Elephants Books

I ordered this book for my granddaughter after checking it out from the library several times. She loves it. It is a very cute story about finding a little stuffed elephant's special someone. Both she and her brother ages 5 and 3 have really enjoyed this book.

This is such a cute book! I love the contrast between what Paisley is describing and what the pictures are showing. Paisley puts a positive spin on situations which are actually out of his control. There's a lot of colorful patterns in the illustrations, and repeated readings reveal some humorous details. Our 2 year old is a big fan!

I find Paisley to be unusual for a children's book--most authors would put the book in third person, I think, but Maggie Smith chose first person. So Paisley tells us the tale. I love all the details--every animal at the shop where Paisley's story begins has personality. A green whale with white polka dots, a snail with a colorful shell, some gingham/seersucker cats, a dinosaur with a pattern of flowers or cogs, a swirly octopus, a plaid giraffe, and flowered farm animals are just some of the many characters in the store. Each animal is meant for a particular child, but Paisley's destiny involves an exciting journey through streets and a laundromat. We see the swing tag go flying from the plastic hanger on the elephant's ear, and we can witness the dizzying/sickening effects washers and dryers can have on a stuffed animal. Paisley despairs of ever finding the right child, but the end of the book represents a new beginning for our charming protagonist.

"Rome produces its monkeys and wild goats And every type of wild beast, more even than India and Africa. And now that Leo has become their king, All the animals, even the very elephant, Must hold him in honour."

A verse of Pasquino heralds the arrival of the great elephant Hanno to Rome, where it is presented to Pope Leo X. And so begins Silvio Bedini's delightful story of the pope's elephant. Bedini, whose work has covered a range of topics in the past, began exploring the rumors of a Vatican rhinoceros and elephant, only to find them not only true, but part of a fantastic story of imperial representations of power, patronage, gift-giving, and ceremony.

Brought to Leo X 1514, Hanno the elephant was a symbol of Portuguese power and dominance in the far east, and particularly from India, where the elephant's journey began. Bedini details the long voyage from Lisbon to Porto Ecole, during which the elephant was anchored between the two masts of the boat. From there, the travel to Rome via dirt roads is complicated both by wear on the elephant's tender feet and the throngs of people who crowd the entourage, trying to get a look at the most spectacular gift. In Rome, the elephant is finally, and formally, handed over to the pope, and Bedini shows his remarkable descriptive skill in sketching out every aspect of the ceremony. Those interested in the rituals of such religious, nationalistic and political events (all bundled into one) will be satisfied with Bedini's work here. Once in Rome and rested, Hanno becomes a living symbol of the period, captured by poets, playwrights, and artists. Oddly, the elephant shared a small amount of fame with a rhinoceros, another gift from the Portuguese. The fate of this beast, however, is less well known, and while it appears in several commissioned paintings from the period, its fate remains unclear.

The book closes with the death of Leo X, and the changes which ensued, both religiously and culturally, after his passing. Bedini thoughtfully examines the influence of this pope and his large beast on the belles lettres of the period. Beautiful plates show the extent to which the elephant--as a symbol of the Church's strength, of the Pope's magnificence, and of the animal's own divine purpose--captivated people, and the reader is given a new perspective on the 16th century, simply by focusing on an elephant.

If you've even a passing interest in historiography - supplementing the historical record with artifacts and peripherally supporting documentary evidence to glean a substantial picture of the world represented by written history - you will find this book a treasure.

At times shocking, at others moving, often repellant and even more frequently laugh-out-loud audacious, it is always illuminating.

This is high scholarship, but only very rarely is it dry. Good for the gothic audience: never again will you dream of living in romantic 16th C Europe, not after the smells and sounds and horrific displays of human behavior brought to life by Bedini and the story of the elephant/s.

