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Reading Round-Up: September 2012

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for September, 2012…

Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2), by Deborah Harkness – I’ve been calling the All Souls Trilogy “Twilight for the grad school set.”  If you’ve somehow missed the hype, this is the story of Diana Bishop, a witch who falls in love with a brooding, possessive vampire and manages to anger half the “creature” world, and also finds but then loses a mysterious alchemical manuscript called Ashmole 782 and manages to anger the other half.  In this installment, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to Elizabethan England, both to hide from their many vicious enemies and also to find a witch who can help Diana unlock her powers.  Great literature, this is not.  Meticulously detailed, fastidiously researched, sexy, attention-grabbing, and fun… it is.  As an Anglophile and history nut, I loved seeing the parade of historical figures trot through Shadow of Night (Matthew is a member of the mysterious School of Night and friends with Walter Raleigh, Henry Percy, Thomas Harriott, and Christopher Marlowe… and Shakespeare makes the occasional appearance… and Matthew and Diana spend time at the courts of Queen Elizabeth and Rudolf, the Holy Roman Emperor… good stuff all around).  Okay, so I’m not bragging about having been sucked into this trilogy… but I will definitely be reading the third book.  And I hear the movie’s been picked up… I vote for Daniel Craig as Matthew.  He’s perfect, yes?

The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton (Laurence Bartram #3), by Elizabeth Speller – So, I did an oopsie and started reading this book without realizing it was part of a series.  I was really confused for 50 pages or so, at which point I discovered two things: (1) there were two other books before this one; and (2) I was now in too deep and had to keep going.  Laurence Bartram, World War I veteran and church expert, is called to the strange town of Easton Deadall to lend his expertise to the squire’s widow, who has an ancient church to remodel.  There, he finds the town still haunted by the memory of young Kitty Easton, who disappeared from the squire’s mansion when she was five years old.  Then a housemaid disappears and a body is discovered in the church, and Laurence wonders if there is a connection between these recent events and the long-cold case of Kitty Easton.  I really enjoyed this literate, well-written, chilling mystery – once I figured out who everyone was and how they knew each other.  (And the confusion, again, is my fault.  I need to do my homework before jumping into the middle of a series because I saw the third book on a book blog.  D’oh.)  I’d definitely recommend the series to fellow Anglophiles and lovers of the literate, historical mystery.  And I’m planning to find the first Laurence Bartram book and start from the beginning now.

Storm in the Village (Fairacre #3), by Miss Read – Whenever life gets to be more than I can handle, I like to turn to comfort reading to get me through.  Lately, my favorite comfort reading has been Miss Read’s gentle yet sly renderings of English village life.  I was starting to get really frustrated and depressed over life as a NICU mom, so I called in the troops (a.k.a. Miss Read, Miss Clare, the Annetts, the Patridges, Mrs Pringle, Miss Jackson and the schoolchildren) to perk me up.  It worked, as I knew it would.  Still, although they made me smile, life was no bed of roses in Fairacre in this installment.  The atomic energy plant is looking to build a housing estate for its workers, and they want Hundred Acre Field, a picturesque area between Fairacre and Beech Green.  This means more buses and better plumbing, yes, but it also means hoardes of people and the despoiling of a landscape frequently depicted by beloved local artist Dan Crockford.  And, to make matters worse, Fairacre School might close.  Say it ain’t so!  Miss Read and the villagers must band together to defeat the housing estate plan and save the soul of the village.  The Fairacre books are sweet and fun, witty with a slight edge, and all-around perfect for lifting the spirits.

Just these three books in September.  It was a tough month for me, spending eight or more hours every single day in the NICU.  My days of sitting for hours with a book are definitely in the past, at least for awhile.  Still, I liked what I did read this month.  I started out with a bit of guilty pleasure (it’s no Twilight, but Shadow of Night was still a vampire book – look, Mom, I’m trendy!), then discovered a new mystery series to follow, and finished with some comfort reading in Fairacre.  I’m hoping to get my reading groove back in October and have a few more books to report to you at the end of the month.

