Belle Benchley took a two-week bookkeeping job at a struggling San Diego Zoo and stayed nearly three decades, becoming the world's first female zoo director. On Books & Looks, host Blaine DeSantis talks with historian Dr. Sandra E. Bonura about her new biography, The Zoo Lady: How Belle Benchley Built the San Diego Zoo, and why the woman who built the zoo has been all but forgotten.

Dr. Sandra E. Bonura is a historian, lecturer and retired professor of education whose award-winning books, published by University of Nebraska Press, bring forgotten Californians out of the shadows, among them The Sugar King of California: The Life of Claus Spreckels and Empire Builder: John D. Spreckels and the Making of San Diego. Denied access to the zoo's archives, she built The Zoo Lady from Benchley's scrapbooks and personal correspondence, shared by her granddaughter, and the collections of the San Diego History Center.

Bonura explains how Benchley, with no biology or science degree, kept every animal alive through the Depression and World War II after losing 44 men to the draft; how she won the gorillas Mbongo and Ngagi at half the price, brought west the 1938 hurricane giraffes that inspired West with Giraffes, and broke a 25-year Australian embargo on koalas; and how she became the first woman elected president of what is now the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. She also recounts why the zoo objected to the word "built" in her title, and previews her next book, San Diego Rising, on Henry G. Fenton, due in May 2027.

Resources:
- The Zoo Lady (University of Nebraska Press)
- Dr. Sandra E. Bonura's website
- Bonura on The Sugar King of California, an earlier Books & Looks episode
- West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Connect with us:
- Website: https://booksandlookspodcast.com/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@booksandlookspodcast
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/books-looks/id1514324351
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/154FztkUJ5HHRvi8bA5HDa

Tom Olson's Daughters of the Islands tells how six island-born nurses shaped health care in Hawaii before statehood, in their own words. Olson interviewed the women 25 years ago and promised not to tell their stories until they had passed away. On Books and Looks, he talks with host Blaine DeSantis about the women and why he waited.

Tom Olson is a psychiatric nurse who spent much of his career as a nursing faculty member and university administrator, with roles at the University of Hawaii and California State University San Marcos. He lived in Hawaii for 15 years, and his earlier book, Handling the Sick, is an award-winning history of nursing.

The conversation covers Chiyo Miyabara, on duty at Honolulu's Japanese Hospital (now Kuakini) the morning of Pearl Harbor, who kept speaking Japanese to her patients after the U.S. military took the hospital over and banned it; Eleanor Silva, who went to nurse at the Kalaupapa leprosy settlement on Molokai at 18; and Josephine Duvauchelle, denied tenure a month after winning a University of Hawaii teaching award, who earned a master's degree, came back and won it. Olson also explains why "talk story" made the interviews possible and what today's nurses can take from these women.

Resources:

• Daughters of the Islands (Koehler Books)
• Tom Olson's author website

Connect with us:

• Website
• YouTube
• Instagram

Anna Pitoniak talks The Swiss Agent, her smart CIA thriller of female spies, Russian oligarchs, and Swiss bankers, plus the real research behind it.

• Pre-order The Swiss Agent
• The Swiss Agent audiobook
• Read book one, The Helsinki Affair
• Visit Anna's website
• Follow Anna on Goodreads

Most spy novels lean on car chases and gunfights. Anna Pitoniak's The Swiss Agent is built around psychology, atmosphere, and careful detective work instead. Anna joins Blaine DeSantis to talk about her second Amanda Cole novel, a cat and mouse story between two veteran CIA officers, Amanda Cole and Kath Frost, who must work together to stop a Kremlin-backed conspiracy. The catch is that Kath is hiding a secret, and Amanda has to uncover it before time runs out. Anna explains how a murder at a villa on Capri sets everything in motion, and how a single plate of foie gras becomes the clue that cracks the case open.

Many of the book's strangest details turn out to be true. Anna shares the real story of Margaret Scattergood, the Quaker philanthropist whose Virginia farmhouse became part of CIA headquarters. She also confirms that there really is a hot dog vending machine at Langley. She describes how a trip to Sarajevo shaped the novel's 1990s timeline, how conversations with Swiss bankers helped her build the character of Julian, and how she and her husband worked out how a Russian oligarch could smuggle billions in Bitcoin out of the country. The answer involves a Ferragamo loafer.

Anna also talks about her path from Random House editor to full-time novelist, and how working with spy fiction master Alan Furst made her fall in love with the genre. She explains why she wanted to write women who drive the story instead of standing beside the hero, and why Kath Frost's brilliance, arrogance, and sobriety make her such a compelling character. Anna also shares how she keeps three timelines straight, along with what comes next for Amanda, her father Charlie, and fan favorite Bram in the third book of the series.