The Pope's Elephant by Silvio A. Bedini is a fun book although it does not quite deliver the promise of the subtitle on the cover. It is not really about the journey of an elephant from deep in India to the heart of Rome. It is really about the strange workings of Rome and the Papacy in the early 1500's and their dealings with other nations, such as Portugal from which the ill-fated elephant, Hanno, arrives. The author uses a great variety of sources for this journey, particulary interesting being the use made of contemporary artists to provide proof of events. This book could have used the Pope's elephant for a much wider glimpse of the world at this point in time, but the more narrow version presented here is fascinating and illuminating in its own right. An interesting footnote into history (and, truly, how many interesting footnotes does one run across).

John Prados begins the book with seldom related histories, particular are the accounts of Baltic and Ukrainian insurgents in post WWII. This is the first time I have run into modern cold war accounts were the planning of covert operations in Central and Eastern Europe ran so close to the end of WWII. Prados underlines that the "youth" of Central Intelligence Agency and the treachery of Philby severly undermined any attempts to support these insurrectionist movements behind Soviet lines. Further declassfication of past interogation reports throw new light on the extent of these movements and how unstable Central Europe actually was. Prados contines into the Cold War up to the 80's and 90's where the bilateral covert conflict no longer seemed to have the raw personal nature of covert action in post WWII and the fifties. Author has obviously had a very generous access to herby unpublished documents. A must for those concerned with Cold War history

Every voter should read this book. This is perhaps the best book to give an overview on the major covert activities of the CIA and its ancestor agencies. A very well researched book. The author appears to have done an immense amount of research to write this book. Very informative and an easy read. The author appears to be unbiased and without an agenda. Every tidbit of covert CIA activity that I read about in past years was discussed in this book, plus many more activities new to me were discussed. Drawing upon this text I believe the average American can get a better feel for the sucess and failure rate of covert activities, risks v.s. advantages.
These covert activities ofter are the first steps that leads the U.S. into succeedingly hostile overt activities. The process is complicated by the fact that a covert operation has some loose oversight within our democracy. The author gives the reader a good feel for the past endeavors of the agency and analyzes the results.
I would recommend this book to any American because wherever the CIA is most active will generally be a place where crucial and influential American foreign policy decisions will follow. It is beneficial to have the past record of covert activity available. Covert activity is as the author states probably the most convenient and easiest way to accomplish a short term foreign policy objective and always a temptation to every U.S. administration, but it often comes with the price of a longterm political backlash from the populace involved.

Some research was definetly put into writing this book. And at times, the author just throughs out some abstract, needless information. Almost as if he just to put it in their, because he thought the trival knowledge would make the book better.

Well it doesn't. It does fine all by itself. It gives some great insightful information to the reason behind some of U.S invasions, wars, and other candelstine efforts foreign and domestic.

Anybody that lived through the era that the book was covered will get bored easily as no true secrets are revealed. But for those born around the 80's, will become very informed.

A good book, but not that good. I give it three stars because the title does not match the book.

Of course I read this collection many years ago as all self-respecting writers of my generation have. After all, Orwell was a mentor to all of us as well as one of our heroes, and this collection includes not only the title piece, which is as good a personal experience essay as has ever been written, but also "Politics and the English Language," an essay on how to write and how not to write that is without parallel.

But as I perused the "Contents" page a forgotten chapter title caught my eye,"Confessions of a Book Reviewer"! I immediately turned to page 171. Oh, what a delight I beheld! Orwell begins the essay with, "In a cold but stuffy bed-sitting room littered with cigarette ends and half-empty cups of tea, a man in a moth-eaten dressing gown sits at a rickety table, trying to find room for his typewriter among the piles of dusty papers that surround it." After some further dreary detail, Orwell continues, "Needless to say this person is a writer. He might be a poet, a novelist, or a writer of film scripts or radio features, for all literary people are very much alike, but let us say that he is a book reviewer."

Of course Orwell is writing (with some scant distance) about Orwell. How candid he is and how well he eschews any glamour or romance in the self-portrait! And yet, there is something heroic about Orwell's depiction of the literary "hack" that is agreeable. He goes on to say as "the menacing finger of the clock" moves toward the reviewer's deadline, "suddenly he will snap into it. All the stale old phrases--'a book that no one should miss,' 'something memorable on every page.' 'of special value are the chapters dealing with, etc., etc.' will jump into their places like iron fillings obeying the magnet, and the review will end up at exactly the right length and with just about three minutes to go."