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Light at the End of the Tunnel

A certain little miss pulled out her feeding tube.  (This is something she has been actively trying to do for seven weeks.)  Since she was doing reasonably well with her bottles, the nurses decided to leave it out and see how things went from there… and Peanut hasn’t looked back.  Apparently she’s decided she is a big girl now and she’s D-O-N-E with the NICU.  Which is to say, we’re looking at discharge as early as tomorrow (OMG, wouldn’t that be wonderful?) so hubby and I are currently running around like two chickens who thought they were prepared to get their heads cut off but suddenly realized that they had to install baby monitors and do one more load of laundry and hang pictures and organize a diaper drawer and and and… sorry, I’ve been in the NICU every day for going on two months and I seem to have misplaced my brain.  All this is just to tell you that I’m swamped today and I’ll be back to regularly scheduled bookish posting on Friday.  With… hoping against hope… a little baby in the house.  Wish me luck.

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Celebrating the Freedom to Read

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling(Image Source)

So, Banned Books Week was last week.  Last year, for Banned Books Week ’11, I had a well-thought-out post ready to share with you all.  I hadn’t read a banned book in celebration, like many book bloggers, because I was staggering under library deadlines (those holds shelves, my blessing and my curse).  I was, however, reading a book that discussed the dangers of censorship to a free society – In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson, which talked about the rise of Hitler’s Nazi Germany as witnessed by the American Ambassador and his family.  It was a chilling read that illustrated the ease with which a totalitarian regime can take power if people turn a blind eye.  The book itself wasn’t a banned or challenged book, but I thought it was an appropriate choice for Banned Books Week.

This year, Banned Books Week snuck up on me and I didn’t really do anything to mark it.  (With a baby in the NICU, I’m lucky if I can remember the days of the week.  Seriously.  Several times, I’ve gone to check the mail and been perplexed to find the box empty, only to realize that it’s Sunday.)  But as it happened, I was reading a book that, while not banned or challenged (yet) is by an author who is no stranger to banned books lists: J.K. Rowling.  Her new book, The Causal Vacancy, is going to make some people uncomfortable, with its discussions of drug addiction, teen sex and depression, among other touchy topics.  Many of the characters are vile… but it’s a realistic portrayal of small town life.  And the very realism of it all is going to upset people.  (As an aside: poor J.K. Rowling.  She writes about wizards and her books get challenged for being pagan – which is ridiculous.  Then she writes about muggles real people and the critics jump all over her for being too mundane.)

But here’s the cool thing: I can read The Casual Vacancy, or anything else that I want, because J.K. Rowling has, and other writers have, the freedom to write and publish these books and I have the freedom to purchase them.  I can choose to support an author or not, to read a book or not.  No one makes the decision about what to read on my behalf.  No one dictates my choices.  I thank our Founding Fathers, and the drafters of our U.S. Constitution, for that.  And I also thank the millions of men and women who have died to protect my freedom (and the freedom of others) over the centuries.  And the booksellers and the librarians who make books available so that people can decide what they want to read.  And my parents and teachers, for encouraging me to seek out books and develop my own literary tastes.

I’ve never understood censorship.  If you don’t like a book, don’t read it.  But don’t take away others’ right to decide for themselves what they’ll read and what they won’t.  The freedom to decide what you want to write or read seems like a small thing.  Minor, even, in comparison to other – flashier – rights we enjoy.  But it’s tied to our Constitutionally protected freedom of speech.  I’ll always be grateful that I can say what I want, write what I want, and read what I want.  To me, that’s what Banned Books Week is about – celebrating our freedom to choose for ourselves what we will read… and write… and say.

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Reading Round-Up: August 2012

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for August, 2012…

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1), by Catherynne Valente – September is a young girl growing up in Omaha, whose life is rather boring until one day, when a Green Wind comes to her window and spirits her away to Fairyland on the back of a Leopard.  But rather than the dreamy wonderland she expects, September finds a Fairyland mired in conflict and ruled by an evil Marquess.  I loved this sweet, incredibly creative addition to the young adult genre.  September was a lovely heroine, her friends were stalwart and brave, and funny too, and the Marquess was a deliciously evil counterpoint – but one with a backstory.  I’ll be eagerly anticipating the next installment.  Fully reviewed here.

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise, by Julia Stuart – I really enjoyed this sweet, whimsical, yet sad tale of a Beefeater who is put in charge of Her Majesty’s Royal Menagerie.  Balthazar Jones is as surprised as anyone when he is tapped for this exceedingly smelly task – and his wife, Hebe Jones, decides it’s the last straw.  Balthazar’s and Hebe’s stories are interspersed with the stories of other residents of the Tower of London.  I laughed and cried, sometimes on the same page.  Recommended to fellow Anglophiles, or to anyone who loves a good story with some exceptionally quirky characters.  Fully reviewed here.

