Water for Elephants

By Sara GruenI finished my book club book! I let Andrew read it first, so I was tortured by hearing everyone say how much they loved it while I waited for my turn. Now I can be part of the "I love Water for Elephants club" and I'm glad. The book is written from the perspective of a 90 something year old man, Jacob, remembering the time when he dropped out of college and joined the circus. The chapters alternate between his current life at the assisted living home where he know lives and his memories. Jacob's reminiscing is brought on by the arrival of a circus on his block that prompts him to recall a secret that he has kept for almost 70 years. The book follows Jacob's experiences with the circus as he learns about the many brutalities of circus life, falls in love, and tries to save his friends.

I like this book A LOT. And I think it would make a very entertaining movie. It has humor, adventure, love, suspense, all of it. And the ending is perfect. Everyone that I have talked too thought that the ending was perfect, I've never heard so many people agree. Because of that, I managed to refrain from reading the end of the book ahead of time (a big deal for me!). I am amazed that we managed to pick such a good book without any of us knowing much about it. I'm even thinking about reading it again before the book club, it was that good.

I highly recommend this book and that's all I'm going to tell you, I don't want to spoil any of it for you!