First Book of Summer

book cover for Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I’m starting to settle in a bit to life after school. Still no sign of when I can get my certification exam scheduled, but that will happen sooner or later. I picked up my first book for the summer, a book that I bought as a reward for passing my recent certification exam, along with Catching Fire. I was so excited with my purchase because it symbolized being one class away from the end.

books - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I do love new books. Anyway, I read Catching Fire immediately and blazed through it. This trilogy is so good. If you haven’t read The Hunger Games, go out and get it! I read Hunger Games in December, finishing it up on Christmas Day and I’d been holding out on buying the next one. But, anyway, as you can see from the passenger seat of my car – both Catching Fire and Water for Elephants came home with me that day.

In my recent post on my plans for Summer Reading, I’d put Water for Elephants on the top of the stack in my mind. I started it a few weeks ago and was instantly sucked in and I was a little surprised. This book and I do have a bit of a history. When it first came out and everyone and their aunt was reading it, I became interested in it. But, I’m not really someone who jumps on the bandwagon of what “everyone” is reading. So, I didn’t think too much about it. Later on, someone mentioned that the book had a lot of animal cruelty in it. Well, that was it for me…I decided I just wouldn’t read it.

At one of my recent book club meetings, one of the women I often chat with mentioned Water for Elephants and when I expressed my reticence, she basically told me to get over it and read it anyway. So, here we are.

Let me just say that this book was wonderful. Each part of what occurs serves to build the reader towards what happens in the end – which is precisely what a book should do. It wasn’t like the book had any gratuitous violence in it, but everything served its part in setting the scene. And all in all, the book is really rather enchanting. I love the dual timelines and how they interweave. This book was so well-written and intriguing that I have been kicking myself for not reading it sooner. So, thanks to my book club buddy for telling me to suck it up and read it already.

striped circus tents

I have to take a little break from my summertime reads to read my next book club selection – The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk. It’s a fat one!

2 thoughts on “First Book of Summer”

  1. I read Water For Elephants some time ago and remember really enjoying it…altough I can't seem to remember exactly what it was about just now. I guess it's time to get it off the shelf and read it again!

  2. Oh I loved that book thought is was great, they are making it into a film and Robert Patinson is playing in it

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