Not since Valley of the Dolls has a book, so quickly, moved into my Top 5. Very few stories have moved me to all 3 out louds – cried, gasped & laughed – but I am delighted to add this one to the elite group.
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I’d seen this book everywhere, almost picked it up at least thirty different times. It wasn’t until a fabulous photographer friend of mine, Jenny Anderson, mentioned it on twitter that I took the plunge and picked it up two nights later at Target. I officially started the book on a Thursday night after work and stayed up till 2 .am. the following night to finish it. I was that encompassed in the story, the characters, the writing…everything.
:: Jump a train and join a traveling circus in August’s Book of the Month ::
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My best description of the book is a love story wrapped up in a grimy, twisted, traveling circus, told by an elderly man who instantly grabs hold to your heart.
“When two people are meant to be together, they will be together. It’s fate.” – Jacob Jankowski
Gruen weaves such a tale with impeccable attention to detail, both graphic and historical, that you are quite literally picked up and set on the train traveling along with Jacob, Queenie and the whole Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.
From sleazy, secret sideshow acts to the glitz and glitter of kinker’s costumes. There are clearly status lines drawn amongst the traveling circus where money is the bottom line and the show must always go on.
Raw emotion and circumstance are explored throughout the novel, one right after the other, in such a striking manner that you truly see the ins and outs of human nature. The surprising heroine pulls on your heart with every lift of her trunk. And the ending is one I would have never seen coming but astonishingly found to be absolutely perfect in every possible way.
“For this old man, this is home.” – Jacob Jankowski
I don’t think I could say enough good things about Water for Elephants. I don’t want to write too much about it for fear of giving away too much information. (The twists are part of what makes it a page turner.) You can wait of course until the movie is released next year, but believe me on this one – this is a story you don’t want to wait for …. so go get your copy and start reading! Maybe you’ll find yourself staying up into the wee hours of the early morning see just what exactly happens to that sweet, untamed , 90-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski.
:: happy reading ::
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Pick up Water for Elephants here at The Sassy Steel Magnolia eStore.
