water for elephants.

This book has already been reviewed twice so I will not bother with a description or plot summary.
I really loved this story. Since I was a little girl, I've had a strange obsession with elephants. They have always fascinated me. So naturally, I was excited to read this book. I thought the love Jacob felt for Rosie and the relationship that developed was beautiful. I could have done without the couple of graphic scenes, but I had been warned and was able to skip over them without missing anything important. This book made me laugh, and I even got a little teary a couple times. A friend and I saw the movie before we went on vacation, and although I didn't expect to, I loved it. It was mostly in line with the book, but it omitted all of the sexual stuff and I don't recall hearing any cursing at all. Pretty unheard of for a PG-13 movie.

This is absolutely a book I would recommend to anyone, as long as they were able to self-filter and skip the couple naughty parts :)

Water for Elephants

I got this book after a friend read it, she said it was good but not amazing. I have to say that I thought that throughout the whole book but then was pleasantly surprised at the end of the book. I loved how it came full circle, it even was a little emotional, and I really enjoyed the little surprise for the reader at the end. Aside from it having a few graphic scenes where I would just have to turn the whole page or two and skip over, I came to enjoy the book. I think a big pull for me was the nostalgia of the old carnival/circus days. Has anyone ever seen The Greatest Show on Earth with Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston and a few other greats? Perhaps because I grew up watching that fun show, featuring the Barnum and Bailey circus, I had a kinship with this book {I actually made my little sister watch it with me after I finished the book}. This book made me really want to go to the State Fair or some other type of carnival (but in the 30s or 40s ;). It's a good time to read the book because all of those State and County fairs are about to start.

the summary:

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

I give this book 3 stars. I liked it, it was a tad too crude for me but entertaining and very interesting.

Water for Elephants

This last week I watched the movie 500 Days of Summer. The friend I watched with and I both loved it, but share the opinion that though we really enjoyed it, we wouldn't own it. The story was great, I laughed, I felt for the characters - but why, oh why did they have to add those few comments, the awkward stories?

That is how I felt about this book. I absolutely loved this story, if only 2 chapters weren't included. And the two chapters, though they have to do with each other, really aren't important to the story line. So I really recommend this story, but I think if you read it, you'll know when you get the parts I mean, and you can skip them, or if you don't mind you can read them (I even noted them down but I think the list was still in the book when I returned it to the library today.) It's just rare it seems to read a unique story and happily this is a unique story. True, true, there's the boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, something gets in their way storyline ever so common to today's best sellers - but I could not have guessed this story line and the author does a great job of telling the story.

If you, like me, loved going to the circus as a child, if you, like me, remember the parade as they marched the animals from the train to the big top, if you, like me, remember walking around and meeting the circus stars and the animals (nowadays they seem to hold the circus inside the basketball arena... boring!!!) - and maybe I'm the only one to remember those days of the circus? But here's a behind the scenes peek into the traveling circus. Great story!