Shine Shine Shine, by Lydia Netzer – I had to try this one out after seeing rave review after rave review in the book blogosphere, and Shine Shine Shine has earned every bit of positive press it’s gotten.  The story of the crumbling marriage between astronaut Maxon Mann and his Stepford wife, Sunny, is touching and riveting.  Sunny’s perfect life comes crashing down when she gets into a car accident and loses her wig, revealing to the entire neighborhood that she is, in fact, completely bald.  Meanwhile, Maxon’s rocket has experienced an accident in space, and he may not come home.  The question is – does Sunny want her husband back?  Shine Shine Shine was beautiful and powerful.  Loved.  Fully reviewed here.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – I’d been meaning to read this, it seemed, forever.  I really enjoyed this perennial TBR-sitter once I made the time for it.  The imagery was beautiful and the story was captivating.  I can see why it’s a classic, for sure – lovely.

My August reading pretty much ground to a halt about two-thirds of the way through the month, when my baby girl arrived two months early.  Still, I enjoyed every one of the books I did read this month, so I’m calling it a win.  My reading lists will be a little bit lighter from now on, for awhile (in volume, that is – I’m still shooting for all good, enjoyable books).  But I’m still reading, and my September book list is coming up next week, so stay tuned!

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Peanut: One Month

Uhhhh… wow, where did this month go?  I’m writing this post on Peanut’s one month birthday (although it will post in October). Part of me can’t believe she’s already a month old.  But part of me is sort of expecting her to graduate from college soon, because this month has felt like an eternity.  Hubby and I have spent all day, every day, sitting in the NICU – holding Peanut, reading to her, singing to her (over the beeping monitors and blaring alarms), talking to her doctors, laughing at her funny facial expressions, crying when she’s sick, and waiting, waiting, waiting until the day when we can finally bring her home.  One month in, we still don’t know when that will be.

It’s been a rough month.  Long days, stressful moments, and noises so irritating and constant that our ears are ringing when we leave.  I’m told that one day I’ll look back on this fondly.  I sure hope so… but it hasn’t been all bad.  It’s hard for life to be all bad when I have this face to look at:

Okay, so I’m biased, but I’m sure you all agree with me: this kid is freaking adorable, yes?  I think she’s the cutest baby ever born.  Bar none.

I’ve gotten a lot of advice handed to me this month.  All new parents do, I know, but the advice I’m getting is a little different.  Sleep all night while you still can, take care of yourself, don’t sweat the diapers you’re not changing or the feedings you’re not doing because there will be plenty more to come… and one special piece of advice that I am really, really trying to follow.  Hubby and I met up with my boss’s wife for coffee one day – she kindly came to meet us at the hospital and shared her own experiences as a NICU alum, and she told me to make memories.

I’ve been feeling cheated, robbed of Peanut’s first weeks.  It’s hard, as a new mom, to have to ask permission to hold your own baby.  I didn’t get to give her first bath or change her first diaper, and even though I was able to hold her just a few hours after she was born, I still feel like I’ve missed out on so much with Peanut.  But I can still make memories with her – they’ll just be different memories.  When I bathe her through her isolette portals and she screams her little head off and throws her paci at me, that’s a memory.  I gave her her first bottle (she spat most of it out) and dressed her in her first little shirt from home.  Those are memories.  And every time I hold her in my arms and sing Jack Johnson’s “We’re Going To Be Friends” quietly into her little ear during Kangaroo Care, I’m making really special memories that I’ll cherish later.

Peanut at one month old…

Likes…

  • Snuggling with Mommy during Kangaroo Care
  • When Daddy holds her paci for her
  • Listening to Mommy sing Jack Johnson, Janis Joplin, John Lennon and the Cornell Alma Mater
  • Being cozy and warm in her swaddle
  • Having food in her tummy
  • When the nurses pick her up and sit her so she can see the world outside her isolette
  • Having her hands free so she can touch her face
  • Sucking her thumb (when she can find it)

Dislikes…

  • Baths!
  • Having her diaper changed
  • Having her temperature taken
  • Her bow hat (but she wears it anyway, because the grown-ups love it and we’re bigger)
  • When her feeds stop (generally only if she’s sick… but it makes her mad, and I don’t blame her for a minute)
  • The Canadian national anthem (she doesn’t mind the tune, since she will listen politely to Daddy sing as long as he changes the words, but she screams if we sing the actual lyrics… this is a problem, since she’s part Canadian)

Nicknames…

Obviously, we both call her “Peanut” – but Mommy and Daddy each have our own roster of nicknames for the kid, too.