Orwell practiced a style that never called attention to itself (because the content was paramount), yet upon closer examination is characterized not only by precise diction and a rare clarity of expression but with the sort of metaphorical language that brings content to life. Note those "iron fillings"!

"Shooting an Elephant" begins with these famous words, "In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people--the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me." A few lines down he remarks, "I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East. I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that it is a great deal better than the younger empires that are going to supplant it...With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny...; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official." Change a few words and the sentiments he expresses might very well apply to someone from the United States in Iraq in the 21st century.

"Politics and the English Language" begins "Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language--so the argument runs--must inevitably share in the general collapse." Ah, the lament of prescriptive linguists everywhere! What is wonderful about this essay is how specific Orwell is in first giving examples of writing that is, as he terms it, "a little below average" (there are five selected paragraphs); and second in referring back to these paragraphs as he demonstrates just what is wrong with that way of writing. He condemns in turn, "Dying metaphors," e.g., "ride roughshod over," "no axe to grind, etc."; "Operators or verbal false limbs," "militate against," "make contact with..."; "Pretentious diction," "epoch-making," "unforgettable..."; "Meaningless words...," e.g., "democracy," about which he notes, "not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides."

In the examples from last category I was struck again by how topical Orwell is now sixty-some years after this essay was written. He notes that "In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." Clearly he has been reading some of today's postmodern literature!

Some of the essays are no longer of much interest, I must admit--although I would say that the two mentioned prominently above are easily worth the purchase of the book. In particular the essay, "Books vs. Cigarettes" is largely irrelevant because of the price comparisons in the pounds and shillings of many years ago. However even here there is something worthwhile. Near the end of the essay Orwell notes that "the ordinary [English]man spends more on cigarettes than an Indian peasant has for his whole livelihood."

What is most striking about this book is again the clean, crisp, easy to read, but by no means in any way "dumbed down" prose. Orwell is the sort of writer that other writers greatly admire. His easy to read style is the result of hard work. Despite the decades that have gone by, these essays are for the most part still very much worth reading. If you have never read Orwell on language and politics, you are in for a special treat.

This book was very good and I enjoyed reading it. I think one of the reasons for that is because I like short stories. Another reason was that the book was very good in my opinion and I couldn't let it go of my hand once I started reading it. This was one of the few books that I have taken with me home and read it even in my bed before sleep. I like reading the book so much that I told my friends to go get it and read it. There was something about this book that i just could not make out what it was that it took all my attention.
George Orwell (Eric Blair) is a great writer and one of my favorites. The first book that I read from him was "1984" also a great book I should say. I also read "Animal Farm" from the same author. When I read those books I thought that George Orwell was a politician the way the books were written, but when I read this book last week I saw that there was more to George Orwell than a politician, there was a writer in him. Even though in most of the stories in "Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays" he talks about how he didn't like the system and how people were oppresed by the British or the rich, these stories were good because you could tell them to other people and they would understand them. The reason why Orwell doesn't like the government is because he was a socialist and he wanted the people to govern themselves not some rich man beating them. These stories talked about the man's war with authority and with itself. He wanted wanted to write about his struggle with poverty, when he was washing dishes in France that's why he changed his name in his stories. He didn't want his friends and family to know about his poor days. Also because George Orwell sounds more like someone from the streets. I should say that most of the stories in this book were placed in India where Orwell was born or in France. George Orwell with his stories gave people a view of how they could oppose the government. You don't have to oppose the government just with the gun as a fighter but also with the pen as a writter. He is a very good writer that shows to the reader the way things really are. Through his stories he told people that he didn't like what the government was doing to people and what the rich people with power were doing to the poor class. In the first story of the book he writes how he was a policemen in Burma, India where he was born. He writes how being a policemen of the British Empire made him someone that was hated by all the people. He was representing something he didn't like the British oppressor. Also he talks about the dilema inside him about what to do with the elephant. In almost all the stories there were the same conflicts man against authority, man against man and, man against himself.
To say that George Orwell has written just some essays would not be fair to the author and the reader. In my oppinon these stories were better than some his major works. I know now what got my attention in this book. It was the way he writes about the struggles that a man went through everyday. It was so realistic for a moment I thought that I was living at that particular time, and I was the person inside the story and not Orwell. When I closed the book I was like waking up from a long dream. If anyone has to read a book this winter I would advise you to go get " Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays" and read it. It was a great book.

