Thursday, January 18, 2007

Water for Elephants

This story about a traveling circus veterinarian in the 20's was captivating! I heard about this book on a book club website and thought it sounded interesting. It hooked me from the first page. The author takes you on a wild ride through the strange and terrifying life of a circus worker traveling from town to town on a train. Workers get thrown off in the middle of the night if the boss can't pay them. Female performers put on a special "men's only" shows while wives and children are buying cotton candy and waiting in line. And the beautiful animals that help draw in the crowds are treated less than kindly by the man in charge of training them.
I found myself thrown into this world, sympathizing with so many of the worker and animals. I'll admit, my heart felt like it would break on a few occasions. But you find out in the first chapter that the man who rains down abuse on so many of the people and creatures around him will get what he deserves in the end. So I had to keep reading to find out how it happened. And it was great! I enjoyed it the whole way. I think I finished this book in 3 days, picking it up in any spare moment I had. It's definitely worth a read.

2 comments:

Jackie said...

What a wonderful read! I was caught up in this story from the first page and didn't want to put the book down. By the end of the book I felt like I knew each of these characters at some point in my life. THanks for the recommendation Amanda. It's one of the best books I've read this year!

still here and never going back said...

This was a wonderful story and made my top 5 favorites the year I read it. I'm enjoying lurking through your blog and will go back to jot down some things I want to read.

I worked with Amanda at the Montessori school and have enjoyed Becky's blog.

Debra