Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Old school bookmark and book!

I read Water for Elephants in book form.

Yep, I sure did!

However, I prefer to read books digitally.

I am not one of those people who love the feel of books.

Nope, that's me.

I prefer to read digitally where I can quickly look up words that I do not know, highlight passage and go right back to them, write notes, and I can manipulate the font to any sizes that I prefer, but...

Three years ago, one of my students told me about Water for Elephants. I bought it in book form, because I was not reading digitally at that time. However, I found that I could not get into Water for Elephants, and therefore, I did not complete it. However, I taught that same student three years later, and she told me that I really needed to give Water for Elephants another try, and I did. So, this is how I came to read Water for Elephants in old school book form.

This time around I did enjoy Water for Elephants more than I did the first time, but the story is just a story, without a lot to think about. It kept my attention, but I do not feel that I would have been missing something if I had not read it.

This story is told by a 90 something year old man, Jacob, who is currently in a nursing home. Jacob is reminiscing about when he was part of a circus and met and fell in love with his wife, Marlena..

It seems as if Gruen goes through this long story in order to let Jacob and Marlena get together, very dramatically, in the last few chapters. Learning about the life of people who are part of a circus was quite interesting, and Gruen did a great job of character and plot development, but for some reason, this book did not do it for me.

However, I read it for my student who will be graduating from high school in a few weeks, and she is happy that I read it. So, I guess it was worth the read.....

My next read is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson; join me!