquarian books, mystery, love and murder- all set in the English countryside. The story jumps from Shakespeare’s time in the 1600’s to the 1990’s when a grieving widower is on a mission to validate a volume that may have notes written on the sides by Shakespeare himself. The sub plot is about a watercolor that our main character, Peter Byerly finds in an old book that has an uncanny resemblance to his deceased wife. Since Peter is an antiquarian bookseller he is also called to the library of a local manor house near his cottage in Kingham, England to evaluate some old books. There he discovers some material which may link Shakespeare to one of his books. The plot flows very quickly until the thrilling end.

Happy 4th of July! The weather is beautiful, our pool warm and the gardens in full bloom. Consider a stay with us at the Captain Freeman Inn.