Book Blog #18, Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants                                                                                                           by Sara Gruen
With no money and no family or home, Jacob Jankowski jumps onto a freight train in the dead of night. He soon finds himself in the midst of a busy circus show, trying to find his way. They realize that he will be the shows veterinarian. The show is desperate for anything to get business up, and they buy a "useless" elephant. When Jacob discovers the elephant's talents, it quickly becomes a show stopper. He quickly falls in love with a performer, and his relationships get increasingly more difficult. It is told by a 93 year old Jacob as he recounts his circus days, and as you see where he is now.
I enjoyed this book a lot. The author did a phenomenal job of setting the scene, and I felt like I really knew a lot of the characters. It was a very fast read, and I never got bored. One of the other things that made this a good book was that there were things happening constantly, and that there were always new twists and turns in the plot. I think that the author also new what she was talking about, and it was very realistic. I also think that because it was so vivid it would actually progress the storyline instead of making it drag on and on. One thing I didn't enjoy were the factors of it that definitely made it young-adult literature. They could sometimes hinder the plot and make it harder to read for me. The movie is PG-13, and it is very obvious why to me because it is very much an adult book.

Warning: There is a lot of sex and romance in the book that is described. There are affairs and things like that. There is some amount of violence and gore but it is not terrible. Finally, there is a lot of extensive cursing, to a point where it can sometimes hinder the storyline.

I would like to start reading things that will challenge me more and to start reading more difficult things. I would also like to continue to branch out with the genres of the book I read. I want to start choosing books that are different from each other from week to week. I think that I aspire to get back into the habit of reading a lot more, because I do enjoy books a lot.



TBR list:
The Marvels   by Brian Selznick
The House of The Scorpion   by Nancy Farmer
Fangirl   by Rainbow Rowell
Postcards from no man's land   by Aidan Chambers
2001 a space odyssey   by Arthur C. Clarke