Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Confession 1: I avoided this book for years, because everyone else convinced me it was going to be absolutely depressing.

Okay, so it's not an easy read. I get that, but I thought this was so beautiful. It plays with the idea people have that if they would just be brave enough to run away with the circus, then maybe their lives would be more exciting and colorful. This world is definitely more exciting and colorful, but that comes with a lot of hardship, ugliness, selfishness, and manipulation. We get to see those two play out against each other throughout the story, and I think that's why this story captivated me.

Confession 2: It wasn't at all what I expected.

This isn't a relaxing read, and so many things about it made me frustrated and angry. But it made me feel so many different emotions and imagine so many different ways of life. The characters drew me into their small worlds, and it often broke my heart the way so many of their lives were confined to the small boxes they had accepted for themselves, despite having "run away with the circus." I like the contrast of past and present, even when it depressed me.

Confession 3: I would never read this one again, but I'm glad that I took this strange journey.

Book 272 read in 2018

Pages: 335

Ella Ewing: The Missouri Giantess by Jason Offutt

Ella Ewing: The Missouri Giantess by Jason Offutt

Part of the Notable Missourians series aimed at young readers, Ella Ewing: The Missouri Giantess details the life of Ella Ewing, a woman born in La Grange, Missouri in 1872. By the time she was in her 20s, Ella had reached 8'4". She would go on to travel the nation with the circus, including Barnum & Bailey and the Ringling Brothers, as well as Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. But no matter where her travels took her, Ella always called Missouri home.

48 pages.

The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 by Richard Lytle

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Many train lines were using the hub in this area.  A sleeping engineer crashes into a traveling circus train.

Audio:  3 hrs. 6 min.

Print: 109 pages

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

(Posted for Ann Roberts)

I reluctantly enjoyed this book, as I found it to be probably more suitable for young adults, and it is evident that I am an incredibly mature woman of a certain age. (Ha!) I was intrigued by the story line when I read a review, and the book does live up to its atmospherically mysterious claim to fame, but I still think it should have a “YA” designation.  The story is a mixture of Harry Potter and Water for Elephants, filled with real magicians parading as simple “illusionists” in the Cirque des Rêves, or circus of dreams, which appears and disappears in locations around Europe in the 19^th century, and is only open at night.   The story revolves around two magicians apprentices, trained from childhood and locked into a battle that neither of them understand, and completely against their will, for they are falling in love with each other.  Filled with an array of interesting characters, intricate detail of the magic involved in the operation of the circus, the exhibits to be found there, and not one, but two love stories, this book would appeal to the inner teenage girl in all of us.

387 pages