This collection of essays was published posthumously, after the publication of '1984' made him famous. The title refers to an incident when as an Imperial Policeman in Burma he had to kill a tame elephant that went wild. He describes the times, and his reluctance to kill a working elephant "a costly piece of machinery". But the people seemed to expect it - for safety, and a huge amount of meat.

The next essay tells of his participation in a hanging. He doesn't tell of the offense, only that he was "a puny wisp of a man". "How the Poor Die" tells of his hospitalization in 1929 Paris; he had a fever. He saw a doctor perform cupping on a patient! He was treated next, and then was given a mustard poultice. Orwell notes that a natural death means something slow, smelly, and painful. His prior experience was with people who died violent deaths. The public wards of hospitals often have horror, as if certain diseases only attacked lower income people. Later he learned this hospital had a bad reputation.

His "Thoughts on James Burnham" and the organization of society are still fresh and relevant after 50+ years, but outdated in parts. He pointed out that Burnham's prophecies are of "a continuation of the thing that is happening"; Orwell calls this cowardice and a worship of power. Orwell notes that a poll would have intelligent people guessing wrong, and less knowing people being right! He blames the worship of power for this. You can judge Orwell by this essay.

Orwell criticizes the claim "sports creates goodwill" by pointing to everyday experiences. Only local games played for fun and exercise create no fanaticism. Sport is frankly mimic warfare. It arouses the passion of the spectators to believe a kicked ball tests national virtue! But these actions merely illustrate the emotions hidden in everyday life.

In the "Decline of the English Murder" he points out that sex and money were involved in many famous murders. To get it or to keep it.

"Reflections on Gandhi" gives Orwell's views. He notes that his prevention of violence served the British Empire. The Indian aristocracy and millionaires preferred him to Socialists and Communists. But nobody thought he was corrupt or ambitious. One fault was that he did not seek adequate personal protection in public! Gandhi treated all people with respect. Gandhi's personal philosophy was: no meat-eating, or any form of animal food. No alcohol, tobacco, spices or condiments; no sexual intercourse. No close friendships and no exclusive loves whatever. [I wonder what the point of all this was?] Satyagraha only seems feasible when a Ruling Class is inclined to grant your requests. It is useless against 19th century British (or other) imperialisms. Most people understand this if they can't articulate it. The concept of "passive resistance" is useful for a Ruling Class that does not want to lose their power, but may ameliorate the conditions of their subjects. Think about it.

This is the same review I wrote for Vol 1 but I'm giving Vol 2 one more star, b/c vol 2 is more fun to read. Andreas covered all his intro material in the first volume, assumes you got it and applies it in the second volume. I'm assuming that's why I enjoyed the second volume more.

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Volume one review: I'm taking Bill Harris' online class and bought this book partly upon his recommendation.

This review is for people like me, lay people, rather than practioners in the field which the currently posted reviews of this book seem to be written by. It's for people taking Bill Harris' class wondering what they'll get from this book.

While I am impressed with this book--it is dense and rich and provides a thorough grounding in NLP--it is not a fun, light frothy read. It reads like NLP for Practioners and Serious Students rather than Intro to NLP for the Casual Reader.

I must admit I was hoping for NLP for the casual reader.

I've worked my way through both volumes. For those of us taking Harris' class, my impression is that I don't think it's necessary unless you're really interested in knowing more about NLP and you enjoy learning on your own.

If you decide to do further studies in NLP then this book is excellent for providing explicit back ground and context that you can take w/ you to other authors' books.

Bottom line, you have to know what level of interest you have in NLP to determine whether a book written for professionals is of interest to you.