Mommy: Angel Cake, Squishy Face, Beauty, Wiggles, Squirmy Worm

Daddy: Little E, Little Buddy, Princess, Squirmies, Honey Badger Kit

(And Daddy once tried out “Smemily” – it had been awhile since she had a bath – but Mommy froze him out and he won’t use that one again.)

It’s been quite a month.  There have been plenty of tears, but there’s been plenty of laughter too.  I can’t wait to see what the next month will bring – I hope it includes the magical Discharge Day!  But no matter what, I’m so grateful for every second that I’ve gotten to spend with this precious little girl this month… so in awe of the fact that hubby and I made someone this beautiful… so glad that I get the honor of being her mom.

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Where We Are

First things first: a gratuitous Peanut picture.

So… wow, where did September go?  Here it is, October 1st, and here I am, as promised.  And here’s where we are:

  • Still in the NICU.  Hubby and I get in around 8:00 each morning and typically stay there for eight or nine hours.  They’re full days – talking to the doctors and nurses, doing basic care tasks (taking Peanut’s temperature and changing her diapers, and giving her baths every few days), holding Peanut for Kangaroo Care and working with her on eating keeps us busy the entire time.  We’re not sure when we’ll be leaving, but we hope it won’t be too much longer.  We’re both starting to get NICU burn-out.
  • Still working on Peanut’s room.  We’re basically ready in case she comes home earlier than anticipated – we’ve got a crib and baby monitor, and we’re stocked with diapers and wipes and first-aid supplies and all those other baby incidentals.  It’s just little decorative items that we need to finish, and we’re doing a bit each evening when we come home.  Blog posts to come detailing the progress and (soon!) the finishing touches.
  • Still reading.  It’s been hard to squeeze book time in – my days of reading for hours straight are in the past, at least for now.  (Maybe there’s a Mommy-Daddy vacation in the cards a few years from now?)  But reading is an immensely comforting act for me, so I’m still doing it – and focusing on “comfort books” like Miss Read’s Fairacre series, and laugh-out-loud funny reads like Mark Helprin’s Freddy and Fredericka (about a hapless Prince and Princess of Wales who are sent to reconquer the former Colonies in order to prove their fitness for the throne).  My “Reading Round-Ups” are going to be a bit shorter than usual for awhile, but I will never stop reading.
  • Still adjusting.  I’m completely in love with Peanut, but it’s hard to feel 100% like a mom when you have to ask someone else’s permission to hold your own baby.  NICU alums have told me not to sweat that I’m not changing every diaper or waking up for 3:00 a.m. feedings yet, and that there are plenty of those moments in store for me in the future.  And I’ve eased up a lot on myself as a result of that excellent advice.  But it’s still hard to view myself as a mom when I have to walk away and leave her in the hospital, or when she’s crying and I can’t pick her up and soothe her immediately because she’s in an isolette.  I’m not saying this because I want people to feel sorry for me – I don’t.  We all have our different journeys, in parenthood and in life, and these are the cards that I’ve drawn.  And there are moments when Peanut is crying and someone hands her to me and she stops crying, when it’s as if a light goes on and I think “Oh, yes, I am her mom!”  But life as a NICU mom is very different from what I thought my new mommyhood would be, and I’m still learning to think of myself as Peanut’s mom and not simply as the lady who shows up to play with her and get in everyone’s way every day.  I’ll get there.

So it hasn’t been the easiest September, but I’d still rather have Peanut in my life than anything else.  I’m not sure how we all got along for so many years without this lovely little spirit.  And now I’m back here, too.  I’ve missed you guys and I’m ready to go back to posting three times per week (sticking to a M, W, F schedule).  Thank you for giving me the space I needed to get through September, and thank you for coming back here.  You are all a blessing!

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She Just Couldn’t Wait…

Just coming up for air to announce that on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012, at exactly 5:06 p.m., hubby and I welcomed our daughter into the world.  She is two months early and to say that we were surprised to see her would be an understatement.  Now that she’s here, we are so unbelievably in love with little Peanut… who is actually…

But we’ll keep calling her Peanut on here, because… well… she is one.  She’s a tiny little bundle, which is to be expected considering she insisted on being born at 31 weeks pregnant instead of 40 weeks.  (Apparently Peanut has inherited her dorky parents’ tendency for being embarrassingly early to parties, only she’s taken it to new levels by showing up two months before her own birthday party.)  But even though she’s tiny, Peanut is a feisty little lady who made her entrance with eyes wide open, looking around at the world when she was only moments old, and who is constantly impressing us with how amazing she is at this young age.  She’ll have a few weeks’ stay in the NICU while she gets nice and pudgy so we can bring her home and show her all her fun toys and clothes and her cute nursery, which we are obviously still working on.

