Water for Elephants (Hardcover)

from SqueakyChu

I never liked circuses all that much, but Sara Gruen's book is certainly vastly different than Toby Tyler or Ten Days with a Circus that I read as a kid. Perhaps that was the last time I read a book about a circus. Given the human cruelty and animal abuse in Water for Elephants, that's probably w...

from msbaba

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is an utter delight. I read a library copy for my book club, but after I finished I promptly ordered three copies: for my father, for a favorite aunt, and for my husband. I had to restrain myself from buying more. The book is narrated from the point of view of Ja...

from spikey21

This book is a wonderful, gritty, poignant, and often scarily abusive story. I was drawn into the circus world of the Depression era and fell in love with the beautifully constructed characters within that world. The story told in Flashbacks from the main character Jacob takes a little getting us...

from jolerie

Jacob Jankowski is an old and senile senior who shares with us an unbelievable tale of his time with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a roaming circus filled with wonderful oddities and exotic animals galore. Water for Elephants is a story of unspeakable love, of untold secret...

from jhedlund

This book was amazing. The pace is almost like the circus train itself: it starts chugging forward slowly and then before you know it, you're flying so fast you can barely keep your balance! Gruen's writing is so evocative -- you feel like you are on that train and in those tents. You taste the f...