Steve Andreas again takes us into the frontier of understanding. He shares deep knowledge in ways that are insightful, humorous and refreshing. For anyone wishing to expand their scope or categories this is worthwhile reading.

This book is one of those that literally keeps me glued in my seat! Steve has a way of breaking down the complexities of the structure of language and the influence it has on our lives, into bit sized chunks that we can easily digest and assimilate. Buy this book, read this book, and incorporate what you learn into your daily life, and you will find yourself communicating more effectively than you ever dreamed possible.

We start the day with Goodly, Lovely, Angel Neatly, and Perfect singing "Sunrise on the Iceberg." Of course Tacky is sleeping in. He wakes up with his trade mark "What's Happening?" and slaps everybody on the back.

He still does not do good Penguin activities and gets in the way. It's nap time but not for Tacky. He goes Ice Surfing and a good wind catches his flower shirt like a sail and sends him out to sea.

He eventually shows up on a tropical island and meets the strangest penguins he has ever seen. He also finds the strangest rock. It's warm, squishy and hairy. Hairy? He finds it's fun to bounce on but then notices an eye.

Rocky the elephant wakes up, grabs Tacky, and runs through the jungle declaring she found flowers for her table! She plops him in a large vase and Tacky tries to tell her he is is a bird. She doesn't believe him and says he has to prove it.

Tacky does it in his usual way and eventually works out a trade!

He later jumps a brown iceberg(a tree) and sails back home.

Overall, it's a fun story and the artwork is good! It's a good reader book for those that are starting to read. It's probably longer then a starter book but my girl does try.

As one of the others has mentioned, I think the first one is still her favorite.

This book is definitely not as good as the first one, but it is still cute. I love Tacky, and seeing what he was up to was great! A good read for anyone!

A very fun read with your child. Tacky the penguin goes ice surfing and lands in Africa, where he meets an elephant. Tacky and his new friend have a fun filled dinner time adventure while Tacky tries to prove that he is really a penguin and not a bouquet of flowers! My children and I both got a big laugh out of this book!

My husband bought this set for our daughter before she was even born. The titles of each book brought back many fond memories for him of reading Little Golden Books when he was young. The set is a muist-have for parents of small children and makes a wonderful gift!

As a child, I loved the Golden Books! This 10-set collection makes it easy to collect all my favorites for my children! Thank you Amazon!

As a child I loved reading the Golden Book series and to this day I still have most of my originals. As a new father, these books make excellent educational reading gifts. Your child will undoubtedly cherish them for many years

Although all three novellas are excellent, they don't have much else in common, so I think it would be better to discuss them separately.

"The Vizier's Elephant"
A tyrannical Turkish governor comes the old capital, Travnik, to rule Bosnia, starting off his regime with a massacre of local notables suspected of insubordination. He then threatens to impale all the rest if even one gets out of line. Jelaluddin Pasha, the new vizier, has a pet elephant, a playful young one, whose innocent actions lead it to become a symbol of tyranny. The citizens of Travnik grow bolder and bolder in thinking up ways to torment, poison and ultimately kill the poor beast who takes the rap for his master. More than a story about an elephant in early 19th century Bosnia, this is a tale of the psychology of those living under tyranny; how they think, feel, and act. Rumor, tale, truth, and falsehood all mix. Nothing is clear. Andric never writes in simple black and white, perhaps a sign of the times in which he lived. But tyranny fails to change anything. The elephant has to die just as tyrants always disappear, leaving a void.

"Anika's Times" reminded me of those Chinese balls of ivory carved one inside the other from one solid piece of the material. Andric writes about various forms of insanity or just your average `craziness', if you want to differentiate them. The story depicts the influence of a beautiful but wanton woman on the town of Vishegrad in Bosnia---how she and everyone around her went off the rails, families and marriages broke up, government failed to function. Nobody could control her, very few, if any, men could resist her. With a startling array of characters, "Anika's Times" tells how the loose woman who brought out the worst in almost everyone was stopped more by Fate than by getting her `just deserts'. A great story, if a little hard to follow at first.