This has been a pretty harrowing ordeal, as you might imagine.  I went from blissfully on vacation (babymooning in New York City), with no real indication that Peanut might be an early arrival… to strict doctor-ordered bed rest in a last-ditch attempt to hold Peanut in for a few more weeks… to becoming a mommy to an incredibly gorgeous preemie… all in seven days flat.  The time in between was full of unbelievable highs and lows and lots of tears of both the happy and sad variety (sometimes at the same time).  I was planning to share a birth story on here, but I’m really REALLY not ready.  It was both the worst and best week of my life, and I’m completely overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted right now.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell you how it all went down… we’ll see.

Now that Peanut is here, she’s captured our hearts completely and we couldn’t be happier.  But we’re still going through a challenging time as a family as we learn to be parents in the NICU.  So I’m going to take a bit of a break from blogging.  My life currently revolves around this little girl and she needs every ounce of love and attention I can give her.  I can’t really focus on anything else at the moment.  So let’s meet back here in about a month, on October 1st.  (I will respond to comments in the meantime, and I’ll still be reading and commenting on other blogs – I just need to take this time off as hubby and I adjust to being Mommy and Daddy and help Peanut grow big enough to come home with us ASAP.)

See you in October… and in the meantime, please keep us in your thoughts and cross your fingers for Peanut!  I’m sure she will be running around terrorizing us all in the blink of an eye.  In the meantime, we’ll be off enjoying our sweet baby girl.

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Checking One Off The TBR

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel…

(Image Source)

Most avid readers I know have a TBR (“To Be Read”) list, whether they call it that or something else.  I have a long one, and I’ve written before about how insane it gets.  Sometimes books cycle on and off my TBR quickly – especially when they’re new releases that I read about on a book blog, reserve at the library, and then have to finish in one borrowing period because they have wait lists attached.  Other times, they sit.  And sit… and sit… and sit.  Staring me in the face.  Making me feel guilty.

Umberto Eco books are particularly good at staring me in the face and making me feel guilty.  But not as good as the ultimate TBR-sitter, which in my case is One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Really, really, I have no excuse for not reading this book sooner.  I’ve been meaning to get to it for years.  It’s a Nobel Prize winner, everyone seems to love it, and heck, even Oprah found the time.  It’s been at the top of my Goodreads “to-read” list forever, and every time I log in there and check out the books I’m planning to read, it mocks me.

So, I finally checked it out of the library.  Didn’t get around to it, so I renewed it.  Again, didn’t get around to it, so I renewed it again.  And now I’m on my third renewal period, which is all that’s allowed for one book.  (Don’t worry – my library branch has multiple copies.  I’m not preventing anyone from checking out One Hundred Years of Solitude, I promise, and if I don’t finish it on this renewal period I can check out another one of the five copies on the shelf.)  But I think I’m really going to get through it.  I finally made myself sit down and crack the spine, and now I’m halfway through and really enjoying it so far.  The imagery is beautiful – at one point, early in the story, a character looks out a window and sees a soft rain of yellow flowers coming down.  Can’t you just picture that?  Don’t you just wish it rained flowers where you live?

I’ve spent a much-needed lazy weekend on the couch with Garcia Marquez, and I’m just sorry that I didn’t get around to One Hundred Years of Solitude earlier.  Full review coming when I finish it (soon, I’m sure), and in the meantime, I’m just proud of myself for finally tackling the book after meaning to for so long.

What books are sitting on your TBR?  Pick an old one and tackle it this week!

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SHINE SHINE SHINE

Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer

Shine Shine Shine is a portrait of a marriage that may or may not be crumbling.  Maxon and Sunny have known each other since they were 7 and 6 years old, respectively, and Maxon has loved Sunny all that time.  Sunny loves Maxon too, fiercely.  But beyond their love, their marriage is based on their status as outsiders.  Maxon is an autistic genius; Sunny has a rare condition in which she was born completely bald.  Maxon and Sunny were “different together” and that other-ness bound them… until the day when Maxon decided it was time to have a baby and Sunny decided that she couldn’t be anyone’s mother without hair.  Now their son, Bubber, is in grade school.  Sunny has an expensive set of wigs, and they’ve moved to an exclusive neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia, where nobody knows the secret of Sunny’s bald head.  Sunny tries desperately to fit in with the neighborhood, forcing normality on Maxon and Bubber.

