Once in a while I luck upon a book that helps ground me. The Zookeeper's Wife was definitely one of those. It is more than an interesting work of history, more than a fascinating look into the past. It is a book that reminds us of hope in the middle of despair; that even when fear is a constant companion--the goodness and heroism of people can shine brightly; and how fortunate we are to live in this country, at this time, with the problems we face now, because there have been many periods and places in history that are so much more terrifying than the things we face living here in the U.S. today. It also reminds me that we cannot turn a blind eye to the atrocities that others, in less "safe" countries, deal with everyday, even in our modern era. This book, based on the life events of Antonina Zabinski, the wife of the Warsaw Zookeeper during the WWII and the Nazi Occupation reveals the strength of a woman and her family who helped save over a hundred Jews and intellectuals through their most prized possession, the zoo. There may be times that Ackerman adds a tad too much flourish and I would have liked a bit of additional general information about Warsaw during the war. But overall what I loved most about this book is that although it takes place during a period of time when the far extreme of human cruelty and hatred was reaching its destruction across our world, it exposes one of the many pockets of hope and light and goodness that would not succumb to the evil around them.