"Zeko" is a brilliant psychological novella, the best of the three in my opinion. It's a work of genius and shows that the author of "Bridge over the Drina" well deserved that Nobel Prize. A mild, henpecked man with a useless job carries on for years living with his awful wife and wastrel son, respected by no one. On the verge of suicide at last, he finds a new life in a community of outcasts along the Sava River in Belgrade. The change that gradually comes over him helps him to find courage, self-respect and a useful calling during the German occupation of Belgrade that began in 1941. While his wife and son live in fear, cowering and kowtowing to authority, Zeko joins the underground. It is a story of transformation and the triumph of the human spirit in the worst of times.

Ivo Andric never misses his mark. The three novellas in this collection are all of the highest order, but particularly brilliant is Anika's Times, the second of the three. It can be ranked with the best of Chehkov, and is very much in the same vein. The translation is by Drenka Willen, who does one of the best jobs on presenting Anric I've read.

"The Vizier's Elephant" is the first of three novellas in this short collection by Ivo Andric. I have enjoyed previous works of his that I have read especially "Bridge on the Drina". The three stories in this book give added glimpses to life in the Balkans.

The title story is about an unwanted governor (vizier) who brings with him his elephant. His subjects don't like the vizier and, as such, they don't like the elephant either. Their efforts to express their hatred of the man is acted out on the animal.

The second story is about the obsessions of people and how they can lead to disasterous results. The title character, Anika, manipulates her beauty to the detriment to just about every male within the community. Under her spell comes another man who left his last village to escape the reminder of what unbridled passion can do to a person.

The final story, "Zeko", is about a man who becomes a Slavic Casper Milquetoast as he seeks to avoid all conflict. His miserable wife dominates him as does just about everyone around him. This continues until WWII brings everyone face to face with the horrors and dangers of war. Zeko finds his courage amongst the terror of others.

These stories are short and easily read. There is sufficient flavor of the Balkans to make it a cultural journey as well as a literary one. I rated it a "3 star" because I've read better works by Andric but I'm still glad that I read this one too.

REVIEWED BY: Wayne S. Walker
In 1945, when racial tensions were still fairly high in the United States, James Todd became only the eleventh African-American man accepted into the United States Foreign Service and, with his wife of one year Norma, began a career with the State Department that spanned 35 years, ending with his retirement in 1980. Two daughters, the authors of this book, were born to the Todds, and the book chronicles the family's experiences while living in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Southern Asia. Angela and Ann do not shrink away from describing the prejudice that their family sometimes encountered, both at home and in the field, but that is not the focus of the book. In fact, they say, "The truth of the matter is that Mom and Dad formed many lasting friendships over the years with numerous white American who were kind, decent, honest, and not racist at all." Rather, they use everything that happened to them to encourage young people to be thankful for their blessings, turn life's challenges into learning experiences, approach life with a sense of humor, and enjoy the moment.

This delightful, upbeat book is the daughters' testament to how their parents raised them to "count your blessings" and find "teachable moments" in everyday events of life. I especially liked the attitude expressed in the statement on the back of the book, "If our parents could do it as black Americans living abroad in 1945, you can achieve anything you want to in the 21st century and beyond!" In addition to several entries from Mr. Todd's journals and numerous black and white photographs throughout the text, there are 24 pages of full-color pictures in the back. This highly enjoyable book would make a really good source material to accompany a study of world history and geography during the mid-twentieth century. Since it is written especially for young people, there are elementary and middle school teachers guides available.

This book is informative, exciting and quite a lovely recount of childhood memories. My granddaughter actually met Ms Todd. She came to our school as a substitute teacher. When Kacee told me of the experience and how "neat" this teacher was, I knew we had to find that book. I am glad we did! Although Kacee is 9 years old, she is an avid and literate reader...she still needed some help.
All and all, this book was worth the price and worth the read. I recommend it to all who want an uplifting and inspirational story.
Sincerely,
Kathy Roth

