Diane Ackerman

THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE, a War Story
The Zookeeper's Wife is a strange, but historically true story of WWII. It reveals the extraordinary efforts of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, who capitalized on the Nazis' obsession with pureblood animals in order to save over 300 doomed people by hiding them in the bombed-out cages at the Warsaw Zoo. A tale of people, animals, and subversive acts of compassion.

ORION MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES THE WINNER
OF THE 2008 ORION BOOK AWARD

"The Zookeepers Wife is a groundbreaking work of nonfiction,"saidselection committee member Mark Kurlansky, "in which the human relationship to nature is explored in an absolutely original way through looking at the Holocaust." Kathleen Dean Moore, the committee's chairperson, said: "A few years ago, 'nature' writers were asking themselves, How can a book be at the same time a work of art, an act of conscientious objection to the destruction of the world, and an affirmation of hope and human decency? The Zookeeper's Wife answers this question."

DAWN LIGHT: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways To Greet the Day
from the dust-jacket:
In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, celebrated storyteller-poet-naturalist Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn, bringing into stunning focus a time of day that many of us literally or metaphorically sleep through. Drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping, Ackerman explores dawn’s every aspect from bird and animal behavior, to the incomparable morning light that has long inspired artists such as Monet, to dawn rituals the world over, to the many connotations of the word “dawn.”
As she migrates like the birds she observes from winter in Florida to spring, summer, and fall in upstate New York, Ackerman revels—with contagious passion and delight--in that moment in which the deepest arcades of life and matter become visible. Dawn Light is a series of “secular hallelujahs,” and also Ackerman’s most personal book to date, as autumn cattails evoke memories of her mother and an achy knee in the morning prompts reflection on the body as a “bone house.”
Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being “in” nature, Ackerman points out, but often forget that we are nature—for “no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams.” In prose so rich and evocative that one can feel the earth turning beneath one’s feet as one reads, Ackerman’s thrilling observations—of things ranging from cloud glories to the endangered whooping cranes of the book’s title—urge us to live in the moment, to wake up to nature’s everyday miracles.

AN ALCHEMY OF MIND
An Alchemy of mind explores the mysteries of the brain and the marvel of the mind. "In prose that is not simply accessible but also beautiful and electric, it distills the hard, objective truths of science in order to yield vivid, heavily anecdotal responses to a range of existential questions regarding consciousness, human thought, memory, and the nature of identity."

CULTIVATING DELIGHT
Cultivating Delight is a poetic book about gardens, growth, our relationship with nature, the intimate lives of animal neighbors, the zaniness of some famous gardeners; questions of mortality, garden etiquette, curiosity and wonder; how a garden becomes an extension of the self and can give an important shape to one’s life.

ORIGAMI BRIDGES: Poems of Psychoanalysis and Fire
At the heart of Origami Bridges is the delicate relationship of trust between analyst and patient, a relationship that grows out of the emotional give-and-take of the psychoanalytic process. With astonishing candor, she lays bare her desires, anger, jealousy, fears, and anxiety as she probes not only her psychic landscape but also her past. And what gradually rises to the surface is an understanding of how a poet uses verse to purge her demons, express her delight, or confess secret longing, and through this process come to a better understanding of the self.

ANIMAL SENSE
“Caldecott Honor winner Peter Sís teams up with acclaimed author Diane Ackerman in this stunning, sophisticated collection of poetry about animals' senses.... Ideal for animal and poetry lovers -- yet made for anyone looking for a work of true art -- this extraordinary read will expand the mind and soothe the spirit.”