Water For Elephants

I'll add just about any book to my list, and I definitely have doubts about some of them. This is one of those I doubted. I was told that it's a book about an orphan that joins the circus. And that is exactly what it's about.

It's also about so much more. The orphan is really Cornell senior Jacob Jankowski, whose parents are killed in a car accident just a couple of weeks before he is to take his final exams so he can join his dad's veterinary clinic. Jacob is shocked to find out that his parents were broke, and that everything he thought they owned now belongs to the bank.

He tries to go back and finish college, but just can't keep his mind on things, so, on a whim, he jumps a train and spends the next 3 months working for a circus. He learns a lot of life's lessons during that time, but is still able to maintain his own morals.

The story is told from Jacob's point of view, and jumps back and forth between current day, when Jacob is ninety...or ninety-three, and the 1930's when he's on board the circus train. The story is beautifully written, I fell in love with Jacob Jankowski, and teared up at the end.

If you haven't read it, do it. Go out today and find it, whether it's at your library, or you buy it. You have to read this one.

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