Angela and Ann Todd have weaved together a wonderful tale of their family's travels during the 35 years their father worked as a diplomat with the Foreign Service (US State Department). The sisters were born into a lifestyle where they knew nothing but moving from country to country and learning the language and customs wherever they went. Their story is all the more inspiring because it was lived out from 1945 to 1980 amid the social and political climate that impacted all US citizens -- no matter where they lived during those decades. Remember Ann and Angela's family adventures and solo experiences (at camp and boarding school at times) happened as technology was growing too. It will be hard for today's youngsters to imagine not being able to communicate with family members via e-mail and traveling by ship. The book will inspire the young to consider diplomatic careers, embrace foreign languages and learn geography. (Names of countries changed a lot too during their chronicle.) Older readers will be inspired by Angela and Ann's parents' (James and Norma) commitment to their marriage, children and the way they caused Angela and Ann to feel at home wherever they were. They used every move as a chance for the four of them to learn and serve. The journey their daughters share is delightful.

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, © 2006

Ms. Gruen writes an odd story. It is really two stories in one. The main one is of an almost veterinarian, Jacob Jankowski, who becomes caught up in the life of a circus. It is a romance: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back (whoopee). In the afterword the author explains that she was wanting to do a story about the photographer of circus', but she got caught up in all the rest of the circus history and it became this book. It is worthy and good. The second is of the same man in a nursing home, or some such place, who sort of does not belong there. He has lived his life and remembers it well. The instigation is the circus has come to town!!
The chapters are defined by when is the story being told. Sometimes it is now: he is old and ornery; the next one, he is remembering his life in the circus. The value is in the perspective: as an old man, he has problems, but he deals with them, somewhat; as a young man he grows up and finds the love of his life. It is always wonderful to read a story of love growing and becoming the be all to end all. But real love is of the animals, horses, elephants, orangutans, chimpanzees and doing something constructive. In the end you feel that everything is wonderful and has come out all right.
The odd thing, like in some other places I have seen ("Passenger 54"), the title comes from out of the blue, once, and it is never explained or spoken of again.

Cleverly placed in the backdrop of the romantic but hard times of the Great Depression's wake [1931], this novel describes the weirder world in a stranger time in the not-so-common confines of a circus family.

Gruen found a topic and made it extremely fun to read. This reader likes stories, and the author either created or embellished great stories of circus folklore [reader Author's Note at end].

And, amid the story there is a common group of guys who are the comedy which hold the story together - otherwise it may be too depressing and too violent for some readers. The three eclectic characters are the foul-mouthed hard-tempered dwarf clown whose mother sold him to the circus, combined with the protagonist - a Cornell educated veterinarian, protagonist Jacob Jankowski., who falls into emotionally hard times - and the old man of the circus family whose overindulgence of jake makes him become a victim of the paralyzing Jake Walk Effect, as him limbs wither along with his mind from the chemical's destructive forces. Each with his emotional or physical scars, enlightens the others with dry wit and warm compassion as each struggles to continue to live on the circus train where many mornings are greeted with discoveries of losses of others from "red lightings" - those who are not economically valuable to the "family" are thrown off the train while in transit at the latest of hours.

Amid many stereotypical characters - aren't most circus characters stereoptyped by this time? - is the greatest monster of them all: a paranoid schizophrenic Jew named August. A love triangle grows between August, his lovely wife Marlena and Jacob. Things get out of hand and at one time the author has Jacob think, "It occurs to me that my conscience stopped me from killing August at the very moment someone was attempting to carry out his orders to kill me." "Prizzi's Honor" meets the big top.
If there is any criticism of this book, it is not anything extraordinary. Some of the dialogue was not totally sharp, but few writers can write great dialogue. Dialogue is the hardest task of any fiction writer. This dialogue is very good. Just not great.

I also take my hat off to her delivery of the story through a young man's eyes. His feelings about women, his feelings about anger, and other items delivered through this book are not reflective of the author's gender. That accomplishment always amazes me and may amaze you as well.

This book is good for trips or beach outings. This is a fun book to read. I like fun novels. I read for fun. I like this novel.

The descriptive language in this unbelievably well researched book is amazing. The story transports the reader onto a circus train. It might be easy to dismiss this as a story too odd to get interested in, but it's not. Just pick it up and find yourself lost.