29 | January | 2008 | Care's Books and Pie

Lisa always seems to have BOOKS on her BRAIN… and aren’t we all thankful?! (Lisa, thanks for the Jacob explanation on my last post – it’s been too long since I was at Sunday School.)

Lisa has tagged me for the following meme! I tag BOP and Trish! Anyone else want to play? Just link to your blog and/or comment here!

1. What book are you reading right now? Do you like it?

2. What was the last book you read on a plane?

3. What was the last book you read on a roadtrip?

4. What is the most unusual place you found yourself reading?

5. What books would you take to keep you occupied on a 2 week vacation to the beach?

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1. The book I am going to read next is My War: Killing Time in Iraq and since I have yet to open it, I can’t say if I like it. I just came back from the library where they had it on hold for me. After putting away the groceries (I also had a mammogram, blood work taken, a stop at the pharmacy, zip over to the doc’s to get a Hep A shot, and forgot to get gas…), I sit down to my blog to see if anyone has commented! So, I’m between books but have them plenty in waiting in line.

2. The last book I read on a plane? Oooohhhhh, memory? Kick in will ya? Let’s see. I flew to Baltimore from Providence – barely over an hour… OH! I was reading We Need to Talk About Kevin! By Lionel Shriver. Also read during that trip was Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and Unbearable Lightness of Being– Milan Kundera.

3. If by definition, a road trip involves long stretches of time in an automobile, than my last road trip was from Kansas City to Garden City, Kansas, back and forth between other towns in Western Kansas, meandering east again to Wichita, and back to KC, the first week of November last year. On the first long bit, I was traveling in a car with 2 other gals that I hadn’t seen in awhile; we talked and laughed and got all caught up – – I didn’t read too many miles of that one. However, I was given a good read by one of those terrific women (Jimmi), Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl and I devoured it during subsequent legs of that week’s journey. And I left that book with Leslie who tells me she is still trying to get through it. She’s one of those constantly-moving can’t-sit-still types who feels guilty and lazy when sitting down to read…

4. The most unusual place I’ve caught myself reading? I admit that I have read while driving. Yes, that is sooooo stupid and scary. But I had a long boring commute once… I can’t think of anything silly. I enjoyed reading on a blog somewhere that someone would read while following her boyf around Home Depot and he purposely had her going in circles to see if you noticed. THAT is funny! And Lisa’s post about waiting for her dot to take a bath and not realizing for an hour that the kid had toweled herself off and put herself to bed was a riot! I have had those times where you sit in a perfect chair by a sunny window and read and read and then realize that it’s dark out and you need to turn on some lights! I have done that…

5. A two week vacation at the beach! Can’t we just find a resort that has a well-stocked library so I don’t have to bring any books? I am actually pondering this question myself for an upcoming trip to Central America. Do I want to take Anna Karenina with me? I’ll just have to be ready with trade backs on my tbr – will see where I am at that point and take 3 of them with me. Definitely NOT a library book because I intend to leave the books somewhere so I don’t have to tote them around. I might even take some steamy ‘bodice rippers’ or ‘crotch novels’! (anything to recommend, my dear readers?!?!)

6. I realize there is not a sixth question to Lisa’s meme but I have something to add and I wasn’t sure where… One a plane trip sometime ago, I read an entire novel from take off to landing (perfect timing! I had tears while the plane was descending…) and don’t recall when, where to or from: The Reader by Bernard Schlink. LOVED IT.

I have to run now – I have to put gas in my car!

Book Review Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

This is the third novel by Ms. Gruen. Based in the US Depression /Prohibition era (is this an era? how long is an era?), we follow a specific time in a young man’s life in the circus – basically a ‘how I met my wife’ story – told by the man named Jacob now quite elderly,

“I’m either 90 or 93, I forget.”

I wanted to read this book foremost because of the time I am spending visiting nursing homes with my dog as part of a volunteer, pet therapy team. I enjoy connecting and making new friends with people who don’t have to tell me how busy they are. (I hate the word ‘busy‘. It implies overscheduling and little choice. It is such a cop out word. Anyway…)

Jacob, age 23, is almost finished with his Veterinary Science degree from an Ivy League institution when his parents are killed in a motor crash. This event rocks his world and he ends up working on a circus. Who and what he meets on this train journey provide much adventure and Gruen gives us a fast-paced story with lots of fun circus details.

I read this book in two days which says a lot considering my pace for books in the first half of this month!

However. This book isn’t staying with me. It’s quickly fading already. I felt drawn to and forced into conclusions and emotions felt by various characters. I doubted not the context but the depth of many relationships. This book was well-structured. TOO well-structured – perhaps to the point of formulaic.

I won’t say that I did not enjoy this, I did. I wanted to read and read and keep reading and not put it down. Could be that I had a good weekend to do that (weekend before the Super Bowl – NOTHING going on!) But this won’t go on the list as a favorite. I do think this would be a good book club book – lots of discussionables.

If anyone has read this book OR wants to read this book and explain to me any references/parallels to Jacob in the Bible, please feel free! I don’t get it.

The ending was terrific. Charming, even. So much so that I’ll give 3 stars out of 5. Two and half out of five? No, I’ll stick with 3 stars out of 5.