Then everything changes.  Maxon goes to space on a NASA mission to establish a robot colony on the moon.  While he’s gone, Sunny is juggling her autistic son, her second pregnancy, and her dying mother.  Things come to a head (literally) when Sunny and Bubber are in a car accident and Sunny’s blonde wig flies out the window in full view of the entire neighborhood.  With her secret out, Sunny begins to re-examine her life choices.  But then Maxon’s rocket suffers an accident and jeopardizes the lives of the crew.  Is Sunny’s awakening too late to save her marriage – and will her husband come home at all?

Shine Shine Shine was an incredibly creative book.  I suppose it’s to be expected that when you have two protagonists who are so very different and “other,” the book itself is going to be different.  I loved it.  I loved the flashbacks and insights into Sunny and Maxon’s relationship, the discoveries Sunny makes about herself and her neighbors, and Maxon’s musings on life through a series of mathematical formulas.  Shine Shine Shine is an intense book, not for the faint of heart.  But it’s a rewarding book – a book that lets the reader into the minds and hearts of two unique characters, lets you watch Sunny and Maxon’s love grow, lets you root for Sunny to get her head on straight and Maxon to get his rocket fixed.  It’s not an easy read, but it’s one that will stay with you long after you finish the last page.

Get the book!  Shine Shine Shine, by Lydia Netzer (Not an affiliate link)

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THE TOWER, THE ZOO AND THE TORTOISE

The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by…

Balthazar Jones is a Beefeater – one of the traditional guards of the Tower of London, whose functions have evolved over the centuries from guarding condemned prisoners to directing tourists to the lavatories and answering questions such as “Which tower did they keep Princess Diana in after her divorce?”  And while Balthazar has a job that many would covet, he also has a LOT of problems.  For one thing, Buckingham Palace has recently decided to move the Queen’s Menagerie from the London Zoo back to its historic home at the Tower, and Balthazar has been tapped as the Keeper.  (The Queen caught wind of the fact that Balthazar is the proud owner of Mrs. Cook, the world’s oldest tortoise, and figured that tortoise expertise would naturally translate to other animals.)  Soon a load of animals has arrived at the Tower – including a foul-smelling zorilla, a pair of lovebirds who hate one another, a talking parrot, a bloodthirsty Komodo dragon, and a high-strung Etruscan shrew.  Then there are the penguins, which belong to the menagerie but have somehow gone missing… and the giraffes, which belong to the zoo but have somehow ended up with the menagerie.  And if Balthazar doesn’t have his plate full enough already, his wife Hebe Jones has decided that she’s had enough.  Now Balthazar has to figure out how to win back his wife… and meanwhile, the animals are creeping further and further into his heart too.

The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise was a sweet, funny, poignant read.  I loved both Balthazar and Hebe and rooted for them to work out their differences, which were rooted in a very sad family tragedy.  I knew that Balthazar and Hebe loved each other and were both grieving in their own ways, and I wanted to see them realize that about one another.  Aside from Balthazar and Hebe, the supporting cast was just as charming and engaging – there was Rev. Septimus Drew, the rat-hating, erotic-prose-writing vicar of the Tower’s church, who is secretly pining for Ruby Dore, landlady of the Tower pub “The Rack and Ruin”… the philandering Ravenmaster… the corpulent Yeoman Gaoler, who reluctantly takes charge of the Etruscan shrew… Valerie Jennings, who works with Hebe Jones at the London Underground Lost Property Office and is courted by Arthur Catnip, a ticket collector of limited height… and so many others, all of whom had charming and hilarious and sad stories.

Julia Stuart weaves all of these disparate threads together masterfully.  The book moves at a slow pace, and at first it seems that not much is happening, and that none of the storylines really coincide.  But by the end, the characters have come together in ways that show their true regard for one another, and the reader is rewarded for her patience with a satisfying conclusion.  I found The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise to be a sweet, gentle, uplifting read.  It made me laugh and cry and root for the characters from beginning to end.  And I learned a bit of Tower history in the meantime – oh, and the next time I visit the Tower I certainly won’t ask where the lavatories are.  Highly recommended.

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Get the book!  The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise, by Julia Stuart (not an affiliate link)