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lynnebolduc's review
1.0
Just off of the hysterical animal adventures of Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison that made my husband laugh out loud (a rarity), I was hoping for similar fun animal adventures in We Bought a Zoo but...not so much. Animal lovers should not read this book. A seemingly indifferent attitude towards "having to" shoot animals was the worst, but the book also described deplorable living conditions for animals. A lot of time was spent on dealings with financial institutions and government red tape (boring) and there was a sad and tragic death in there as well. I got two-thirds of the way through until the chapter entitled "Culling of Vervet Monkeys" whereupon I became very anxious and quit it. Maybe I'll try the movie.
whatcanisay's review
3.0
Cute story, but really not what I wanted from the book... I'll give the movie a shot!
krysreads's review
3.0
My final thoughts:
Via Black 'n Write Reviews
Tight budgets and deadlines, Ben is trying to learn the ins-and-outs of a zoo and not lose hope that the plan will never come true. Even through this process Ben also loses his wife to brain tumors, leaving him with his two little children. Trying very hard to juggle parenting and the position as zoo director, with the help of his mother everything seems to be going really well.
I enjoyed this book. It came out around the time I worked at the bookstore, and although it was not at the top of my TBR list, I felt like it might be interesting. A man who writes about his life experience in purchasing a giant property full of exotic animals? Why not.
- Krys
Via Black 'n Write Reviews
Tight budgets and deadlines, Ben is trying to learn the ins-and-outs of a zoo and not lose hope that the plan will never come true. Even through this process Ben also loses his wife to brain tumors, leaving him with his two little children. Trying very hard to juggle parenting and the position as zoo director, with the help of his mother everything seems to be going really well.
I enjoyed this book. It came out around the time I worked at the bookstore, and although it was not at the top of my TBR list, I felt like it might be interesting. A man who writes about his life experience in purchasing a giant property full of exotic animals? Why not.
- Krys
robinhigdon's review
4.0
Loved the beautiful sweet and sometimes humurous book! Not only a great book about the inside workings of a small zoo, but at inside look of taking chances and family love. The audio was well read.
liebelulu's review
4.0
i now have a much better understanding of the disclaimer "based on the true story". this is not at all like the movie. hollywood managed to take the title & the name of the tiger (spar) but thats about it. which is a shame because the stories in the book about the animals (sovereign is a favorite) are so great it would've been nice to see them. either way, good good story! england has moved up my list of places to visit for the dartmoor zoological park alone. :-)
booksandbosox's review
4.0
Taking a car trip to Hill Country, I provided my boyfriend with a list of all the audiobooks currently on my iPod and this was the one he selected for us to listen to. I was pretty surprised - we usually listen to young adult fantasy or science fiction when we take long car trips together - but I guess he was in the mood for something different. This was a delightful choice. I'm a huge fan of zoos - I've dragged him to pretty much every zoo I can - and this book definitely caught my eye when it was first released. You can buy a zoo? Seriously? Well, it's not that simple. But I loved listening to the tale of the Mee family and their adventures in acquiring and running a zoo in England. The narrator was pleasant to listen to and the story was told with the right mix of humor and pathos. My boyfriend enjoyed this even more than I did. An excellent choice.
tdeshler's review
3.0
I heard about the story from the movie, but then I decided to listen to the book when my queue was empty. This was definitely a subject I knew nothing about, so the narrative was interesting, if a little dry at times. I'm glad to see the zoo is still operating, although there is a big "save the zoo" campaign on the website so perhaps they're not doing so well after all.