Introducing our Book of the Month for August 2011

**BOOK IS OPEN FOR DISCUSSION - BEWARE OF SPOILERS**

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen






From the book


“A Story of impossible love and a way of life lost forever “



Orphaned, penniless, Jacob Janowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and in that instant, transforms his future.
By morning he’s landed a job with the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. By nightfall he’s in love.

In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus is a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world, where both animals and men are dispensable. When falling in love is the most dangerous act of all.....

Author website HERE


Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (April 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565125606
• ISBN-13: 978-1565125605



Book will open for discussion 24th August


Happy Reading.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I have been waiting for this book to be on the BOTM list! I absolutely adored this book! It was amazing and such a well told and well thought out story. It's based around the 1920's circus which is really AWESOME because who has ever really told a story based around a circus thats this AWESOME! Plus I think it's a beautiful love story. The movie was amazing I'm so happy how they did it. Well done it stuck very close to the book.

This was the first book I read after my 1 1/2 year long Harry Potter obsession and I was riveted! I loved Jacob both as an old man and a young man. The beauty of the story telling was so compelling and I found myself rooting for him from the beginning. The book had some interesting side characters, the despicable lead in August and some fun twists and turns. I can't wait to talk about it with you all.

I loved it when I read it and discussed it with my rl book group. I plan to listen to it in a couple of weeks so I remember more details for our discussion here. I read it a few years ago and it's hard to remember a lot of the details of the story.

I read this book just before I started the Outlander series. Definitely a good read! Still haven't seen the movie.

I read this book a while back and I loved it. A very well written book and having said so I have no intention of watching the movie. I have seen to many good books butchered in the movie making process.
That is why sometimes, deep down, i dont want Outlander made into one.

It was so long since I read the book (2.5 years or so???) that I've been listening to remind myself of details. I expect to finish later today (unless my listening time is unusually short). I'm really enjoying it again.

I loved the flashes back and forward in time. The story was so compelling and you wanted Jacob to get the girl. He had suffered enough. He was a compassionate character unlike August who was mean and wicked. I wonder how accurate a portrayal of life in the circus at that time it was but I suspect it was pretty accurate.

I got the impression that SG did her research about circus life. In fact, when we discussed this in my RL book group a couple of years ago, I think we discussed some of the things that were real (an elephant really did steal lemonade, I'm pretty sure, and some other things Rosie did were based on actual events, though not all from one animal). So, I think a lot of this was pretty accurate. That was one of the really fun things about it - learning about the behind-the-scenes life of the circus.

I think I'm appreciating the older Jacob more this time. Part of it may be listening - there are two narrators, one old one young. And, knowing generally what's going to happen makes me able to appreciate each part without feeling a rush to the end to find out. I'm really just loving it. Again.

I was happy to reread this novel because I had forgotten so many parts of it. ABL, you are correct about the writer incorporating actual trivia into the story like the elephant and lemonade and the one that was considered stupid until they realized he only understood another language. There are so many levels of this book to relate to.

First, there is the older Jacob in the nursing home. He's so misunderstood and lonely that it breaks your heart. It was so like The Notebook in that respect. You never expect him to go back and tell his life story like this. At the end when he goes to the circus and is taken in by the man that works there who is the first person to show an interest in him, I was so excited to see him run away with the circus again and have his life come full circle.

Second, there's the whole circus environment. Every time we would take my daughter to Barnum & Bailey's circus, there would always be protesters around and the programs would always detail how well they treated their animals but you have to wonder after reading this story how well those animals are treated in order to make them perform.

On another level, there are the characters themselves. SG does such a nice job of letting you get to know not only Jacob, but the other circus characters as well as the circus animals. Didn't you feel like you knew Rosie by the end of the story. She was so human and when she took care of August, it was poetic justice.

I just remembered another thought that I had at the end of the story. Do you think that Jacob's son didn't come to bring him to the circus on purpose that day? I had wondered about that when I reread the story. I was thinking that he may have done it accidentally, on purpose thinking that it would either upset Jacob or because he didn't have good memories of it since he was the son who lived with the circus the longest of Jacob's children.

I wondered about that Pauline, It was interesting that it was the oldest son, and therefore the one with the most connection with the circus, who forgot to pick him up that day... on the other hand his son was getting pretty old by then too ... I forget his age now, I think it was mentioned... and could have simply forgotten.

His son was close to 70. I didn't feel that it was intentional, but I suppose it could have been. But, after all these years, I'd think just going to watch a circus would be OK emotionally for both father and son. And, if the son really didn't want to go, he could presumably have found someone to switch weeks with. I thought it was a genuine OOPS! on his part.

I should be cleaning my kitchen and listening to the last 35 or 40 minutes of the book, but one more quick question:
Which lion had no teeth? Rex? Who I think was the one who stayed in the menagerie during the stampede. Or Leo? Who I think was the one who ended up in the restaurant under the sink with the dishwasher guy who had hid there. I was thinking it was Rex in which case Leo must gave been pretty scary for those poor restaurant employees. . . But, I can't remember for sure and it's hard to flip back through audiobooks.

hmm good point, I'm not sure, will have to look it up when I get home.