Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Book Review: The Lady & The Panda

The Lady & The Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke
2.22.11 - 2.23.11
*library book

I was reading this for a book club at my local (awesome) book store, but I think I'm skipping the book club, because I'm grumpy. The book itself was good--I immediately, as in, within the first thirty pages, recommended it to my mom. The author clearly has an enormous, almost excessive, amount of adoration for her subject matter, but that didn't detract from the book in the way I initially feared it might.

The subject matter was interesting, and made me ask a lot of questions--she devoted her life (successfully) to pandas on what seems like a whim. I also wonder about the "successfully" adjective--I wonder how much of the zoo system she actually changed, or influenced. Reading about her releasing the panda felt like reading a fiction novel, which I really enjoyed. Reading about her ongoing depression and bouts of isolation was also really interesting--the author captured all the elements of her subject matter, not just the ones that made for a pretty little story.

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