All caught up in the election? Depressed about the collapse of big financial institutions? Sorry to see winter sneaking in? Afraid of gaining weight from Halloween candy? Here’s a way to take your mind off of all those stressful things: three great books providing comedy, action and history. This month’s book reviews are guaranteed to make you forget, at least temporarily, the problems and concerns facing all of us. So, sit down, put up your feet, and settle in for a good read.

The Venetian Betrayal
By Steve Berry

Steve Berry, author of The Amber Room, The Romanov Prophecy, The Third Secret, and The Templar Legacy, is at it again, wrapping history in adventure/thriller/political clothes. In this new novel, the reader is taken on another search for a historical personage. This time it's Alexander the Great and his tomb. Cotton Malone, a retired undercover operative who now deals in antique books in Denmark, is drawn into the mystery when he notices an open door after hours at a museum of antiquities. Inside he finds a dead body and is nearly burned to death when a mysterious fire engulfs the entire building. As he attempts to break out a window to jump to safety, he sees a woman he has worked with before, Cassiopeia Vitt, who shoots out the glass. She has reappeared, along with Cotton's benefactor Henrik Thorvaldsen, to enlist Cotton's help in finding elephant medallions minted to commemorate Alexander's battle with elephant troops in India.

The reader follows these three characters to Venice, where Alexander is rumored to be buried (in the tomb of St. Mark), and to the fictional country of the Central Asian Federation, as they try to stop a plot to use biological weapons. Intertwined with the tale of the medallions and the biological weapons is a pharmaceutical owner who is searching for the site of a potion rumored to heal all kinds of diseases. Yes, Berry manages to successfully tie together all of these plot lines, keeping readers on their toes at all times.

I appreciate the historical research that has gone into this novel and other Berry novels. I know it's fiction, but I always wonder just how close to the truth Berry has come. He always includes notes at the end about the facts that create the background for his tales. Pick this one up. You'll enjoy it.

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story
By Diane Ackerman

Here is an interesting nonfiction account of the German occupation of Warsaw during World War Two. I have read a number of books about the Warsaw Ghetto and the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis, but this book about the zoo in Warsaw and the Polish family who ran it is fascinating. Jan and Antonina Zabinski devoted their lives and careers to building a world-class zoo, one that was humane and responsive to the needs of its residents. Jan, a well-respected scientist, and Antonina, an author, were known throughout the zoo community for their efforts. When the Germans invaded Poland, they thought that perhaps their zoo might be spared from attack. However, they were quickly disillusioned by bombing that destroyed many of the animal habitats, killing some of the animals and allowing others to escape.

When a Nazi officer whom they knew as the curator of the Berlin zoo showed up, offering to take some of their rarer species back to Germany—just on loan for safekeeping, the Zabinskis knew they had no choice. The Germans coveted these rare animals as examples of purer Aryan breeds and wanted to use them in their efforts to reestablish them in the wild—all part of the crazy Nazi eugenics programs. Left with very few animals to care for, the Zabinskis turned their attentions to the people of Warsaw who needed their help: the Jews in the Ghetto. Their villa at the zoo became a refuge for Jewish refugees who were waiting to escape to safer places—a very dangerous enterprise for the Zabinskis and their young son Rhys.

I enjoyed this war story because it provided a viewpoint I was unfamiliar with, that of non-Jewish Polish citizens in their occupied country. The author, a naturalist, also uses her familiarity with the animal world to infuse her work with great stories about the Zabinskis’ pets and the art of zoo keeping.

World Without End
By Ken Follett

A number of years ago, I read Follett’s novel The Pillars of the Earth and became totally engrossed in the lives of the characters who were building an English cathedral. I was very excited when I heard that he had written and published a new novel with the same setting several generations later—World Without End. Once again I became very involved in the lives of the people he had created.

I love these historical novels that take a handful of main characters and trace their lives through an extended period. What better way to imagine living in a world so very different from ours? In this novel, the reader follows the ups and downs of Merthin, the son of a knight, and Caris, the daughter of a fabric merchant. Merthin becomes a builder like his ancestor Jack the Builder in The Pillars of the Earth, only Merthin doesn’t build a cathedral; instead, he builds a bridge that changes the future of Knightsbridge.

Merthin and Caris have a relationship that can only be described as rocky. Although they love each other, Caris cannot see herself married to a man who treats her as most men treat their wives during this time. Several times she rejects Merthin’s proposals only to find herself condemned as a witch because of her opposition to the powerful men in town and forced to take vows as a nun so that she won’t be executed. Merthin leaves Knightsbridge to seek his fortunes elsewhere, finally settling in Italy, where he becomes a respected builder and a happy husband and father. However, when he returns to England with his daughter after the death of his wife from the plague, he and Caris once more reignite their love affair.

One of the most interesting elements of the novel was its description of the effects the plague had on the village of Knightsbridge. Many people become immoral and hedonistic because they think they will surely die very soon. The large number of deaths has a major impact on farming and the lives of the serfs. Because so many serfs die, landowners are forced to pay the remaining serfs instead of just expecting them to work for nothing on farms they don’t own. Also, because of the mystery of how the plague is spread, some people attempt to make improvements in sanitation. Large numbers of orphans must be cared for and educated. All of these things affected lives during the Dark Ages.

This 900-page book is a great read. Follett did his history homework and uses it to make a time and place far removed from our own become immediate and important.